Before telling who Chumakov is, a general who is known to all viewers and lovers of military literature, you need to dwell on the name of the famous Soviet writer, who at one time received the USSR State Prize. This is Ivan Stadnyuk, whose works are known far beyond the borders of our country.
About the writer
The image of General Chumakov created by the writer is close to everyone, and there is also no person who does not know the jovial Maxim Perepelitsa, the heroes of the novel and the stories of Ivan Stadnyuk (and films based on his scripts). Besides? Ivan Stadnyuk also wrote other books that have been translated into many languages of the world: People are not Angels, Rangers, Man Doesn’t Give Up, People with Arms, the list is long. Ivan Stadnyuk is especially famous for his screenplays and dramaturgy. "War in the Western direction" is a television series in which the heroic Chumakov appeared, a general whose image turned out to be so vivid that many people do not perceive him as a literary or movie hero.
The first works were published by Ivan Stadnyuk in the magazine "Soviet Warrior", and the writer did not leave the military theme to the very end. Six years later, he worked in this journal as an editor of the department of fiction, and he was a member of the editorial board for thirty years. Ivan Fotievich Stadnyuk himself is a front-line soldier who went through the whole war and saw many such heroes as General Chumakov created by him. From the war he took out not only many orders and medals, but also that experience, those reflections, those memories that could not help but pour onto the pages of his books.
The truth of life and literature
In the Soviet years, Ivan Stadnyuk received literally bags of letters, which most often contained questions regarding certain details of the heroic life that Fedor Ksenofontovich Chumakov, the army general, lived. It is explainable. The testimonies personally brought from the fronts, which became the basis of all his books, exclusively truthfully convey to the reader the situation that was there, and the personalities described in the books have their real prototypes. The image carried by General Chumakov Fedor Ksenofontovich is also extremely true.
Despite the high objectivity in the evidence, Stadnyuk’s books are full of trust, sincerity, they bear a huge imprint of personal experiences, and therefore the reader takes for reality even people who never existed under these names. In fact, the feats of arms described in the books were truly accomplished, and all the people participated in this. And General Chumakov Fedor Ksenofontovich absorbed the main features of several remarkable military leaders. They will be described below.
Says the author
In 1983, Ivan Stadnyuk received the USSR State Prize for the novels "War" and "Moscow, 41st". Then he told his readers that his Fedor Chumakov, the general, was a fictitious person. But all respect and admiration, all love, all understanding of the actions of the commander of the Thirteenth mechanized corps, General Akhlustin, the commander of the Eleventh mechanized corps, General Mostovenko and the commander of the Sixth mechanized corps, General Khatskilevich, were scrupulously introduced into his character.
The role of these corps in the incredible severity of the first weeks of the war was extremely great, even the imagination hardly covered all the dangers and amazing courage in the huge number of tragic situations that the commanders had to go through with their soldiers. The corps of General Chumakov, whose biography absorbed the events that really took place, acted in the same places and in the same difficult situation that the real mechanized corps of the Red Army had to overcome.
The beginning of the war
Ivan Stadnyuk also participated in the unfolding events of the first days of the war, and personally endured all their hardships. It was in Western Belarus, in its border areas. And the biography of General Chumakov Fyodor Ksenofontovich also incorporated all these worries. Stadnyuk was, however, a little north, this is a section of the neighboring army, where the regiments were also not fully equipped. But his division still immediately entered the battle. The writer saw and experienced everything completely the same as all the other parts and formations that suddenly appeared in this meat grinder, with the enemy face to face.
And in the center of a practically not made-up plot is General Chumakov Fyodor Ksenofontovich, a biography of a wonderful man, as he appeared before the readers (and then the audience). The feature film in six episodes, shot at the Dovzhenko film studio in 1990 based on the novel by Stadnyuk, especially made the people with images of the heroes of the Second World War. General Chumakov and the tragic events of the beginning of the great confrontation became a living thread linking today and the times more than half a century ago.
Plot
The writer of the film was not the writer himself, and this, of course, left its mark on quality. Despite all the frank and numerous "mistakes", the film turned out to be piercing, and this is most of all the merit of the writer. The scriptwriters even perverted the version of the role of the Soviet leadership to the best of their ability, adding moments that Stadnyuk did not touch or wrote in the opposite.
After the treacherous attack of Germany on the Soviet Union, both the leadership and Stalin personally did completely different things, and it was not they who were to blame for the defeats of our troops in the summer of 1941; The critical situation of our troops was formed because our armies were at the peak of rearmament, and Stadnyuk repeatedly mentions this in the pages of his books. The scriptwriters, on the other hand, followed the liberal conjuncture, which has been trying in every possible way in recent decades to distort history.
Of fate
But the film was a success anyway, even against the truth. Apparently, the topic itself cannot but find a response in the hearts of Soviet people, even if former Soviet. Here the fate of a wide variety of people passes in front of the audience. Ordinary privates, often nameless, perform unforgettable feats at the cost of their lives, their commanders also did not scare, did not hide and did not run - they led the fighters to the still distant but obligatory Victory.
At the very center of the storyline is a biography. General Chumakov Fedor Ksenofontovich (photo, of course, can only be from a film). This is one of those commanders who perfectly saw and understood what a monstrous, exceptionally well-prepared military force rolled down our land along its entire length from the western border, sweeping away all life around. But General Chumakov, like all of his prototypes, led fierce resistance against Nazi aggression. The film, like the book of the same name, ends lightly - before the readers and spectators the dawn of Victory dawned. These are pictures of the very first offensive operations (near Yelnya).
Discrepancies
In the book, Ivan Stadnyuk clearly wrote that Major General Fedor Chumakov wore on his chest only a medal of the 20th anniversary of the Red Army and two orders of the Battle Red Banner. At first, the scriptwriters awarded him the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star, and then altogether they turned the chest into an iconostasis. But Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria what happened! Judging by the insignia, he is the first-rank security commissioner, but alas! Since January 1941, he could not wear such insignia. He had one big star of special sewing.
During the interrogation of Pavlov at Beria, the buttonholes were sewn upside down and out of place - left instead of right. And the very fact of interrogation is a fiction of the scriptwriters. It was not and could not be - different departments because. Pavlov was engaged in an NGO, which the NKVD did not submit to at all, since it was not part of the state security. And - Stadnyuk too simply could not write such! - what discipline they have in the NKVD! The guards chatted in a voice on extraneous topics in the presence of the people's commissar, and even loudly, sitting in the far corner.
A little more about the fantasy of screenwriters
The scriptwriters are probably not military men, and they were not even familiar with military history by hearsay. They do not know the ranks, nor the system of military colors. They even identify two different systems - the NKVD troops and state security, which Stadnyuk could not have allowed. Patches are sewn completely out of place, but these are trifles, compared to the confusion of departments. Emotionally, the scene of the execution of Pavlov as directed by Beria is absolutely unrealistic.
Pavlov in the uniform of an army general, with all the regalia and awards, without trial or investigation, was shot right in the corridor - in the forehead from a gun. It would be funny if it were not so sad. According to the documents - the court was about what the writer Ivan Stadnyuk mentions where the military lawyer of the army Ulrich presided, and the protocol is there, even published. The verdict was read out by order of the GKO in all military units and in all units. Apparently, the script was written in the late eighties, when there was a wave of revelations of the Stalinist regime along with the foam of outright lies, exaggeration and falsification of history.
Facts and Figures
Stadnyuk didn’t write what he didn’t know about. And the scriptwriters "made us beautiful," as they say in Odessa. Many facts and figures could not be so widely known at the beginning of the war as to be discussed not only by commanders, but also by fighters. This is the quantitative ratio of the border troops of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht groups, this is a disregard for the military and political leadership to intelligence reports about the impending attack, and much more.
Professional historians most of the facts presented by the scriptwriters, long ago recognized as falsification. For example: General Chumakov asks the personnel colonel if forty thousand commanders were really arrested, and he replied that it was true. The strongest scene! But what level of intelligence is it designed for? The film “The Belarusian Military District” constantly sounds in the film, which in 1940 ceased to exist, becoming the Western Special Military District. With the Smolensk region in the composition of what is he Belarusian? Pavlov was precisely the one who commanded the West, which the scriptwriters clearly did not care about.
Even more interesting is the story with Raskolnikov. In June 1941, Beria and Molotov plan to eliminate the defector (diplomat, writer, statesman). It seems that the all-knowing system of the NKVD is not aware that Raskolnikov in Nice died two and a half years ago. And, of course, right in the morning of June 22, 1941, Joseph Vissarionovich closed in his office and drank Georgian wine for a whole week. Although right at half past four in the morning he had already joined the work (there is a journal of visits to Stalin’s office - in general use a long time ago). Even Zhukov wrote in the most detailed way that what happened in the office on the first day of the war - it is impossible to imagine the tension. And the rest of the scenes with Stalin are absolute fantasies. Even symbolically, most of them are untenable. A cross is visible on the leader’s chest! No comments. Probably enough of the series. Better about the book.
General Mostovenko
Mostovenko Dmitry Karpovich lived to 1975. During the war he was a well-known Polish and Soviet military leader, then colonel general of the Soviet Army. Born in the Volgograd region. He participated in the First World War from 1915 to 1917. In the Red Army since 1918, he commanded a battalion, then a regiment of the Southern Front. He graduated from the Military Academy and courses at the Dzerzhinsky Academy (1926).
He met the Great Patriotic War with the commander of the Eleventh Mechanized Corps and near Grodno he was surrounded, from which he withdrew his corps with fights. Since 1943, he commanded the mechanized and armored forces of the Polish Army. Participated in the Victory Parade on Red Square. He served in the Soviet Army until retirement. He died in Minsk. The street of the city of Grodno bears the name Mostovenko, where since 1967 he was an honorary resident. The feats of war of the general were appreciated: one and a half dozen orders, many medals only during the war. Colonel General since 1946. He was the prototype of the main character of the novel "War" Ivan Stadnyuk. On its pages is General Chumakov Fedor Ksenofontovich, whose biography is largely similar to the military fate of General Mostovenko.
General Akhlustin
The general who died in the battles of the very beginning of the war in the Slavgorod district of the Mogilyov region , Akhlyustin Pyotr Nikolaevich, also became the prototype of the main character of the novel Stadnyuk. He was born in the Chelyabinsk region. He managed to fight in the Russian Imperial Army as a hussar, where he received the first officer rank. After the war, he worked at a metallurgical plant for some time. In 1918, he voluntarily joined the Red Army, where he was the commander of hundreds of mountain rifle regiments. He fought on the southern and eastern fronts.
In 1926, he graduated from command personnel, then - cavalry in 1928. Until 1941, he served only in the cavalry, was appointed to the mechanized corps just before the war, immediately - by his commander. In the first minutes of the war he led his corps into battle against much superior forces, and was surrounded in the Minsk region . The remains of the corps only in July reunited with units of the Red Army. Without ammunition, without mechanized and material parts. Before the meeting of the corps with the main units, the general died at the crossing of Sozh.
General Khatskilevich
Major General Khatskilevich died on the third day after the outbreak of war, in battle, right in the tank. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod in a Jewish family, he served in the imperial army since 1916, and in 1918 he was drafted into the Red Army. In the Civil War he earned many fame, fighting on the Western, South-Western and Southern Fronts, received awards. A year before the start of World War II he was appointed commander of the Sixth Mechanized Corps in the Western District, in the shortest time the corps became a leader in the district. The man had great willpower, literacy and intelligence. He understood that the next war was a war of engines, and did everything so that the corps corresponded to future events.
He entered the battle immediately, and on June 24, under incessant bombing from the air, launched a counterattack on the advancing enemy troops. Even made them retreat. And he chained the enormous forces of the enemy to himself so that the units of the Red Army could make a redeployment. As a result, only one tank remained in the corps, and this tank was general. However, a breakthrough from the encirclement began, in which the general crushed several German anti-tank guns with caterpillars. But he died. Ivan Stadnyuk gave his hero to General Chumakov these very traits - mind, courage, selflessness.