Matrosov Alexander Matveevich. Feat of Alexander Matrosov

Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was born in Yekaterinoslavl in 1924, on February 5th. He died in 1943, on February 27th. Alexander Matrosov was an automatic rifleman, a Red Army soldier, and a member of the Komsomol. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his selfless act during the war. Matrosov’s feat was widely covered in literature, magazines, newspapers and cinema.

Biography Matrosov Alexander Matveevich. Childhood

According to the official version, he received his upbringing in orphanages and the labor colony of Ufa. At the end of seven classes, he began to work as an assistant teacher in the last colony. According to another version, the name of Alexander Matrosov was Mukhamedyanov Shakiryan Yunusovich. He took his future surname at the time when he was a homeless child (he ran away from home after his father’s new marriage), and signed up when he entered the orphanage just under it. Since that time, he began to call Matrosov Alexander Matveevich. There is another version according to which the boy’s mother, saving him from starvation after being left without a husband, gave him to the Melekessky orphanage, from where he was transferred to the Ivanovo orphanage in the Maine district. The papers of orphanages about Matrosov’s stay in them were not preserved.

Patriotic version of childhood

According to this option, the dispossessed peasant Matvey Matrosov was sent to Kazakhstan. There he went missing. His son, left an orphan, ended up in an orphanage, but soon escaped from there. Homeless, Sasha got to Ufa, where he was recorded in a labor colony. In the process of staying there, he became an excellent example for other students: he was a successful boxer and skier, iconologist of the TRP, amateur poet, political informant. At 16, Matrosov was admitted to the Komsomol. Then he was appointed assistant educator. But the activist was caught with one pupil. For this, Sasha was expelled from the Komsomol. When the war began, he worked at a factory.

What is the heroism of the Red Army?

What is Matrosov’s feat? In short, the Red Army man rushed into the embrasure, providing advancement of our shooters. However, to this day, researchers argue which version has become accurate. During the perestroika period, they began to talk about the incorrectness of the original version. As an argument, the fact was cited that from a normal shot, for example, into a hand from a rifle, a person loses balance. A powerful line from a machine gun, in this case, should throw the body back a few meters. According to Kondratiev (a front-line writer), the feat of Alexander Matrosov was that he climbed onto the roof of the bunker and tried to tilt the machine gun muzzle to the ground. However, historian B. Sokolov argues with him , studying the events in which Alexander Matrosov participated. The truth about the feat that he accomplished, according to his version, is that the hero tried to shoot the crew into the air vent. The Germans could not simultaneously fire at our soldiers and fend off the Red Army. So Alexander Matrosov died. The truth about the feat of the Red Army soldier may not be clarified for sure, but his act allowed our shooters to cross the fired space.

Start of war

Sailors repeatedly asked in writing to send him to the front. He was called up for service in 1942 and began to study at the infantry school near Orenburg. However, the very next year, 1943, he went with his classmates to the Kalinin Front as a volunteer of a marching company. From the end of February, already at the front, Alexander Matveevich Matrosov served in the 2nd Separate Rifle Battalion of the 91st Siberian Separate Volunteer Brigade named after Stalin. He could not finish school, as he died at the very beginning of the war in a battle near Chernushka. The hero was buried in the same place, and then his ashes were reburied in the Pskov region, in the city of Velikiye Luki. For his heroic deed, Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was posthumously awarded the Hero of the USSR award.

The official version of events

The 2nd battalion in which the Sailors served received orders to attack a strong point near the village of Chernushki. But when the Soviet soldiers came to the edge of the forest, they came under heavy German fire: in the bunkers, three machine guns blocked the approach to the village. To suppress the firing points were sent assault groups of 2 people. Two machine guns were crushed by groups of armored personnel carriers and machine gunners. But the third firing point was still firing. All attempts to silence the machine gun were unsuccessful. Then privates Alexander Matrosov and Petr Ogurtsov advanced to the bunker. At the approaches, the second fighter was seriously injured. Sailors decided to complete the attack alone. Picking up from the flank to the embrasure, he threw two grenades. The machine gun line has stopped. But as soon as our soldiers went on the attack, the fire was opened again. Then Private Sailor got up and, throwing a jerk to the bunker, closed the embrasure with his body. So, at the cost of his own life, the Red Army soldier contributed to the execution of the combat mission assigned to the unit.

Alternate Versions

According to some authors, Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was already killed on the roof of the bunker, while trying to throw grenades at him. Then, falling, he closed the ventilation hole, which removes powder gases. This is precisely what gave our soldiers a respite and allowed us to make a throw while the Germans removed Matrosov’s body. In some publications, there were opinions about the "unintentional" action of the Red Army man. It was said that Sailors really, getting close to the machine gun nest, tried, if not to shoot the enemy machine gunner, then at least prevented him from firing further, but for some reason (stumbled or was wounded) fell on the embrasure.

So, with his body, inadvertently, he closed the review to the Germans. The battalion, taking advantage of this, albeit a small hitch, was able to continue its offensive.

Contradictions

Some authors tried to talk about the rationality of Matrosov’s act, contrasting his attempt to close the embrasure with the fact that it was possible to use other methods to suppress enemy firing points. So, for example, one of the former reconnaissance commanders says that the human body cannot be any effective or significant obstacle to the German machine gun. Even a version is being advanced that Sailors was hit by a burst when he tried to rise to throw a grenade. For the fighters standing behind him, it looked like he was trying to cover them with machine-gun fire.

Propaganda meaning of the act

The feat of Alexander Matrosov in Soviet propaganda was a symbol of military valor and courage, the soldier’s dedication, his fearless love for his homeland and unconditional hatred of the invaders. For ideological reasons, the date of the heroic act was postponed to February 23rd, timed to coincide with the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy. At the same time, on the personal list of the irretrievable losses of the Second Rifle Separate Battalion, Alexander Matrosov, 27 were recorded along with five other Red Army soldiers and 2 junior sergeants. Actually, the future hero only got to the front on February 25th.

Conclusion

Despite a large number of contradictions, both in the biography of Matrosov and in versions of his actions, his act will not cease to be heroic from this. In many cities of the former republics of the Soviet Union, streets and squares are still named after the hero. Many soldiers, both before Matrosov and after him, committed similar acts. According to some authors, such people justified the senseless death of people in battles. The soldiers were forced to go on a frontal attack on the machine gun fire points of the enemy, which they did not even try to suppress during the artillery preparation. Sailors Alexander Matveyevich became not only a hero of the Soviet Union, but also a national hero of Bashkiria.

Yunus Yusupov, according to one version of his father, after the death of Sasha proudly walked around his village, saying that "his Shakiryan" is a real person. True, the villagers did not believe him, but from this the pride of the father for his son did not decrease. He believed that Shakiryan should become the second, after Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir national hero. The hoax strengthens mythical representations: the hero becomes more humane, livelier, more convincing. Regardless of who he really was - Shakiryan or Sasha, the son of a Bashkir or a Russian - the main moments of his life are undeniable. In his fate there were orphanages, and a colony, work and service. But besides everything, in his life there was a feat in the name of freedom of the Soviet people.