Annually, celebrating the Great Victory Day, in our country they recall the names of those who gave their lives so that the occupier would never step on her land. Among them, Andreev Andrey Ivanovich - Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously awarded this title for heroism, shown in the battle for the liberation of the coastal city of Nikolaev.
Pupil of a fishing artel
December 19, 1913 a son was born in the family of a fisherman Ivan Andreev from the village of Bogoyavlensky, nowadays called Oktyabrsky and part of the city of Nikolaev. They called him Andrew. His childhood was not a joyful one - at an early age he lost his parents who fell victim to the outbreak of the Spanish flu.
And an orphan would have disappeared, but there were good people - fishermen of the same artel where his father had worked before. They raised a guy with the whole world, taught their craft, and when he grew up and got stronger, they took him to an artel on equal terms with them. Thus began the hereditary fisherman Andreev Andrey Ivanovich.
The outbreak of war and captivity
He worked peacefully, driving to the Nikolaev and Odessa shores the very “scumbags full of mullet”, until a great disaster struck in the night of June 1941, breaking without knocking into the homes of all the inhabitants of a vast country. Immediately after the announcement of the mobilization, Andrey was drafted into the army, enlisted in the company of signalmen, and accepted his baptism of fire in the battles for Odessa.
It so happened that once the explosion of a shell damaged the telephone line connecting the headquarters of the division with the unit in which Andreyev served. Andrei Ivanovich (a photo of him from those years is presented in the article) received an order to find a cable break point and reconnect under enemy fire. Performing this task, he was shell-shocked, lost consciousness. When he woke up, there were already Germans around, who had already managed to advance forward by that time. So he was captured.
Escape from the camp and the death of comrades
Soon, the Nazis formed a group of prisoners of war, who were sent to a concentration camp, shortly before that created on the territory of Western Ukraine. There, Andreyev Andreyevich spent his first year of the war behind barbed wire. But to be captured does not mean surrender. From month to month, he and his companions in misfortune sought an opportunity to escape from the camp, and when she introduced herself, having killed the sentry, they disappeared into the nearby forest.
The fugitives directed their way to the front line, but were soon overtaken by the pursuit sent from the camp. The battle was unequal, and of all those fleeing by chance, only Andreev remained alive. Continuing to move towards the front was pointless, since the very first meeting with the enemy would inevitably cost him his life. There was only one thing left - to try to somehow wait out the time, hiding in the occupied territory, and at the first opportunity to rejoin our own.
Joyless return to their native village
Within a month, moving exclusively at night, eating only random pieces that could be obtained at risk of his life from starving local residents, he made his way to his native village, in which he hoped to find shelter. He was lucky, at the end of a long journey, barely alive from fatigue and hunger, he finally came home.
In the village of Epiphany, which was in the zone of German occupation, at that time only those inhabitants remained who were not drafted into the army, that is, exclusively women, children and the elderly. Andreyev Andreyev, being the only strong and able-bodied man among them, tried his best to be useful to his fellow villagers.
Involuntarily fisherman
Knowing that before the war, local residents were engaged in fishing, the Germans forced them to create a brigade, which was obliged to go to sea and supply fish to the occupants in the village. Andreev was appointed senior in it, impersonating a deserter who was evading military service.
This turn of events was partly beneficial for him. Knowing perfectly the fishing business, Andrei Ivanovich was able to make sure that the villagers from that time on were always provided with fish, and thanks to this they did not starve. But he handed over to the Germans only miserable crumbs, explaining this his actual sabotage by low catches, for which he always found a convincing explanation.
Second escape
But this did not last long. The French have the expression “Only betray their own,” and here they found “their own,” who informed the commandant’s office that Andreev was not a deserter at all, but a Red Army man who had fled from the camp. The reaction was immediate - they seized Andrei Ivanovich and, after imprisonment in a punishment cell, sent him under guard to earthworks in the vicinity of Odessa.
The Germans were going to send him to Germany along with the rest of the prisoners of war, but it was not without reason that he had the experience of escaping behind him. Taking the first opportunity, Andreyev Andreev fled again, but this time the situation in which he found himself was much more complicated. He did not have to think about going over the front line alone, but he could not return to his village.
Year spent in the dugout
Having built a dugout on the banks of the estuary, disguised it from prying eyes, Andreev lived in it, remaining in an illegal position until the spring of 1944. It is not known how he could survive in such conditions, if not for the help of the surrounding residents, some of whom, knowing of his stay among the dense coastal thickets, kept this secret, supplied the fugitive with food. It is difficult to overestimate the courage of these people, because in the event of failure, an imminent death would await not only themselves, but also family members. The situation changed when on one of April days a Soviet tank column passed by his refuge, heading for the liberation of Nikolaev.
Again among his
Andreyev Andreyevich, whose biography is inextricably linked with the city of Nikolaev, showed the platoon commander the most convenient way, and after the Nazis were expelled from his native village, he began repairing fishing boats that were supposed to be used for landing in the city. When the work was completed, the command invited volunteers from among local residents to become guides of the detachment. Among others, Andreev volunteered to help the soldiers.
Andrei Ivanovich is a hero whose name is known to few, but his merit in the liberation of Nikolaev from the Nazis is enormous. Knowing perfectly the coast and the waters washing it, he personally controlled the boat in which the commander of the marines was lieutenant Konstantin Olshansky. Not wanting to endanger the rest of the volunteers, Andrei Ivanovich advised to land them, which was done.
Port capture
Before the detachment of sixty-eight people, which included Andreev, the task was set: to land at night on the territory of the port, to seize it and to keep it until the approaching troops. In addition, it was necessary to clear the port facilities prepared by the enemy for destruction.
The operation began on the night of March 26th. The landing conducted by Andreev landed in the vicinity of the pier and entered the battle with the enemy. Soon, they managed to occupy several buildings in which the soldiers lasted more than two days, repelling a total of eighteen German attacks, destroying about seven hundred fascists.
The fighters completed their task, but only eleven people survived from the entire structure of the unit. Killed and Andreev Andrey Ivanovich. The awards to most participants in those events were awarded posthumously, as a sign of eternal memory to their feat. This military operation went down in the history of the war under the name "Olshansky Landing."
The reward that found the hero
Andreev was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the corresponding decree was signed only in 1965, when the country celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Victory. The fact is that his surname did not appear on the list of fighters of the detachment that landed in Nikolaev, and did not appear on the award sheet.
Andreyev Andreyevich, whose family ceased to exist after the death of his parents, was brought up by a fishing artel. Having lived in the world for three decades, he never managed to establish his personal life. After his death, fellow villagers remembered him, one of the streets of the village was named after him, but only after two decades, the employees of the Central Archive of the Soviet Army, having discovered negligence against him, gave the case proper progress and corrected the situation.
Today, his name has taken a worthy place in the history of the war. The feat of A. I. Andreev is described in several historical works on the liberation of Nikolaev.