In modern Russian, common verbal cliches are common, which have become such due to frequent use. “Mom’s devastation” is called a mess in the house, “ice battle” - the victory of our hockey team, “Mongol-Tatar yoke” - the oppressed position of henpecked husband, “like a Swede near Poltava” - about someone’s extremely difficult situation. Each of these formulations arose for historical reasons, although not everyone who uses them knows about which ones. The winged phrase “covered the embrasure” applies to those who were able to make a decisive contribution to the success of a business, ignoring personal interests and not paying attention to obstacles, and sometimes even threatening their own interests, of course, in a figurative sense.
This phrase has come into use relatively recently. The case was near Pskov, where in February 1943 the Soviet army waged heavy fighting of an offensive nature, acting against the German Army Group North. Of the three German bunkers, two were crushed, the third held steady. Alexander Matrosov, a private soldier of the 2nd battalion of the 91st Separate Siberian Brigade named after Stalin, managed to get closer to him from the flank and throw two grenades into the loophole. The machine gun was silent, but after a short time the enemy fire resumed, apparently, one of the shooters survived. Then Sailors lay down on the embrasure and at the cost of his own life gave the advancing battalion the opportunity to continue the attack for several minutes, which turned out to be precious.
The hero was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his feat was actively used by military propaganda to raise morale and as an example to follow. Many publications, from front-line leaflets to the central press, colorfully described exactly how Matrosov threw his chest at the embrasure. A photo of a simple Russian soldier was replicated. The date of the heroic act was postponed from February 29 to February 23, as if it had been timed to coincide with the day of the Soviet Army. The last words that Alexander shouted while lying down on the embrasure did not go unnoticed. Of course, without mentioning the native party, beloved Soviet motherland and the name of Stalin, this feat could not be accomplished. It turned out that he was preceded by a rather long, ideologically verified speech.
In the postwar years, Alexander Matrosov, along with Nikolai Gastello, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Victor Talalikhin and other heroes who sacrificed their lives in the name of the Victory, entered the official historiography of the Great Patriotic War. How everything really happened and what words he shouted, rushing his chest at the embrasure, no one found out. Usually everything that is repeated very often gradually becomes the indisputable truth.
However, people who fought and had the experience of breaking through the enemy’s fortified positions sometimes expressed cautious doubts in private conversations about the effectiveness of such a method of suppressing firing points. It is possible to hypothetically block the line of fire with one’s own body, but one must act very carefully in order to fall exactly as the situation requires. Again, a defending adversary can push a corpse with a machine gun barrel. In general, there are many inconsistencies. Opinions were even expressed that Matrosov did not want to lay his chest on the embrasure, but simply fell in front of her, trying to hit the enemy with more realistic means, for example, with the same grenades. It has been risky to express such considerations for decades, as well as cast doubt on the entire official version of Soviet historical science.
Actually, what Alexander Matrosov was thinking about at the time of his death does not really matter. Another thing is important. In any case, he was a real hero, like all Soviet soldiers who fell in battle or returned from war. And before 1943, and after it only more than two dozen such feats were officially recorded, but the names of those who performed them are not so widely known. The biography of Alexander Matrosov was quite suitable for military propaganda, and his simple Russian name was remembered more easily than, for example, the name of Geray Latif oglu Asadov, who also covered the embrasure with his body.
Eternal glory to the fallen defenders of the motherland!