Any historian will tell you that history tends to become denser. The farther the historical era is from us, the greater the time frame we measure it. The same thing happens with historical events. The farther the event is from us, the less we know about it. The smallest details are lost in the folds of time, leaving us only vivid facts in our memory.
More than a hundred years from us, battles and battles on the fronts of the First World War. And if we can name the heroes of the Second World War without special preparation, then we know much less about the heroes of 1914-1918. We will try to fill this gap, and tell a little about the forgotten exploits of Russian soldiers during the First World War.
Taran Nesterova
Let's start with the most famous feat of a Russian officer, a talented pilot, and one of the few feats associated with conscious self-sacrifice.
Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov on September 8, 1914 rammed an Austrian plane, which led to the crash of both cars and the death of a Russian and Austrian pilot, as well as an enemy observer, Baron Friedrich von Rosenthal.
At that time, the aircraft were not equipped with machine guns, and the only way to destroy an enemy military ship was ram.
Cossack Kuzma Kryuchkov
After a heroic battle with the Germans, Kuzma Kryuchkov became the first St. George Knight in Russia, receiving the highest soldier's award St. George Cross.
The Cossacks were ambushed when a detachment of Germans attacked them. Having let the enemy into a rifle shot, the Cossacks opened fire. The Germans began to retreat, and Kuzma the first, jumping on his horse, caught up with the enemy, and began to chop them with a saber.
Wounded in the arm, he could not fire from small arms and continued to kill the enemy with a saber, and the peaks taken from them. In total, 24 enemy soldiers and officers were killed and wounded in that battle, 27 managed to escape. Kryuchkov received 16 wounds, and 11 wounds were counted on the body of his horse.
Treasurer feat
The city of Kalisz, located near the border, was one of the first to be occupied by Prussian Lancers and German troops. Only a few senior officials and representatives of the imperial government managed to leave the city.
All residents remained in the city, and fully experienced all the hardships of the enemy occupation. Remained in the city and the treasurer by the name of Sokolov. Even before the Germans entered the city, he burned all treasury bills.
August 4, 1914 Sokolov was shot. Another example of "sacrifice" in the war. But the provincial treasurer hardly thought of a feat, burning tickets. It was simply a rush of the soul, in accordance with the concept of duty and honor.
“Russians do not give up!”
On July 14, 1916, a small detachment under the command of the second lieutenant of the 21st Siberian Rifle Regiment Alexander Varaksin was surrounded by the village of Linevka.
The enemy far exceeded the strength of the Russian soldiers defending in the trenches, but the second lieutenant courageously shouted "The Russians are not giving up!"
When the cartridges ran out, Varaksin with a bayonet did not allow the enemy to penetrate the trench. Only after heavy fire did the Russian defenders fall, and the Germans occupied the trench. Enraged by such courage, the Germans lifted Alexander’s already dead body with bayonets.
He carried the body of the commander
The rank of heroic deed in the war was found also for private Mikhail Matveevich Kryuchka. On March 6, 1916, a fierce battle broke out with the Germans at the village of Klipy.
The situation for the Russian troops was not developing in the best way, and the captain Glob-Mikhailenko was killed in the battle. The body of the killed commander was between the fighting parties.
In this difficult situation, under heavy fire on both sides, Mikhail Kryuchka brought the body of the murdered headquarters captain to his position so that the enemy would not be abused, and bury the officer with honors. So, risking his own life, he did not leave the commander, even if already dead, to the enemy.
Sailor Peter Semenishchev
Russian soldiers bravely fought not only on land, but also at sea. A striking example of the courage and bravery of Russian sailors was Peter Semenishchev.
A simple peasant was drafted into the army, and when the war began, he served as an electrician-sailor on the ships of the Baltic Fleet. In December 1914, he became part of a group whose mission was to clear the Vistula fairway.
During work, one of the mines broke away from the mount, and began to move with the flow, threatening to blow up the ship. Peter, without thinking twice, jumped into the icy water and swam the mine to the shore.
For this feat, he received a St. George Cross of the IV degree on his chest. Note that the sailor Semenishchev once again proved himself in hand-to-hand combat, when he fled 8 Austrians, having received 11 wounds.
"Attack of the Dead"
Under such a terrible name, an event related to one of the episodes of the heroic defense of the Osovets fortress, near Bialystok, entered world and Russian history.
After two unsuccessful assaults on the fortress in September 1914, the Germans launched a third assault only in July 1915. But it was also unsuccessful, the garrison of the fortress steadfastly and courageously held the defenses. Then, at 4 o’clock in the morning on August 6, the Germans released poison gas into Russian positions. There were so many that according to German estimates no one would have survived.
In the photo: The ruined fortress Osovec
The Germans were surprised when starting the assault, in their opinion of the "dead fortress", 60 half-dead, blood-soaked soldiers moved on them, with rags wrapped around their heads. The Germans retreated, and the fortress was never taken. On August 22, in view of the loss of its strategic purpose, the Russian troops themselves left Osovets.
Russian soldier
At the very beginning of December 1915, a young volunteer Nikolai Popov arrived at the war with Germany. For his abilities and knowledge of foreign languages he was identified in the intelligence of 88 Petrovsky regiment.
Once Popov and his colleague were ordered to advance into the enemy trenches, and get the "tongue". During the operation, the partner was killed, and Nikolai independently carried out the order, delivering the "tongue".
For his feat, Popov was awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. And all would not be what, but only later it turned out that the scout Nikolai Popov was in fact Kira Bashkirova, who had fled from her home to the front. Here is such a Durova at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Sister of Mercy
We conclude the list of exploits with another woman, the sister of mercy of the 105th Infantry Regiment. Her name is Rimma Ivanova, and she is the only woman who received the Order of St. George IV degree according to the personal will of Nicholas II.
I went to the front from the first days of the war, in the fiercest battles in Western Ukraine I received my first iron cross. In one of the battles she took Colonel A. Graube, the regiment commander, from the battlefield.
For all the time, the fragile woman managed to remove from the battlefield and save more than 600 soldiers and officers. In September 1915, her regiment took on a battle with superior enemy forces near the village of Dobroslavki. Two commanders died in the battle, and the soldiers began to retreat. In this situation, Rimma gathered the soldiers and led them into the attack. The Russians under her command managed to recapture the positions occupied by the enemy, but, having received mortal wounds, she died in the hands of fighters with the words "God save Russia ...".
Based on a review of the exploits of Russian soldiers, we make a small conclusion. During the Great Patriotic War, people at the cost of their own lives tried not to miss the enemy troops and destroy the enemy. Here, both throwing under the tanks with a bunch of grenades happened, and the direction of the wrecked planes to accumulate enemy equipment, and self-explosion, destroying along with them enemy soldiers. But in World War I, the mentality of Russian soldiers was a bit different - to destroy as many enemies as possible, while remaining alive in order to continue to beat the enemy.
Although the idea of Russian sacrifice is still alive today, starting with the feat of Ivan Susanin, and ending with the Russian officer Alexander Prokhorenko, who caused fire on himself in the Syrian Palmyra region.
Article author: Valery Skiba