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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| At 83, he repeated the feat of Ivan Susanin |
| 2023-02-25 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. Commentary by blogger Bolhovich. Link found via V Kontakte, Russian socialist media. He died not for Soviet power, which he did not like, but for the Russian land. The future oldest Hero of the Soviet Union in history still found serfdom! Matvey Matveyevich Kuzmin was born in 1858 into the family of a serf, three years before the fateful Manifesto of the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II. The future hero ran the household on his own and was not a member of the collective farm. He lived on the outskirts, on the outskirts of the forest, and did not particularly favor the new government. He caught fish, went hunting, bartered the rest from the peasants of the Rassvet collective farm. Some of the older locals called Kuzmin a biryuk, and the collective farm youth called the individual farmer, who spoiled all the reporting of the latter for the entire region, "counter". Biryuk translates into "Lone Wolf," but it also could mean twisted lily, a bit of Russian gallows humor. On August 26, 1941, the Germans came to the village of Kurakino. At the school where Kuzmin’s grandchildren also studied, the local commandant’s office began to work, and the commandant himself chose Kuzmin’s hut, evicting the intractable old man and his family in a barn (“counterpart” the position of local headman was offered to the first, but he refused, citing advanced age). On February 14, 1942, the battalion of the 1st Mountain Rifle Division, stationed in Kurakino, was tasked with breaking through to the rear of the Red Army, thereby facilitating the counteroffensive in the area of the Malkin Heights. The battalion commander demanded that Kuzmin lead his battalion to the village of Pershino. The demand was reinforced by the offer of several thousand rubles, as well as flour, kerosene, and an excellent Sauer hunting rifle with the famous "three rings" logo. Like another Russian peasant named Susanin, who in the winter of 1613 agreed to lead the Polish invaders to the house of the young Tsar Mikhail Romanov, Matvey Kuzmin also agreed. Having accurately recognized the proposed route on the map, he immediately sent his grandson to Pershino to warn the Soviet troops, and assigned them a place for an ambush near the village of Malkino. The old hunter led the Germans for a long time along a roundabout road and finally at dawn led them directly to an ambush, where the 2nd battalion of the 31st Separate Cadet Rifle Brigade (Colonel S.P. Gorbunov) of the Kalinin Front, which then occupied the defense on the Malkinsky heights in area of the villages of Makaedovo, Malkino and Pershino. The German battalion came under machine gun fire and suffered heavy losses (more than 50 killed and 20 captured). The people's avenger himself was killed by the German commander. The feat of the 83-year-old hero was included in the evening report of the Soviet Information Bureau of February 24, 1942. Pravda correspondent Boris Polevoy was working in Gorbunov's brigade just at that time; his essay "The Last Day of Matvey Kuzmin" was even included in the elementary school curriculum. Matvey Matveyevich was first buried in his native village Kurakino. In 1954, a solemn reburial of the remains of the hero took place at the fraternal cemetery of the city of Velikiye Luki. |
| Posted by:badanov |