Nedorubov Nikolai Konstantinovich. Cossack is a legend! Nedorubov Konstantin, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. Nedorubov during the Great Patriotic War

The man we will talk about today was compared to Taras Bulba and Grigory Melekhov. But he entered the history of Russia and the Cossacks under his own name - Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov.

During the First World War, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George, that is, the owner of the Order of St. George the Victorious, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th degrees. In his autobiography, he himself wrote sparingly and dryly about this period: “In 1911 he was drafted into the old army. He served as a private until 1917. These years he participated in the war with the Germans and Austrians. For feats of arms in battles with the Germans I was awarded 4 crosses and 2 medals.” But behind these lines are three and a half years of war, during which Nedorubov showed miracles of heroism, similar to a myth or legend.

He received the St. George Cross, 1st degree, for fighting in the Krasnik-Tomaszów area. Documents show that Konstantin Nedorubov enticed a group of fellow soldiers to pursue the retreating enemy. During the chase, the Donets jumped out to the position of the enemy battery and captured it along with gun numbers and ammunition.

The Order of the 2nd degree was received for the battles near Przemysl. According to Nedorubov’s recollections, he, as part of a group of scouts, went to the rear of the Austrians. As a result of the shootout, Nedorubov’s comrades died, and he himself was forced to make his way to his people through the village. I went out to a huge house and heard Austrian speech there. He threw a grenade at the doorstep of the house. When the Austrians began to jump out of the building, Nedorubov realized that there were too many of them and used his wits. “I command loudly: “Right flank - go around!” The enemies are huddled together, standing scared. Then I rose from the ditch, waved my hat at them, shouted: “Forward!” We listened, let's go. So I brought them to my unit.” When counting the prisoners, it turned out that one Cossack captured 52 people! The commander who received the prisoners could not believe his eyes and asked one of the Austrian officers to answer how many people were in the team that captured them. In response, the Austrian raised one finger.

The Order of St. George, 3rd degree, was awarded to Nedorubov for the battles in the area of ​​Balamutovka and Rzhavetsy. “... having passed through three rows of wire fences, they burst into the trenches and, after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, knocked out the Austrians, taking eight officers, about 600 lower ranks and three machine guns.”

St. George's Cross, 4th degree - again for the battles at Balamutovka: "... they repulsed a company of Austrians and, launching a counterattack, scattered the company, captured one operating machine gun."

St. George Medal, 4th degree: “On April 4, 1916, together with Romanovsky Afanasy, volunteering as hunters to conduct reconnaissance of the Austrian guards in order to remove one of the field guards at night, crawled along railway west of the village of Boyan, 150 steps from the Austrian wire fences, they discovered a landmine placed under the railway and decided to blow it up. When they began to carry out preliminary work, they were discovered by enemy artillery, which fired at them with heavy fire. When the land mine explosion failed, they discovered the explosive device and delivered it to their superior.”

Three years of war - four orders and a medal. By 1916, Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Knight of St. George. But the rewards are not easy - several wounds, one of which takes the Cossack out of action for a long time. The hero remembers them in few words: “I was wounded. He was in a hospital in Kyiv, Kharkov, and then in Sebryakov.” But this was not enough for a complete recovery, so on the very eve of the October events of 1917, Nedorubov was transported to the Don - to his native village of Rubezhny - to rest and heal his wounds.

From October 1917 to July 1918, Konstantin Nedorubov was engaged in agriculture. But the war did not want to leave the brave Cossack alone. Before I had time to recover from the “German war,” the Civil War began.

It was a turbulent time outside - the old life was leaving forever, the old life was breaking down. Estates were abolished and laws on land plots were changed. The Cossacks were losing their privileges and had to merge in rights with other classes of the new Russia. The new government equalized him in land allotments with newcomers - refugees who left the lands occupied by the Germans. In February 1918, a Soviet power, which lasted only until May of the same year. As the newspapers of the Don Army Region wrote at that time, the non-Cossack population, remembering the offensive inequality during the division of land in tsarist times, spoke out for the destruction of the Cossacks. The situation escalated sharply in March. Spring is the time to plow, and the barefoot takes away the land. At first, the Cossacks complained to the legal representatives of the authorities, then, not finding support from them, they rebelled. In April, Cossack units occupied the capital of the Don Army Region - Novocherkassk. Thus began the Civil War on the Don, which divided the once monolithic Cossacks into two camps - red and white.

Nedorubov took the side of the Bolsheviks. The decision was not an easy one - too difficult situation formed in 1918-1919 on the Don. On the one hand, there was severe oppression by the new government, which adopted a directive regarding the Cossacks on January 24, 1919, which marked the beginning of the Red Terror and the massacres of wealthy Cossacks and elected leaders. On the other hand, the decision of the new ataman of the All-Great Don Army P.N. Krasnov to invite German troops to the territory of the Don to maintain order.

From the biography of that period:

July 1-12, 1918 - upon mobilization he joined the 18th Cossack regiment of the Don Army of Ataman Krasnov (that is, on the side of the whites)

June 1918 - again mobilization into the White Guard regiment, which was defeated by the Budenovites in the “At the Curly Pillar” tract, and Nedorubov was captured by the Reds.

From July 12, 1918 to June 1920, squadron commander in Blinov's division (among the Reds). In the period from June 24 to June 30, 1919, he was captured by the whites.

Next was service in the famous First Cavalry near Budyonny, then he fought with Wrangel in the corps of Dmitry Zhloba, where Nedorubov became regiment commander. For the battles with Wrangel, Konstantin Iosifovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and red revolutionary trousers (somewhere a warehouse with red hussar riding breeches was discovered, which they decided to use “for the award ceremony”). There was no need to receive the order - the hero dropped out of the unit due to injury. After the hospital there was service in Crimea, and a new wound. The bullet received at that time remained forever in Nedorubov’s lung and eventually “snapped.” To transport the wounded Cossack, the front commander Frunze himself ordered the provision of a car - that was how highly Konstantin Iosifovich was valued in the Red Army.

Nedorubov’s rich military biography also included participation in the liquidation of Father Makhno’s gang.

The Cossack fought without fear of death!

The Civil War ended and peaceful life began. The Cossack returned to his native village, despite offers to become a career military man. He devoted almost eight years, from 1914 to 1920, to military service. I fought a lot! I wanted peace and quiet - to plow, raise children...

It would seem that the exploits of Konstantin Iosifovich, his services to the Soviet regime, should have brought him lifelong laurels. But fate decreed otherwise. In peacetime, Nedorubov faced new challenges.

A full Knight of St. George, an order bearer, he was first the chairman of the village council, then headed a partnership for joint cultivation of the land, became the chairman of a collective farm...

The period of collectivization was not easy. Individual farms merged into collective ones, therefore, it was necessary to look for new solutions for performing familiar agricultural work. There were a lot of disputes, a lot of mistakes. Added to this was a lack of trust in each other. From time to time someone was accused of deliberate sabotage. Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov, who had a straightforward character and did not hesitate to say what he thought, made enemies. In the summer of 1933, 9 peasants were tried on his collective farm. According to Nedorubov’s recollections, “people were credited with something they didn’t do,” so he stood up for them. Soon he was reminded of this. By a court ruling dated July 7, 1933, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison “for losing grain in the field.” In fact, Nedorubov allowed kutya to be cooked from the remaining seed material (3 kg of wheat) for the collective farmers - there was a famine. Konstantin Iosifovich and his comrade V.F. Sutchev were sent to dig a canal in Karelia. He stayed there for only three years and was released early. His criminal record was cleared. During the digging of the canal, Nedorubov was a foreman and did not give offense to his comrades. Even as a prisoner, he knew how to command respect for himself. One day he had a run-in with a crime boss. Unable to restrain himself, the brave Cossack “slapped” the offender so that he flew eight meters through the air, and when he got up, he ordered: “Don’t touch Nedorubov!”

Returning to his homeland after a criminal record, Konstantin Iosifovich and his family moved from their native village of Rubezhnoye to the village of Berezovskaya. He worked as a foreman of the Zagotskot office, was in charge of the horse-drawn postal station, the farm of the Berezovsky MTS, and was a storekeeper at the Berezovsky district food processing plant. All this time he worked conscientiously, and... was considered an “enemy of the people.” In 1937, when it began new wave repressions, only miraculously escaped arrest.

On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began Patriotic War. The Don Cossacks were in the forefront of the defenders of our country. Those of them who served in the army at that time immediately began to fight the enemy. For example, the Don Cossacks of the 6th Cossack Cavalry Corps, the 1st and 5th Cavalry Corps, and the 210th Motorized Division, which was formed from the Cossacks of the former Don Cossack Division, fought heroically.

The war stirred up the population of the Stalingrad region, including those living in its Cossack areas... Taking into account the initiative of the people, in the fall of 1941, the regional party committee and the executive committee of the regional Council of Workers' Deputies decided to create a people's militia corps.

The rumor about the enrollment of Cossack volunteers in the people's militia quickly spread throughout the region. A Cossack, Colonel S., arrived in Uryupinsk. I. Gorshkov. There were rumors that he was collecting a Cossack unit from volunteers of non-conscription age. And gray-haired Cossacks, participants in past wars, flocked to Uryupinsk. Many were in good health. But there were also those who could not be taken. And then Gorshkov organized a review. Each of the applicants had to show that they could still stay in the saddle, that they had not forgotten how to chop vines. Among those who passed the test were 53-year-old Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov, 63-year-old Paramon Sidorovich Kurkin, Pyotr Stepanovich Biryukov and many other “old men”. In the village of Berezovskaya alone, at the call of Nedorubov, 60 old warriors signed up for the militia - “beard to beard.” Nedorubov’s youngest son, seventeen-year-old Nikolai, also asked to join the same team.

The newly created hundred chose Konstantin Iosifovich as commander. And then disappointment awaited him - given his criminal record, permission to command a hundred was denied. According to the recollections of the former secretary of the Berezovsky district party committee, I.V. Shlyapkin, Nedorubov, who came to see him, burst into tears of resentment: “Did I come to ask for privileges? It’s better to kill right away, but don’t disgrace yourself like that in front of people and the world! I am a full Knight of St. George. But I cannot, by your will, beat the enemies of my Motherland, those whom I beat back in the imperialist era! Why aren't you allowed to go to the front? After all, I’m not asking you for a cow. No, I only want to give my blood for the desecrated Motherland.” Shlyapkin picked up the phone and, on his own responsibility, asked the head of the regional department of the NKVD to allow Nedorubov to take command of the hundred.

And during the Great Patriotic War, as in the First World War and in Civil War, Nedorubov shows the miracles of heroism.

In February 1942, the Don Cossack Cavalry Division, formed in the Stalingrad region, moved to the front - to the Rostov-on-Don region. But the cavalrymen are not immediately allowed into action. Only on July 28-29, Nedorubov’s squadron entered the battle in the area of ​​​​the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms. During these two days, the unit of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubov destroys over 150 enemy soldiers and officers, using hand grenades to silence three mortars and four machine gun emplacements. According to the recollections of participants in those events, at some point the Cossacks dismounted and went to full height on the enemy. Seeing this, Gorshkov himself drove up to them in a car, shouting: “Dash! By dashing! Get down! To which the 63-year-old Cossack Biryukov replied: “We are old and have begun to bow to every filthy bullet!” The enemies could not withstand the psychic attack of the Cossacks and fled.

On August 1, 1942, the squadron arrived in the area of ​​the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory. The Battle of Kushchevka will go down in the history of the Great Patriotic War, and the commander of the 4th squadron of the 15th Don Cossack cavalry division Lieutenant Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov is a legend. In the battle for the village of Kushchevskaya, the Donets interacted with the 13th Kuban Cossack Division. The Kubans were ordered to attack on horseback, the Dons on foot.

Horsemen galloped up to the tanks, jumped onto the armor, and set the vehicles on fire with petrol bottles.

Nedorubov's squadron equipped a strong point, but it was not possible to complete the work on time - first the artillery shelling began, and then the Nazis attacked. Some Don soldiers distracted the attackers with machine gun fire, others took off on their horses and attacked the enemy from the flanks. Unable to bear it, the Germans turned back, but then repeated the attack. And again the Nedorubovites used the same technique. By nightfall, in order to avoid being surrounded, the squadron retreated. The morning began with a mortar attack. An enemy firing point prevented us from moving forward. Konstantin Iosifovich sent his son Nikolai to eliminate it. He saw how the young Cossack coped with the task. At one critical moment, Nedorubov and his son had to fight an unequal three-hour battle. Together - shooting enemies with a machine gun and throwing grenades at them - they held the right flank, destroying more than 70 fascists. For several days the squadron fighters held back the attacks of the Nazis, and the village changed hands three times. During one of the attacks, the son of Konstantin Iosifovich was seriously wounded. In the confusion of the battle, Nedorubov failed to find him, and for a long six months he knew nothing about Nikolai. Only after the final liberation of Kushchevka did it become known that he had been picked up and was leaving local residents. Yes, and the Knight of St. George himself received several bullet wounds in those battles.

The Cossacks had to retreat from Kushchevskaya. From August 10 to November 16, 1942, the Don Division fought in the foothills of the Caucasus and the North Caucasus Mountains. And again Nedorubov shows the miracles of heroism. In one of the battles, he approaches the enemy’s firing point on his belly and throws grenades at it. In another, he rouses people to attack with a Cossack song.

Nedorubov was wounded more than once, and, having recovered, returned to duty. A serious injury received in the Carpathians separated him from the squadron. For the first time, he was unable to fulfill his promise to his comrades - he did not return to the squadron. “Not fit for military service!” - the doctors sentenced.

The hero had to three wars return to Berezovskaya to heal his wounds. And the second nomination for the title of Hero went from the headquarters of the formation to Moscow Soviet Union.Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the conferment of this honorary title. I. Nedorubov was signed on October 26, 1943.

How should a Cossack feel if a medical commission has written him off from the army due to disability? One can only guess what Nedorubov experienced. Documentary sources are silent about this. But evidence of one meeting, which took place on December 24, 1944, has been preserved. On this day, a meeting of disabled people of the Great Patriotic War was held in the Berezovsky district of the Stalingrad region, which was attended by Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov.

The attitude towards personal tragedy inherent in these people is best conveyed by Grigorenko’s speech: “I am disabled II group, but I, wanting to devote the rest of my strength to the cause of a quick victory over the enemy, took the post of chief agronomist of the raizo and happily do my job. Comrade Dronov is disabled II groups. Having come from the hospital, he stood at the machine of the Bolshelychak workshop still with a crutch. Disabled Comrade Kabanov retrained and became a beekeeper. But we still have disabled people from the Patriotic War who still don’t want to go to work anywhere, although they can work and have rich specialties in their hands, which are even more needed in the country.”

Nedorubov also spoke at this meeting and called for work on the labor front for victory. As a result of the meeting, an appeal was adopted to the disabled people of the Great Patriotic War, which was published in Stalingradskaya Pravda.

Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was not used to feeling sorry for himself - neither in battle nor in work. And, if it was impossible to fight the enemy on the battlefield, then it was necessary to bring victory closer by hard work. Therefore, he joined the ranks of home front workers and continued the struggle as deputy chairman of the forestry enterprise.

In the post-war years, the hero of three wars worked a lot. He raised his grandchildren, spoke to schoolchildren and soldiers of the unit in which he fought. National glory awaited him.

The culmination of the recognition of the merits and exploits of Konstantin Iosifovich can be considered the opening of the monument-ensemble on Mamayev Kurgan in the fall of 1967, when he, together with twice Hero of the Soviet Union V. S. Efremov and the defender of the House of Pavlov I. F. Afanasyev, delivered from the Square of the Fallen Fighters to the Military Hall Glory torch with the flame of the Eternal Flame. At that moment the whole world was watching him.

Konstantin Iosifovich lived a long, albeit very stormy, dangerous life. He died in 1978 at the age of 89. To last days he met with children and youth and did a lot of social work.

The memory of Nedorubov is carefully preserved by his descendants. Konstantin Iosifovich had two sons and two daughters. The continuation of the military glory of the Nedorubov family was first their son Nikolai (his feat in the Kushchev attack was highly appreciated - the Order of the Red Banner), and then his great-grandson Andrei, a military intelligence officer during the Chechen War. A patriotic education His grandson, Valentin, continues to work for young people for his grandfather, who speaks a lot to historians, youth and children, talking about the exploits of his grandfather and uncle. Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov / ed. S. A. Kokorina, Yu. F. Boldyreva, S. A. Argastseva, M. M. Samko. – Volgograd: Panorama, 2009. – 352 p.

3. Filippova, A. Don Cossack, hero of the country. Crosses and stars by Konstantin Nedorubov / A. Filippova // Motherland. – 2013. – No. 1. – P. 42–44.

4. Shubina, A. “The Don Cossack, dashing and brave, he went through three wars with glory...” / A. Shubina // Evening Volgograd. – 2009. – March 20. – P. 6.

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich - full holder of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three full Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.

The fate of Konstantin Nedorubov bizarrely resembles the fate of the hero Quiet Don Grigory Melekhov. A hereditary Cossack, a native of a farm with the characteristic name Rubezhny (now part of the Lovyagin farm in the Volgograd region), he, along with other villagers, was drafted to the German front. There it quickly became clear that war, with all its horrors and passions, was the native element of the Don Cossack.

He was awarded the first St. George Cross, 4th degree, for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite hurricane artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks led by sergeant Nedorubov burst into the enemy battery and captured it along with servants and ammunition.

Konstantin Iosifovich received the second St. George Cross in February 1915 for his feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. December 16, 1914, while on reconnaissance and examining locality, in one of the courtyards he noticed enemy soldiers and decided to take them by surprise. Throwing a grenade over the fence, he gave the command in German: “Hands up, squadron, surround!” The frightened soldiers and the officer dropped their weapons, raised their hands and hurried out of the yard into the street. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves under the escort of a Cossack on horseback with a saber in his hand. There was nowhere to go: the weapons remained in the yard, and all 52 prisoners were escorted to the headquarters of the Cossack regiment. Scout K.I. Nedorubov, in full uniform, reported to the commander of his unit that, they say, he had been captured. But he doesn’t believe it and asks: “Where are the rest of the scouts? With whom did you capture the prisoners?” The answer is: “One.” Then the commander asked the enemy officer: “Who took you prisoner? How many were there? He pointed at Nedorubov and raised one finger.

The young Nedorubov received the third St. George Cross for distinction in battles in June 1916 during the famous Brusilov breakthrough (counteroffensive), where he showed selfless courage and bravery. “His saber did not dry out from the blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from “Nedorubov” to “Pererubov”.

During three and a half years of participation in battles, he was wounded several times. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now Mikhailovka).

Finally that war ended. Before the Cossack had time to return to his native farm, the Civil War broke out. And again the Cossack was caught up in the bloody whirlwind of fateful events. It was all clear on the German front, but here, in the feather grass of the Don and Tsaritsyn steppes, they fought their own against their own. Who is right and who is wrong - go figure...

And fate, in this confusion of thoughts and passions of the Cossack Nedorubov, like Grishka Melekhov, swung like a living pendulum - from red to white, from white to red... Unfortunately, this was a fairly typical situation for that confused and bloody time. Ordinary Cossacks, who had not read Marx and Plekhanov and were not familiar with the basics of geopolitics, could not understand who held the truth in this terrible civil strife. But even being on opposite sides of the barricades, they fought bravely - they couldn’t do it any other way.

At one time, Konstantin Iosifovich even commanded the red Taman cavalry regiment and took an active part in the famous defense of Tsaritsyn.

In 1922, when the flashes of war finally subsided and it became clear that Soviet power had come in earnest and for a long time, Nedorubov returned to the village in the hope of taking a break from the two wars he had experienced. But they didn’t really let him live peacefully - after eight years, the Cossack was finally repressed by commissars in leather jackets, recalling his service in both the White and Tsarist armies. Nedorubov was not at all surprised or broken by this.

“I’ve never been in such trouble before!” - the Knight of St. George decided for himself and “gave the country coal” during the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. As a result, he was released early for shock work - this is according to the official version. According to the unofficial story, the camp authorities helped by carefully studying his personal file. Still, in all centuries, men of all tribes and peoples respected courage and bravery...

"Give me the right to die!"

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Knight of St. George Nedorubov was no longer subject to conscription due to his age. By that time he was 53 years old.

But in July 1941, a squadron of Cossack militia began to be formed in the Don villages.

Together with his old combat friend Sutchev, Konstantin Iosifovich resolutely headed to the regional executive committee: “Give me the right to use all my combat experience and die for the Motherland!” At first the regional executive committee was dumbfounded, then they became inspired. And they appointed the Knight of St. George as the commander of the newly formed Cossack squadron (only volunteers were recruited into it).

But then, as the Cossacks say, one problem “stuck in”: his 17-year-old son, who had not reached conscription age by that time, “hung” on his father’s shoulders. Relatives rushed to dissuade Nikolai, but he was adamant. “Remember, son, you will not be given any concessions,” was all Nedorubov Sr. said. - I will ask you more strictly than experienced Cossacks. The commander’s son should be the first in battle!” So the third war came into the life of the Cossack Nedorubov... And also a world war - like the first.

In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov, a “weak link” was formed along the entire stretch from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don. It was clear that the advance had to be stopped at all costs. German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

The Kuban Cavalry Corps, which included the Don Cossack Division, was thrown towards the Germans. There were no other regular units on this section of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war.

There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks fought bone-to-bone with the Germans, forcing them into hand-to-hand combat at every opportunity. The Germans, however, did not like hand-to-hand combat, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved it. This was their element. “Well, where else can we celebrate Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” - they joked. Periodically (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then the battle site was littered with hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats...

Near Kushchevskaya, the Donets and Kubans held the defense for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst and, with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided to launch a psychic attack. This was a strategic mistake. The Cossacks brought them within range of throwing a grenade and met them with heavy fire. Father and son Nedorubov were nearby: the elder was spraying the attackers with a machine gun, the younger was sending one grenade after another into the German line.

It is not without reason that they say that bullets fear the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing with bullets, not one of them touched the shooters. And the entire space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go to the end. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to get around the Cossacks on both sides, squeezing them into their “trademark” pincers. Having assessed the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. “Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!” - the lieutenant’s battle cry tore the villagers, who were flattened by bullets, from the ground. “The underdog and his son again went to seek his death, and we flew after him,” surviving colleagues recalled about that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was a shame to leave him alone...”

The militia fought to the death. The sons followed the example of their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience and endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the “Battle of Stalingrad” department State Museum defense of I.M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when the squadron had to repel superior enemy forces on the right flank, he with a machine gun and his son with hand grenades “fought an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis.” Konstantin Nedorubov many times stood up to his full height on the railway line and shot the Nazis at point-blank range. “In three wars, I have never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler’s heads.”

In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The Fourth Cavalry Squadron rushed hand-to-hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.

If we hadn’t covered the flank, it would have been difficult for our neighbor,” recalled Konstantin Iosifovich. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without losses... How my boys stood! And Kolka’s son showed himself to be a great man that day. I didn't drift away. Only after this fight did I think that I would never see him again.

During the frantic mortar attack, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest for about three days. Women were passing not far from the forest plantation, and they heard a groan. In the dark, the women carried the seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and sheltered him for many weeks.

“Cossack conscientiousness” cost the Germans dearly at that time - in that battle the Donets crushed over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans for the squadron's encirclement were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, General Field Marshal Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: “Another Kushchevka will be repeated, you will not learn to fight, you will march in a penal company through the Caucasus Mountains, period.”

"We hallucinated the Cossacks..."

This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen, who survived the battle near Maratuk, wrote in his letter home, where Nedorubov’s Don forces finally got to the desired hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as at Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure became a trademark. “We can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”

“Nedorubovtsy” took part in raids on the enemy in the area of ​​the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms, fought in the area of ​​​​the village of Kurinskaya... According to the Germans who survived the horse attacks, “it was as if a demon had possessed these centaurs.”

The Don and Kuban people used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and were carefully passed on from generation to generation. When the lava fell on the enemy, there was a prolonged wolf howl in the air - this is how the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, pretending to be killed, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s position, slashing right and left and creating a bloody heap there.

In any battle, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons of military science, was the first to get into trouble. In one battle, he managed, in official military language, “using folds in the terrain to secretly get close to three enemy machine gun and two mortar nests and extinguish them with hand grenades.” During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.

The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guard of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult one, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: “Unfit for military service.”

During the period of hostilities, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals for his feats. On October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich related the Red Star to the Cross of St. George,” the village residents joked about this.

Despite the fact that during his lifetime he became a living legend, Cossack Nedorubov never acquired any special benefits or assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But on all holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George Crosses.

The sub-horunzhi of the 1st Don Cossack Division, Nedorubov, with his attitude towards awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in this form at the Victory Parade in the front row. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook hands and thanked him for his participation in two wars.”

On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, Don Cossack Nedorubov became part of a torch-bearing group of three veterans and lit the fire Eternal glory at the monument-ensemble to heroes Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamayev Kurgan of the hero city of Volgograd. Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya. In September 2007, in Volgograd, in the memorial historical museum, a monument to the famous hero of the Don, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. On February 2, 2011, in the Yuzhny village of the hero city of Volgograd, the grand opening ceremony of the new state educational institution“Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps named after Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubova."

Based on materials from Triedine Rus'

Victor Starchikov

Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Knight of St. George, received a personalized saber from Budyonny, and became a Hero of the Soviet Union even before the 1945 Victory Parade. He wore his Gold Hero Star along with the “royal” crosses.

Khutor Rubezhny

Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was born on May 21, 1889. His place of birth is the Rubezhny village of the Berezovskaya village of the Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don Army region (today it is the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region).

The village of Berezovskaya was indicative. It was home to 2,524 people and included 426 households. There was a justice of the peace, a parochial school, medical centers, and two factories: a tannery and a brick factory. There was even a telegraph and a savings bank.

Konstantin Nedorubov received primary education at the parochial school, learned to read and write, count, and listened to lessons on the Law of God. Otherwise, he received a traditional Cossack education: from childhood he rode horseback and knew how to handle weapons. This science was more useful to him in life than school lessons.

"Full bow"

Konstantin Nedorubov was called up for service in January 1911 and ended up in the 6th hundred of the 15th cavalry regiment of the 1st Don Cossack division. His regiment was quartered in Tomashov, Lublin province. By the beginning of World War I, Nedorubov was a junior sergeant and commanded half a platoon of regimental reconnaissance officers.

The 25-year-old Cossack earned his first George a month after the start of the war - Nedorubov, together with his Don scouts, broke into the location of a German battery, captured prisoners and six guns.

The second George “touched the chest” of the Cossack in February 1915. While performing a solo reconnaissance near Przemysl, the constable came across a small farm where he found the Austrians sleeping. Nedorubov decided not to delay, waiting for reinforcements, threw a grenade into the yard and began to imitate a desperate battle with his voice and shots. From German language he’s nothing but “Hyunda hoh!” I didn’t know, but this was enough for the Austrians. Sleepy, they began to leave their houses with their hands raised. So Nedorubov brought them to winter road to the regiment's location. There were 52 soldiers and one chief lieutenant captured.

Cossack Nedorubov received the third George “for unparalleled courage and courage” during the Brusilov breakthrough.

Then Nedorubov was mistakenly awarded another St. George, 3rd degree, but then in the corresponding order for the 3rd Cavalry Corps, his last name and the entry opposite it “George Cross of the 3rd degree No. 40288” were crossed out, and “No. 7799 2” was written above them th degree" and the link: "See. Corps order No. 73 1916.”

Finally, Konstantin Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George when, together with his Cossack scouts, he captured the headquarters German division, obtained important documents and captured a German infantry general - her commander.
In addition to the St. George Crosses, Konstantin Nedorubov was also awarded two St. George medals for courage during the First World War. He ended this war with the rank of sub-sergeant.

White-red commander

Cossack Nedorubov did not have to live long without war, but in the Civil War he did not join either the Whites or the Reds until the summer of 1918. On June 1, he nevertheless joined the 18th Cossack regiment of Ataman Pyotr Krasnov along with other Cossacks of the village.

However, the war “for the whites” did not last long for Nedorubov. Already on July 12, he was captured, but was not shot.

On the contrary, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and became a squadron commander in the cavalry division of Mikhail Blinov, where other Cossacks who went over to the Red side fought side by side with him.

The Blinovsky Cavalry Division proved itself in the most difficult sectors of the front. For the famous defense of Tsaritsyn, Budyonny personally presented Nedorubov with a personalized saber. For the battles with Wrangel, the Cossack was awarded red revolutionary trousers, although he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner, but did not receive it because of his too heroic biography in the royal army. Nedorubov was wounded in the Civil Service and wounded by a machine gun in the Crimea. The Cossack carried the bullet stuck in his lung for the rest of his life.

Prisoner of Dmitlag

After the Civil War, Konstantin Nedorubov held positions “on the ground”; in April 1932 he became a foreman of a collective farm in the Bobrov farm.

He didn’t have a peaceful life here either. In the fall of 1933, he was convicted under Article 109 “for losing grain in the field.” Nedorubov and his assistant Vasily Sutchev came under attack. They were accused not only of stealing grain, but also of damaging agricultural equipment, and were sentenced to 10 years in labor camps.

In Dmitrovlag, at the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, Nedorubov and Sutchev worked as best they could, and they knew how to do it well, and they couldn’t do otherwise. The construction was completed ahead of schedule on July 15, 1937. Nikolai Yezhov accepted the job personally. Frontline workers received an amnesty.

After the camp, Konstantin Nedorubov worked as the head of a horse-drawn postal station, and just before the war, he worked as a supply manager at a machine testing station.

“I know how to fight them!”

When the Great Patriotic War began, Nedorubov was 52 years old; due to his age, he was not subject to conscription. But the Cossack hero could not stay at home.

When the consolidated Don Cavalry Cossack Division began to form in the Stalingrad region, the NKVD rejected Nedorubov’s candidacy - they remembered both his services in the tsarist army and his criminal record.

Then the Cossack went to the First Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Shlyapkin, and said: “I’m not asking for a cow, but I want to shed blood for my homeland! Young people die in thousands because they are inexperienced! I'm four St. George's Cross I won in the war with the Germans, I know how to fight them.”

Ivan Shlyapkin insisted that Nedorubov be taken into the militia. Under personal responsibility. At that time this was a very bold step.

"Spellbound"

In mid-July, the Cossack regiment, in which Nedorubov’s hundred fought, repelled German attempts to cross the Kagalnik River in the Peshkovo area for four days. After this, the Cossacks drove the enemy out of the villages of Zadonsky and Aleksandrovka, destroying one and a half hundred Germans.

Nedorubov particularly distinguished himself in the famous Kushchevskaya attack. In his award list states: “Having been surrounded near the village of Kushchevskaya, with machine gun fire and hand grenades, together with his son he destroyed up to 70 fascist soldiers and officers.”

For the battles in the area of ​​the village of Kushchevskaya on October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In this battle, the son of Konstantin Nedorubov, Nikolai, received 13 wounds during mortar fire and lay covered in earth for three days. Quite by accident, residents of the village stumbled upon him, burying the Cossacks in mass graves. Cossack women Matryona Tushkanova and Serafima Sapelnyak carried Nikolai into the hut at night, washed and bandaged his wounds and left. Konstantin Nedorubov learned much later that his son remained alive, but now he fought with redoubled courage for his son.

Hero

At the end of August 1942, Nedorubov’s hundred destroyed 20 vehicles of the rear column with military equipment and about 300 fascists. On September 5, in a battle for height 374.2 near the village of Kurinsky, Apsheronsky district, Krasnodar Territory, Cossack Nedorubov single-handedly approached a mortar battery, threw grenades at it and destroyed the entire mortar crew with a PPSh. He himself was wounded, but did not leave the regiment.

On October 16, near the village of Martuki, Nedorubov’s hundred repelled four attacks by the SS men in a day and almost all of them died on the battlefield. Lieutenant Nedorubov received 8 bullet wounds and ended up in a Sochi hospital, then in Tbilisi, where the commission made a decision that the Cossack was unfit for duty. further service due to health reasons.

Then, returning to his native village, he learned that he had been awarded the Hero Star and that his son Nikolai was alive.

Of course, he did not stay at home. Returned to the front and in May 1943 took command of the 41st squadron guards regiment 11th Guards Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Corps.

He fought in Ukraine and Moldova, Romania and Hungary. In December 1944, in the Carpathians, already with the rank of guard captain, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was wounded again. This time he was finally commissioned.

On his 80th birthday, the authorities gave the old Cossack a house, he was the first in the village to have a television, but the role of the “honoured” Konstantin Nedorubov was burdensome, he continued to lead a simple lifestyle, chopped wood himself, ran a household with his family, and continued to exercise until the end of his life with a heavy poker, wielding it like a pike.

The Cossack died in December 1978, six months before his 90th birthday. Besides Nikolai, he left behind a son, Georgiy, and a daughter, Maria.

The Cossack is a legend!

Original taken from choodo7 in Cossack - a legend!

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich- full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three full Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.

The fate of Konstantin Nedorubov bizarrely resembles the fate of the hero of Quiet Don Grigory Melekhov. A hereditary Cossack, a native of a farm with the characteristic name Rubezhny (now part of the Lovyagin farm in the Volgograd region), he, along with other villagers, was drafted to the German front. There it quickly became clear that war, with all its horrors and passions, was the native element of the Don Cossack.

He was awarded the first St. George Cross, 4th degree, for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite hurricane artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks led by sergeant Nedorubov burst into the enemy battery and captured it along with servants and ammunition.

Konstantin Iosifovich received the second St. George Cross in February 1915 for his feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. On December 16, 1914, while on reconnaissance and exploring a populated area, he noticed enemy soldiers in one of the courtyards and decided to take them by surprise. Throwing a grenade over the fence, he gave the command in German: “Hands up, squadron, surround!” The frightened soldiers and the officer dropped their weapons, raised their hands and hurried out of the yard into the street. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves under the escort of a Cossack on horseback with a saber in his hand. There was nowhere to go: the weapons remained in the yard, and all 52 prisoners were escorted to the headquarters of the Cossack regiment. Scout K.I. Nedorubov, in full uniform, reported to the commander of his unit that, they say, he had been captured. But he doesn’t believe it and asks: “Where are the rest of the scouts? With whom did you capture the prisoners?” The answer is: “One.” Then the commander asked the enemy officer: “Who took you prisoner? How many were there? He pointed at Nedorubov and raised one finger.

The young Nedorubov received the third St. George Cross for distinction in battles in June 1916 during the famous Brusilov breakthrough (counteroffensive), where he showed selfless courage and bravery. “His saber did not dry out from the blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from “Nedorubov” to “Pererubov”.

During three and a half years of participation in battles, he was wounded several times. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now Mikhailovka).

Finally that war ended. Before the Cossack had time to return to his native farm, the Civil War broke out. And again the Cossack was caught up in the bloody whirlwind of fateful events. It was all clear on the German front, but here, in the feather grass of the Don and Tsaritsyn steppes, they fought their own against their own. Who is right and who is wrong - go figure...

And fate, in this confusion of thoughts and passions of the Cossack Nedorubov, like Grishka Melekhov, swung like a living pendulum - from red to white, from white to red... Unfortunately, this was a fairly typical situation for that confused and bloody time. Ordinary Cossacks, who had not read Marx and Plekhanov and were not familiar with the basics of geopolitics, could not understand who held the truth in this terrible civil strife. But even being on opposite sides of the barricades, they fought bravely - they couldn’t do it any other way.

At one time, Konstantin Iosifovich even commanded the red Taman cavalry regiment and took an active part in the famous defense of Tsaritsyn.

In 1922, when the flashes of war finally subsided and it became clear that Soviet power had come in earnest and for a long time, Nedorubov returned to the village in the hope of taking a break from the two wars he had experienced. But they didn’t really let him live peacefully - after eight years, the Cossack was finally repressed by commissars in leather jackets, recalling his service in both the White and Tsarist armies. Nedorubov was not at all surprised or broken by this.

“I’ve never been in such trouble before!” - the Knight of St. George decided for himself and “gave the country coal” during the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. As a result, he was released early for shock work - this is according to the official version. According to the unofficial story, the camp authorities helped by carefully studying his personal file. Still, in all centuries, men of all tribes and peoples respected courage and bravery...

"Give me the right to die!"

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Knight of St. George Nedorubov was no longer subject to conscription due to his age. By that time he was 53 years old.

But in July 1941, a squadron of Cossack militia began to be formed in the Don villages.

Together with his old combat friend Sutchev, Konstantin Iosifovich resolutely headed to the regional executive committee: “Give me the right to use all my combat experience and die for the Motherland!” At first the regional executive committee was dumbfounded, then they became inspired. And they appointed the Knight of St. George as the commander of the newly formed Cossack squadron (only volunteers were recruited into it).

But then, as the Cossacks say, one problem “stuck in”: his 17-year-old son, who had not reached conscription age by that time, “hung” on his father’s shoulders. Relatives rushed to dissuade Nikolai, but he was adamant. “Remember, son, you will not be given any concessions,” was all Nedorubov Sr. said. - I will ask you more strictly than experienced Cossacks. The commander’s son should be the first in battle!” So the third war came into the life of the Cossack Nedorubov... And also a world war - like the first.

In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov, a “weak link” was formed along the entire stretch from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don. It was clear that it was necessary at all costs to contain the advance of the German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

The Kuban Cavalry Corps, which included the Don Cossack Division, was thrown towards the Germans. There were no other regular units on this section of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war.

There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks fought bone-to-bone with the Germans, forcing them into hand-to-hand combat at every opportunity. The Germans, however, did not like hand-to-hand combat, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved it. This was their element. “Well, where else can we celebrate Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” - they joked. Periodically (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then the battle site was littered with hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats...

Near Kushchevskaya, the Donets and Kubans held the defense for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst and, with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided to launch a psychic attack. This was a strategic mistake. The Cossacks brought them within range of throwing a grenade and met them with heavy fire. Father and son Nedorubov were nearby: the elder was spraying the attackers with a machine gun, the younger was sending one grenade after another into the German line.

It is not without reason that they say that bullets fear the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing with bullets, not one of them touched the shooters. And the entire space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go to the end. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to get around the Cossacks on both sides, squeezing them into their “trademark” pincers. Having assessed the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. “Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!” - the lieutenant’s battle cry tore the villagers, who were flattened by bullets, from the ground. “The underdog and his son again went to seek his death, and we flew after him,” surviving colleagues recalled about that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was a shame to leave him alone...”

The militia fought to the death. The sons followed the example of their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience and endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the “Battle of Stalingrad” department of the State Defense Museum I. M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when he had to repel superior enemy forces on the right flank of the squadron, he was with a machine gun, and the son used hand grenades “to fight an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis.” Konstantin Nedorubov many times stood up to his full height on the railway line and shot the Nazis at point-blank range. “In three wars, I have never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler’s heads.”

In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The fourth cavalry squadron rushed hand-to-hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.

If we hadn’t covered the flank, it would have been difficult for our neighbor,” recalled Konstantin Iosifovich. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without losses... How my boys stood! And Kolka’s son showed himself to be a great man that day. I didn't drift away. Only after this fight did I think that I would never see him again.

During the frantic mortar attack, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest for about three days. Women were passing not far from the forest plantation, and they heard a groan. In the dark, the women carried the seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and sheltered him for many weeks.

“Cossack conscientiousness” cost the Germans dearly at that time - in that battle the Donets crushed over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans for the squadron's encirclement were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, General Field Marshal Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: “Another Kushchevka will be repeated, you will not learn to fight, you will march in a penal company through the Caucasus Mountains, period.”

"We hallucinated the Cossacks..."

This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen, who survived the battle near Maratuk, wrote in his letter home, where Nedorubov’s Don forces finally got to the desired hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as at Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure became a trademark. “We can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”

“Nedorubovtsy” took part in raids on the enemy in the area of ​​the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms, fought in the area of ​​​​the village of Kurinskaya... According to the Germans who survived the horse attacks, “it was as if a demon had possessed these centaurs.”

The Don and Kuban people used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and were carefully passed on from generation to generation. When the lava fell on the enemy, there was a prolonged wolf howl in the air - this is how the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, pretending to be killed, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s position, slashing right and left and creating a bloody heap there.

In any battle, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons of military science, was the first to get into trouble. In one battle, he managed, in official military language, “using folds in the terrain to secretly get close to three enemy machine gun and two mortar nests and extinguish them with hand grenades.” During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.

The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guard of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult one, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: “Unfit for military service.”

During the period of hostilities, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals for his feats. On October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich related the Red Star to the Cross of St. George,” the village residents joked about this.

Despite the fact that during his lifetime he became a living legend, Cossack Nedorubov never acquired any special benefits or assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But on all holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George Crosses.

The sub-horunzhi of the 1st Don Cossack Division, Nedorubov, with his attitude towards awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in this form at the Victory Parade in the front row. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook hands and thanked him for his participation in two wars.”

On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, Don Cossack Nedorubov became part of a torch-bearing group of three veterans and lit the fire of Eternal Glory at the monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamayev Kurgan of the hero city of Volgograd. Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya. In September 2007, in Volgograd, in the memorial historical museum, a monument to the famous hero of the Don, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. On February 2, 2011, in the Yuzhny village of the hero city of Volgograd, the grand opening ceremony of the new state educational institution “Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps named after Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubova."

Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Knight of St. George, received a personalized saber from Budyonny, and became a Hero of the Soviet Union even before the 1945 Victory Parade. He wore his Gold Hero Star along with the “royal” crosses.

Khutor Rubezhny

Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was born on May 21, 1889. His place of birth is the Rubezhny village of the Berezovskaya village of the Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don Army region (today it is the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region).

The village of Berezovskaya was indicative. It was home to 2,524 people and included 426 households. There was a justice of the peace, a parochial school, medical centers, and two factories: a tannery and a brick factory. There was even a telegraph and a savings bank.

Konstantin Nedorubov received his primary education at a parochial school, learned to read and write, count, and listened to lessons on the Law of God. Otherwise, he received a traditional Cossack education: from childhood he rode horseback and knew how to handle weapons. This science was more useful to him in life than school lessons.

"Full bow"

Konstantin Nedorubov was called up for service in January 1911 and ended up in the 6th hundred of the 15th cavalry regiment of the 1st Don Cossack division. His regiment was quartered in Tomashov, Lublin province. By the beginning of World War I, Nedorubov was a junior sergeant and commanded half a platoon of regimental reconnaissance officers.

The 25-year-old Cossack earned his first George a month after the start of the war - Nedorubov, together with his Don scouts, broke into the location of a German battery, captured prisoners and six guns.

The second George “touched the chest” of the Cossack in February 1915. While performing a solo reconnaissance near Przemysl, the constable came across a small farm where he found the Austrians sleeping. Nedorubov decided not to delay, waiting for reinforcements, threw a grenade into the yard and began to imitate a desperate battle with his voice and shots. From the German language he is nothing but “Hyunde hoch!” I didn’t know, but this was enough for the Austrians. Sleepy, they began to leave their houses with their hands raised. So Nedorubov brought them along the winter road to the regiment’s location. There were 52 soldiers and one chief lieutenant captured.

Cossack Nedorubov received the third George “for unparalleled courage and courage” during the Brusilov breakthrough.

Then Nedorubov was mistakenly awarded another St. George, 3rd degree, but then in the corresponding order for the 3rd Cavalry Corps, his last name and the entry opposite it “George Cross of the 3rd degree No. 40288” were crossed out, and “No. 7799 2” was written above them th degree" and the link: "See. Corps order No. 73 1916.”

Finally, Konstantin Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George when, together with his Cossack scouts, he captured the headquarters of a German division, obtained important documents and captured a German infantry general - its commander.
In addition to the St. George Crosses, Konstantin Nedorubov was also awarded two St. George medals for courage during the First World War. He ended this war with the rank of sub-sergeant.

White-red commander

Cossack Nedorubov did not have to live long without war, but in the Civil War he did not join either the Whites or the Reds until the summer of 1918. On June 1, he nevertheless joined the 18th Cossack regiment of Ataman Pyotr Krasnov along with other Cossacks of the village.

However, the war “for the whites” did not last long for Nedorubov. Already on July 12, he was captured, but was not shot.

On the contrary, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and became a squadron commander in the cavalry division of Mikhail Blinov, where other Cossacks who went over to the Red side fought side by side with him.

The Blinovsky Cavalry Division proved itself in the most difficult sectors of the front. For the famous defense of Tsaritsyn, Budyonny personally presented Nedorubov with a personalized saber. For the battles with Wrangel, the Cossack was awarded red revolutionary trousers, although he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner, but did not receive it because of his too heroic biography in the tsarist army. Nedorubov was wounded in the Civil Service and wounded by a machine gun in the Crimea. The Cossack carried the bullet stuck in his lung for the rest of his life.

Prisoner of Dmitlag

After the Civil War, Konstantin Nedorubov held positions “on the ground”; in April 1932 he became a foreman of a collective farm in the Bobrov farm.

He didn’t have a peaceful life here either. In the fall of 1933, he was convicted under Article 109 “for losing grain in the field.” Nedorubov and his assistant Vasily Sutchev came under attack. They were accused not only of stealing grain, but also of damaging agricultural equipment, and were sentenced to 10 years in labor camps.

In Dmitrovlag, at the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, Nedorubov and Sutchev worked as best they could, and they knew how to do it well, and they couldn’t do otherwise. The construction was completed ahead of schedule on July 15, 1937. Nikolai Yezhov accepted the job personally. Frontline workers received an amnesty.

After the camp, Konstantin Nedorubov worked as the head of a horse-drawn postal station, and just before the war, he worked as a supply manager at a machine testing station.

“I know how to fight them!”

When the Great Patriotic War began, Nedorubov was 52 years old; due to his age, he was not subject to conscription. But the Cossack hero could not stay at home.

When the consolidated Don Cavalry Cossack Division began to form in the Stalingrad region, the NKVD rejected Nedorubov’s candidacy - they remembered both his services in the tsarist army and his criminal record.

Then the Cossack went to the First Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Shlyapkin, and said: “I’m not asking for a cow, but I want to shed blood for my homeland! Young people die in thousands because they are inexperienced! “I won four St. George’s Crosses in the war with the Germans, I know how to fight them.”

Ivan Shlyapkin insisted that Nedorubov be taken into the militia. Under personal responsibility. At that time this was a very bold step.

"Spellbound"

In mid-July, the Cossack regiment, in which Nedorubov’s hundred fought, repelled German attempts to cross the Kagalnik River in the Peshkovo area for four days. After this, the Cossacks drove the enemy out of the villages of Zadonsky and Aleksandrovka, destroying one and a half hundred Germans.

Nedorubov particularly distinguished himself in the famous. His award sheet states: “Having been surrounded near the village of Kushchevskaya, with machine gun fire and hand grenades, together with his son he destroyed up to 70 fascist soldiers and officers.”

For the battles in the area of ​​the village of Kushchevskaya on October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In this battle, the son of Konstantin Nedorubov, Nikolai, received 13 wounds during mortar fire and lay covered in earth for three days. Quite by accident, residents of the village stumbled upon him, burying the Cossacks in mass graves. Cossack women Matryona Tushkanova and Serafima Sapelnyak carried Nikolai into the hut at night, washed and bandaged his wounds and left. Konstantin Nedorubov learned much later that his son remained alive, but now he fought with redoubled courage for his son.

Then, returning to his native village, he learned that he had been awarded the Hero Star and that his son Nikolai was alive.

Of course, he did not stay at home. He returned to the front and in May 1943 took command of the squadron of the 41st Guards Regiment of the 11th Guards Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Corps.

He fought in Ukraine and Moldova, Romania and Hungary. In December 1944, in the Carpathians, already with the rank of guard captain, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was wounded again. This time he was finally commissioned.

On his 80th birthday, the authorities gave the old Cossack a house, he was the first in the village to have a television, but the role of the “honoured” Konstantin Nedorubov was burdensome, he continued to lead a simple lifestyle, chopped wood himself, ran a household with his family, and continued to exercise until the end of his life with a heavy poker, wielding it like a pike.

The Cossack died in December 1978, six months before his 90th birthday. Besides Nikolai, he left behind a son, Georgiy, and a daughter, Maria.