Siberian tactics during the Second World War. Red Angel of Death

Biography

Before the war, he lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, now the Achinsk district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He was a taiga hunter.

Surkov was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, but never received it, although none of the many snipers - Heroes of the Soviet Union - achieved such a result as he did.

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• A story about a front-line surgeon and a hero sniper of the Southern Front www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAq3xOmHxZg

Excerpt characterizing Surkov, Mikhail Ilyich

At the beginning of winter, Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky and his daughter arrived in Moscow. Due to his past, his intelligence and originality, especially due to the weakening at that time of enthusiasm for the reign of Emperor Alexander, and due to the anti-French and patriotic trend that reigned in Moscow at that time, Prince Nikolai Andreich immediately became the subject of special respect from Muscovites and the center of Moscow opposition to the government.
The prince grew very old this year. Sharp signs of old age appeared in him: unexpected falling asleep, forgetfulness of immediate events and memory of long-standing ones, and the childish vanity with which he accepted the role of head of the Moscow opposition. Despite the fact that when the old man, especially in the evenings, came out to tea in his fur coat and powdered wig, and, touched by someone, began his abrupt stories about the past, or even more abrupt and harsh judgments about the present, he aroused in all his guests the same feeling of respectful respect. For visitors, this entire old house with huge dressing tables, pre-revolutionary furniture, these lackeys in powder, and the cool and smart old man himself from the last century with his meek daughter and pretty French girl, who stood in awe of him, presented a majestically pleasant sight. But the visitors did not think that in addition to these two or three hours, during which they saw the owners, there were another 22 hours a day, during which the secret inner life of the house took place.
Recently in Moscow this inner life has become very difficult for Princess Marya. In Moscow she was deprived of those best joys - conversations with God's people and solitude - which refreshed her in Bald Mountains, and did not have any of the benefits and joys of metropolitan life. She did not go out into the world; everyone knew that her father would not let her go without him, and due to ill health he himself could not travel, and she was no longer invited to dinners and evenings. Princess Marya completely abandoned hope of marriage. She saw the coldness and bitterness with which Prince Nikolai Andreich received and sent away young people who could be suitors, who sometimes came to their house. Princess Marya had no friends: on this visit to Moscow she was disappointed in her two closest people. M lle Bourienne, with whom she had previously been unable to be completely frank, now became unpleasant to her and for some reason she began to move away from her. Julie, who was in Moscow and to whom Princess Marya wrote for five years in a row, turned out to be a complete stranger to her when Princess Marya again became acquainted with her in person. Julie at this time, having become one of the richest brides in Moscow on the occasion of the death of her brothers, was in the midst of social pleasures. She was surrounded by young people who, she thought, suddenly appreciated her merits. Julie was in that period of the aging society young lady who feels that her last chance for marriage has come, and now or never her fate must be decided. Princess Marya remembered with a sad smile on Thursdays that she now had no one to write to, since Julie, Julie, from whose presence she did not feel any joy, was here and saw her every week. She, like an old emigrant who refused to marry the lady with whom he spent his evenings for several years, regretted that Julie was here and she had no one to write to. Princess Marya had no one in Moscow to talk to, no one to confide in her grief, and much new grief had been added during this time. The time for Prince Andrei's return and his marriage was approaching, and his order to prepare his father for this was not only not fulfilled, but on the contrary, the matter seemed completely ruined, and the reminder of Countess Rostova infuriated the old prince, who was already out of sorts most of the time . A new grief that had recently increased for Princess Marya was the lessons she gave to her six-year-old nephew. In her relationship with Nikolushka, she recognized with horror the irritability of her father. No matter how many times she told herself that she shouldn’t allow herself to get excited while teaching her nephew, almost every time she sat down with a pointer to learn the French alphabet, she so wanted to quickly and easily transfer her knowledge from herself into the child, who was already afraid that there was an aunt She would be angry that at the slightest inattention on the part of the boy she would flinch, hurry, get excited, raise her voice, sometimes pull him by the hand and put him in a corner. Having placed him in a corner, she herself began to cry over her evil, bad nature, and Nikolushka, imitating her sobs, left the corner without permission, approached her, pulled her wet hands away from her face, and consoled her. But what caused the princess more grief was her father’s irritability, always directed against his daughter and recently reaching the point of cruelty. If he had forced her to bow all night, if he had beaten her and forced her to carry firewood and water, it would never have occurred to her that her position was difficult; but this loving tormentor, the most cruel because he loved and tormented himself and her for that reason, deliberately knew how not only to insult and humiliate her, but also to prove to her that she was always to blame for everything. Lately, a new trait had appeared in him, one that tormented Princess Marya most of all - it was his greater rapprochement with m lle Bourienne. The thought that came to him, in the first minute after receiving news of his son’s intentions, that if Andrei marries, then he himself would marry Bourienne, apparently pleased him, and he stubbornly lately (as it seemed to Princess Marya) only in order to insult her, he showed special affection to m lle Bourienne and showed his dissatisfaction with his daughter by showing love for Bourienne.

Mikhail Ilyich Surkov(1921-1953) - participant in the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 1st battalion of the 39th rifle regiment of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army, sergeant major. The best Soviet sniper of the Great Patriotic War, the number of destroyed enemies according to Soviet sources is 702.

Biography

Born in 1921. Russian.

Before the war, he lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, now the Achinsk district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He was a taiga hunter.

In the Red Army since 1941 - drafted by the Achinsk (on the award list - Atchevsky) district commissariat. Candidate for the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1942. At the end of the war he was transferred to the rear to train snipers.

In 1943, after the 7th wound, Mikhail Surkov was sent to the hospital, from where he had to return to his homeland, to the village of Bolshaya Salyr, where his fellow countrymen joyfully greeted the hero and elected him chairman of the village council. Died in 1953.

Son - Alexey.

Awards

• Awarded the orders: Lenin (07/11/1942), Red Star (12/07/1942); medals, including “For Courage” (03/12/1942).

The fact of the number of enemies destroyed

When the number of Nazis killed by Mikhail Surkov reached 701, two cameramen went with him on another “hunt” against enemy snipers.

“This is a difficult matter: a sniper is detected only when fired; at other times it is almost impossible to detect him. This means that it was necessary to challenge the enemy to shoot. Mikhail cut a pumpkin in the garden, put a helmet on it and stuck it over the parapet of a false trench, 400 meters from the Germans. From the enemy’s side, this pumpkin with a helmet “read” like the head of a soldier. Then Surkov crawled into another trench, 40 meters from the false one, fired a shot and began to observe. Very soon they began to hit the pumpkin - at first it was rifle shots, then a mortar hit. During the firefight, Mikhail discovered an enemy sniper. That day he killed his 702nd enemy."

From the memoirs of Soyuzkinotekhniki cameraman A. Levitan. Published in the Literaturnaya Gazeta on February 24, 1971 in the article “Movie Camera Under Attack.”

Surkov was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but never received it, although none of the many snipers - Heroes of the Soviet Union - achieved such a result as he did.

A number of Western historians question this figure, believing that it was fabricated by Soviet propaganda in order to neutralize the result of the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, which he achieved during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940.

From November to December 1942, the legendary Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev killed 225 German soldiers and officers in the Battle of Stalingrad. Among them were eleven enemy snipers. The training of our fighters was such that a sniper could even shoot down an airplane.

Nine million "Voroshilov shooters"

In fact, there is no need to talk about any serious confrontation. The superiority of Soviet snipers, especially in the first months of the war, was overwhelming. The reasons should be sought in the massive defense work that was carried out in the Soviet Union in the pre-war years. In particular, in 1932, the Presidium of the Central Council of Osoaviakhim of the USSR and the RSFSR established the title “Voroshilov shooter”, which was accompanied by a corresponding badge. The badge had two degrees; receiving the second was considered especially honorable, since the requirements for the holder of such a title were more difficult. It was necessary to shoot from a combat rifle.

In 1934, competitions were held between Soviet and American shooting clubs. Ours won by a large margin.
The rifle training program operated for seven years, during which time about nine million Soviet citizens became holders of the title “Voroshilov Shooter.”

Super sniper Mikhail Surkov

Taiga hunter from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, foreman Mikhail Ilyich Surkov shot and killed 702 fascists. Endurance and patience are the qualities of a real earner, which Mikhail Ilyich was before the war. To lie in the snow for many hours without the slightest movement - Surkov learned this in Siberia. He was the best tracker in the village. And, of course, a marksman from God. He hit the animal in the eye so as not to spoil the skin. He masterfully controlled his breathing, because it was important not only not to freeze, but also to pull the trigger at the right moment. All this was useful at the front. The sniper's sense of danger was amazing. Sometimes one broken twig or the slightest change in the landscape was enough for him to decide to change position.

Surkov’s style was this: find a point closer to the fascists and hide. All the same, they will jump out when needed, Mikhail Ilyich liked to say. But Surkov was not kept on one sector of the front for long. Every sniper has his own signature, according to which he was tracked down and ambushed. So they transferred such a valuable personnel from one place to another.

After Mikhail Ilyich shot the 702nd fascist, and even in the presence of a cameraman who filmed the entire “hunt,” Surkov’s portrait was published in the press. After that, in order not to risk the fighter, he was transferred to the rear to prepare a shift.

"Anti-aircraft gunner" Etobaev

Arseniy Etobaev, a Buryat by nationality, not only destroyed more than three hundred Nazis, but also shot down two planes. The most interesting thing is that at first he led the supply platoon. That is, he supplied hot food to the front lines for the combatants. And, as reported in the award sheet from 1942, after delivering food under enemy mortar fire, Etobaev picked up a rifle and went out to the most dangerous place. Being a born sniper, he destroyed enemy machine gun crews and cuckoo snipers. In April 1942, Etobaev was appointed commander of a rifle platoon. On June 14, 1942, he shot down a German Heinkel-111 plane, and 4 days later a Junker-87 bomber. In total, Etobaev has 356 Nazi soldiers and officers on his account.

Enemy at the gate

In 2001, Jean-Jacques Annaud's film Enemy at the Gates was released, in which Jude Law plays Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev, leading a sniper duel with his German counterpart, Major Erwin Koenig. The film is replete with blunders, most of which are caused by stereotypes of Western cinema. Well, this is how they imagine the Second World War. As if our recruits were being transported to the front line in sealed carriages, after the battle in the basement, Soviet soldiers danced to “The moon is shining, the clear light is shining” and drinking glasses of vodka. The fight between Zaitsev and Koenig is more real, unless you take into account the fact that some researchers consider Major Koenig to be a fictional character. But the German sniper rifle (Mauser 98k), obtained by Zaitsev near Stalingrad and kept on display at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow, is a fact. Whoever it belonged to was a very serious opponent. The fact is that the usual magnification at that time was 3-4 times, but on the Zaitsev trophy the sight had a tenfold magnification. Which did not save the fascist sniper from a bullet.

Unfortunately, Matthias Hetzenauer, the most successful fascist sniper, is not fictional. He killed 345 Red Army soldiers and was captured in 1944, where he remained for five years. And yet, even the Germans admitted that they were far behind the enemy in training snipers. What can we talk about if there were more than a thousand female snipers in the ranks of our brilliant shooters. The best of them, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, destroyed 309 fascists.

In the photo: sniper Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko conducts aimed fire, 1942 / Mikosha / RIA Novosti

50 Best Soviet Snipers of World War II

702 killed enemy soldiers - Mikhail Ilyich Surkov

601 – Vladimir Gavrilovich Salbiev

534 – Vasily Shalvovich Kvachantiradze

502 – Akhat Abdulkhakovich Akhmetyanov

500 – Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko

494 – Nikolai Yakovlevich Ilyin

456 (including 14 snipers) – Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev

446 – Nikolai Evdokimovich Kazyuk

441 – Petr Alekseevich Goncharov

437 – Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov

429 – Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov

425 – Fedor Trofimovich Dyachenko

425 – Afanasy Emelyanovich Gordienko

422 (including 70 snipers) – Vasily Ivanovich Golosov

422 (including 12 snipers) – Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko

418 (including 17 snipers) - Nikolai Ivanovich Galushkin

397 – Tuleugali Nasyrkhanovich Abdybekov

367 (including general) – Semyon Danilovich Nomokonov

362 (including 20 snipers) – Ivan Petrovich Antonov

360 – Gennady Iosifovich Velichko

350 – Ivan Grigorievich Kalashnikov

349 – Alexander Alekseevich Govorukhin

349 – Abukhazhi Idrisov

346 – Philip Yakovlevich Rubakho

345 – Leonid Vladimirovich Butkevich

340 – Ivan Ivanovich Larkin

338 – Ivan Pavlovich Gorelikov

335 and two aircraft - Arseniy Mikhailovich Etobaev

331 – Viktor Ivanovich Medvedev

328 (including 18 snipers) - Ilya Leonovich Grigoriev

324 (including general) – Evgeniy Adrianovich Nikolaev

320 – Mikhail Adamovich Ivasik

313 (including 30 snipers) – Zhambyl Yesheevich Tulaev

309 (including 36 snipers) - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko

307 – Alexander Pavlovich Lebedev

307 – Vasily Alexandrovich Titov

302 – Ivan Timofeevich Dobrik

300 – Moisey Timofeevich Usik

300 – Nikolai Stepanovich Vedernikov

300 – Maxim Semenovich Bryksin

299 – Nikifor Samsonovich Afanasyev

298 (including 5 snipers) – Ivan Filippovich Abdulov

287 – Grigory Mikhailovich Simanchuk

280 – Ivan Grigorievich Ostafiychuk

279 – Yakov Mikhailovich Smetnev

270 and one aircraft – Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev

265 – Anatoly Ivanovich Chekhov

261 – Mikhail Stepanovich Sokhin

261 – Pavel Georgievich Shorets

During the war, the sniper movement broke out and began to develop rapidly. It helped not only to beat the enemy, but also to keep the fascist bastards in fear and constant tension. The movement broke out almost...

During the war, the sniper movement broke out and began to develop rapidly. It helped not only to beat the enemy, but also to keep the fascist bastards in fear and constant tension. The movement broke out almost independently, but the command quickly supported the snipers.

Girls, hunters, and volunteers joined the ranks of snipers. The activity of the snipers was so combative that almost everyone was known on the other side of the front, but it was impossible to recognize anyone by sight. Since even among their own fighters, snipers often did not report work.

Already in 1942, there were 117 snipers in 12 divisions. With their martial art, the snipers destroyed 1000 Nazis. The movement held training rallies where they exchanged experiences and talked about how they identify the enemy at a distance of several kilometers.

Sniper Mikhail Surkov arrived at the rally. By the beginning of spring 1942, Mikhail’s personal account included 100 fascists killed. He was awarded the Order of Lenin. Surkov greatly valued the rifle he received from the hands of Captain Kamkin, a rifleman training instructor.

Having decided to speak at a sniper rally, where there were no lagging behind, the foreman told with humor how he decided to restore order in the fascist trench. The Germans were far enough away and felt safe. The participants laughed - the foreman and for the Nazis the foreman.

Surkov didn’t like the fact that the Germans were admiring our nature. When another Wehrmacht soldier came out into the air and began to look east, Mikhail fired. The German fell as if knocked down. Another German who jumped out also collapsed under a sniper’s bullet. The Fritz dragged the dead into the trench with hooks. They stopped feeling free.

A hereditary hunter, a Siberian, Surkov was a diligent fighter. Cameramen filmed him on one of his hunting days. He killed 702 fascists under the operator's camera. Such a shooter is not a Hero of the Soviet Union? Why? All combat shooter award lists were underestimated or did not go anywhere at all.

He was a cheerful joker. Didn't really like discipline. Perhaps the political commissars did not approve of his behavior? But it would be better if they approved of his military victories.

• They nominated Surkov for the medal “For Courage” - the award was “cut down”.
• Nominated for the Order of the Red Star - received the medal "For Courage".
• They presented him with the Order of Lenin, but they cut off the award.
• We prepared documents for the Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded him the Order of Lenin without the Gold Star.
• Nominated for the Order of the Red Banner - received the Order of the Red Star.

Returning from the war, he did not live long in peaceful life. Probably, the sniper's daily lying in the snow near Moscow took its toll. In 1953, sniper Mikhail Surkov died. We were left with photographs of a cheerful young man with a sniper rifle.

Why did Siberia turn out to be a real reservoir of sniper talent? The answer may lie in the way of life of many Siberians, which can be briefly defined - taiga. The endless taiga expanses have raised many talented shooters.

“And here is the portrait of the avenger. This is a sniper, a man who came from the far north,” noted writer Nikolai Tikhonov. - He is the kind of hunter who hits a squirrel in the eye. It can get into a gap in the tank and blind the driver while driving. He can track down the enemy, no matter how he disguises himself. He is one of many snipers. His face with energetic, strong lines seems frozen, painfully tense. But this expression is typical of him. When he concentrates, he turns into a tense string. But his “hunt” was successful. The face softens, and in front of you is a young, modest, quiet man who laughs somehow very shyly.”

One of the best snipers of the Great Patriotic War was also a native of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Mikhail Surkov.

Before the war, Mikhail Surkov lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, Achinsk region. He was known as an experienced hunter-tracker. The taiga hunter received a sniper rifle from the hands of Captain Kamkin, a master of super-accurate fire, who trained many excellent shooters.

“The keen eye of the photojournalist found the most diverse situations of front-line life. People, whose weapons were mainly “watering cans”, pencils and notepads, got into tanks and planes, went on attacks with the soldiers, kneaded mud with them along front-line roads, joked on rest stops, and most importantly - they filmed, filmed, filmed...

When the number of fascists he destroyed exceeded 700, two cameramen went with him on another “hunt” against enemy snipers.

“This is a difficult matter: a sniper is detected only when fired, at other times it is almost impossible to detect him. This means that it was necessary to call the enemy to shoot. Mikhail cut a pumpkin in the garden, put a helmet on it and stuck it over the parapet of a false trench, 400 meters from the Germans. From the enemy’s side, this pumpkin with a helmet “read” like the head of a soldier. Then Surkov crawled into another trench, 40 meters from the false one, fired a shot and very soon began to hit the pumpkin - at first it was rifle shots, then a mortar hit. During the firefight, Mikhail discovered the enemy sniper. That day he killed his 702nd enemy." [From the memoirs of Soyuzkinotekhniki cameraman A. Levitan. Published in the Literaturnaya Gazeta on February 24, 1971 in the article “Movie Camera Under Attack.” ]

It is strange that a man who destroyed so many enemies was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union...

It is worth noting this fact: numerous award certificates for the sniper-instructor of the 39th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, Mikhail Surkov, as a rule, were either “cut down” altogether, or the award was underestimated. For example:

They were nominated for the medal “For Courage”, but for some reason the award was “cut down”;

Nominated for the Order of the Red Star, - received... the medal "For Courage";

They nominated Lenin for the Order, but for some reason the award was canceled;

Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he received only the Order of Lenin, but without the Golden Star;

Nominated for the Order of the Red Banner - for the battle on November 30, 1942, in which his sniper platoon as part of an infantry unit stormed enemy positions, Surkov himself personally destroyed 7 fascists with well-aimed fire, broke into an enemy bunker and destroyed an enemy machine-gun crew of 3 soldiers, killing everyone dagger - received the Order of the Red Star...

Sources: Soviet military encyclopedia. T. 7. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1979. Zolotov L. The right to shoot // Red Star. 2001 - April 4 Koltashova I. The fate and war of Major Komlev // Krasnoyarsk worker. 2006. May 4. Erenburg I.G. War. 1941–1945. - M., 2004. Rostov N.D. Training of snipers for the front in the Siberian Military District during the Second World War // Military Historical Journal. No. 12 2008, No. 2 2009. Subbotin V. How wars end. - M., Military Publishing House, 1965. The feat of the heroic land. - M., Mysl, 1970. Rosly I.P. Last stop in Berlin. - M., Military Publishing House, 1983. Filonenko S.I. Filonenko A.S. Ostrogozh-Rossoshan operation - “Stalingrad on the Upper Don”. - Voronezh, 2005. Tikhonov S.N. Leningrad stories. - L., 1984. Ulturgashev S.P. Piryatinskaya Red Banner. - Krasnoyarsk, 1985.