Putin wrote a column about his parents during the war

Vladimir Putin and his parents before leaving for the GDR, 1985 year
Photo: putin.kremlin.ru

Russian President Vladimir Putin in his column for the magazine “Russian Pioneer” talks about his parents in the war, about his early dead brother and the amazing coincidences that make up life. His father fought for the Nevsky Piglet, was seriously wounded, lost five brothers. Mother almost died in the blockade. They lost their first son, elder brother Vladimir Putin. “But they didn’t hate the enemy, that's what's amazing!” Writes Putin.

Putin's father, the last war, did not like to talk about it. Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin was drafted into the army in 1939 year. Urgent served as a sailor in Sevastopol, in the detachment of submarines. He went to the front as a volunteer.

“He was assigned to the so-called extermination battalion of the NKVD. These battalions were engaged in sabotage in the rear of the German troops, ”Putin recalls. - Father, in fact, took part in one such operation. In their group there were 28 people. They were thrown under Kingisepp, they looked around, settled in the woods and even managed to blow up the composition with ammunition. But then ran out of food. They went out to the local people, the Estonians, they brought them food, and then handed them over to the Germans.

There was almost no chance of survival. The Germans besieged them from all sides, and only some, including the father, managed to escape. The persecution began. The remnants of the detachment went to the front line. On the way, we lost several more people and decided to disperse. My father hid himself in a swamp and breathed through a reed pipe, while the dogs with whom they were looking for did not slip past. So saved. Four people left 28 for their own people then. ”

Putin gives details: the German was at the head of that group. Soviet citizen, but German. “And what is curious, a couple of years ago I was brought from the archives of the Ministry of Defense to this group. At my house, in Novo-Ogarevo, the copy lies, - Putin writes. - List of groups, surnames, first names, middle names and brief characteristics. Yes, 28 man. And at the head - German. Everything as my father said. ” Of the 28 people, only four survived. 24 died.

Vladimir Spiridonovich was one of the defenders of the Nevsky Pyatachka - a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Neva opposite Nevskaya Dubrovka, captured and held by the Soviet troops of the Leningrad Front. It was assumed that this would be a springboard for a future breakthrough of the blockade. Despite the fact that all attempts to expand it and develop the offensive ended in failure, the Nevsky Piglet became one of the symbols of courage, heroism and self-sacrifice of the Soviet soldiers.

“And the father told how he was wounded there. The injury was severe. He lived all his life with fragments in his leg: they were never taken out. Leg ached. The foot did not unbend later, ”Putin recalls in his column. The doctor kept his father's leg. Sr. Putin received a disability of the second group. As an invalid of war, he was eventually given an apartment. And it was the first separate apartment of the Putin family. Small and on the outskirts of the city. And not immediately after the war, but many years later. But Putin recalls this as “tremendous happiness.”

And the injury itself happened like this: “He and a friend made a small sortie to the rear of the Germans, crawling, crawling ... could not get up, because they were at gunpoint. “A man,” he says, “looked at us carefully, took out a grenade, then a second one and threw these grenades at us. Well… ”… It was already winter, the Neva was frozen, it was necessary to somehow get to the other side, to get help, qualified medical assistance. But he himself, naturally, could not walk.

He, however, still managed to get to his own on this side of the river. But there were few people who wanted to drag him to the other side, because there the Neva was in full view and was fired by both artillery and machine guns. There was almost no chance of reaching that shore. But quite by chance, his housemate in Peterhof turned out to be nearby. And this neighbor dragged him without hesitation. And dragged him to the hospital. Both alive crawled there. The neighbor waited for him in the hospital, made sure that he had been operated on, and said: “Okay, now you will live, and I went to die.”

“Life is such a simple and cruel thing,” Putin concluded.

His father was tormented by questions about the fate of a neighbor. Twenty years later, the elder Putin came home, sat down on the steps and wept, he accidentally met his savior, alive and healthy, in the store.

Vladimir Putin recalls his older brother in the column. In the war years, he was a kid. From the mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova, the child was taken. “They did this, as she later repeated, in a spur of the moment, in order to save young children from starvation. Collected in orphanages for subsequent evacuation. Parents were not even asked, ”Putin recalls.

The child fell ill with diphtheria and did not survive. Parents did not even know where he is buried. Last year, Brother Putin’s documents were found in the archives. The child was buried in the Piskarevsky cemetery. 27 January last year, on the day of the complete blockade, Vladimir Putin was in St. Petersburg and visited this cemetery. The President walked along the central alley from the Eternal Flame to the Motherland Memorial, embraced the old woman who was blockaded and willingly photographed with everyone. He carried out the entire ceremony, including the passage of the guard of honor, with his head uncovered. And he stood for a long time at the modest mass grave with the date 1942, in which his elder brother, who died during the blockade, lies.

“And the father, when the child was taken away and the mother was left alone, and he was allowed to walk, stood on crutches and went home. When I approached the house, I saw that the orderlies were carrying out the corpses from the entrance, ”Putin recalls. - And I saw my mother. He came up and it seemed to him that she was breathing. And he says to the orderlies: "She's still alive!" “It will come along the way,” the orderlies tell him. "He won't survive anymore." He said that he pounced on them with crutches and forced them to lift her back to the apartment. They said to him: “Well, as you say, we will do so, but know that we will not come here again for another two, three or four weeks. You yourself will figure it out then. ” And he left her. She stayed alive. And she lived until 1999. And he died at the end of 1998 ".

After the blockade was lifted, the Putin family moved to the Tver region and lived there until the end of the war. Putin Sr. had six brothers. Five died. Vladimir Putin was a late child, his mother gave birth to him in 41 year.

“And there was no family where someone died. And, of course, grief, misfortune, tragedy. But they had no hatred of the enemy, which is amazing. I still cannot, frankly, fully understand this, - Putin writes. “In general, my mother was a very gentle, kind person ... And she said:“ Well, what kind of hatred can there be for these soldiers? They are ordinary people, and they also died in the war. " This is amazing. We were brought up on Soviet books, films ... And we hated. But for some reason she did not have this at all. And I remembered her words very well: “Well, what to take from them? They are as hard workers as we are. They were just driven to the front. ”