| Taganrog at World War II | |||
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| Part of World War II | |||
The monument to heroes of the Taganrog resistance movement |
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| Belligerents | |||
| Nazi Germany | Soviet Union | ||
The Soviet city of Taganrog, now part of the Rostov Oblast of the Russian Federation, had an eventful history during World War II, from 1941 to 1945.
In July 1941 the municipal Communist Party Committee ordered the creation of the 44th Home Guards detachment from communists working at the city's factories to defend Taganrog. The detachment was under command of NKVD lieutenant Pyotr Gerasimov.
In summer months of 1941 the "Taganrog Instrumental Factory named after J.Stalin" launched the production of artillery shells, the State Aviation Factory no.31 produced spring 1941 the brand-new fighters LAGG-3 and increased the number of assembled planes after the start of the Great Patriotic War (at least 6 airplanes per day)[1]. The "Taganrog factory named after Molotov" ("Krasny Gidropress") was producing the mines and spare parts for tanks.
September 15, 1941 the Rostov Oblast Communist Party Committee gave instructions on organization of defense and underground resistance in case of occupation. In Taganrog was established the municipal defense committee, which controlled the evacuation of the population and military equipments from defense factories. The defense was held by 31st Rifle Division (Soviet Union) under command of Mikhail Ozimin and the 44th Home Guards detachment.
On June 27, 1941 the State Communist Party Committee and Sovnarkom ordered the evacuation of industrial enterprises, agricultural resources, material and cultural values from the areas in proximity of the front-line.
On October 4, 1941 the first train from Taganrog, carrying the dismantled equipment of the Instrumental Factory named after J.Stalin (later - Taganrog Combine Factory), left for Novosibirsk. On October 9, 1941 the State Aviation Factory no.31 started preparations for evacuation to relocate the production of LAGG-3 (including 3000 workers with families and over 50 nearly finished LAGG-3 "assembly kits") to Tbilissi. On October 10, 1941 the Kransny Kotelshik factory started the evacuation of its equipments for Zlatoust of Chelyabinsk Oblast. On October 15, 1941 the Taganrog Metallurgical Pipe Factory finished its evacuation for Kamensk-Uralsky in Ural. "The factory named after Molotov" was evacuated to Petropavlovsk (today part of Kazakhstan).
The Evacuation Hospital no.2097 located in Taganrog was evacuated on October 9 for Makhachkala.
By October 15, 1941 around 70-75% of equipments and products of Taganrog factories, as well as most workers were evacuated from the city.
On October 17, 1941, the armored divisions SS Division Wiking and 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler of Panzer Group 1 arrived on the outskirts of Taganrog and several panzers made breakthrough to the seaport and opened fire at gunboats "Krenkel" and "Rostov-Don" and the last transport ship evacuating women and children. According to Sovinformburo, the Germans lost around 35,000 soldiers and officers during the fight for Taganrog. The gunboat "Krenkel" was heavily damaged and sunk in the haven of the Taganrog seaport. The city was left by the Red Army on October 22, 1941.
During the occupation, the local government system was replaced by Bürgermeisteramt or "New Russian local government" and the city was divided into 4 police sectors controlled by "Ortskommendatur" and personally by SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Kurt Christmann of Einsatzkommande Sonderkommando 10a. Sicherheitsdienst headquarters were stationed at the Chekhov Gymnasium.
Taganrog was an important city and was paid considerable attention by German intelligence services. It was due not only to strategic objects, such as seaport, aerodrome, train stations or developed industry, but also to the fact that the city on Azov Sea with hospitals and a spa center could provide comfortable stay conditions for personnel.
The following special services were stationed in Taganrog in 1941-1943[2]:
From the first days, the occupation regime started mass deportation of the citizens to Nazi Germany for hard labour. Within 683 days around 15,000 young men and women from Taganrog became victims of Nazi policies of deportation for forced labor.
The SS Einsatzgruppe Sonderkommando 10a performed systematic genocide of Taganrog citizens from the first days of occupation. The large groups of citizens (old men, women, communists, young communists, gypsies, jews, and anyone suspected in aiding the resistance movement) were taken from Vladimirskaya Plaza in Taganrog to Petrushino village (near Beriev), where they were shot to death in the Gully of Petrushino (Todesschlucht).
The massacres in Taganrog started with the Final Solution of the Jewish question. On October 22, 1941 the Ortskommendant issued an order for all Jewish people to wear a Star of David sign and to register themselves at the Ortskommendatur. It was followed by Appeal to the Jewish Population of Taganrog signed by the Ortskommendant Alberti. The "appeal" was calling all Jews to gather themselves on October 29, 1941 at 8:00AM on Vladimirskaya Plaza in Taganrog from where they were supposed to be taken to a ghetto. Ortskommendant Alberti explained this measure as necessary due to alleged rise of antisemitism among local population, and that the German police and Gestapo would better manage the question if the Jewish population were separated into a certain district of the city:
In order to implement this measure, the Jews of both sexes and of all ages, including the persons born of marriages between Jews and not-Jews must be present on Wednesday, October 29, 1941 at 8 o'clock in the morning at Vladimirskaya Ploshad of Taganrog. All Jews must have documents and hand in the keys to currently occupied houses and flats. A pasteboard tag with full names and full address must be attached to the keys by a wire or a lace. We highly recommend the Jews to take with them all valuables and cash...(excerpt)
On October 29, 1941 all Jews of Taganrog (around 2,500 people) were gathered on Vladimirskaya Plaza, promptly registered at the building of the school no.27 in front of Vladimirskaya Plaza and taken by trucks to the Gully of Petrushino near Beriev Aircraft Factory, where they were shot to death by Schutzmannschaft collaborationists under control of Otto Ohlendorf's Einsatzgruppe D. Of all the Jewish children who lived in Taganrog in 1941 only a 14-year old boy Volodya Kobrin (Russian: Кобрин, Владимир Моисеевич) managed to escape the certain death thanks to the help of various people in Taganrog, and especially Anna Mikhailovna Pokrovskaya, who was awarded the title of the Righteous among the Nations by the Professor Alisa Shenar, Ambassador of Israel in Russia on July 19, 1996[4].
According to the information of the State Archive, some 7,000 Taganrogers (1,500 of them children of various age) were shot to death in the Gully of Petrushino[5].
In June 1943, all the children of the Taganrog children's home were evacuated by the Nazis to Verkhnyaya Lepetiha village of Kherson Oblast to be used as involuntary blood donors for wounded officers and soldiers. They were delivered by groups to a German naval hospital ship on Dniepr, where the blood was taken and the dead bodies were thrown into the river waters. 22 kids were found by mere chance by the military intelligence Guards Sergeant Vladimir Tsibulkin (formerly worker of the Taganrog Combine-Harvester factory) and were saved from the poisoning planned by SS by an attack of the 301st Rifle Division (Soviet Union) on February 8, 1944. The front-line cameraman and Stalin Prize winner Vladimir Sushinskiy filmed a documentary on the salvation of children[6][7][8][9]. On August 21, 1943, one week prior to Taganrog's liberation by Red Army, 80 citizens (workers,women and young people) were shot to death on the seashore of Gulf of Taganrog, on Spit of Petrushino.[10]
In Taganrog acted at least two Soviet partisans groups organized by NKVD before the Soviet troops left the city and in November 1941, Semion Morozov organized an underground resistance group, which consisted mainly of young Komsomol members. The members of the two groups acted separately and were not permitted to go into contact[2].
As of early December 1941 only 11 young people were members of the Taganrog resistance movement, while in early 1943 more than 500 people who were divided into 27 partisan groups acted against occupation forces in Taganrog.
On February 18, 1943 was arrested Semion Morozov, the core of the underground movement's activists were arrested in May 1943, quickly prosecuted and shot to death at Gully of Petrushino. After several arrests in February-May 1943 some 200 members of the Taganrog resistance movement were arrested, tortured and killed (including 27 women and 2 children).
126 members of the Taganrog resistance movement were awarded with orders and medals, the Commissar of the Taganrog's underground Semion Morozov was posthumously made Hero of the Soviet Union.
Soon after the occupation of Taganrog in 1941, the existing Soviet Militsiya was transformed into military collaborationist auxiliary police under the name of "Russian auxiliary police" (Russian: Русская вспомогательная полиция), also referred to as Russian Schutzmannschaft or "Hilfspolizei". Its main difference from the Soviet service was that besides the criminal department, it had a "political" department, which was aimed at suppression and extermination of Nazy Germany's enemies: Soviet partisans, underground groups, Soviet activists, Jews, communists, Komsomol members, NKVD agents etc.
The political department of the police was controlled directly by Sicherheitsdienst SD-10 and later by SD-6, and closely cooperated with Geheimfeldpolizei. By March 1943 the Schutzmannschaft's personnel in Taganrog nearly doubled in comparison with that of the Soviet militsiya, and reached around 600 policemen.
The "Russian auxiliary police" was directly involved in all punitive operations and formed part of the killing squads, including the Gully of Petrushino, and in arrests of young activists of the Taganrog underground resistance movement.
The first chief of Russian auxiliary police was Yuriy Kirsanov, who was replaced by Boris Vasilievich Stoyanov of Bulgarian origin on May 20, 1942. The criminal department of the police was located at Ulitsa Grecheskaya 90, the political dept. was located on Frunze Street, 16. In 1942 both institutions were relocated into the former "Palace of Pioneers" on Petrovskaya Str.[2].
After defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad, the German military commandment started to strengthen its defense lines. The defense lines "Mius-Front" along Mius River created under command of General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist back in October 1941. By summer 1943 the Mius-Front consisted of three defense lines with total depth of the Mius defense range of 40-50 kilometers. The defense was held by the 6th Army (Germany) under command of General Karl-Adolf Hollidt.
On August 29, 1943 the group (4th Guards Cavalry Corps) of the lieutenant-general Nikolay Kirichenko (Russian: Кириченко, Николай Яковлевич) breach the German defense line near Veselo-Voznesenovka village and reached the Azov Sea, cutting the retreat ways from Taganrog to Mariupol. However, by this time the main forces were already evacuated from Taganrog. Only mine-layer parties were left in the city, and the Sambek Heights were held by the 111th Infantry Division (Nazy Germany) under command of General Hermann Recknagel.
Taganrog was liberated on August 30, 1943 by Soviet Army's 130th Rifle Division under command of Konstantin Sychev (ru:Сычёв, Константин Васильевич) and 416th Rifle Division under command of Dmitri Syzranov (Russian: Сызранов Дмитрий Михайлович).
August 30, 1943 Generalissimo Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin gave the order to General Fyodor Tolbukhin to name the 130th Rifle Division and 416th Rifle Division after the city of Taganrog, and August 30 at 7:30PM to fire a salute of twenty salvoes in honor of the glorious troops who liberated the Rostov Oblast and Taganrog[11].
On September 1, 1943 the mass grave of murdered in the Gully of Petrushino Taganrog citizens was publicly examined. The Secretary of the Taganrog City Communist Party committee Alexander Zobov held a speech before the gathered citizens. The medical commission permitted the exhumation of 31 dead bodies from the upper level. [12]
In difficult conditions, the factories gradually restored the production important for the victory over Nazi Germany. In October 1943 the Taganrog Pipe Factory and the Boiler Factory "Krasny Kotelshchik" resumed their work.
The citizens of Taganrog collected money for the construction of a tank column Taganrog, which was built for that money and given over to the army of General Pavel Rybalko. Some of these tanks with inscriptions Taganrog participated at the Battle of Berlin.
The school students of Taganrog collected money for a Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bomber (developed by Taganroger Vladimir Petlyakov). The aircraft was given the name The Taganrog's Pioneer (Russian: Таганрогский пионер) and was given over to the 135th Taganrog Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment (Russian: 135-й гвардейский бомбардировочный Таганрогский Краснознаменный орденов Кутузова и Александра Невского авиационный полк) on May 19 1944, the birthday of the All-Union Pioneer Organization[13].
Taganrog was conferred the status of City of Military Glory by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev on November 3, 2011, for “courage, endurance and mass heroism, exhibited by defenders of the city in the struggle for the freedom and independence of the Motherland”.[20]
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