Alexei Eremenko was born on March 31, 1906 in the village of Tersyanka, Yekaterinoslav province. Due to the fact that the family had many children, Alexei had to go to work at the age of 14. At first he worked on the railway, and later on at the factory. There he helped his parents. By nationality, Alexei Eremenko was Ukrainian. At that time, the first collective farms began to be created in the Zaporizhzhya region. According to some reports, the first collective farm was called "Vanguard", according to other sources it was named in honor of Krasin. At that moment, Alexei Eremenko was the head of the Komsomol cell. When he grew up, it was impossible not to notice that the young man has a natural gift for leading groups of people. Due to this fact, Alexei Eremenko was appointed foreman, later - party organizer, and at the end of his career - chairman of the collective farm. Absolutely everyone was pleased with the work of Eremenko.
Junior Political Officer
Alexey Eremenko was a worthy person. At the beginning of the war, he had reservation for the call, which was associated with work on the collective farm. Despite this, he could not sit still at home while his brothers and friends fought. Therefore, a young man volunteered to join the ranks of the Red Army as a commissar. In the army, the man received the rank of junior political officer.
The political instructor in the USSR was a person who was a representative of the state or the ruling party. The younger political instructor Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko was supposed to observe the command and personnel. His duties also included political and educational work with the team. Political director Alexei Eremenko fought for the 247th infantry division. He later ended up in the 220th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division.
The death of the legendary political officer
In the summer of 42, as a result of fierce battles with the enemy, political instructor Aleksey Eremenko died. There are many versions of the death of Alexei. One of them says that he gathered around him all the remaining soldiers and led them to attack the German occupiers. Another version suggests that he was killed at the moment when he replaced the early company commander, Lieutenant Petrenko.
Alexey Eremenko was buried in Ukraine, in the Luhansk region, in the village of Horoshoe in July 1942.
Alexey Gordeevich Eremenko. Story photo
As you know, Alexey Gordeevich was captured in the famous photograph called “Combat”, although in fact he was not the battalion commander. The author of the photo was Max Alpert. He made it while in the trench, before the very start of the battle, when Alexei Eremenko died. The photo became very famous, and Alex became one of the symbols of victory.
Max Alper made a legendary photo at the moment when Alexei raised the soldier into battle, so he turned out to be very courageous and brave in the photo, and the image of a straightened soldier, calling for an attack, conveys to the viewer the spirit of war and fierce battles. Later, Max Alpert sat in the trench and sorted out his equipment. At that moment, the soldiers ran around and shouted that they had killed the battalion commander. Then the young photographer Max thought that it was about Alexei Eremenko. For this reason, he called the photo - "Combat." However, this is an erroneous name, but as it was introduced during the war, it was decided that nothing should be changed. Alpert thought he had damaged the film and wanted to throw it away, but at the last moment he changed his mind about doing it. If the photographer had not changed his mind, then most likely there would not have been so many monuments, photographs, and posters dedicated to Alexei Gordeevich.
Who is pictured?
However, it was not so simple. To determine who is depicted in the photo did not work out right away. Only in 2005, thanks to the employees of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper with the support of a youth organization from Lugansk, the Molodogvardeets managed to find the relatives of Alexei Gordeevich. In 1974, Alexei's wife wrote letters asking to find the photographer, but there was no reaction to them. This is due to the fact that she was not the only one who wrote letters to the leadership: many claimed that the photo was their relative. Therefore, to establish the identity of a soldier did not work for a long time.
Letter to Alexey's wife
Activists of the youth movement and Komsomolskaya Pravda journalists managed to find a letter that was delivered to his wife after the death of Alexei Gordeevich. It indicated that her husband Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko was missing. Such letters were received by every second family during the war. One unusual photo was attached to it, which later became one of the main symbols of the Great Patriotic War. Thanks to this letter written by the wife of Alexei Gordeevich, it was possible to establish the identity of the person depicted in the photograph.
