No one is forgotten. Chased and concise, on hundreds of monuments and mass graves. On thousands of tombstones, with a list of names or two words - "Nameless soldier." Majestic memorials towering in the historical places of grandiose battles. Modest monuments, known only to local residents and relatives of soldiers who found the last refuge away from their native places. The map of Russia is dotted with designations of military graves - a cruel tribute to the people of the country to two world wars of the twentieth century. Mass graves of the Oryol region, like a sentry at a post, protect the memory of great courage and self-sacrifice.
Kromy – Oryol – Mtsensk (October 1941)
The offensive of Guderian’s tank group on the Eagle developed rapidly. After breaking through the defense line of the Bryansk Front, the direct road led the Wehrmacht to Tula, and then to Moscow. Fierce battles, breakthroughs and counterattacks of the Red Army met the invaders of the Oryol region. Mass graves are silent witnesses of that time. There are about 30 of them along the hundred-kilometer stretch of road from Krom to Mtsensk (today this is a segment of the M-2 highway).
Here is a war memorial near the village of First Warrior. Despite the fact that the war was long over, on June 30, 2015, the remains of 35 soldiers of the Red Army were buried here. They were discovered by water utility employees who were repairing communications near the Staromoskovsky highway. In October 1941, the tank brigade of Colonel M.E. Katukov for 9 days restrained the advance of the Nazi forces in this area. Oryol land can be called the birthplace of the guard units - in November 1941 the Katukov brigade was named the 1st Guards.
After 74 years, the names of the dead Red Army men were identified and entered into the lists of those buried in mass graves of the Oryol region.
From Bolkhov to Novosil (January-March 1942)
The exhausting battles of the fall-winter of 1941 ended with stabilization of the front along the Oka and Zusha rivers. The Headquarters of the Supreme Commander is developing a plan for the Bolkhov offensive operation, which took place from January to March 1942. The offensive was unsuccessful, the German forces were great, and the losses of the Red Army were colossal. About 30 thousand Red Army soldiers were killed or disappeared. Literally in every village from Bolkhov to Novosil there are mass graves. Oryol region had the opportunity to bury tens of thousands of soldiers in their land.
Krivtsovsky Memorial is a tribute to the heroism of the defenders of the motherland. More than 20 thousand Red Army soldiers who died during the failed offensive are buried here. Memories of these days are preserved in the memory of local residents. The banks of the Oka and Zusha rivers, to this day, they call the "Valley of Death." Memories of the war cannot be erased. The modest obelisks reminiscent of it, with red stars staring at the sky. Bagrinovo, Fatnevo, Krivtsovo, Chegodaevo - unknown villages carefully preserve the memory of their defenders and bloody battles that the Oryol region survived. Mass graves are dumb witnesses to that.
On Mtsensk land (1943)
In mid-1943, the bloody wheel of war rolled in the opposite direction. The mass graves of the Oryol Region tell about the victories and losses of the Red Army. The advancing advanced units reached Mtsensk district in mid-July. It was completely cleared of enemy troops on August 2.
Mass grave in the square of the Pioneers of the city of Mtsensk. In July 1943, 108 Soviet soldiers were buried here. A memorial and a granite stele on which the names of the defenders and liberators of the city from the Nazis are immortalized. The alley along which bronze busts of Heroes of the Soviet Union and a six-meter monument are installed is the figure of a fighter holding a deceased comrade in his arms. This is what this memorable place looks like these days. And quite nearby, outside the military cemetery, another mass grave - 126 names. They have different birth dates and dates of death. They are united only by the place of death and repose on the land in which they found the last refuge - the mass graves of the Oryol region.
Land of exploits
On the map of military graves, you can study the history of hostilities in the Oryol region. In each village, along the roads, at low altitudes and among the forests, there are modest mournful obelisks, under each of which a personal story of broken biographies is buried. Hundreds of surnames keep military graves on memorial plaques.
Oryol Oblast, Pokrovsky District. Mass graves located in the regional center, the number of dead clearly illustrate the severity of the fighting that took place on this land during the war. There are two memorials in the city center: near a secondary school and in Victory Park. The obelisk, the Eternal Flame, stele, granite slabs and the names of the victims. Only in these two burials lie the remains of 683 fighters of the Red Army who liberated the village, whose population (according to the latest census) is a little more than 4 thousand people. And very close - mass graves in the villages of Karaulovka, Rodionovka, Andriyanovo. Terrible statistics - more people died for the liberation of these villages than some of them now live in.
Guards Oryol
On August 5, 1943, Soviet troops liberated Oryol. Every patch of land was abundantly watered with blood - 50 days of the Oryol-Kursk battle collected a mournful tribute to human losses. Later it was estimated that 50 people were injured on every square kilometer of the Oryol region, and another 20 were killed. The memory of them is preserved by the mass graves of the Oryol region.
Tankist Square in the city center. On August 6, 1943, soldiers of the Guards Tank Connection, who were later awarded the title of Orlovsky, were buried here. The names of 30 dead soldiers are immortalized on a granite slab. The legendary "thirty-four" on the pedestal and the unending flame of the Eternal Flame framed by fresh flowers are the memory and gratitude of posterity for decades of peaceful life in a flourishing city.
Search continues
In May 2016, in the Znamensky district, a search squad discovered until then an unknown place for the death of Soviet soldiers. In the forest between the villages of Elenka and Peshkovo, the remains of 13 Red Army soldiers, soldiers of the 18th Guards Rifle Corps, were found. According to the surviving documents, they established the names and date of death - 1943, July 20. At the place of the mass grave, a slab with the names of the dead will be installed, information about them will be entered in all databases, and another address will appear in the list of memorial places of the Oryol region - a forest near the village of Elenka. After all, the war is not over until the last dead soldier is buried.
