David Abramovich Dragunsky is a prominent Soviet military commander, a hero warrior who, by the will of fate, took up politics in the last years of his life. The name of Dragoon is known throughout the world. He is one of the rare representatives of the Jewish people who were lucky enough to receive a high award - two gold stars - for their military services to their native country. Having become famous as a true hero in the war against fascism, in peacetime David Abramovich Dragunsky was not able to withstand the Soviet system. Many of the people who respect him did not understand and condemned him for his active anti-Zionist activity, which denied the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.
Dragunsky David Abramovich: biography
The future hero was born into a Jewish family in Svyatsk (Posad in the Surazh district of Chernihiv province). He graduated from the school in the village of Novozybkov (Bryansk province). According to the Komsomol permit, he went to a construction site in the capital, then he worked at various construction sites in the Kalinin region. David Abramovich Dragunsky since 1931 was a member of the CPSU (b).
In 1936, he graduated with honors from the Saratov Armored School and went to the Far East to serve. A year later, David Abramovich Dragunsky commanded a tank company. It was he who first conducted his T-26 through Suifun (a turbulent river) under water (the current name is Razdolnaya) and brought it to the opposite bank in 15 minutes. The model was not designed by designers for the role of amphibians. For this maneuver, the future general installed two pipes in the tank, and greased the unsealed places with a solid and a minium. This initiative was approved by the command: Dragunsky was awarded the first award from the division commander - personalized watches.
In 1938, as the commander of a tank company, he took part in the battles near Lake Hassan, for the displayed heroism he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1939, Dragunsky entered the Military Academy.
The Great Patriotic War
The war began for him on the western border, in the Osovec fortress. Here Dragunsky trained and held a camp camp with other students of the Academy. Listeners were returned for a short time to Moscow. Soon, Senior Lieutenant Dragunsky was assigned to the Western Front. As commander of a tank battalion, he took part in the battle of Smolensk. In 1943, David Dragunsky was awarded the Orders of the Red Star and the Red Banner for skillful actions and achieved military successes. Thanks to the skillful leadership of Dragunsky, the brigade entrusted to him for 5 days reflected the enemy’s counterattacks and destroyed more than one hundred enemy tanks. The wounded Dragoon led the brigade, replacing the seriously wounded commander.
In the fall of the 43rd, Dragunsky commanded the 55th Panzer Brigade, which liberated Kiev and Right-Bank Ukraine. He was seriously injured several times and ended up in a hospital. Here the terrible, tragic news of relatives remaining in the territory occupied by the enemy was received by David Abramovich Dragunsky: the family (mother, father, sisters) and all his relatives (74 people) were shot by the Nazis. In addition, he learned that both of his brothers were killed at the front.
Heroism
After treatment at the hospital and short-term rehabilitation at the convalescent sanatorium (Zheleznovodsk), where doctors urgently sent him, Dragunsky returned to his team. For the skillful leadership of the brigade in the battles in the Kiev direction in November 1943, officers were introduced to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. But instead, Dragoonsky was again awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In fierce battles at the end of July 1944, his brigade needed to cross the Vistula, while the means of crossing were delayed along the way. The commander ordered the construction of rafts from boards and logs. On such home-made rafts, the tanks managed to force the Vistula, thanks to which our troops were able to capture the Sandomierz bridgehead. The decisive counterattack on this bridgehead was also led by David Dragunsky. For the displayed military skill and heroism, the commander of the 55th Tank Brigade was awarded the title Hero.
In the spring of the 45th, David Abramovich was sent to the hospital for treatment. Forcing the doctors to speed up his recovery, Dragunsky arrived in time for the decisive battles for Berlin. The 55th tankers, taking the example of skill, courage and courage from their commander, distinguished themselves in many battles. The guard of Colonel Dragunsky in the 45th for the possession of strategically important German cities was awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree.
In April 1945, his 55th Panzer Brigade on the western outskirts of Berlin merged with units of the 2nd Panzer Army. This enemy garrison was cut into two isolated parts, which led to the fall of Berlin. For the courage and courage shown, for the skillful leadership of the actions of the brigade entrusted to him during the capture of Berlin, for the implementation of the swift throw to Prague, Colonel Dragunsky was awarded (repeatedly) the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Career
As a particularly distinguished participant of the Great Patriotic War, David Abramovich Dragunsky, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, took part in the legendary Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 in Moscow. In 1949, Dragunsky graduated from the Military Academy. He was awarded the title of Major General. In 1970 he received the title: Colonel General. In the post-war years, David Abramovich Dragunsky commanded a division, an army, and in the Transcaucasian military district he held the post of first deputy commander.
From 1965 to 1985, he was acting as the head of the Shot (higher officer courses). In the period from 1985 to 1987, he was a member of the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense. In 1987, General David Dragunsky resigned.
Until the end of his days, David Abramovich was engaged in active public work, steadily led the AKSO (Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public). He died in 1992. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
What was he like?
In the war, everyone around knew that on the commander of the 55th after being wounded in 1943 there was no more living space. This fact aroused special respect due to the fact that Dragunsky was wounded at the moment when he covered a young subordinate with his body. This was an unprecedented event: not the subordinate saved the life of the commander, but the commander - the life of the subordinate.
In general, legends circulated about Dragunsky during the war years. In the army of General Rybalko, it was the most heroic, most illustrious brigade commander. Tankers from all military branches in the war were distinguished by the fact that among their ranks the least developed respect was. Particular democracy in the relations between subordinates and the commander was formed due to the commonality of combat activity, life together in a carriage. In the Dragoon "motocostal" battalion, this democracy was brought to its zenith. Honoring here was completely ruled out by the presence of a black band that crossed out the commander’s face, mutilated by scars from burns, his crutches and dentures. Dragoonsky did not obey because of subordination. The battalion commander was not just respected and loved by subordinates. They idolized him.
Who is David Abramovich Dragunsky?
Unfortunately, neither historians nor contemporaries of the hero will be able to answer this question unequivocally, remembering only about his military merits to his homeland and people. Neither personal heroism during the war years, nor active social activity will erase the mistakes that David Dragunsky made in the postwar years. History will remember them.
His political biography
From his youth, Dragunsky was fond of public work. At 19, he was elected deputy of the Krasnopresnensky district of the capital. At the end of the war, the general took part in the activities of the JAC (Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee). In the 50s, David Dragunsky often represented the USSR abroad. His signatures can be seen under articles and statements expressing protest against Israeli aggression. Dragunsky was among those public figures who were an avid opponent of Zionism long before the emergence of AKSO.
It’s not to Dragunsky’s honor, as the world community believes, that he has a negative attitude towards the right of the Jews of the USSR to Aliyah - a law passed by the Knesset in 1950 that proclaims the right of Jews to return to Israel from countries of dispersion. This law legally substantiates the idea of Zionism, on which the emergence and existence of Israel as a state is based.
AKSO
David Dragoon proclaimed anti-Zionist ideas. From the moment of the creation of AKSO (April 1983) and until the last days of his life, David Dragunsky was its permanent chairman. He managed to defend the organization twice when the Politburo considered the question of its dissolution. After the collapse of the USSR, Dragunsky remained at his post. The general has repeatedly expressed the conviction that Zionism is a dangerous misanthropic ideology akin to fascism, which had a significant detrimental effect on the social and cultural life of Jews in the Soviet Union, which created significant obstacles to their advancement. Extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racial intolerance are concentrated in Zionism, it is a form of racism, - Dragunsky considered. At least he expressed such a conviction.
When Dragunsky was the head of the ASKO, many prominent Jews and Jewish organizations received help and support. At the same time, he always refused to consider applications for help to Zionist activists who were persecuted by the Soviet government.
His beliefs
In 1983, his signature was addressed by representatives of Soviet Jews, published in Pravda. In 1984, one of the brochures of D. Dragunsky also demonstrated the general support provided by AKSO to the Jews of the former USSR. He expressed the conviction that for the majority of Soviet Jews, their homeland is the great Soviet Union - a multinational socialist country, a state, the cornerstone of all its policies, both external and internal, proclaiming the friendship of peoples.
Meanwhile, the price of this “friendship” was obvious to everyone, including Dragunsky. Journalists learned that more than once in conversations with different people, the general spoke out about how strongly anti-Semitism is developed in the USSR. He also suggested that it was anti-Semitism that was the cause of his own career “lagging behind”: while his colleagues were already promoted to generals, he was only in the rank of colonel general, having no less merits.
According to the words of the Jewish sage and scholar Moses Gaster, historically it turned out that the representatives of this people were the heroes of "not battle, but of faith." General Dragunsky was a true hero in the battles against fascism, but in peacetime obediently obeyed the system.
