DNA NEWS AGENCY
75 years have passed since the great victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over the fascist Germany. This horrible war took lives of 27 mln Soviet people. At the beginning of 1941, the total population of Kyrgyzstan was 1 mln 588 thousand and at the beginning of 1946 it decreased to 1 mln 457 thousand people.
Kyrgyzstan, being one of the 15 republics of the USSR, contributed to the
defeat of the most strong and ruthless enemy and saving the world from inhumane Nazis’ regime.
More than 360 thousand of our compatriots or every fourth in the country
fought at the war frontline and more than 100 thousand of them embraced
shahadat. They covered themselves with unfading glory. For the stamina, courage, heroism and courage shown in the battles against the fascist yoke, more than 150thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded orders and medals. 22 Kyrgyz citizens became full holders of the Order of Glory and 73 awarded the highest rank
of Hero of the Soviet Union. 30 thousand Kyrgyzstanis were sent to the military industrial enterprises outside republic.
The legendary 316 rifle division under command of major-general
I.V.Panfilov, formed in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, heroically defended Moscow in November 1941 and prevented fascists from entering the capital of the USSR from their position. The commander of the German 4 th tank group colonel-general
Erich Gepner in his report to field marshal von Bock characterized the opposing him soviet fighters as ‘Wild division, which fights in violation of all military charters and rules of combat and its soldiers not surrendering, extremely fanatical and not fearing to die’. Due to heavy two months fighting this division, which initially had 11 thousand personnel, lost 3620 of soldiers and commanders – killed, captured or disappeared without trace, including death of its commander major- general I.V.Panfilov, and 6300 were injured. Later this military unit was renamed as 8 th guards rifle division named after the Hero of the Soviet Union I.V.Panfilov.
Other military units – 4 th , 40 th , 153 rd rifle brigades, 385 th rifle division and others, formed in Kyrgyzstan, participated in liberation from fascists of Russia, Belarus, Poland and other European countries.
Many Kyrgyz compatriots fought with enemy not sparing their life and their
names are inscribed in gold letters in the annals of the Great Patriotic War. Here are some stories from the war.
On August 6, 1942 in Voronezh oblast of Russia an immortal feat was
conducted by yang Kyrgyz soldier Cholponbai Tuleberdiev, who being injured closed by his own body the loophole of the machine-gun bunker and prevented it from firing for a short time, which allowed to his comrades to destroy that enemies
position. Pilot junior lieutenant Ismailbek Taranchiev crashed his plane, which was hit
by antiaircraft fire, into a concentration of German tanks in Estonia in March 1944.
On June 25, 1944 in Belarus, machine gunner corporal Jumash Asanaliev
substituted heavily injured commander of the machine gun unit and after loss of all others from his regiment, continued to fight alone. When his ammunition finished,
he used hand grenades and encircled by fascists exploded himself and enemy with last grenade not willing to surrender.
All of them were awarded posthumously the highest military rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. After start of the war Kyrgyzstan hosted many refugees arriving from western part of the Soviet Union. Only in 1941 62 thousand people and 24 orphanages with 1,5 thousand children from Ukraine and Russia, came to our country. The following years the number of refugees arriving to Kyrgyzstan reached more than 300 thousand of women, children and elderly people.
At the same time many military training institutions were dislocated to
Kyrgyzstan, including aviation school for preparing pilots of the fighter planes, military-naval school, military-engineering academy, infantry school as well as 25 evacuation hospitals, which saved the lives of thousands of injured military
Personnel.
During the Great Patriotic War more than 30 industrial enterprises were
evacuated to Kyrgyzstan from temporarily occupied regions of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which in short time started to work providing Soviet army with necessary products. At the same time, 38 new industrial enterprises were established. In spite of difficulties and hardships, the Kyrgyz agricultural sector managed to provide for the frontline more grain, cotton, meat and wool in 1941 than during pre-war 1940. During the war, 74 thousand tons of grain and more than 8 thousand tons of meat were sent to defense fund, as well as 54 thousand horses provided to Soviet Army.
Due to absence of men, who went to frontline, all works at the industrial and agricultural sectors of economy of the country laid on the shoulders of women, elderly people and children. 2812 tractor drivers were prepared in 1941 at short term courses, among which 2787 women.
Kyrgyzstani people also sent hundreds of railroad wagons with gifts full of
handmade clothes to Soviet troops, transferred more than 140 mln rubles for buying several tank columns, military planes and other equipment.
Today, decades after that terrible war, the Victory Day of May 9th remains
one of the major national holidays in Kyrgyzstan, when people pay tribute to the heroic exploits of their fathers and grandfathers. It is difficult for many to imagine not only the horrors of what they experienced, but also the incredible unity with which the peoples of the Union republics acted contrary to all the plans of the enemy. But it is precisely because of this – cohesion, sacrifice and the debt given to the Motherland – new generations of Kyrgyzstanis today live in a peaceful and free republic.
