A warrior-hero who, by the will of fate, became involved in politics in the last years of his life. The name of Dragunsky is known all over the world. He is one of the rare representatives of the Jewish people who were lucky enough to receive a high award for military services to their native country - two gold stars. Having become famous as a true hero in the war against fascism, in peacetime David Abramovich Dragunsky was unable to resist the Soviet system. Many of the people who respected him did not understand and condemned him for his active anti-Zionist activities, denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.
Dragunsky David Abramovich: biography
The future hero was born into a Jewish family in Svyatsk (a settlement in the Surazh district of the Chernigov province). He graduated from school in the village of Novozybkovo. On a Komsomol ticket, he went to a construction site in the capital, then worked at various construction sites in the Kalinin region. David Abramovich Dragunsky was a member of the CPSU (b) from 1931.
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 drove his T-26 through the Suifun (turbulent river) under water (its current name is Razdolnaya) and brought it to the opposite bank in 15 minutes. The model was not designed by the designers for the role of an amphibian. For this maneuver, the future general installed two pipes in the tank, and coated the leaky areas with grease and red lead. This initiative was approved by the command: Dragunsky was presented with the first award from the division commander - a personalized watch.
In 1938, as the commander of a tank company, he took part in battles and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his heroism. In 1939, Dragunsky entered the Military Academy.
The Great Patriotic War
The war for him began on the western border, in the Osovets fortress. Here Dragunsky interned and underwent a camp training session together with other Academy students. The listeners were returned to Moscow for a short time. 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, for his skillful actions and military successes, David Dragunsky was awarded the Order of the Red Star and Red Banner. Thanks to Dragunsky’s skillful leadership, the brigade entrusted to him repelled enemy counterattacks for 5 days and destroyed more than a hundred enemy tanks. The wounded Dragunsky led the brigade, replacing the seriously wounded commander.
In the fall of 1943, Dragunsky commanded the 55th Tank Brigade, which liberated Kyiv and Right Bank Ukraine. He was seriously wounded several times and was taken to the hospital. Here, David Abramovich Dragunsky received terrible, tragic news about his relatives who remained in enemy-occupied territory: his family (mother, father, sisters) and all his relatives (74 people) were shot by the Nazis. In addition, he learned that both of his brothers died at the front.
Heroism
After treatment in the hospital and short-term rehabilitation in a sanatorium for convalescents (Zheleznovodsk), where doctors urgently sent him, Dragunsky returned to his team. For skillful leadership of the brigade in battles in the Kiev direction in November 1943, the officer was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But instead, Dragunsky 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 on the way. The commander ordered the construction of rafts from boards and logs. On such homemade rafts, tanks managed to cross the Vistula, thanks to which our troops were able to capture. The decisive counterattack on this bridgehead was also led by David Dragunsky. For his demonstrated military skill and heroism, the commander of the 55th Tank Brigade was awarded the title of Hero.
In the spring of 1945, David Abramovich was sent to the hospital for treatment. Having forced the doctors to speed up his recovery, Dragunsky arrived in time for the decisive battles for Berlin. The tank crews of the 55th, following the example of skill, courage and bravery from their commander, distinguished themselves in many battles. Guard Colonel Dragunsky in 1945 was awarded 2nd class for the capture of strategically important German cities.
In April 1945, his 55th Tank Brigade on the western outskirts of Berlin linked up with units of the 2nd Panzer Army. This cut the enemy garrison into two isolated parts, which led to the fall of Berlin. For the courage and bravery shown, for the skillful leadership of the actions of the brigade entrusted to him during the capture of Berlin, for the implementation of a swift rush to Prague, Colonel Dragunsky was awarded (again) the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Career
As a particularly distinguished participant in the Great Patriotic War, David Abramovich Dragunsky took part in the legendary Victory Parade, held on June 24, 1945 in Moscow. In 1949, Dragunsky graduated from the Military Academy. He was awarded the rank of major general. In 1970 he received the rank of Colonel General. Dragunsky David Abramovich in the post-war years commanded a division, an army, and held the post of first deputy commander in the Transcaucasian Military District.
From 1965 to 1985 he served as head of Vystrel (higher officer courses). From 1985 to 1987, he was a member of the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense. In 1987, General David Dragunsky retired.
Until the end of his days, David Abramovich was engaged in active social work, permanently leading the AKSO (Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public). Died in 1992. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
What was he like?
During the war, everyone around him knew that the commander of the 55th, after being wounded in 1943, had no living space left. This fact aroused particular 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 case: it was not the subordinate who saved the life of the commander, but the commander who saved the life of the subordinate.
In general, there were legends about Dragunsky during the war. In the army of General Rybalko, he was the most heroic, most famous brigade commander. Tankers from all branches of the military during the war were distinguished by the fact that among them the least developed respect for rank. Particular democracy in the relationship between subordinates and the commander was formed due to the commonality of combat activities and joint life in the crew. In Dragunsky's "motorized" battalion, this democracy was brought to its apogee. Reverence for rank here was completely excluded by the presence of a black bandage, crossing out the commander’s face, disfigured by scars from burns, his crutches and prostheses. They obeyed Dragunsky not because of subordination. The battalion commander was not only respected and loved by his subordinates. They idolized him.
Who is David Abramovich Dragunsky?
Unfortunately, neither historians nor the hero’s contemporaries will be able to answer this question unambiguously, remembering only his military services to his homeland and people. Neither personal heroism during the war years, nor active social activities will erase the mistakes that David Dragunsky made in the post-war years. History will remember them.
His political biography
Dragunsky was interested in social work from his youth. At the age of 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 quite often represented the USSR abroad. His signatures can be seen under articles and statements protesting Israeli aggression. Dragunsky was among those public figures who were an avid opponent of Zionism long before the emergence of the AKSO.
It is not to the credit of Dragunsky, as the world community believes, that his negative attitude towards the right of the Jews of the USSR to aliyah is a law adopted by the Knesset in 1950, which proclaims the right of Jews to return to Israel from the 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 Dragunsky proclaimed anti-Zionist ideas. From the moment of the creation of AKSO (April 1983) until the last days of his life, David Dragunsky was its permanent chairman. He managed to defend the organization twice when the Politburo was considering its dissolution. After the collapse of the USSR, Dragunsky remained in his post. The general has repeatedly expressed the conviction that Zionism is a dangerous misanthropic ideology akin to fascism, which had a significant harmful impact on the social and cultural life of Jews in the Soviet Union, creating significant obstacles to their advancement. Zionism concentrates extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racial intolerance; this is a form of racism, Dragunsky believed. At least that was his belief.
When Dragunsky was the head of ASKO, many outstanding Jews and Jewish organizations were provided with assistance and support. At the same time, he always refused to consider requests for help from Zionist activists who were persecuted by the Soviet regime.
His beliefs
In 1983, his signature was on the appeal of representatives of Soviet Jews, published in Pravda. In 1984, one of D. Dragunsky’s brochures also demonstrated the universal support provided to the AKSO by 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 that proclaimed the friendship of peoples as the cornerstone of its entire policy, both foreign and domestic.
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 about how strongly anti-Semitism was developed in the USSR. He also complained that it was anti-Semitism that was the reason for his own career “lag”: while his colleagues were already holding the rank of general, he was only in the rank of colonel general, having no less merit.
According to the expression of the Jewish sage and scientist Moses Gaster, historically it so happened that representatives of this people were heroes “not of battle, but of faith.” General Dragunsky was a true hero in the battles against fascism, but in peacetime he obediently submitted to the system.
This great truth is repentance
It is known that in 1982, one of the terrorists killed in the Lebanese war was found with a certificate that confirmed that he received training in the Soviet Union during classes at the higher officer courses "Vystrel". Next to the seal was the signature of Colonel General Dragunsky.
Eight years later, in 1990, on the day of the general’s anniversary, famous Jews, former participants in the war, approached him. Among those who signed the appeal are the names of Yuri Sokol, Efim Gokhberg, Ilya Lakhman and others. The document expressed sincere respect and pride for the hero of the day for the entire Soviet people for his exploits in the war. In addition, it contained a call to abandon anti-Zionist views and leadership of the Anti-Zionist Committee, which had compromised itself before the world community.
A year later, an article by journalist Matvey Geyser was published in the Jewish Newspaper. In it, the author also expressed his admiration for the heroism of the general and his belief that heroes also tend to make mistakes. The article called on the general to find courage and admit that in the post-war years he was involved in a wave of slander against Zionism - the idea of a Jewish national liberation movement and the creation of a Jewish state. Delusions and ambitions are inevitable in the fleeting stream of life, the author assured. The general should remember the great truth that life offers to all who are lost. This truth is repentance. It is known that these calls did not make the proper impression on the addressee.
The name of David Abramovich Dragunsky, a prominent military leader, warrior-hero, who, by the will of fate, took up politics in the last years of his life, is known throughout the world.
Of course, David Dragunsky, even without politics, would have remained in the history of the Soviet state (there are not many twice Heroes of the Soviet Union) and in the history of the Jewish people (only David Dragunsky and Yakov Smushkevich were awarded two gold stars for military merits).
I will begin this story about D. Dragunsky with a brief summary of his biography, in order to lead the further story without attaching much importance to chronology.
So, the date of birth is February 15, 1910. Place of birth - the town of Svyatsk, Oryol province. After graduating from high school (1928), he studied at a technical school, then served in the Red Army (1933), studied at two military educational institutions - the Saratov Armored School (1936) and the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze (1941). Between these dates, he took part in the battles near Lake Khasan, where General (then still Colonel) N.E. drew attention to the courage of the young officer and his ingenuity during military operations. Berzarin.
Since July 1941, David Dragunsky has been on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Since November 1943, he has commanded the Guards Tank Brigade, about whose exploits much has been said and written. “The tank brigade under the command of Colonel D.A. acted decisively in the battles. Dragunsky,” Marshal I.S. wrote in his memoirs. Konev
From the memoirs of D.A. Dragunsky: “As part of the corps under the command of General Katukov, he took part in the Battle of Kursk, crossed the Dnieper at the head of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade, and fought on the right bank of Ukraine. There in December 1943 he was seriously wounded. Even doctors considered this wound fatal. But I survived and returned to my native brigade. By this time I already knew about the execution of my entire family by the Nazis.”
July 30, 1944 brigade D.A. Dragunsky was one of the first to cross the Vistula River, and in August 1944, in difficult battles, it pushed back fascist troops in Poland. September 23, 1944, D.A. Dragunsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Subsequently, his brigade fought in Poland and Germany.
The small town of Wieluń turned out to be a tough nut to crack, through which the route to the Oder lay, which determined its important strategic importance. During the night, Dragunsky's tank brigade, with infantry support, liberated Wieluń. On this occasion, the army commander, General P.S., arrived in the city. Rybalko to congratulate the participants of the Wielun operation and their commander on the great victory. The war correspondent and poet Alexander Bezymensky, who happened to be there on the day of the liberation of Wielun, wrote an impromptu poem to Dragunsky
Count Jedrzejowski,
Prince Wieluński,
Hero of the Zaoderov Plains
David Abramovich Dragunsky,
A simple Soviet citizen.
On the way to Berlin there was a most difficult obstacle, the last water obstacle - the Teltow Canal. Dragunsky's brigade was ordered to take this barrier. On April 24, 1945, the brigade crossed the canal with minimal losses in equipment and manpower.
After crossing the Teltow Canal, brigade commander Dragunsky received an order from General V.V. Novikov, commander of the 7th Panzer Corps, ordered the capture of Zehlendorf, a southwestern suburb of Berlin leading to the city center. “This is the key to Berlin,” said the general. “And by night it should be in our hands.” Try not to get involved in street fights. Clear?" But Dragunsky knew that the enemy would not give up an inch of the region’s land without a fight. This was one of the most difficult battles for the 55th Tank Brigade, which he commanded. May 31, 1945 D.A. Dragunsky became twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
At the end of the war, D. Dragunsky ended up in the east of the country, from where he was sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff, which he graduated in 1949. In the same year he was awarded the rank of major general. Note that this was not the best year for such a promotion for a Jewish officer.
From 1949 to 1965, General Dragunsky commanded military formations in Transbaikalia, Ukraine, and Armenia. In 1965-1969, he was the first deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Military District. In 1969, after the death of Army General Ya.G. Kreiser is appointed head of the Higher Officer Courses “Vystrel” (David Abramovich served in this position for more than 15 years - it was the commandant’s office of the CPSU Central Committee). In 1985, he ended up, as they said then, in the “paradise company” - a group of inspectors general of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
David was interested in social work from his youth. At the age of 19, he was already a deputy of the Krasnopresnensky district of Moscow. At the end of the war, he took part in the work of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). But there was no reason to believe that the time would come when public activity would become his “profession,” although in the 50s he quite often represented our country abroad. Subsequently, his signatures appeared more than once under articles and statements against the aggression of the State of Israel. He was among those who condemned Zionism long before the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public (AKSO) came into existence. But D. Dragunsky became most famous for his negative attitude towards the right of Soviet Jews to aliyah. “For the absolute majority of Soviet Jews, there is no doubt that their homeland is the great and mighty Soviet Union, a multinational socialist state, the first in world history to proclaim the friendship of peoples as the cornerstone of its foreign and domestic policy,” the legendary general wrote (or signed) in 1984, at a time when the price of this “friendship” was completely obvious.
As the sage and scholar Moses Gaster said, “The Jewish heroes were not heroes of battle, but of faith.” But David Dragunsky, a true hero in the battles against fascism, turned out to be an obedient slave of the Soviet system in peacetime. Why did it happen so? It's difficult to explain. Joseph Brodsky, perhaps, answered this question most accurately:
Sleep! The history of the Russian page
Enough for those in the infantry
I'm building.
They boldly entered foreign capitals,
But they returned in fear to their...
...I was at the funeral of David Abramovich. In the Red Banner Hall of the House of the Soviet Army, thousands of soldiers and officers marched in honorary formation at the tomb of the twice Hero of Dragoon. However, it seems to me that most of them heard this name only on the day of the funeral.
I remembered the lines from the poem by the Jewish poet P. Markish “Mikhoels is an unquenchable lamp”:
The stream of people flows - and there is no counting
friends,
To those who mourn you at the funeral
wake.
They rise from their ditches to honor you
and stinking pits
Six million victims
tortured, innocent...
Per. D. Sternberg
There was a completely different “flow of people” at Dragunsky’s coffin, and prominent military leaders replaced each other in the honor guard: Defense Minister Marshal Shaposhnikov and former KGB chief General Chebrikov, members of the AKSO presidium, prominent public figures, writers, and journalists.
The funeral was held according to all the rules of the political games of that time, but it was somehow unnoticed, everyday. There weren't many obituaries. And only the “newspaper of the spiritual opposition” paid tribute to the memory of the former leader of the AKSO: “Despite two decisions of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee to close the Anti-Zionist Committee, despite the endless attacks of the Zionist centers and their agents, despite the streams of lies and slander in the so-called “democratic” press , Dragunsky did not break down and did not “rebuild” - he challenged all these Yakovlevs, Shevardnadzes, Kozyrevs and Bronfmans... He defended the interests of his Motherland, remaining a faithful son of Russia” (“Day”, No. 42/92).
The most terrible punishment fell on David Abramovich, fortunately for him, after his death. In late 1992, the Palestinian government in exile awarded him posthumously the defunct state's highest honor and provided a pension for his family.
At the end of his life D.A. Dragunsky, apparently, already guessed that his last “service” was not the best crown of his life... But all this is discussed below.
The General and his Committee
AKSO was created in the spring of 1983 according to a scenario known in those years: on April 1, the Pravda newspaper informed readers that the “initiative group” intended to create a new public organization. This news did not turn out to be an April Fool's joke at all - on April 21 of the same year, on the eve of the “red date”, the birth of AKSO was announced.
The reason for the emergence of AKSO at that moment is easy to explain today. From Jerusalem, where the World Congress in Defense of Soviet Jews took place in March 1983, a voice of alarm was heard throughout the world: in the USSR, the third largest country in the world with a Jewish population, there is not a single Jewish public organization (except for the not entirely public department of the KGB , more than conscientiously dealing with the “Jewish question”). Is there any doubt that the voices of alarm heard in Jerusalem reached the then KGB chief V. Chebrikov. Soon (03/29/1983) a resolution of the secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee on the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public was issued in Moscow. The first paragraph of this resolution (at that time, of course, top secret) confirms that the newly emerged organization is truly “public”: “Agree with the proposal of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB on the creation of AKSO.”
From the moment of the creation of AKSO (April 21, 1983) until the last day of his life (October 12, 1992), David Abramovich Dragunsky was the permanent leader of this “peaceful” and “venerable” organization.
Since the AKSO had no internal enemies at that time (the Zionist organization Irgun Tsioni appeared in the USSR only in 1989), the official task of this brainchild of the CPSU and the “eternally living” KGB was considered to be the fight against international Zionism. One of the committee’s tasks was such a noble one as “the struggle for peace throughout the world” and in the Middle East in particular. The committee approached the last assignment with exceptional diligence: judging by the literature published by the AKSO, there is hardly any other organization in the world that has done so much to discredit the State of Israel. Still would! The personnel of the AKSO was selected very carefully - according to its founding fathers (remember, the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB), the Jews themselves should fight Zionism first of all.
Why was D.A. “elected” as chairman of the AKSO? Dragunsky? After all, among the Jews of the USSR at that time there were people no less famous, even famous, respected. Both on Novaya Square and on Lubyanka they understood that a new “Jew No. 1” was needed, a new Mikhoels. They knew there was no such thing. The makers of destinies had enough common sense not to invite everyone’s favorite people’s artist Arkady Raikin to this role. But at that time there were many political figures suitable for the position of chairman of the AKSO. Probably the candidacy of Mark Borisovich Mitin, an academician who at one time headed the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, former editor of the newspaper “For a Lasting Peace, for People’s Democracy”, the magazine “Problems of Philosophy”, who was repeatedly elected to the CPSU Central Committee , arose in the corridors of power. But apparently he was too intelligent for this position. Perhaps, a more suitable candidate would be another academician, historian Isaac Izrailevich Mints, a participant in the civil war, commissar of the Air Force Academy of the Red Army, long-term head of the departments of history at the most authoritative universities in the country, including the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Academician Mints had all the titles necessary for the head of the AKSO. He is a laureate of two USSR State Prizes (1943, 1946), the Lenin Prize (1974), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1976). Moreover, Isaac Izrailevich was the head of the team of authors of the sensational book “Zionism: Theory and Practice” published in 1973. (This is confirmation that the Jews themselves must fight Zionism!) But during the years of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, the academician was deprived of all positions. Those who dismissed him in the late 40s and early 50s could not have taken him into their service in the 80s.
At that time, General Dragunsky was perhaps the only real candidate for this role. We partially find confirmation of this in Veniamin Kaverin’s article “Before Stalin’s Death”: “However, this brave officer (Dragunsky - M.G.), who commanded one of the best tank divisions, according to Vs. Ivanov (who knew him) was never Socrates.”
The creation of the AKSO was preceded by the release of a huge amount of anti-Zionist, essentially anti-Semitic, literature. There are hundreds of books on this topic published in the 60s and 70s. Let's name some of them: Yu. Ivanov, “Caution: Zionism!” (M., Politizdat, 1969), it is not without interest to note that the author of this book, which was reprinted several times and translated into many languages of the peoples of the USSR, was an employee of the CPSU Central Committee; V. Bolshakov, “Zionism in the Service of Anticommunism” (M., Politizdat, 1972) the book became a textbook, fundamental in the “literature” of this direction; books by Evseev, Begun, Modzhorian, and Semenyuk were published in different cities of the country. V. Bolshakov, in his articles published in the Pravda newspaper, argued that a person who became a Zionist is an enemy of the Soviet people. In 1971, the famous scientist, historian and economist, in the near future academician and candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee, Georgy Arkadyevich Arbatov, expressed the idea that 90% of Jews remaining in the USSR appear “in an unfavorable light.” What the scientist meant is not entirely clear, but most Soviet people took these words literally.
Probably one of the main reasons for anti-Zionist hysteria was the brilliant victory of Israel in the Six-Day War, which aroused pride among Jews all over the world, and among Soviet Jews in particular. The Jews of “silence” (as Elie Wiesel said about Soviet Jews) began to speak, made noise, and rose to aliyah. This was the beginning of a large emigration, essentially the Exodus of Jews from the USSR to Israel. It was this phenomenon that most excited the Soviet leadership. In the late 70s, the ideologists of the CPSU intensified the “fight of the Jews” against Zionism.
In preparing the ground for the creation of the notorious AKSO, the Jews, alas, were not indifferent. The touchstone for its “architects” was the famous press conference of representatives of the Jewish community of the USSR with the participation of various layers of this “national minority.” We will not list the names, we will only say that in addition to Jews - representatives of the working class and peasantry (and such were found) prominent scientists, famous actors, and writers took part in this “show”. And after that everything went on and on... Hundreds of Jews of different professions, as if competing with each other, wrote letters to newspapers, telling about the heavenly life “here”, in the USSR, and the unbearable life “there”, in Israel.
An Israeli journalist I know researched more than 200 “signatories” of that time, including the authors of the first White Book, patriots of their socialist homeland, and found out that most of them had long been outside the former USSR, many in Israel.
And at that time General Dragunsky, accompanied by other “full-fledged and happy” Soviet Jews, traveled to many countries of the world, declaring everywhere that those who wanted to leave had already done so long ago. There are no more people willing. He knew he was telling a lie. But he tried to convince listeners of something that he himself did not believe.
AKSO guide vector
The hidden, but essentially main goal of the AKSO was to prevent or at least limit the emigration of Jews to Israel. And thereby prove that no national problem, in particular the “Jewish question,” exists in the country of victorious socialism.
It would be possible today not to remember the AKSO if this organization had not turned out to be such an odious page in the history of Russian Jewry. In 1984, the APN published a brochure by D. Dragunsky “What the Letters Say.” Of course, the author’s task was to demonstrate the universal support provided by the Jews of the former USSR to the Anti-Zionist Committee. Reading these letters, one never ceases to be amazed at the chameleonism and double-dealing of many, many Jews. Were they really provoked and forced to write such unworthy letters? Who could force Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor A. Stolyar from Mogilev to write: “I am proud that, together with millions of compatriots of different nationalities, I can say in the words of a poet - “I am Soviet by nationality.” That says it all!"
Undoubtedly, the Soviet government did a lot for the Jews of former Tsarist Russia. One can understand how sincerely grateful Professor Stolyar is to her. Of course, he undividedly loves his Motherland - the Soviet Union. But why would the professor support an organization that defined Zionism as an ideology that “concentrates extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racial intolerance, encouragement of territorial seizures and annexations... Zionism as a form of racism”? The quote is taken from an appeal by an initiative group of famous Soviet Jews (among them D.A. Dragunsky, academician M.I. Kabachnik, Professor S.L. Zivs, Professor G.O. Zimanas, writer
Yu.A. Kolesnikov and others), published in Pravda on April 1, 1983. Don’t scientists A. Stolyar and S. Zivs realize that Zionism expresses the desire of Jews to return to their historical homeland? This is a dream that has not left them throughout the two thousand years of diaspora. If Professor Stolyar from Mogilev considers himself “Soviet” by nationality and is proud of it, then a certain Grigory Lipman from Moscow issues a warning to the Zionists, perhaps even a sentence in poetic form:
Now Beirut, yesterday Suez...
Death is again at the Palestinian door.
Who are you? Madmen or animals?
Stop, finally!
Get away from other people's borders
Don't covet other people's fortunes,
So that you don’t cry for your loved ones
On the black marble of the tombs...
I read these “poems,” or rather, retold them in Yiddish to Elie Wiesel when I visited him in Boston. He thought for a moment and said in Yiddish: “After such verses (it seems they were written by a Jewish informer), any anti-Semite will want to take a gun and go to a Palestinian terrorist detachment to fight the Israelis. There are Jews worse than anti-Semites.”
Lieutenant General Matvey Vainrub, Hero of the Soviet Union, wrote the following to the Anti-Zionist Committee: “Imperialism has its own shock column, which is already methodically destroying an entire people. The name of this column is Zionism. Is it possible to put up with what the Israeli aggressors are doing on the land of tormented Lebanon?! The darkest pages of the history of Hitlerism seem to come to life again in the sad ruins of Sabra and Shatila.” Matvey Vainrub’s thoughts are “illustrated” in his film “Babi Yar” by one of the “pillars of democracy”, editor of “Ogonyok” Vitaly Korotich. His film with such an advertising title tells the least about the atrocities of the Nazis in Kyiv at the beginning of the war, but emphatically demonstrates at length the “atrocities” of the Israelis in Lebanon. Could Matvey Vainrub imagine that a few years after this letter his brother, also a Hero of the Soviet Union, would go to Israel, to Ashdod, where he still lives today? Did Korotich imagine that he would soon end up in Boston?
With all the scope of anti-Zionist propaganda in the USSR, the main role in it was still assigned to Jews. In 1984, General Dragunsky wrote: “As you know, Zionism is not only the ideology of the big Jewish bourgeoisie, but also the policy of militant anti-communism... Praising in every possible way the benefits of the Zionist “paradise” that Jews will supposedly find by leaving their homeland and moving to Israel, the Zionists they shout about “national inequality” and the persecution of Jews in the USSR.” Next, the general tries to expose the lies of these slogans, citing dozens of letters received by the AKSO.
To leave or not to leave the USSR, to admit or deny the existence of anti-Semitism is the business of every person. One can even agree with those who consider the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 “illegal.” It, according to others, should be revived with the advent of Moshiach. But it is not possible to agree with General Dragunsky that Zionism concentrates in itself all the evils of the world (chauvinism, national strife, terrorism).
General, general, recant!
With sincere appeal to David Abra
On the day of his anniversary, a group of front-line soldiers approached Movich. Participants in the Great Patriotic War Yuri Sokol, Efim Gokhberg, Ilya Lakhman wrote: “On February 15, 1990, you are turning 80 years old. Are you really going to celebrate this date while remaining at the head of the Anti-Zionist Committee, which has compromised itself in the eyes of the world community?
Our people were proud of you. Having shown unparalleled heroism in the battles against Nazi Germany, after the war you allowed yourself to be drawn into a wave of slander against the Jewish state and the Jewish national liberation movement - Zionism...
We would be extremely pleased to celebrate your anniversary if, on this significant date, you announced the dissolution of the Anti-Zionist Committee, as an organization that opposed itself to the interests of the Jewish people..."
This letter, like my article “Pharisees in the Law” (E.G., 1992, No. 1), apparently did not make an impression on the addressee. Let me quote a few lines from my article: “I am addressing you, twice Hero of the Soviet Union D.A. Dragunsky! I deeply respect you and bow before your true heroism during the Great Patriotic War. But find the courage to admit that heroes make mistakes too! In the fast flow of life, ambitions and delusions are inevitable. But life has left us with a great truth – Repentance.”
During Yom Kippur services in synagogues, prayers are read in which Jews ask forgiveness from the Almighty for sins, even forced ones, and apostasy. “For the sin we committed before You, forgive us, forgive us, redeem us...” David Abramovich Dragunsky did not receive a traditional Jewish education as a child and probably did not know about the existence of these prayers. Otherwise, he would have asked for forgiveness from G-d at least for the fact that, albeit indirectly, he was involved in the training of terrorists who fought against Israel. A terrorist killed in the Lebanese War (1982) was found with a certificate confirming his training at the Higher Officer Course "Vystrel" with the signature of Colonel General Dragunsky.
Has General Dragunsky ever thought that by committing actions against Israel, including verbal actions, he was committing a sin against his people? …“Forgive us, Almighty, for the sin that we committed before You, knowingly or unknowingly”...
Hasidic General
As you know, the word “Hasid” is interpreted as “doing good.” One can see something like this in the activities of Mr. Dragunsky. Hundreds of people, the leaders of the Jewish organizations that arose at that time, turned to him for help, and he provided this help to many.
It is impossible not to note the real good deeds that the AKSO performed for the development of Jewish culture in the former USSR. Thus, he petitioned for the State Prize in Literature to be awarded to the Jewish writer Ilya Gordon for the novel “Under the Hot Sun.” Only thanks to the efforts of the leadership of AKSO on the stage of the Moscow Drama Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky staged a play based on the play by Arkady Stavitsky “St. Sholom Aleichem, 40.” Dragunsky personally appealed to the commander of the Transcaucasian Military District with a request to positively resolve the issue of sending senior lieutenant Oleg Rosenberg to serve in Mongolia (as is known, Jews at that time, as a rule, were not sent to serve abroad, even to Mongolia).
Gratitude to Dragunsky for his help was expressed by the editor-in-chief of the Birobidzhaner Stern newspaper L. Shkolnik, the artistic director of the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater Mikhail Gluz, the chairman of the Drobitsky Yar public committee P. Sokolsky and others. True, the general was not always so responsive. In the mid-80s, war participant Kachubievsky from Kharkov approached him. He interceded for his son Felix, a candidate of sciences from Novosibirsk, who was sentenced to two and a half years of strict regime for creating the Soviet-Israeli Friendship Society in Novosibirsk and attempting to carry out work in this direction. Dragunsky replied to the old front-line soldier that the court itself would sort out these issues. This is not the function of the AKSO.
For many years, D. Dragunsky argued that there is no anti-Semitism in the USSR. But we can assume that at the end of his life he guessed that not everything was so simple. In his interview with the AiF newspaper on February 17, 1989, David Abramovich blurted out: “You know as well as I that manifestations of anti-Semitism have recently begun to take organized forms in a number of cases... I believe that not a single instance of anti-Semitism should be left unpunished.” . And then, as if having come to his senses, he continues: “Ideological work to expose anti-Semitism, like Zionism, must be balanced and thoughtful...” And even in perestroika 1989, Dragunsky equates anti-Semitism with Zionism. But being a man of military training, remaining a convinced communist until the end of his days, he never ceases to take care of his brainchild, which was obviously stillborn. On September 1, 1992, Dragunsky sent a letter to the mayor of Moscow Yu. Luzhkov with a demand to cancel the decree of the Moscow government on the transfer of the premises occupied by AKSO to the Moscow Jewish Cultural and Educational Society. The general is indignant at the decision of the Moscow authorities to transfer the premises of the AKSO to “certain Zionist organizations”... and warns the mayor: “Such a practice inevitably leads to inciting ethnic hatred...”, expressing the hope that
Yu.M. Luzhkov will understand the seriousness and responsibility of this issue and will make the right decision. But Dragunsky’s efforts were already belated and in vain. As it turned out, if you believe the Sputnik newspaper (March 16, 1989), back in the summer of 1988, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee decided to dissolve the Anti-Zionist Committee and create the Society of Jewish Culture in its place. Another thing is that this decision was kept secret for the time being.
The old general, the first chairman of the AKSO, outlived the organization he headed.
David Dragunsky about time and himself
It so happened that I turned out to be the last interviewer in his life. I admit, I did not hope that David Abramovich would ever agree to meet with me after my, frankly speaking, not very flattering articles about AKSO in our and foreign press. In the article “AKSO - yesterday; WORLD – Today”, published in the Israeli newspaper “Time” (Jerusalem, 07/12/91), I wrote: “... having headed the AKSO, D.A. Dragunsky not only denied the existence of anti-Semitism in the USSR, but also shared the opinion of those who identified Zionism with fascism...” To be honest, I myself did not strive for this meeting. But an almost mystical event happened. When asked by an Israeli radio correspondent which press covers the activities of AKSO, I replied that mainly only in collections published by this organization, but I think it will soon be reflected in newspapers such as Russian Resurrection and Den. And indeed, soon a large publication “Zionism is expansion (based on materials from AKSO)” appeared in the newspaper “Den” (No. 37/92).
After reading this publication, I realized that my meeting with D.A. Dragunsky is inevitable, even with any of his “resistance”. Oddly enough, he agreed to meet quite easily.
I came to see him on September 29 in his office at 46 Frunzenskaya. Having received my book “Solomon Mikhoels” as a gift, the general was delighted and began to look at the photographs with frank, somewhat childish impatience.
“What a pity that we didn’t know each other before the publication of your book: I have many photographs of me and Mikhoels,” he told me.
- Is there such a thing?“I handed him a photograph in which Mikhoels, with his hand on the young colonel’s shoulder, is talking to him.
- So it’s me and Mikhoels!– David Abramovich was delighted. – Why didn't you put this photo in the book? Did you just find her? Or did they decide, by publishing a photograph of Mikhoels with General Kreiser, that the photograph with Colonel Dragunsky was no longer suitable? – he asked, smiling. - In vain! We were friends with Yakov Grigorievich. I replaced him as head of the Higher Courses “Vystrel”.
Photographs, as well as copies of letters from D.A. Dragunsky to Mikhoels have been with me for a long time. But how can I explain to David Abramovich why they are not in the book?.. To admit at the very beginning of the conversation that in my concept, Army General Ya.G. is a Hero of the Soviet Union. Kreizer committed his perhaps most courageous act not in July 1941, when he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but in January 1953, when he refused to sign a letter inspired by the authorities from “outstanding” Soviet Jews to the government of the USSR, which set out the demand for execution “killers in white coats”?
David Abramovich, perceiving my confusion, said:
– Well, God willing, you will publish this photograph in the second edition. Do you know what the word "gesunt" means?
I answered in the affirmative and suggested that we continue our conversation in Yiddish.
- With great pleasure! Unfortunately, I almost forgot my mother's loshn (mother's language - Hebrew), but let's try.
Listening to the recording of our conversation at home, I realized how successful this “invention” of mine turned out to be. David Abramovich “warmed up” and became completely unofficial.
“I was born in 1910,” he began his story, “in the small town of Svyatsk, then it was the Oryol province, now it is the Bryansk region. My great-grandfather, grandfather, father, grandmother, mother - all were tailors. And the older brothers were trained in this craft. But my mother said: “Dovid must become an intellectual!” At that time, in all of Svyatsk there was one Jewish intellectual - the general store accountant Dominker. According to my mother, I should have become the second “sacred intellectual”...
But life decreed differently: an unremarkable Jewish boy was destined to become a prominent Soviet military leader and, at the same time, one of the most notable and odious personalities in the history of Soviet Jewry.
“In my youth, I “raved” about journalism,” continued David Abramovich, “and at the age of nineteen I came to Moscow to study as a journalist... The first nights in Moscow I was a “stage subject” - I spent the night on the stage in Sokolnichesky Park, and during the day I sat in the library on Mokhovaya , was preparing for entrance exams. I did not enter the institute and, with a permit from the Krasnopresnensky district committee of the Komsomol, went to work in Mosstroy. Today, when many are renouncing their Komsomol past, I fondly remember the years of the first five-year plans... At the same time, working as a simple construction worker, I joined the ranks of the party. I was elected as a deputy of the Krasnopresnensky district council, and soon, among the twenty-five thousand people, I was sent to the village for collectivization. This may seem strange to you, but at a meeting in the village of Akhmatovo, I, a twenty-year-old guy, was elected chairman of the village council by the peasants... From Akhmatovo, I was drafted to serve in the army.
– David Abramovich, I read your memoirs, read many of your publications and articles about you. Is there anything left beyond what was published?
– I see that you are an experienced and cunning journalist. All your brothers want "unpublished"!
(I did not dare admit that I am not at all an experienced journalist and am mostly a “night” journalist - every day I go to work that is far from journalism.)
- However, - David Abramovich smiled slyly, - I’ll tell you one “secret”. Do you know who invented the amphibian? This was “done” in the summer of 1938 by Lieutenant David Dragunsky. After serving in the army, I was sent to a military school, and upon graduation, to the Far East. It was uneasy there then; the Japanese were preparing for war. I was appointed commander of a tank company. Nowadays, few people remember the T-26 tank. It was a good car. But I wanted it, and I realized that it was necessary for it to walk not only on land, but also on water. Almost everyone ridiculed me for this “idea”. But nevertheless, the guys and I began preparations: we coated it, puttyed it, covered it with red lead - in a word, we sealed the tank, experimentally strengthened the engines, adjusted the pipes so that exhaust gases would exit through them and air would flow in, while the height of the pipes was adjusted from the cabin. We decided to cross the Suifun River. Nobody allowed us to do this, and you know who helped? Colonel Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin - he was then the commander of our division. And when we successfully crossed the river (not without incident - due to a hole at the bottom of the river, the tank skidded a little to the left, and we arrived on the opposite bank with a slope from the intended route), Nikolai Erastovnch was already waiting for us and ran towards us. “Well done, lads!” - he said and gave me a personalized watch. This was my first award.
- And the first fight?
“I wrote about him in detail in my book “Years in Armor.” You've probably read this. I'll tell you about another event. I haven’t told anyone about this yet... It was in July 1942 near Smolensk. I was then a battalion commander. In my battalion there were people of 30-40 nationalities. We were united by love for our homeland and a thirst for revenge on the enemy. I already knew that the Germans killed all my relatives - 74 people. And the battalion found out about this. Suddenly, in the morning, leaflets with the following text rained down on our location from an airplane: “Take a twig and drive the Jews to Palestine!” The soldiers, having read them, came to me and said: “Stop waiting, commander! Lead us into battle!" And with exclamations of “We will avenge the Dragunsky family!” rushed to the location of the fascists, and soon we liberated several villages...
– Why are you talking about this for the first time?
– I haven’t told you much yet...
In 1956, D. A. Dragunsky naturally and deservedly represented Soviet Jewry in Paris at the opening ceremony of a memorial in memory of the dead Jews - victims of the fascist genocide. The opening day of the memorial coincided with the beginning of the second Arab-Israeli war in the Middle East, called in our press “triple aggression” (troops of England, France and Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula). At the reception on the occasion of the opening of the memorial, General Dragunsky, a professional military man who not only understood well, but also knew the origins of this “aggression”, answering a reporter’s question, did not find other words except: “For trying to bring such ideas to life (resolution of territorial disputes by military means. - M.G.) the world has already paid with millions of lives...” Was there really at least a share of sincerity in these words?
– David Abramovich, you wrote to Mikhoels about anti-Semitism in our country back in 1946. Have you experienced anti-Semitism directly?
- And how! After graduating from the General Staff Academy, everyone was distributed, but I was the only one “detained” and not even given a position. Marshals Rybalko and Vasilevsky helped me. These commanders knew me from the war, and in general they were real internationalists. And even with their help, where do you think they sent me? In Transbaikalia, in those places where the Decembrists were. How long have I waited for the rank of general!..
– Judging by your story, even such an outstanding person as you experienced first-hand what it meant to be a Jew in the USSR.
-What did you think? I am sure that in the early 50s I was not imprisoned for two reasons. Firstly, I was “far from Moscow” and they forgot about me. Secondly, my name was known all over the world - a Jew, twice a Hero...
- Well, what about Yakov Vladimirovich Smushkevich?
“But then, in 1949, he had long been gone. I knew this man back in the Far East. You probably know that he was the chief of aviation for the entire Red Army. He was arrested at the very beginning of the war and was soon shot...
Under Khrushchev, the “bar of anti-Semitism” was lowered somewhat. But anti-Semitism remained. I commanded a division, an army, and more than once, when it was necessary to promote someone in rank, or especially when deciding on transfer to service abroad, personnel officers said: “Comrade general, comrade commander, just not a Jew...”
I already realized that Dragunsky was telling me much that was “unpublished”, and decided to go “on the attack”:
– So, David Abramovich, if personnel officers allowed themselves such “revelations”, you were considered “their Jew”?
– I don’t think that’s true. While studying at the Academy, I went to a sanatorium in Kislovodsk and soon noticed that I was under surveillance, that is, I was “under the hood.”
- KGB?
- Certainly!
– In this regard, I have the following question: how did you, having experienced surveillance by the KGB, hire a former KGB general as your first deputy?
– As for General Smolyaninov, my deputy, he was essentially fired from the KGB as an undesirable person there.
– Since we touched on the topic of the KGB, which was until recently taboo, let me ask one more question: did you know about the role of the KGB in the creation of AKSO? About the fact that in the resolution of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee on this matter there was a clause: “The Propaganda Department of the CPSU Central Committee shall consider, jointly with the KGB of the USSR, the committee’s work plans and provide the necessary assistance in their implementation”?
– I will answer this question this way: at that time, any public organization, even, say, the Society for the Rescue of Drowning People, could not arise without the participation of the KGB. You understand this perfectly well.
– In development of the conversation about AKSO, I would like to ask why the first Jewish organization in the USSR in the post-war years became anti-Zionist? Did we really have more Zionists than anti-Semites in 1983?
- That's not the point. And it's not even in the name. In the late 70s and early 80s, there was a tendency towards an increase in anti-Semitism. It was necessary to give some kind of antidote and show that Jews are people with their own history, their age-old customs, their national pride. I'll give you an example about myself. In Novy Mir they were preparing a chapter from my book for publication, and the writer Paderin told me that the author’s name would be Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dragunsky. Think: the whole world knows me as David, son of Abram, and he wanted to publish Dmitry Alexandrovich! I ordered the manuscript to be taken down immediately. I have witnesses! Now do you understand?
- I understood something. But still, it seems to me that the main reason for the creation of the AKSO was not the “antidote to anti-Semitism,” but the “antidote” to the increased self-awareness of the Jewish masses and, as a consequence of this, the increased emigration of Jews from the USSR.
David Abramovich thought about it and asked me a question:
– But you remember that in creating the AKSO we were supported by scientists, writers, artists - and even such outstanding ones as Raikin, Bystritskaya, Plisetskaya?.. True, there were also those who did not support us, who did not want to understand us.
- What? Is it that anti-Semitism was hardened and strengthened in the fight against mythical Zionism? I must confess to you that before the noisy propaganda campaign around Zionism unleashed by the AKSO - I am sure, not without prompting - I did not even think about the meaning of this word, this concept. What do you think Zionism is?
– Zionism... This is the same concept as Marxism, socialism and any other “isms”...
– That is, if I understand you correctly, then Zionism is a kind of ideology. How do you feel today about the words written in 1985 by you together with Sukharev (S. A. Sukharev, Prosecutor General, was then vice-president of the AKSO - M. G.)? In the preface to the White Book, you compared Zionism with fascism, wrote that “among the friends and allies of the Zionists are the military-fascist dictatorship in Chile, ... the Nicaraguan Contras, the racists of South Africa,” and in this regard you came to the conclusion that “Today the struggle against Zionism, its ideology and political practice is the spirit of the times.”
– I didn’t write this.
– But under the preface is your name. And since we remembered this, in the same preface there is the following phrase: “The threat of fascism is constantly growing in Israel.” What does this mean, David Abramovich: in Israel “the threat of fascism is growing,” but here it has now become a reality... Are Israel and its agents in Russia also to blame for this?
- I already told you, I didn’t write this...
- Then who?
-Zivs. Please look for him! Let him be responsible for these words. And then he wrote all this, and then disappeared.
– Did he really go to Israel?
- No, he left our committee, or rather, we left him, but I don’t know where.
– David Abramovich, I remember back in the 60s, I think you wrote in Pravda that you respected the State of Israel. And now?
- Of course, with respect. Whoever wants to, let him go to Israel. But we must also think about those Jews who will remain in Russia... If they remain at all...
– You didn’t talk about those leaving like that before.
“It was before, but now everything has changed.”
– At this rate of aliyah, there will soon be no Jews left in Russia.
- This can’t be! There have always been and will always be Jews in Russia.
Last words of D.A. Dragunsky spoke with the confidence of a general.
This is a holiday with tears in our eyes
In March 1945, Dragunsky's tank brigade was transferred to reserve. Doctors strongly recommended that the brigade commander immediately go to the hospital. There was a need for serious treatment - the received wounds were making themselves felt. David Abramovich did not want to hear about the hospital, but General Rybalko intervened. “I insist so much on your repairs,” he told Dragunsky, “so that by the final assault on Berlin we will be together again.” And on April 21, 1945, hastily “repaired”, he was already in Zossen near Berlin, where his tank brigade was located. The rest of the events are already known to us.
Another episode from the biography of General Dragunsky. Behind the lines of his troops were the Germans, or more precisely, a German officer’s hospital with wounded, abandoned to their fate. Two German women approached the brigade commander asking for help. “Calm down,” the brigade commander told them, “of course, we will help with everything we can, even with medical personnel.” And he helped.
Of course, D. Dragunsky was not a believer, but how can one not recall the biblical saying: “We are a God-fearing people, and it does not become for us to repay evil for evil. Let us heal the wounds of our enemies."
After the storming of Berlin, Dragunsky's brigade took part in the rescue of Prague. As you know, the Germans wanted to destroy this beautiful city. Here he was met with the long-awaited news: “The war is victoriously over!” And then there was the Victory Parade, in which twice Hero of the Soviet Union David Dragunsky led a battalion of tankers as part of the combined regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
This could be the end of the story about the brave warrior and not-quite-fulfilled politician David Dragunsky. But after listening to the recording of the conversation with him again, I drew attention to my question: “Has the general ever cried?” Here is his answer: “I’ll say again what I haven’t told anyone. This is my mood today. When I walked ahead of the battalion at the Victory Parade, it suddenly seemed to me that I saw my mother, whom the Germans were dragging to be shot - she did not have the strength to reach the place of execution on her own. At some point I felt dizzy and I was afraid that I would fall. It was worse than the hardest battles.”
I remember David Abramovich's face. There were tears in his thoughtful eyes... That was the end of our conversation. We parted warmly and agreed to meet.
Another fragment of my conversation with Dragunsky.
– Did you happen to meet the legendary General Chernyakhovsky during the war?
– Who did I meet during the war years... In 1942, after a short study in Ufa, I was sent to the disposal of Marshal Budyonny. Now God knows what they say about him, but believe me, he understood military affairs. He was a simple, good man.
In June 1942, I found myself subordinate to Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, then a general. He immediately recognized me and asked: “Comrade former Frunze member, do you recognize the teachers?” This is also what I remember about Malinovsky. In rare moments of calm, he liked to remember the past. His youth, the First World War, during which he reached all the way to Paris. One day he suddenly asked me: “Tell me, Major, are you not from Odessa?” I answered: “No.” “Very strange,” said the general for some reason. Later I found out that he would live in Odessa.
– They say that Malinovsky is from the Karaites, aren’t they almost Jews?
- I do not know this. But let’s get back to how I didn’t meet Chernyakhovsky.
In October 1943, the most difficult battles for the liberation of Kyiv took place. And my brigade was temporarily placed at the disposal of Lieutenant General Chernyakhovsky. I heard about this hero. There were legends about him. On the same day he contacted me from KP. He set very specific combat missions. I remember it was immediately after the liberation of Kyiv. I will not talk about the battles near the Teterev River. I wrote about this. After the battle, Chernyakhovsky called me and thanked me for the brave and correct actions of my tankers. He invited me to his command post at 20:00 that same day. But I didn’t get to Chernyakhovsky. On the way to his command post, a fragment of a stray shell hit me and reached all the way to my liver. Yes, yes to the liver.
And then the unexpected happened. David Abramovich stripped to the waist and showed me traces of his many wounds.
- But the worst thing was this,” he pointed his finger to his right side.
The photographer Yu. Mironov, who was with me, was confused. But Dragunsky said:
– Take pictures, I’m not ashamed of my wounds. There are some smart people who think that I immediately became a general. How many times have I miraculously survived! And this time it passed. Later I was told that Pavel Sergeevich Rybalko himself brought medicine to the mobile hospital where I ended up. But my meeting with Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky never took place. This was the only time in my life when I failed to carry out the order of a senior commander.
Let me remind you that Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky died in battle in 1945.
Reflecting on the fate of D.A. Dragunsky, I remember the poems of the front-line poet A.P. Mezhirova:
They walked, accompanied by explosions,
Through one's own and others' fault.
Oh, how happy we would be
If we were killed in the war...
I wonder what David Dragunsky would have become if he had been born in another time or in another place. In the reality we know David Abramovich Dragunsky - Soviet military and political figure, colonel general, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War - commander of the Guards Tank Brigade.
David Dragunsky was born in 1910 into a poor Jewish family of tailors. After graduating from school in Novozybkov, Bryansk region, he went on a Komsomol voucher to a construction site in Moscow, then to the Kalinin region. In 1936 he graduated with honors from the Saratov Armored School and was sent to serve in the Far East.
After just a year of service, he commanded a tank company; was one of the first in the Far East to drive his T-26 tank (absolutely not intended for the role of an amphibian) underwater through the stormy Seifun River and after 15 minutes brought it to the opposite bank. To do this, Dragunsky previously equipped the tank with two pipes, and coated the leaky areas with red lead and grease. For this initiative, Dragunsky received his first award - a personalized watch from the division commander.
As a commander of a tank company, he took part in the battles near Lake Khasan in 1938. There D. A. Dragunsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle.
YES. Dragunsky (sitting third from left) with his school teachers and childhood friends. February 10, 1939 in the village of Svyatsk, Novozybkovsky district, Bryansk region
At the beginning of 1939, Dragunsky became a student at the Military Academy. Frunze. The beginning of the war found him in the Osovets fortress on the western border, where, as part of the 2nd Belarusian Division, Dragunsky, along with other students of the Academy, underwent camp training and internship. For a short time, the students returned to Moscow, where soon Senior Lieutenant Dragunsky was appointed to the Western Front as commander of a tank battalion.
Near Smolensk and on the approaches to Moscow, the tankmen of the battalion, commanded by D. A. Dragunsky, inflicted crushing blows on the enemy.
At the recommendation of the command, Dragunsky, with the rank of major, was sent to the Academy of the General Staff, where he studied until April 1942. After studying, he was sent as the chief of reconnaissance of the 3rd Mechanized Corps, and from 1943 - as the commander of the 55th Guards Brigade of the Tank Corps under Colonel General Rybalko, and took part in the Kyiv offensive operation in November 1943. When, at a critical moment in the tank battle in the Malin area near Zhitomir on December 9, 1943, Dragunsky’s tank took the lead (which was generally typical for a brave tanker), brigade commander Dragunsky was seriously wounded.
While in the hospital, I learned: in his homeland, the Nazis destroyed all his relatives - 74 people, including his father, mother, two sisters, and two brothers died in battles at the front. After the hospital, D. A. Dragunsky, “with the blessing” of the famous tank army commander P. S. Rybalko, who knew him well from previous battles, returned to the brigade. During fierce fighting at the end of July 1944, his brigade reached the Vistula. The means of crossing were delayed on the way, and the brigade commander (for the umpteenth time!) showed resourcefulness by ordering the assembly of rafts from logs and planks, on which they managed to transport the tanks. Thanks to this, the Sandomierz bridgehead on the opposite bank of the Vistula was captured. Subsequently, long stubborn battles took place on this bridgehead with varying success, but in the end, Dragunsky himself led the decisive counterattack.
For the heroism shown during the crossing of the Vistula and for holding the Sandomierz bridgehead, the commander of the 55th Tank Brigade, Dragunsky, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The severe wounds he received at the front increasingly reminded of themselves, and by order of Army Commander P.S. Rybalko, despite the resistance of Dragunsky, in March 1945, David Abramovich was sent for treatment.
But he arrived in time for the decisive battle for Berlin, forcing doctors to speed up the course of treatment. And by mid-April 1945 he was again in the 55th Brigade. His tank crews became famous during the crossing of the Teltow Canal, in the battles for Berlin and for the liberation of Prague. On April 27, 1945, on the western outskirts of Berlin, the 55th Guards Tank Brigade of Colonel Dragunsky joined forces with units of the 2nd Guards Tank Army.
This led to the dissection of the enemy garrison into two isolated parts and the fall of Berlin. For his skillful leadership of the brigade's actions during the storming of Berlin and the courage and bravery shown, as well as for the brigade's swift rush to Prague, Guard Colonel Dragunsky became twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
As a particularly distinguished participant in the Second World War, D. A. Dragunsky took part in the historical Victory Parade on June 24, 1945.
In 1949, Dragunsky graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff and was awarded the military rank of major general.
In 1957-1960 commanded a division and army.
In 1965-1969, he was first deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Military District.
Since 1970, he has been Colonel General of the tank forces.
In 1985-1987 D. A. Dragunsky in the group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
Since 1987 - retired.
David Dragunsky was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The JAC newspaper "Einikait" ("Unity") published a note in December 1945 about a meeting of JAC members, Jewish front-line soldiers, heroes of the Soviet Union, where Dragunsky's surname is indicated.
Dragunsky was interested in social work from his youth. At the age of 19, he was already a deputy of the Krasnopresnensky district of Moscow. At the end of the war, he took part in the work of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the JAC. Back in 1945, David Dragunsky set the EAK the task of perpetuating the memory of his fallen relatives and fellow countrymen in the Bryansk region, as well as erecting monuments and memorials in other cities of the USSR. His signature appears on most of the JAC's appeals, although he was not a member of the presidium.
In the 50s, Dragunsky often represented the USSR abroad. Subsequently, his signatures appeared more than once under biased anti-Israeli articles. D. Dragunsky promoted a negative attitude towards the movement of Soviet Jews for aliyah.
“For the absolute majority of Soviet Jews, there is no doubt that their homeland is the great and mighty Soviet Union, a multinational socialist state, the first in world history to proclaim the friendship of peoples as the cornerstone of its foreign and domestic policy.”,” the general wrote in 1984.
From the moment of the creation of the AKSO (April 21, 1983) until the last day of his life, he was the permanent chairman of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public (AKSO).
Dragunsky managed to defend the AKSO despite the fact that the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee twice considered the issue of closing it.
After the collapse of the USSR, he decided to remain in his post. Dragunsky has said many times that he sincerely considers Zionism a dangerous misanthropic ideology with fascist practices; that Zionism greatly harmed the Jews of the USSR, destroyed their social and cultural life, and greatly harmed the advancement of Jews.
“Zionism concentrates extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racial intolerance, encouragement of territorial seizures and annexations... Zionism as a form of racism”. This is c It is from an appeal by an initiative group of famous Soviet Jews (among them D. A. Dragunsky, academician M. I. Kabachnik, Professor S. L. Zivs, Professor G. O. Zimanas, writer Yu. A. Kolesnikov, etc.), published in Pravda on April 1, 1983.
In 1984, the APN published a brochure by D. Dragunsky “What the Letters Say.” The author’s task was to demonstrate the universal support provided by the Jews of the former USSR to the Anti-Zionist Committee...
David Dragunsky became two Every time Hero of the Soviet Union. Awarded: 2 Orders of Lenin, 4 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, two Orders of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Order of Friendship of Peoples 3rd degree, Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” 3 th degree, medals.
- Is it true that you were invited to Israel and wanted to make you a minister of this country?
He passed away in 1992, but remained embodied in a monument in the city of Solnechnogorsk. The author of the sculpture, R. Fashayan, made the inscription on the pedestal: “The monument was built using public funds by grateful Solnechnogorsk residents”.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General David Dragunsky, like all the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army who brought our Victory closer, no matter what nationality they were, they are all in the Immortal Regiment of a thousand years of Russian history.
Dragunsky David Abramovich (1910-1992) is not only a participant in the Great Patriotic War and the Victory Parade. Since 1969, he became the head of the higher command courses "Vystrel", which trains not only Soviet officers, but also military personnel of our various allies, including Arabs. And who knows, maybe the current Arab terrorists blowing themselves up in Israeli supermarkets are students of graduates of the Shot courses, which, as stated above, were led by the Jew Dragunsky. True, he was a somewhat unusual Jew, namely an anti-Zionist. In the year of Andropov’s reign, it was Dragunsky who was put at the head of the organization, which for several decades subsequent rulers for some reason preferred not to remember, as if it never existed. It was the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public, abbreviated as AKSO. Andropov died, Chernenko was replaced by perestroika Gorbachev, and Dragunsky had no intention of dissolving the committee he headed. As long as he was alive, as long as this organization continued to work, it continued to fight Zionism as a type of fascism. Eternal memory to the hero of the Great War, Parade participant, fighter against Zionism David Dragunsky!
Vyacheslav Rumyantsev
from the site http://world.lib.ru/g/gruppa_t/050512kasta1.shtml
Yehuda YERUSHALMI
The topic I am writing about today is extremely delicate and unpleasant, but I still cannot remain silent. In the Hyde Park section of the News of the Week newspaper, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism, a skirmish between readers, mainly WWII veterans, began and has been going on for several weeks about General D.A. Dragunsky, twice a hero of the Soviet Union (1910-1992). It began when one of the readers remembered the unseemly role of D.A. Dragunsky as the chairman of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Jewish Community of the USSR (ASKEO USSR). In response, the Chief Veteran of the Second World War of Israel, A. Cohen, gave a merciless and military-like laconic rebuke to the author, boiling down to the thesis: “He is a hero, he is ours, and therefore don’t touch him!” Further, other veterans joined the campaign in defense of Dragunsky, repeating A. Cohen’s theses in different ways.
Without relying on the aging man’s own memory, which has preserved individual fragments of propaganda television programs with the participation of the leadership of ASKEO of the USSR, from which I remember well D. Dragunsky, familiar from the memoirs “At the End of the War” in the still “Tvardov” “New World” and the beautiful movie star E .Bystritskaya, I decided to consult on the Internet. On most of the sites, the biographical information about D. Dragunsky ASKEO USSR is not mentioned at all, as if it did not exist, but on Russian-Jewish sites the emphasis is on the Hero’s Jewishness, for example:
“On April 30, 1945, the tank brigade of the Jew David Dragunsky united with the tank corps of the Jew Semyon Krivoshein. Berlin was surrounded. For these battles, Dragunsky will receive the second Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and Krivoshein the first. David Dragunsky took part in the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945.”
The text of the letter-manifesto of the “founding fathers” of ASKEO USSR was also found in Pravda dated April 1, 1983. Here is a list of hero-signatories:
Best of the day
Dragunsky D.A. - Colonel General, twice Hero of the Soviet Union;
Kabachnik M.I. - Academician, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes;
Goffman G.B. - Member of the USSR Writers Union, Hero of the Soviet Union;
Zivs S.L. - Professor, Doctor of Law, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR;
Sheinin B.S. - Member of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR;
Bondarevsky G.L. - Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR;
Zimanas G.O. - Professor, Doctor of Philosophy;
Kolesnikov Yu.A. - Member of the Writers' Union of the USSR.
On the assessment of the activities of D.A. Dragunsky as chairman of ASKEO of the USSR was most found in the Russian National Patriotic Newspaper on the Alex-inform website. 14 from 07.27.99.
http://www.alex-co.ru/gazeta/index.phtml?&article=02-1.DOC&path=gazeta/1999/14-99
I guess that the following quotes from a newspaper affiliated with the Slavic Union of Journalists, headed by the famous Judeophobe Boris Mironov, will cause a flurry of anger (naturally, at MY address - since ancient times the messenger has been the culprit of bad news!), but I think that the grain there are truths in them. Therefore, nevertheless, to soften the blows to my mortal body, I will interrupt the quotes with my commentary. So, the text (in italics):
"JEWS ABOUT...JIKES
"THERE ARE JEWS AND THERE ARE KIKES. SO I, A JEW, ARE AGAINST THE KIKES!"
David Dragunsky, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General, Chairman of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the USSR. Summer 1992
Comment: I don’t know whether it’s fake or true. I didn’t hold the candle, that is, I didn’t hold the microphone. However, I have encountered representatives of similar views more than once, including in Eretz Israel..
"From the editors of Press of RUSSIA:
We consider it necessary to say something special about David Abramovich Dragunsky. For this purpose, we are once again reprinting the obituary, which tells in a concise form about the life path of the outstanding son of Russia. By the way, and this is very important to note, the obituary was published in the newspapers "Den", "Soviet Russia", "Press of Russia", but not in any (!) of the so-called "democratic" newspapers..."
A comment. Tell me who is your friend...
"...On October 16, 1992, Moscow said goodbye to the faithful son of Russia, David Abramovich Dragunsky. Colonel General of the TANK troops, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, David Dragunsky once said: “I am proud and happy that I belong to the generation that fought and crushed fascism ".
In 1938, Dragunsky had the opportunity to participate in battles near Lake Khasan. He met the war in the early morning of June 22, 1941 on the western border and ended it on May 9, 1945 in Prague. He fought near Moscow and Smolensk.
He was seriously wounded in the battle of Kursk and in battles in Ukraine. His Guards Tank Brigade held a bridgehead on the Vistula and stormed Berlin. On April 27, 1945, on the western outskirts of Berlin, the 55th Guards Tank Brigade of Colonel Dragunsky joined forces with units of the 2nd Guards Tank Army. This led to the dissection of the enemy garrison into two isolated parts and the fall of the capital of the Third Reich.
David Dragunsky took part in the Victory Parade. His books “Years in Armor” and “At the End of the War” are widely known, which depict bright images of patriotic warriors, courageous fighters against fascism.
David Dragunsky was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. For the last 10 years he has been the permanent chairman of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public. "
A comment. An interesting transformation is from the JAC, almost all of whose members were repressed in one way or another, and many were simply exterminated, to ASKEO.
“Despite two decisions of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee to close the Anti-Zionist Committee, despite the endless attacks of the Zionist centers and their agents, despite the streams of lies and slander in the so-called “democratic” press, Dragunsky did not break down and did not “reform” - he challenged all of this Yakovlev, Shevardnadze, Kozyrev and Bronfman... He defended the interests of his Motherland, remaining a faithful son of RUSSIA."
A comment. A. Cohen, defending D. Dragunsky in the above-mentioned letter, argued that he simply could not, under the existing conditions, refuse the chairmanship of ASKEO.
For some reason General Grigorenko could be in conflict with that government, but General Dragunsky was forced to comply? But from the above quote it still appears that when the Politburo (apparently already Gorbachev’s) closed ASKEO, Dragunsky actively resisted the closure.
“The last, insidious blow at the instigation of the Zionists was dealt by the mayor of Moscow Luzhkov, who transferred Dragunsky’s office to one of the militant pro-Zionist organizations. Addressing his comrades, Dragunsky said: “I can’t imagine Zionists sitting in my office under the Israeli flag.”
On October 12, it became known that the shameful decision of the Moscow mayor had come into force, and on the same day the heart of General Dragunsky could not stand it. He passed away calmly and with dignity, as befits people of a special type who do not recognize the categories of moral slavery, “democratic” rudeness, fawning on foreign masters and their agents, before the international political mafia, establishing a new world order on the land where our grandfathers and fathers.
The glorious son of our Fatherland has passed away. Left undefeated.
Eternal memory to you, David Abramovich!"
Born on February 15, 1910 in the village of Svyatsk, now Novozybkovsky district, Bryansk region, in the family of an artisan. Jew. Member of the CPSU since 1931. He graduated from junior high school in 1928. In the Soviet Army since 1933. He graduated from the Saratov Armored School in 1936, the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze in 1941. Participated in the battles near Lake Khasan in 1938, commander of a tank company. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since July 1941. From November 1943 until the end of the war - commander of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade (7th Guards Tank Corps, 3rd Guards Tank Army, 1st Ukrainian Front). The brigade, acting in the forward detachment of the corps, reached the Vistula River on July 30, 1944 and crossed it. In the battles to expand the Sandomierz bridgehead in August 1944, it repelled attacks by large enemy infantry forces and tanks. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on September 23, 1944. The brigade under the command of Colonel Dragunsky distinguished itself during the crossing of the Teltow Canal and in the battles in Berlin. On May 31, 1945, he was awarded the second Gold Star medal. In 1949 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff, commanded a division, formation, 1st deputy commander of the ZakVO troops. Since 1969, head of the Shot course. Colonel General (1970). Since 1985 in the General Inspection Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU since 1971. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, 4 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Friendship of Peoples, 2 Orders of the Red Star, Order "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd degree, medals, foreign orders. A bronze bust was installed in his homeland.
When David Dragunsky ran as a barefoot boy through the streets of the village of Svyatsk, he, the son of a poor tailor, had one dream - to learn military affairs. This desire intensified when he began to study at the Novozybkovsky school named after Kalinin. At that time, David already knew a lot about his noble fellow countryman, the legendary sailor Pavel Dybenko. He was impressed by the teachers’ stories about Nikolai Shchors, a hero of the civil war, in whose Bogunsky regiment many Novozybkovites fought.
Being five years younger than David Dragunsky, I did not meet him personally at school. But when I became a student, I more than once heard words of praise addressed to David, who loved learning, respected teachers, and was ready to help the weak. So, already from school I got a certain idea about this guy from Svyatsk. I saw him for the first time on February 9, 1939, when I received an assignment from the editorial office of the Udarnik newspaper to write a report about the hero tankman, Senior Lieutenant Dragunsky, who arrived in Novozybkov for several days.
I remember that the day was cloudy. It was snowing. But hundreds of townspeople headed to the Novozybkov station to meet a man whose unit covered itself with unfading glory in the battles near Lake Khasan. Dragunsky himself and his tank crew were awarded government awards. Coming out onto the station square, the tank hero was enthusiastically greeted by his fellow countrymen. Among them were workers and employees of the Profintern sewing artel, where David Abramovich’s brother worked, who came in an organized column to the station.
Stocky, with light eyes and a kind smile, people immediately liked Dragunsky. A minute later, and he was already walking surrounded by his fellow countrymen, animatedly talking with them and answering questions. That day, he first spoke at the match factory club "Wave of Revolution", where representatives of public organizations of the city came to meet him. And two days later Dragunsky was a guest at the military unit. “Here I took the oath, the new text of which was first introduced by the Soviet government,” the tank hero would later write to me, recalling several unforgettable days in his hometown two years before the start of the war. On the chest of David Abramovich during that visit, the military Order of the Red Banner shone, which was still a rarity in the pre-war years. Naturally, he was asked to tell why such a high reward. He answered laconically: “For Hassan.” There was no need to explain further. The heroism of the Soviet troops in the battles near Lake Khasan was known to everyone.
For the first time after the war, D. A. Dragunsky stopped in Novozybkov for a very short time on June 28, 1945. He was returning from Moscow from the famous Victory Parade, in which he participated at the head of tank crews of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The train from the capital followed to Germany via Bryansk - Novozybkov - Gomel. That’s when Dragunsky stopped at Novozybkov station, where he met with several surviving close relatives.
Some time later, Dragunsky came to visit his cousin, the chairman of the board of the Profintern artel, Yakov Dragunsky, who lived in Novozybkov. Former partisan Shendrik and several senior officials, whose names I don’t remember, gathered in the latter’s apartment. I was also there as a representative of the press.
Yes, we have gone through a lot and experienced a lot,” said David Abramovich, then a guard colonel, with a sigh.
This was the reason to ask Dragunsky to at least briefly talk about his military journey. Saying goodbye, D. A. Dragunsky asked to write less about him and “without water and without embellishment.” And I tried to fulfill this by publishing the article “The Path of a Hero” in the newspaper “Udarnik”. An excerpt from it is given below.
“It was in November 1943 after the liberation of Kiev, in which Dragunsky’s tankers participated. Then the brigade was given the task of moving forward to the town of Povoloch, an important communications center, capturing it and preventing the approach of enemy reinforcements at the front line. The order was carried out, and by the morning On November 8, the tankers were already in Povoloch. Meanwhile, our units, under pressure from numerically superior enemy forces, were forced to temporarily retreat. And the brigade, without fuel reserves, ammunition, or food, found itself deep behind enemy lines. It was pouring rain. Low clouds floated over the town. There was no hopes for reinforcement of aviation. And then radio communication was interrupted. Reserves that arrived from the English Channel began to act on the side of the Nazis. At times the situation became truly desperate. However, the commander did not lose courage. Unexpectedly, when the situation became especially difficult, his order to advance followed. The fascists did not expect this. In this battle, the besieged garrison, seizing the initiative, captured 39 German armored personnel carriers, two tanks, a mortar battery, etc. Now it was possible to escape from the enemy ring. However, there was no command order. The tankers, diverting a significant part of the enemy troops, provided great assistance to our main forces. Only on November 14, a Soviet plane finally appeared over Povoloch, which dropped a pennant with the order of Marshal Rybalko to break through the encirclement and join the main forces of the Red Army. Fulfilling the order, David Abramovich Dragunsky acted according to the wise advice of Suvorov: “Fight not with numbers, but with skill.” He used enemy armored personnel carriers for reconnaissance, and they passed unhindered behind enemy lines, and then, through a swift strike, he managed to distract the main enemy forces and escape from the encirclement in the place that reconnaissance reported. Soon Dragunsky's tankers linked up with the main units. Thus ended another heroic page in the life of the Dragunsky tank brigade, which went down in history under the name of the “Povolochsk operation.” They composed a song about her:
"Let's remember the nights
Let us remember the days...".
My journalist’s notebook still contains many records about the military affairs of D. A. Dragunsky. Using them, I will continue the story about our famous fellow countryman, who courageously fought against the Nazis for 4 years, looked death in the eye more than once, but always inspired the soldiers of the four-time decorated 55th Guards Tank Brigade by personal example.
The war was already underway when, in July 1941, Dragunsky immediately found himself in the active army. By this time, he, born in 1910, had behind him eight years of active service in the Red Army, a regimental school, the Saratov Armored School, and command since 1937 of a tank platoon on the Far Eastern approaches to the borders of our homeland. There, commanding a company, he showed himself to be a talented military leader and actively participated in the defeat of the Japanese troops that invaded the territory of the USSR. Then, as a capable commander, Dragunsky was sent to study at the Frunze Academy, where he was from May 1939 until July 17, 1941. Having taken command of a tank battalion, Dragunsky got acquainted with the personnel on the move and checked the equipment. He was collected and outwardly calm. Addressing the company and platoon commanders, he said with confidence: “I am pleased that our steel vehicles will be driven by people with hearts of steel.” The tankers of the Dragunsky battalion fought courageously, every now and then rushing into a counterattack, destroying enemy vehicles. During one of these counterattacks near Dukhovshchina, Dragunsky’s tank caught fire. Instantly engulfed in flames, it could become a grave for brave warriors. That's when the composure, self-control, and courage of the tank commander showed particular force. Skillfully maneuvering the vehicle, he knocked out the flames and led his tank into the fifth attack against the confused fascists. In that battle, the commissar of the tank battalion, Tkachev, died the death of the brave. Over his grave, like an oath, the words of battalion commander Dragunsky sounded: “Heads up, lads! We will still advance!” Spoken firmly in those days when the Nazis still continued to advance in all directions, these words inspired the fighters, instilling confidence that the enemy would definitely be defeated.
The tankers were inspired by the personal example of the commander. He was always where it was most dangerous. In one of the battles, D.A. Dragunsky was wounded in the leg by a shell fragment. He was taken to the hospital. But as soon as he felt that he could move, he began to stubbornly insist on an early return to the active army. But his requests had no effect on the doctors. Then, with the help of a faithful comrade, the tanker escaped from the hospital. I caught up with my unit. But a bomb exploding near Kharkov wounded him with a large fragment and he had to spend two months in the hospital again.
How glad Dragunsky was when he was finally able to join the ranks of the Soviet Army again, to take command of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade, the famous 3rd Guards Tank Army of Marshal Rybalko. But then a new test awaited David Abramovich. Being in the center of a fierce battle, leading his brigade, he suddenly felt wild pain. It seemed as if the body was being cut with hundreds of knives. Everything was spinning before my eyes. Dusk became dark night. The commander woke up only three weeks later. The desperate struggle with death was now waged not on a wide field, but on a narrow hospital bed. The doctors did everything to save the hero’s life. Four deep wounds were stitched up and two ribs were removed. And a miracle happened - David Dragunsky not only survived, but managed to return to duty and lead his beloved soldiers to storm Berlin. Dragunsky's tank brigade was among the first to break into the capital of Nazi Germany. Here, staggering from fatigue, covered in front-line fumes, Guard Colonel of the Tank Troops Dragunsky, addressing his surviving comrades, recalled: “So what I told you about in '41 happened. Admire how fascist tanks are burning in Berlin! ".
Soviet troops were finishing off the fascist beast in its lair when the order came from the High Command to immediately move to the aid of the population of the rebellious Prague. And our tankers, having broken the resistance of the Nazis at Dresden, defeating them in the foothills of the Sudetenland, moved like unstoppable lava towards Prague. In Podbabie - a suburb of Prague - the path of the Soviet tank crews was blocked... by a crowd of people who came out to meet the liberators with bouquets of flowers. When the enthusiasm had subsided somewhat, an old man emerged from the crowd. The Czechoslovakian order glittered on his chest. “I just returned from there,” he said, pointing towards Prague. “It’s hard for our people there.” The Germans burn houses and shoot residents. Listening to the old man, the tankers clenched their fists in anger. Their hearts beat faster, filled with fierce hatred of the Nazis. Dragunsky also had big scores to settle with them. He already knew that in his native Svyatsk the Nazis shot more than a hundred of his relatives, including his father and the mother of many children. Meanwhile the old man continued:
We thought the Americans would help. They are in Pilsen, 8 kilometers from here. But they don’t care about our grief. You, dear ones, have come, tired after the brutal battles for Berlin. Thank you very much, dear sons, for this!
The old Czech unhooked his order and presented it to Dragunsky.
Wear it in good health. And may he always remind you of the indestructible friendship of our peoples.
After this meeting, Dragunsky’s tankers fought even more desperately with the fascists entrenched in Prague. They came to the aid of their Czech brothers in time. Here, in Prague, the path of the Guards Tank Brigade, led by Dragunsky, ended. During her command by Dragunsky, she was awarded orders four times. There were 13 Heroes of the Soviet Union in its ranks. D.A. himself Dragunsky was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his courage and courage shown in battles with the Nazis.
Bronze bust of D.A. Dragunsky was installed in his homeland, in the village of Svyatsk, Novozybkovsky district.
YES. Dragunsky led the All-Union Shot courses for many years.
By resolution of the Novozybkovsky city and district councils of August 29, 1975 D.A. Dragunsky was awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of the city of Novozybkov and Novozybkovsky district of the Bryansk region."
"Novozybkov and Novozybkovites"
A. Volny (A.G. Epstein), 1992.
Born in 1910. Jew. Member of the CPSU since 1931. In the Soviet Army since 1933. In 1936 he graduated from the Saratov Armored School, and in 1941 from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. Participated in the battles near Lake Khasan (1938). During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a tank battalion, was the chief of staff of a mechanized brigade, and from November 1943, the commander of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade. He took part in battles near Moscow, Kursk, Kiev, during the crossing of the Dnieper, in Poland, Germany and Czechoslovakia. After the Great Patriotic War, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR and continued to serve in responsible command positions. Since 1961 - head of the Higher Officer Courses "Vystrel". Colonel General of Tank Forces. During the Lviv-Sandomierz operation in July-August 1944, the 55th Guards Tank Brigade under the command of Colonel D.A. Dragunsky, acting as an advance detachment of the 7th Guards Tank Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, crossed the Vistula on the move and captured a bridgehead on its western bank. Subsequently, in cooperation with the 56th Guards. tbr. captured a number of settlements west of the Vistula. At the same time, the brigade's soldiers destroyed a railway train with infantry, several warehouses with ammunition and military equipment, and destroyed a lot of manpower. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 23, 1944, Colonel D. A. Dragunsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for skillful leadership of the actions of units and subunits of the brigade. He was awarded the second Gold Star medal by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 31, 1945 for skillful management of the actions of the 55th Guards. tbr. during the crossing of the Teltow Canal and the storming of Berlin neighborhoods. In these battles, the brigade destroyed about 800 Nazis and captured up to 2,700, knocked out 9 cannons, 12 tanks and assault guns, 7 armored vehicles, captured 37 vehicles, 6 warehouses, 4 locomotives and 190 wagons.
"Military History Magazine",
No. 7, 1976.
