Научно-исследовательская работа Great Patriotic War Heroes

Content

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..

The main part:

1. “Number of Tributes” classification………………………………....
2. “The Type of Troop ” classification………………………………….
3. “Battle-front and Home-front” classification……………………

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………

Literary Sources……………………………………………………………..

Introduction

The Great Patriotic War was the most severe and bloody war among the whole ones the Soviet Union has ever suffered. This war was not only the dramatic but as well the heroic period in the history of the Soviet people. That’s why it is called The Great Patriotic War. The chronicles of this war are full of the examples of real courage and heroism of millions of soviet people who defended selflessly the honor of their country. The further we are from those uneasy and heroic times, the more sublime are those deeds seemed to us. We realize the gratefulness of their exploits with more respect and never forget the worth our fathers, grandfathers and even grand-grandfathers paid for the victory in this battle.

The great jubilee is coming. We celebrate the 65th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic war over the Nazi Germany. On these circumstances we would like the property, which has belonged before only to the history of our country, to become the property of the whole Universe. We want to praise the heroic deeds of our people in all the languages we know. Let it be English.

There are a lot of aspects in this topic to throw light upon. They are the most important and decisive battles and dates, and even losses. Our decision is to pay the attention to the heroes of the Great Patriotic war.

The explanatory dictionary by Ozhegov S. I.  gives the following definition of the word “hero”: it is a person who accomplishes feats, unusual in their courage, valor and selflessness. These very people served the victory, and we should be proud of them in all the times and in all the cases.

Russia has a great number of the examples of a heroic deed during its long history. People whom we can call the hero live in our days too. And this very fact is the guarantee of the unconquerable future of our Motherland, its holy fortitude and coming renaissance. As long as Russian soldiers are alive and ready to fight for the future of their country, Russia will flourish. Russian soldiers have always been real patriots and worthy heirs of Russian forces.

The subject of the research: to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the word “hero”, given in the explanatory dictionary by Ozhegov S. I.

The object of the research: soviet people who got the title of a Hero of the Soviet Union for the exploits during the Great Patriotic War.

The tasks of the research:

0. To systemize the knowledge about the heroes in the Great Patriotic war;
1. To classify these heroes  in various ways(location, occupation, age, military activity)
2. To draw a conclusion if the explanation of the term “hero”, given in the dictionary by Ozhegov S. I., corresponds to the facts;
3. To make the results of the research work intelligible to English speaking people.

The methods of the research: analysis, comparison, classification of the heroes of the Soviet Union.

Applicability of the research: the results of the investigation can be used on the English lessons while studying the topics “Heroes”, “The Pride of the Country”, “The Great Deeds of the People”, “The Great Patriotic War”.

In the course of study of English in the secondary school the aspects of Russian history are very rarely touched upon. This research will help to enlarge the knowledge and mental outlook of the pupils. Student will also have a chance to improve their linguistic skills in English, such as listening, reading and speaking comprehension.

The main part

Having pointed the subject, the object, the tasks and the methods of the research we worked out the following classifications of the heroes:

1. “Number of Tributes” classification
2.   “The type of Troop” classification.
3. “Battle-front and Home-front” classification.

Let’s pay our attention to every one.

“Number of Tributes” classification.

This type of classification of the soviet heroes was made to find out the answer to the question “Was that long-expected victory deserved by a big number of deeds of a great number of people?” or “Was it made by so selfless men who were not afraid to make a courageous deed and not the only one? ” By this classification we simply introduce the personalities who will be the object of our following research.

“Number of Tributes” classification.

1. Heroes of the Soviet Union (awarded being alive):

1. Three times awarded ;
2. Twice awarded;
3. Single awarded.

2. Heroes of the Soviet Union (awarded posthumously).

Three times awarded:

I. Kozhedub- a highly decorated WWII fighter pilot; is considered the Allied "Ace of Aces" with 62 victories, more than any other Allied pilot.

A.Pokryshkin – a WWII fighter pilot.

Twice awarded:

S. Timoshenko – a military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army.

I. Konev – Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander of the First Ukrainian Front.

A. Aslanov – Major-General of armored troops during WWII; participated in the 1944 Soviet offensives in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries.

H.  Baghramian – a military commander; took part in the great 1944 Soviet offensive in Belarus and Lithuania (Operation Bagration).

K. Rokossovsky – Marshal of the Soviet Union, Commander of the First Belorussian Front, Marshal of Poland and Polish Minister of Defense, Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of the Transcaucasian Military District, Chief Inspector of the Soviet Ministry of Defense.

J. Stalin – the General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922-1953) and the Head of the Government (1941-1953)

N. Stepanyan – a WWII dive bomber pilot.

V. Kokkinaki – a famous test pilot and record breaker.

S. Kovpak – a partisan leader in the Ukraine.

A. Fyodorov – organized underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

V. Chuikov – A General responsible for the victory at Stalingrad and attacking Berlin.

S. Gritsevets – a fighter pilot with 40 credited kills.

M. Katukov – a Marshal of the Soviet Union, 1st Guards Tank Army Commander.

V. Petrov - Guards Major of Artillery during the Second World War, for Dnepr crossing 1943 , where he lost both hands, and defense of an Oder bridgehead 1945.

V. Leonov – a Soviet Naval Scout (Commando), fought in both European and Pacific Theatres in World War II.

A. Vasilevsky - Marshal of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II.

Single awarded:

H. Babadzhanian – led a brigade in the retaking of the river Dniester during WWII.

I.  Golubets – saved lives aboard the Soviet ship SK-0121 in 1942.

N. Kuznetsov – A Soviet naval officer and People's Commissar of the Navy during World War II.

N. Kuznetsov – an intelligence officer responsible for the kidnappings and assassinations of several high-ranking Nazis.

Y. Pavlov – led Soviet resistance during the Battle of Stalingrad.

A. Shestopalyko - In 1941 assisted his unit to break through Kiev enclosing.

L.  Shevtsova - resisted Nazi occupation in WWII.

I. Sidorenko - One of the top snipers of WWII, with over 500 kills. He was also a highly regarded sniper trainer.

A. Yegorova – WWII ground-attack Il-2 pilot.

Heroes of the Soviet Union awarded posthumously:

Matrosov A. M. - posthumously awarded for blocking an enemy machine-gun with his own body.

Kosmodemyanskaya Z. A. - the first wartime female recipient; demonstrated bravery during her capture and execution by the Nazis.

Panfilov I. V. - Soviet general. He died during the Battle of Moscow in a fierce infantry combat against German Tanks.

“The Type of Troop” classification.

During the whole 4 years of severe and bloody battles for the peace a great number of various troops wes involved in this struggle. Millions of soldiers took part in the fights. We can distinguish both pilots, sailors, tank men and infantry men.

“The Type of Troop” classification.

1. Air fleet heroes.
2. Navy heroes.
3. Infantry troop heroes.

Among the air fleet heroes we can single out:

Pokryshkin A. I., Kozhedub I. I., Aleksenko V. A., Alelyuhin A. V., Beda L. I., Bondarenko M. Z., Davidkov V. I., Vagin S. T., Gavrilenko L. I., Ivanov A. I.

Let’s have a look at the biography of some of these pilots.

Aleksenko V. A. (1923-1995), twice Hero of the Soviet Union. This pilot was born in Krasnodar Region. In the Soviet Army he had served since 1941. In 1942 Aleksenko finished Krasnodar pilot school. Since 1943 he had taken active part in the battles against the Nazi Troops. V. A. made 292 successful attacks. For the courage and heroism he was awarded with 2 medals “Golden Stars”. During the war Aleksenko crashed 10 nazi plains, 33 tanks, 118 armored cars, more than a hundred ack-ack guns.

Among the navy heroes we can distinguish the following persons:

Leonov V. N., Papanin I. D., Abbasov A. U., Abdrahmanov A.K., Abdulmedzhidov A. D., Avramenko M. I., Baltin E. D., Golosov R. A., Golubev D. N., Egorov G. M., Novikov D. N.

We want to tell you about Abbasov A. U. (1929-1985). This sailor was born in Leningrad region. After graduating from navy college he started his sailor career in the Northern navy.  Thanks to his works in the development of Russian navy our troops were successful in the sea battles during the Great Patriotic war. Abbasov was awarded with the medal “Golden Star”.

Among the infantry troops heroes the most famous are:

Matrosov A. M., Fomichev M. G., Yudin M. V.

 Matrosov  A. M. ( 1924- 1943), was a famous Soviet infantry soldier during World War II.

According to Soviet sources, on 22 February 1943, in the battle for the village of Chernushki near Pskov, Matrosov threw himself onto a German pill-box, blocking the machine-gun with his own chest, to allow his unit to advance. For his self-sacrifice in the battle, Matrosov was posthumously awarded the distinction Hero of the Soviet Union.

Contrary to the Soviet account, M. J. Broekmeyer claims that Matrosov had been dragged in front of the post by the Germans when he tried to push down the barrel of the gun after having crawled up above the whole, and that his death was moved from February 27 to 22 to match the day of the creation of the Red Army.

This classification gives us a vivid picture that our country was reliably defended from all the battle-fronts. Pilots, sailors and infantry soldiers struggled selflessly for the independence of Russia. They fought courageously. Many of them got the titles of the Heroes of the Soviet Union.

“Battle-front and Home-front” classification.

Our second classification was devoted to the soldiers. As we know the cruel and bloody fights were held not only on the battle-fronts but as well on the home-fronts. The soldiers straggled in the troops. And who defended our country on the home –fronts? Those people were called partisans. This group includes men, women, old men and even children. How courageous they were we will see in the following classification.

“Battle-front and Home-front” classification.

1. Battle-front:

1. Pilots;
2. Sailors;
3. Infantry soldiers.

2. Home-front:

1. Men and women partisans;
2. Pioneers.

The first part of this classification is clearly investigated in the first unit. Let’s pay more attention to its second part: partisans and pioneers.

Partisans:

Voloshina V.D, .Goryachev N. I., Emlyutin D. N., Zaslonov K. S., Kovpak S. A., Kosmodemyanskaya Z. A., Medvedev D. N., Orlovsky K. N., Saburov A. N., Masherov P. M.

Zoya  Kosmodemyanskaya was born in 1923 not far from the city of Tambov. Kosmodemyanskaya joined the Komsomol in 1938. In October 1941 she volunteered for a partisan unit.  Zoya was assigned to the partisan unit 9903 (Staff of the Western Front). Of the one thousand people who joined the unit in October 1941 only half survived the war. At the village of Obukhovo near Naro-Fominsk, Kosmodemyanskaya and other partisans crossed the front line and entered territory occupied by the Germans. They mined roads and cut communication lines. On November 27, 1941 Zoya received an assignment to burn the village of Petrischevo, where a German cavalry regiment was stationed. Her final words were purported to be "Comrades! Why are you so gloomy? I am not afraid to die! I am happy to die for my people!" and to the Germans, "You'll hang me now, but I am not alone. There are two hundred million of us. You can't hang us all."

The Germans left Zoya's body hanging on the gallows for several weeks and mutilated her body several times with bayonets and by cutting off her left breast. Eventually she was buried just before the Soviet liberation in January 1942.

Kovpak S. A.  was born  in Ukrainian village near Poltava. At the time of the German invasion of Soviet Ukraine partisan units led by Sydir Kovpak waged guerrilla warfare against Axis forces originally in partisan strongholds in Sumy and Bryansk regions but later its operation spread deep into German occupied territory including Kiev, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Homyel, Volyn and other regions. Kovpak mastered guerrilla tactics and became a living legend in the Soviet Union. Sydir Kovpak was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union title twice and in 1943 was promoted to the rank of Major General.

A. N. Saburov was one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement in Ukraine and western Russia during the Great Patriotic War.

Few months after the German invasion of USSR in the autumn of 1941, Saburov organized first guerrilla units in Bryansk, Oryol and Sumy regions occupied by the enemy. His partisan unit numbered around 1800 men and during the winter of 1941-42 effectively harassed German troops operating behind the enemy lines. On May 18, 1942 Saburov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union as well as Order of Lenin for personal heroism and his contribution to the Soviet war effort.

In 1944 Saburov was promoted to the rank of major general.

Pioneers:

Kuznestov Aleksey, Zenkina Valya, Kotik Valentin, Korobkov Victor, Dubinin Vladimir, Komleva Galya, Potapenko Dima, Popov Evgeniy, Portnova Zina, Miheenko Lara, Golikov Leonid,, Kazey Marat, Kovalev Sasha.

Volodia Dubinin (1928- 1942) was a Pioneer Hero of the Soviet Union.

He was one of the groups of Soviet partisans who went to live underground in an abandoned quarry near Kerch to resist German invasion during World War II, in the first period of what has come to be known as the Defense of the Adzhimushkay quarry. Since he used to play there as a little boy, his knowledge of the area, tunnels and exits was vast, and proved to be very useful for the resistance.

When Germans had withdrawn, Volodia shared in cleaning and rebuilding the city. That is what he was doing when he trod on a land mine left by the Germans and lost his life on January 4, 1942.

Kotyk Valentine (1930- 1944) - the pioneer, the young guerrilla-scout, the Hero of Soviet Union (posthumously). During Great Patriotic War accepted active participation in guerrilla movement in Ukraine. First was coherent, then participated in fights, has been twice wounded, was lost in fight. Was has received an award of Patriotic War of 1-st degree and a medal. In 1957 the film, devoted to it is removed. In 1958 the rank of the Hero of Soviet Union is posthumously appropriated. After that a name of the Hero of Soviet Union Bring down Kotyk streets, pioneer teams, schools, steam-ships are named, on the native land the monument to the pioneer-hero is established.

This classification can be interpreted in the following way: not only specially educated people defended our country. This task was successfully fulfilled by the ordinary people. The results of those struggles were enormous. Only the cooperation of the both battle-fronts and home-fronts helped soviet people to win that bloody war.

Conclusion

These three put into practice classifications are not the new ones. Scientists making their research works in the same field of knowledge have already applied them to systemize the facts about the Great Patriotic War Heroes. More over these classifications are closely connected to each other and may be combined in a big one. We gave it the name “The Generalized Great Patriotic War Heroes Classification”.

Let’s have a look at it.

“The Generalized Great Patriotic War Classification”

I. Battle-front heroes.

1. Air fleet heroes.

1. awarded alive:

4. three times awarded;
5. twice awarded;
6. single awarded.

2. awarded posthumously.

2. Navy heroes.

1. awarded alive:

7. three times awarded;
8. twice awarded;
9. single awarded.

2. awarded posthumously.

3. Infantry troop heroes.

1. awarded alive:

10. three times awarded;
11. twice awarded;
12. single awarded.

2. awarded posthumously.

II. Home- front heroes.

1. Partisans.

1. awarded alive:

13. three times awarded;
14. twice awarded;
15. single awarded.

2. awarded posthumously.

2. Pioneers.

1. awarded alive:

16. three times awarded;
17. twice awarded;
18. single awarded.

2. awarded posthumously.

As we can see, this generalized classification is based on the location of the place where the major battles took place. The secondary facts are occupation, age and military skills. This last classification helps us to summarize the knowledge we have gathered in the process of the research work.

The results are as following:

- during the Great Patriotic War our country was reliably defended from all the battle-fronts. Pilots, sailors and infantry soldiers struggled selflessly for the independence of Russia. They fought courageously. Many of them got the titles of the Heroes of the Soviet Union.

- not only specially educated people defended our country in those bloody fights. This task was successfully fulfilled by the ordinary people. The results of those struggles were enormous. Only the cooperation of the both battle-fronts and home-fronts helped soviet people to win that bloody war.

The subject of our research was to prove or to disapprove the definition of the word “hero” given in the explanatory dictionary by Ozhegov S. I. Having summarized all the knowledge on the problem and having done a number of decisions we can draw a conclusion that the real hero is not just a soldier, but a person who accomplishes feats, unusual in their courage, valor and selflessness.

They are soldiers, women, old men and even children. Such aspects of a human being as age, sex, type of occupation and military education do not influence on the level of heroism in the heart of a person facing frontier incidents. Every one can become a hero when his or her Motherland and its future are in danger.

Our research enlarges the bounds of the usual term “hero”. We will never forget the outstanding exploits of our ancestors. We will always remember the names of those who devoted their lives for the peaceful future of our country and will never stop to congratulate and be grateful to those who are still alive.

Literary Sources

1. Великая Отечественная Война 1941-1945. Энциклопедия., под. Ред. М. М. Козлова. М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1985 г.
2. Верт. А. Россия в войне 1941-1945 г.г., М.: Воениздат, 2001 г.
3. Деборин Г. А. О характере второй мировой войны, М.: Военное издательство Министерства Обороны СССР, 1960 г.
4. История Второй Мировой Войны 1939-1945, М.: Воениздат, 1973-1982 г. г.
5. Кузница Победы, М.: Издательство политической литературы, 1992 г.
6. Русско-английский военный словарь, под. Ред. Г. А. Судзиловского, М.: Воениздат, 1968 г.
7. www.wikipedia.ru
8. www.warheroes.ru