In early February 1944, Soviet troops completed the liquidation of the last enemy bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper. Next in line was the liquidation of the Crimean group of the enemy.

By this time, the internal situation of Romania, its relations with Germany, had sharply deteriorated. During the Uman-Botoshansk operation, Soviet troops at the end of March 1944 crossed state border and by mid-April deepened into the territory of Romania for 100 km, freeing 10 thousand square meters. km, where 400 thousand people lived. On April 2, the Soviet government declared that it was not pursuing the goal of acquiring part of the Romanian territory or changing the existing system. It offered Romania the terms of a truce to withdraw from the war. At the same time, progressive forces within the country filed a declaration with the government, in which they demanded a withdrawal from the war and the conclusion of peace with the states of the anti-Hitler coalition. But the Antonescu government, fearing responsibility for the crimes, decided to continue the war on the side of Germany.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to strike the main blow with the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front from the north of Perekop and Sivash and the auxiliary one - with the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army from the Kerch region in the general direction of Simferopol, Sevastopol.

The Black Sea Fleet was ordered to block the Crimean peninsula from the sea.

By this time, the 17th German Army had 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions, separate rifle regiments "Crimea" and "Bergman", 13 separate security battalions, 12 sapper battalions. It had a large artillery reinforcement: the 191st and 279th assault gun brigades, the 9th anti-aircraft artillery division, the 60th artillery regiment, three regiments (704, 766, 938) of coastal defense, ten high-capacity artillery battalions. The German 4th Air Fleet and the Romanian Air Force had from 150 to 300 aircraft at the Crimean airfields.

The main forces of the 17th German Army are the 49th Mountain Rifle Corps (50th, 111th, 336th Infantry Divisions, 279th Brigade of Assault Guns), the 3rd Romanian Cavalry Corps (9th Cavalry, 10th and 19th I infantry divisions) defended in the northern part of the Crimea. On the Kerch Peninsula was the 5th Army Corps (73rd, 98th Infantry Divisions, 191st Brigade of Assault Guns), the 6th Cavalry and 3rd Mountain Rifle Division of the Romanians. The coast from Feodosia to Sevastopol was covered by the 1st Romanian mountain rifle corps (1st, 2nd infantry divisions). The west coast was controlled by two regiments of the 9th Romanian Mountain Division. The 1st Romanian Corps was entrusted with the fight against the partisans.

Using the experience of defense on Taman Peninsula, the enemy equipped the strongest defensive lines: in the north - three lines of defense, on the Kerch Peninsula - four. From Saki through Sarabuz and Karasubazar to Feodosia, a rear defensive line was being prepared.

German soldiers and officers understood the hopelessness of their situation, but were not yet morally broken. Corporal of the 73rd Infantry Division Helfrid Merzinger, who defected near Kerch in early April, said that the German soldier was not yet ready to stop fighting. "Russian leaflets are read by German soldiers, but I will say frankly - the hurricane fire of Russian artillery works much more convincingly than these leaflets."

Table 6. The ratio of the forces of the parties to the beginning of the operation *

* History of the Second World War, 1939-1945. T. 8. S. 104-105.

There was a hard fight ahead. Therefore, it was decided to create a significant superiority in forces. The 2nd Guards Army of General G.F. began to operate on the Perekop Isthmus. Zakharov (13th Guards, 54th and 55th Corps - a total of 9 rifle divisions) and on the Sivash - the 51st Army of General Ya.G. Cruisers (1st Guards, 10th and 63rd Corps - 10 rifle divisions in total) and reinforcement units.

The 51st Army, which delivered the main blow, was reinforced by two artillery divisions, two tank divisions, two mortar divisions, two anti-aircraft artillery and ten artillery regiments, and four engineering brigades. The army of 91 thousand people was armed with 68,463 rifles and machine guns, 3,752 machine guns, 1,428 guns, 1,059 mortars, 1,072 anti-aircraft guns and 49 tanks.

To ensure a quick breakthrough of the enemy's defenses, a four to five-fold superiority in manpower and firepower was created in selected areas of the offensive.

The time of the start of the Crimean operation was postponed several times due to the need to complete the liquidation of the Nikopol enemy grouping, the incomplete readiness of the crossings over the Sivash, due to the condition of the roads. Finally, they decided to start the operation after the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front had reached the Odessa area. This meant an increase in the negative psychological impact on the enemy, feelings of isolation and doom.

In the Kerch direction, the offensive was to begin two or three days later than the offensive of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front.

The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front delivered the main blow from Sivash, from where the enemy did not expect him, since the supply routes here were much more difficult than at Perekop. The main role in breaking through the defense was to be played by the 1st Guards Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General I.I. Missan. At the same time, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army broke through the defenses at Perekop. At a meeting before the operation, General of the Army F.I. Tolbukhin said: “General Eneka will need some time to correctly orient himself in the events taking place. Probably, he will understand the situation only by the end of the first day of the offensive, when the most important tasks of the breakthrough will have already been resolved in favor of Soviet troops, and the opportunity for counter-action will be lost.

The outstanding commander F.I. Before the operation, Tolbukhin talked with each regiment commander, seeking a detailed knowledge of the task, the degree of provision of the troops with everything necessary.

The peculiarity of the formation of the troops of the 51st Army was that the second echelons of the rifle corps could be brought into battle in two adjacent directions, depending on the success indicated.

On the eve of the offensive, almost all formations carried out reconnaissance in force, which confirmed the enemy's grouping.

April 8, 1944 at 10 a.m. 30 min. after a powerful artillery preparation that lasted 2.5 hours, the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies went on the offensive. The greatest success on the first day was achieved by the 267th Rifle Division of Colonel A.I. Tolstov from the 63rd Corps of General P.K. Koshevoy. To develop the success emerging here, the front commander ordered the 417th rifle division of General F.M. Bobrakov and the 32nd tank brigade. At the same time, the 2nd battalion of the 848th rifle regiment of the 267th division, on the personal instructions of F.I. Tolbukhin crossed the Aigul Lake and attacked the enemy in the flank. At night, another battalion under the command of Major M. Kulenko broke through to this bridgehead.

The enemy, highly experienced and experienced in offensive and defense, did not expect a quick transfer of the main attack from the zone of the 1st Guards Corps to the zone of the 63rd Rifle Corps, did not expect detours and coverage in the cramped area of ​​inter-lake defiles. But Soviet troops used the shallow lakes to seep through enemy defenses. Having repelled counterattacks, the troops of the corps on April 9 advanced from 4 to 7 km. The front commander reinforced the 63rd corps with the 77th division from the army reserve and the breakthrough artillery division from the front reserve, and also aimed aviation of the 8th air army of General T.T. Khryukin. During April 10, the troops of the corps drove the enemy out of the inter-lake defile and created the conditions for the entry of the 19th tank corps into the breakthrough.

Early in the morning of April 11, the tank corps of Lieutenant General I.D. Vasiliev, from the line south of Tomashevka, entered the gap in three columns and, three hours later, on the move, he entered into battle with the garrison defending the city of Dzhankoy. The enemy was defeated and by 18 o'clock withdrew to the south. This outlined a deep coverage of the Perekop-Ishunsky enemy grouping.

By this time, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army, advancing on the Perekop Isthmus, also achieved significant success. On the first day of the offensive, the 3rd Guards Rifle Division of General K.A. Tsalikov and the 126th Infantry Division of General A.I. Kazartsev mastered Armenian. By the end of the second day, the 2nd Guards Army broke through the first defensive line and the enemy hastily retreated to the Ishun positions.

The success of the Soviet troops on the Perekop Isthmus was facilitated by the landing across the Perekop Bay - a battalion of the 1271st Infantry Regiment of the 387th Division under the command of Captain F.D. Dibrov. The battalion numbered 512 people and had good weapons: 166 machine guns, 45 machine guns, two 45-mm guns, six 82-mm mortars, grenades. On April 10, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the battalion secretly landed from sapper boats and began to advance. Soon the enemy sent 13 tanks and a reinforced company of submachine gunners against the landing. In a hot battle, the enemy lost 3 tanks and up to 40 people killed (battalion losses: 4 killed, 11 wounded, one gun and three mortars). The enemy began to retreat. Pursuing him, the battalion captured a battery of mortars and prisoners. For this brave battle, all the soldiers and officers of the battalion were awarded orders and medals, and Captain F.D. Dibrov was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.

For 34 hours of stubborn fighting, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army broke through the Perekop positions. This was reflected not only in the moral and political state of our troops and superiority in strength, but also in the increased combat skill of the command and rank and file, the growth technical equipment and material support of the army. Almost complete suppression of enemy artillery and fire weapons was achieved. This explains the relatively fast breaking of enemy defenses.

At the junction of the two armies, the 347th Melitopol Red Banner Rifle Division of Major General A.Kh. Yukhimchuk, who in 1941 defended the Crimea here with his regiment. In order to reduce the time of movement from their trench to enemy positions, they dug messages in the direction of the enemy - “mustache”. They went on the attack behind the explosions of their shells and without the traditional "cheers", which the enemy took as a signal to open fire. Groups of shooters in the first trench did not linger and continued to move deep into the enemy defenses.

Lieutenant-General I. Strelbitsky, commander of artillery of the 2nd Guards Army, notes the decisive role of artillery of special and high power in breaking through strong fortifications. Small-caliber artillery and light mortars did not use up even half of the reserves. Rifle cartridges were now consumed ten times less. Here is how dramatically the ratio of fire in combined arms combat has changed in comparison with 1941. Close fire combat and hand-to-hand combat became a rarity. The breakthrough of the enemy defense was carried out with comparatively small losses.

By the end of April 10, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army were detained by the enemy at the Ishun positions. The decisive advance of the 51st Army, as well as bypassing enemy positions from the flanks, contributed to the success of the breakthrough of the 2nd Guards Army. 87th Guards Rifle Division under the command of Colonel K.Ya. Tymchik part of the forces forded Karkinitsky Bay, and the 126th Infantry Division of General A.I. Kazartseva part of the forces forded Staroe Lake and at 6 o'clock on April 12 hit the rear of the enemy. Taking advantage of the confusion in the camp of the enemy, the remaining units of the army attacked the enemy from the front and overturned him. In view of the possible encirclement, the enemy was no longer able to defend the third position (along the Chatyrlyk River) and hastily began to retreat. Soviet troops broke through the defenses at Perekop faster and more skillfully than the enemy did in the fall of 1941.

The persecution of the enemy began, in which the F.I. Tolbukhin, a front-line mobile group: the 19th tank corps, the 279th rifle division, mounted on vehicles, and the 21st anti-tank artillery brigade. The rate of advance of the troops of the 51st Army was on average 22 km per day (on some days up to 35 km). But the enemy, having a lot of transport, retreated quickly.

The mobile front group, commanded by the deputy commander of the 51st Army, Major General V.N. Razuvaev, on April 12, approached Simferopol, but it was not possible to break the resistance of a strong garrison on the move. Having regrouped forces at night, and also replenished with approaching units, the mobile group launched an attack on the city on the morning of April 13. Five hours later, by 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the capital of Crimea, Simferopol, was completely liberated. At the same time, up to 1 thousand people were captured. At the same time, a lateral mobile detachment from the 63rd Rifle Corps under the command of Lieutenant Colonel M.I. Sukhorukov advanced to district center Zuya, in order to block the way for the troops retreating from the Kerch Peninsula, and force them to turn onto a narrow and uncomfortable seaside road. A heated battle took place in Zuya - artillery fired on buckshot, the fights went hand-to-hand. More than 300 fascists were destroyed and almost 800 people were captured. The enemy, leaving cars, guns and several tanks, began to retreat through the mountains to the sea.

Commander of the Separate Primorsky Army, General of the Army A.I. Eremenko, preparing an offensive, decided to break through the enemy defenses in the center, while bypassing the heavily fortified Bulganak knot from the north and south. It was also decided to bypass the city of Kerch and the heavily fortified coast Sea of ​​Azov. The troops had groups of obstacles, securing the area, and artillery escort. Mobile groups were created in the army, corps and divisions in case of pursuit of the retreating enemy. The main concern of the command was to prevent a covert withdrawal of the enemy.

The successful actions of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front endangered the encirclement of the entire Kerch grouping of the enemy. The command of the 17th German Army decided to withdraw its forces from the Kerch Peninsula. Intelligence on April 10 discovered the enemy was preparing to withdraw. In this regard, General A.I. Eremenko ordered at 21 o'clock. 30 min. to begin artillery and aviation preparation and at 2200 forward detachments attack the front line. The attack was successful, at 2 o'clock the main forces of the army went on the offensive and by 4 o'clock on April 11 captured the first position of the enemy defense. The seemingly impregnable defense of the enemy was broken through. Mobile groups of corps were introduced into the gap in order not to allow the enemy to gain a foothold in intermediate positions.

The left-flank 16th rifle corps of General K.I. Provalova began to flow around the city of Kerch and surrounded up to 2000 soldiers and officers on its northern outskirts. The 255th Naval Infantry Brigade of Colonel I.A. Vlasova made an even deeper detour and went to the southern slopes of Mount Mithridates. According to the corps commander, this maneuver completed the job. By 6 am on April 11, Kerch was liberated.

On April 11, throughout the Crimea, forward detachments of all armies and corps, planted on vehicles, tanks, guns, pursued the hastily retreating enemy. As soon as the opportunity arose, they overtook the retreating enemy troops, captured prisoners, weapons, and equipment.

The enemy's attempt to delay the offensive of the Separate Primorsky Army on the Ak-Manai positions was not successful. Parts of the 11th Guards Rifle Corps, commanded by Major General S.E. Rozhdestvensky, ahead of the retreating enemy, quickly took possession of this line, capturing more than 100 guns. Using this success, the 3rd Mountain Rifle Corps, which until April 17 was commanded by General N.A. Shvarev (while General A.A. Luchinsky was recovering), advanced without delay to Vladislavovna station.

The corps were given new tasks to liberate the central and southern parts Crimea: the 11th Guards Corps continued to pursue the enemy in the direction of Karasubazar - Simferopol; 3rd mountain rifle - through the mountains to Sevastopol; 16th rifle - along the southern coast of Crimea. General K.I. Provalov recalls that the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters K.E. Voroshilov set the task for the 16th Corps: "... at all costs to preserve the Crimean health resorts."

The corps commanders skillfully carried out the offensive on disunited directions. The 16th Rifle Corps managed to get in the way of the enemy's retreat near Feodosia, Sudak, and Yalta. For bypassing Yalta through Mount Ai-Petri, the commander of the 227th Infantry Division, Colonel G.N. Preobrazhensky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Retreating, the German command left the Romanian units as cover units. The Romanian captured officers testified: “At first, we retreated together with the Germans, but when the Soviet troops overtook our columns and, as they say, grabbed our collars, the Germans quickly got into the vehicles. Some of the Romanian soldiers and officers also tried to get into the cars, but the Germans opened fire on them. But it still didn't save them. A day later, we also met them at the collection point for prisoners of war.

On April 13, Evpatoria and Feodosia were liberated. In Karasubazar, the troops of the 51st and Primorye armies united, forming a common front. On April 14, Bakhchisaray, Sudak and Alushta were liberated.

The enemy, having left barriers, prepared mechanized means and withdrew significant forces. The troops pursuing him failed to bypass and destroy his large groupings in the foothills. In the area of ​​Bakhchisarai, the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st armies joined, there was some mixing of the troops. As a result, the rate of pursuit of the enemy decreased. This allowed him to "bounce" to Sevastopol and take back the defense there. On April 15, Soviet troops reached the outer defensive perimeter of Sevastopol. Here the enemy occupied a powerful defensive area, counting on its long-term retention.

Hitler declared Sevastopol a "fortified city". But no one wanted to defend this fortress to the last soldier. The Germans retreated to Sevastopol in order to be the first to evacuate. The Romanians did not want to die for the sake of saving the German regiments and preferred to surrender. Some decisions of the Hitlerite command are curious.

On April 9, the commander of the German-Romanian forces, c. In the Crimea, General Eneke asks for authority to prepare for withdrawal to the Sevastopol fortified area in order to "avoid the destruction of the entire army," that is, he asks for freedom of action. Despite the support of this request by the commander of Army Group A, Scherner, Hitler did not give such consent.

On April 10, Eneke reported that with his permission, the 5th Army Corps would withdraw to the Ak-Manai positions, the 19th Romanian Division from the Chongar Peninsula, and the 49th Corps would hold positions until the evening of April 12.

On April 11, Eneke reported on the breakthrough of the northern front and that he had ordered the army to retreat at a rapid pace towards Sevastopol. This caused sharp discontent of the chief of the general staff and Hitler himself. The commander of the 49th Corps, General Konrad, was dismissed and then put on trial (General Hartman became the commander of the corps on May 6). No one knew whether the retreat to Sevastopol was the beginning of the evacuation.

April 12 - Hitler's order "to hold Sevastopol for a long time and not to evacuate combat units from there." On this day, Scherner visited the Crimea and agreed with the fear that "the Russians with their tanks will be in Sevastopol before us."

On April 13, the main task of the 5th Army Corps is to arrive in Sevastopol as soon as possible, for which it will turn south onto the coastal highway. On April 14, the advanced units of the army corps “reached” Sevastopol and took up defensive positions.

Attempts by the Soviet troops to capture Sevastopol on the move and thereby disrupt the evacuation that had begun failed. April 17, the 63rd Corps of General P.K. Koshevoy went to the line of the Black River. On April 18, the troops of the Primorsky Army and the 77th Simferopol Division of the 51st Army captured Balaklava and Kadykovka, and the 267th Division and units of the 19th Tank Corps approached the last powerful defensive line - Sapun Mountain. By this time, there was a shortage of ammunition in all formations, and aviation was without fuel. Former Chief of Staff of the Front Marshal of the Soviet Union S.S. Biryuzov wrote that the difficulty with fuel was the result of the fact that, in preparation for the operation, "The Headquarters significantly reduced our applications, considering them too high." It was necessary to prepare an assault on the fortified Sevastopol.

The Soviet command decided to supply ammunition (1.5 rounds), pull up the 19th tank corps and heavy artillery to the Balaklava area, go on the offensive on April 23 in order to cut off Sevastopol from the bays located to the southwest, in at the same time, the 2nd Guards Army to break through the Inkerman Valley to the Northern Bay and take it under the fire of direct flood guns. Air strikes should be concentrated on the berths of the port and transports at sea.

By this time organizational changes had taken place. A separate Primorsky Army was included in the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front. It became known simply as the Primorsky Army, and Lieutenant General K.S. took command of it. Miller. Departed from the Crimea, the management of the 4th Air Army K.A. Vershinin, the 55th Guards and 20th Mountain Rifle Divisions, as well as the 20th Rifle Corps, which was in reserve on the Taman Peninsula.

Preparing for the assault on Sevastopol, on April 18, the front commander issued an order calling for a last effort:

“Comrade soldiers and officers of the 4th Ukrainian Front! Under your blow, within 3 days, the "impregnable" German defense collapsed to the entire depth of the Perekop, Ishun, Sivash and Ak-Manai positions.

On the sixth day you occupied the capital of the Crimea - Simferopol and one of the main ports - Feodosia and Evpatoria ...

Today, units of the armies have reached the last line of the enemy's Sevastopol defense on the Chernaya River and the Sapun Gora ridge, which is 5-7 km from Sevastopol.

A last organized decisive assault is needed to drown the enemy in the sea and capture his equipment, and I urge you to do this ... ".

The offensive on April 23 showed that, despite the excellent work of artillery and aviation, it was not possible to destroy the defensive structures, although the infantry advanced 2-3 km in some directions and occupied the enemy’s front trenches. According to intelligence data, the enemy still had 72,700 soldiers and officers, 1,345 artillery pieces, 430 mortars, 2,355 machine guns and 50 tanks in the bridgehead.

After lengthy discussions of the situation in the Sevastopol region in all command instances, they came to the conclusion: in order to put an end to the remnants of the enemy in the Crimea as soon as possible, a general assault on the Sevastopol fortified region by all troops of the front with the active use of aviation, fleet and partisans is necessary.

So, the general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area! Despite the repeated reminders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on the need to complete the liquidation of the Crimean enemy grouping in the coming days, the preparation of the assault was not yet completed, it required time to replenish and regroup forces, transport ammunition and fuel, destroy the most dangerous enemy defense facilities, form assault groups and train them. It was decided to launch the offensive on 5 May.

On April 16, the command of the German 17th Army reported that the retreat had been completed, preventing the pursuing enemy from entering Sevastopol. Eneke considered this a feat, despite the fact that only a third of the guns and a quarter of the anti-tank weapons remained. The morale of the Romanians fell, and they could not be used for defense. From the 235 thousand people who were on allowance on April 9, the number of their troops by April 18 was reduced to 124 thousand.

Human. This indicates losses, although part was evacuated (without Hitler's permission).

On April 12, General Scherner reported to Bucharest that he had ordered "to ensure the safe evacuation of the Romanians from the Crimea." On April 14-18, Sherner reported to the General Staff that in order to hold the Sevastopol region, it was necessary to deliver six divisions and supply 600 tons of food daily. Since this is impossible, therefore, he proposed to evacuate Sevastopol. Hitler was in favor of holding Sevastopol for a long time by reinforcing the area with heavy weapons.

On April 22, the command of the 17th Army, together with the naval commandant of the Crimea, developed an evacuation plan (“Leopard”) for the sea and by air calculated for 14 days.

On April 21, Turkey stopped deliveries of chromium ore to Germany and "joined" the anti-fascist coalition.

On April 25, Hitler decided to hold Sevastopol for some more time. In order to cheer up the soldiers and officers, double monetary salaries were established in the Crimea, and allotments of land were promised to those who distinguished themselves in battles.

On April 30, General E. Eneke was removed from command of the 17th Army. General K. Almendinger took command.

But now the situation in the Crimea was determined by the Soviet, and not by the German command. Throughout the last ten days of April and the beginning of May, guns and ammunition wagons stretched along the roads to Sevastopol. Fuel and bombs were brought to the airfields. In the divisions, assault groups were formed, the core of which were communists and Komsomol members, obstacle groups and even groups to overcome anti-tank ditches. In all regiments and battalions, training took place on terrain similar to enemy positions and their fortifications.

On April 29, artillery and aviation began to systematically destroy enemy fortifications. Aviation of the front, fleet and aviation attached to the Headquarters long range until May 5, made 8200 sorties.

In the battles for Sevastopol, the squadron of Captain P.M. Komozina destroyed 63 enemy aircraft. Komozin personally and in a group shot down 19 enemy aircraft and was awarded the second Gold Star medal. The 3rd Fighter Air Corps under the command of General E.Ya. Savitsky. He himself flew several times for reconnaissance on a captured Me-109 fighter. For the skillful command of the air corps and personally shot down 22 enemy aircraft, he was again awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The brave air fighter V.D. Lavrinenkov was also awarded a second Gold Star medal. Many heroic deeds were accomplished in the Crimean sky that spring.

According to the plan of the front commander, the main blow was delivered on the left flank by the forces of the Primorsky Army and the 63rd Corps of the 51st Army in the Sapun-Gora-Karan sector in order to reach the sea (berths) west of Sevastopol. But in order to deceive the enemy, to pin down his forces, on May 5, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army, with the powerful support of the 8th Air Army, attacked the enemy from the north. The enemy transferred part of his reserve to this direction. On May 6, the 51st Army went on the offensive with part of its forces, and at 10 a.m. 30 min. On May 7, the Primorsky Army dealt the main blow.

F.I. Tolbukhin recalled that the enemy was expecting an offensive along the Balaklava highway. This was the only possible way, and here he placed almost all his artillery. “We had no hope of going anywhere else; then we were forced to launch a demonstrative offensive on the Mekenziev Mountains sector from west to east. For three days the 2nd Guards Army and the cavalry defiantly advanced, for three days our aviation made 3,000 sorties over these mountains.

I remember how we expected when the enemy would finally begin to withdraw his units from the Balaklava direction. And so, early in the morning on the third day, it was found that part of the artillery reached the Mekenziev mountains, and at 7 o’clock fourth day we delivered the main blow south of Sapun Mountain.

There is a large amount of historical and fiction literature about the storming of Sevastopol, and a beautiful diorama has been built on Sapun Mountain.

On the outer contour of the defense with a total length of up to 29 km, the Nazis were able to concentrate large forces and means, create their high density: up to 2 thousand people and 65 guns and mortars per 1 km of the front. On the steep stone slopes of this mountain, the enemy built four tiers of trenches, 36 pillboxes and 27 pillboxes. The assault on Sapun Mountain and the liberation of Sevastopol is one of the brilliant pages in the annals of the Great Patriotic War.

May 7 at 10 a.m. 30 min. the attack of Sapun Mountain began. It lasted nine hours. The 63rd Corps of P.K. operated in the main direction. Koshevoy (77th, 267th, 417th Rifle Divisions) and the 11th Guards Corps S.E. Rozhdestvensky (32nd Guards, 318th, 414th Rifle Divisions, 83rd and 255th Naval Infantry Brigades). Only at 19 o'clock. 30 min. on the crest of the mountain, the 77th Infantry Division of Colonel A.P. Rodionov from the 63rd Corps and the 32nd Guards Rifle Division of Colonel N.K. Zakurenkov from the 11th Guards Corps of the Primorsky Army. With the mastery of this key position, the troops were able to develop a strike directly on Sevastopol. During the night, the 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army, commanded by K.P. Neverov.

On May 8, on the second day of the assault, the 2nd Guards Army achieved significant success. Troops of the 13th Guards and 55th Rifle Corps drove the enemy out of the Mekenziev Mountains and reached Severnaya Bay by evening. The remnants of the 50th German infantry and the 2nd Romanian mountain divisions were cut off from the main forces and pressed to the sea. On the same day, the troops of the 51st and Primorsky armies broke through the enemy's main line of defense and reached the inner bypass of the city's defenses.

On the night of May 9, the offensive continued so that the enemy would not have time to regroup and put his units in order. He was led from each division by one rifle regiment. By morning, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army reached the North Bay along its entire length. Its direct-fire artillery fired through the Severnaya, Yuzhnaya and Streletskaya bays. At the same time, units of the 55th Rifle Corps, commanded by Major General P.E. Lovyagin, went to the Ship side and to the South Bay.

By decision of the front commander, on May 9, at 8 o'clock, the general attack was resumed. Troops of the 51st Army broke into the city from the southeast in the afternoon. Troops of the 11th Guards Corps entered the city from the south. 24th Guards Rifle Division Colonel G.Ya. Kolesnikova crossed the Northern Bay. By the end of May 9, the heroic Sevastopol was completely liberated. Moscow saluted this victory with twenty-four salvos from 324 guns.

The commander of the 54th Rifle Corps of the 2nd Guards Army, General T.K. Kolomiets, who commanded the 25th Chapaev division during the defense of Sevastopol, became the first commandant of the liberated Sevastopol.

This operation of the Soviet Armed Forces, brilliant in many respects, required great moral and physical exertion. After the assault on Sevastopol, the soldiers lay where the soybeans had cut them down: near a stone, in a roadside ditch, in the dust on the road. The dream was like a swoon, and only the weapons in their hands spoke of their readiness to rush at the enemy again.

The Primorsky Army, together with the 19th Tank Corps advanced to this direction, was advancing at that time in the direction of Cape Khersones, from where the enemy continued to evacuate. The 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army was also turned there.

General Boehme, who now commanded all the enemy troops on the Chersonesos Peninsula, put anti-aircraft, anti-tank and field artillery on direct fire and thus hoped to hold the bridgehead until the evacuation was completed. The remaining slippers were also buried in the ground. They set minefields, barbed wire, flamethrowers and everything else that could be adapted for defense.

During May 10 and 11, the troops of the Primorsky Army, the 19th Tank Corps and the 10th Rifle Corps were preparing for a decisive assault on the last defensive rampart that covered Cape Khersones. Artillerymen pushed their guns forward to destroy enemy fortifications with direct fire; engineering troops were preparing the attack area; scouts were actively searching. The captured prisoners showed that on the night of May 12, numerous ships would approach Chersonesos to shine the remaining troops. The general withdrawal for boarding troops on ships is scheduled for 4 o'clock in the morning.

Front commander F.I. Tolbukhin ordered to attack the enemy at 3 o'clock, prevent evacuation, exterminate or capture the remnants of enemy troops. Exactly at 3 o'clock on May 12, a thousand guns and mortars of the Primorsky Army and the 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army opened fire on the enemy defenses and the accumulation of troops. Even under the cover of darkness, the assault squads launched an attack and broke through narrow corridors in the enemy defenses. Behind them, the advanced regiments began to assault. By 7 o'clock in the morning the coast of the bays Streletskaya, Kruglaya, Omega, Kamyshovaya was cleared of the enemy; our troops reached the isthmus of Cape Khersones (between the Cossack Bay and the sea). On this piece of Crimean land, the enemy accumulated guns, slippers, people. But there was no longer a force that could stop the Soviet soldiers. By 10 o'clock on May 12, units of the Primorsky Army and the 19th Panzer Corps broke through to Cape Khersones. At the same time, the Black Sea Fleet and aviation did not let enemy ships come to the shore, sinking some of them in front of the eyes of the fascist army rushing along the coast. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, over 21 thousand soldiers and officers (including more than 100 seniors) surrendered. General Boehme himself was also captured at the airfield.

What happened at that time at sea? The commander of the 17th German Army, Almendinger, asked that sea and air vehicles be sent to Sevastopol to evacuate "Romanians unfit for battle" and deliver reinforcements and ammunition. After April 8, the Germans were able to transfer two marching battalions (1300 people), 15 anti-tank and 14 other guns to Sevastopol. On the evening of May 8, in response to Scherner's report that the evacuation of Sevastopol would take eight days in its normal course, Hitler agreed to the evacuation. A day later, General Almendinger, at the request to leave Hartman, the senior commander of the 49th Corps, on Chersonese, was ordered to "justify the Fuhrer's trust." On May 8, the last 13 fighters flew from Chersonese to Romania. All transport and military ships were sent from Romania to Sevastopol - about a hundred units. The intentions of the Nazi command on the night of May 11 to withdraw everyone "in one go" did not materialize. The remnants of the Nazi troops during the last day fought without heavy weapons and almost without ammunition, having suffered heavy losses.

From April 8 to May 13, the Black Sea Fleet carried out an operation to disrupt enemy sea communications. For this, submarines, bomber and mine-torpedo aircraft were used, and in close communications - attack aircraft and torpedo boats. In view of the impossibility of creating a fighter cover due to the remoteness of our airfields from communications, the actions of large surface ships were not envisaged. However, during the operation, when the enemy, having lost airfields, had no aircraft, it was advisable to use destroyers and cruisers to blockade Sevastopol. From the book by A. Hilgruber "Evacuation of the Crimea in 1944" it can be seen that by May 5, in the Sevastopol region, the enemy had only fighters that covered the evacuation. On May 9, Soviet artillery began shelling the last enemy airfield at Cape Khersones, and enemy aircraft stopped operating in the Crimean sky.

Two brigades of torpedo boats were used to destroy ships leaving Sevastopol. Further into the sea, a brigade (7-9 units) of submarines operated. The aviation of the fleet struck all along the communications from the ports of the Crimea to the Romanian ports of Sulina and Constanta, it was the main strike force. About 400 aircraft took part in the fighting (including 12 torpedo bombers, 45 bombers, 66 attack aircraft and 289 fighters). Ports from Ak-Meschet to Feodosia were constant targets of their attacks. At the first stage, while the enemy retained airfields and a strong aviation group, the Fleet Air Force systematically attacked enemy ships at sea. At the second stage, when the enemy retreated to Sevastopol, they, together with torpedo boats and artillery, tried to establish a close blockade of the Sevastopol Bay, and then Cape Khersones.

Torpedo boats went to sea at night. Due to the remoteness of their bases, they spent most of their time on transitions and only a few hours remained in the area of ​​​​action. Submarines searched for the enemy using intelligence data and the results of air strikes and torpedo boats. However, there were not enough submarines and boats to block the flow of various ships. Therefore, it was rarely possible to completely destroy the convoy.

On April 11, 34 attack aircraft under the cover of 48 fighters launched several successive strikes on the accumulation of enemy floating assets in the port of Feodosia, making 218 sorties. A minesweeper, two landing barges, three boats and other watercraft were sunk, an attempt to evacuate by sea was thwarted. On April 13, 80 attack aircraft of the 11th assault aviation division under the command of Colonel D.I. Manzhosov, accompanied by 42 fighters, made a massive raid on the cluster Vehicle with German troops preparing to leave the port of Sudak. As a result of the strike, three self-propelled landing barges with German troops were sunk and five barges were damaged. Panic and confusion reigned on the piers, the orders of the officers regarding the further loading of troops were not carried out. The loading stopped, the soldiers refused to follow the ships and fled towards Alushta. A high percentage of hits on ships at sea was achieved by attack aircraft, using, unexpectedly for the enemy, the top-mast method of bombing, i.e. strafing bombing. By the end of April, a certain number of attack and fighter aircraft of the fleet were relocated to the Saki airfield (Evpatoria region), which improved the conditions for the struggle for air supremacy in the Sevastopol region and made it possible for attack aircraft to strike at single ships at sea. During the operation on communications (since May 8), the Air Force of the Fleet made 4506 sorties, sank 68 different ships. In air battles and from anti-aircraft artillery fire, they lost 47 aircraft. The enemy during this time lost about 80 aircraft.

Torpedo boats were active, using torpedoes and rockets. Their capabilities after relocating to Yalta and Evpatoria have increased. In small groups, boats went out at night to a given area of ​​the sea, searched for enemy ships or lay down to drift, waiting for the passage of enemy convoys. So, a group of four torpedo boats under the command of the captain of the 3rd rank A.P. Tuula discovered a large convoy of 30 ships and warships guarding them; as a result of a bold attack, four self-propelled barges with troops and one security boat were sunk. On three occasions (May 5, 7, and 11), the torpedo boats managed to break through the strong guards of the convoys and attack the transport ships. At the same time, rocket projectiles proved to be effective. After the first volleys, the enemy usually quickly left the battlefield.

Submarines successfully operated, which made 20 campaigns during the operation, fired 55 torpedoes and 28 shells at the enemy, sank 12 transport ships and damaged several ships.

Each convoy from Romania to the Crimea was attacked by different types of forces, each in its own area. As a result of decisive actions by Soviet aviation, torpedo boats and submarines, 102 different enemy ships were sunk and more than 60 were damaged. Of every ten enemy ships and ships that took part in the evacuation, nine ships were sunk or heavily damaged.

It is appropriate to give some information about how the German command assessed the evacuation of troops from the Crimea. General K. Tippelskirch writes: “The remnants of three German divisions and a large number of scattered groups of German and Romanian soldiers fled to the Kherson Cape, the approaches to which they defended with the desperation of the doomed ... Caught in a narrow patch of land, suppressed by continuous air raids and exhausted by attacks much superior enemy forces, the German troops, having lost all hope of escaping from this hell, could not stand it. The document of the Romanian main naval headquarters says that during the evacuation from the Crimea, 43% of the tonnage of German, Romanian and Hungarian ships in the Black Sea was sunk. Approximately the same number of ships were damaged. The German Admiral F. Ruge bitterly admitted: “Russian aviation turned out to be the most unpleasant thing for small ships, especially during the evacuation of the Crimea ...”.

The chief of staff of the German-Romanian fleet on the Black Sea, Konradi, describes last days evacuation of Sevastopol: “A large crowd of people in the cramped space of Cape Khersones and the influx of new military units made loading onto ships more and more difficult. On the night of May 11, panic began on the piers. Places on ships were taken from the battlefield. The ships were forced to leave without completing their loading, otherwise they could sink.

On the night of May 10, the last enemy convoy approached Sevastopol, consisting of diesel-electric ships "Totila", "Teya" and several landing barges. Having received 5-6 thousand people each, the ships left for Constanta at dawn. However, "Totila" was sunk by aircraft near Cape Khersones, while "Thea" with a strong guard at full speed went to the southwest. Every 20 minutes, the ships guarding her had to open fire on the attacking Soviet aircraft. In the end, they used up all the ammunition. Around noon, a torpedo dropped from an aircraft hit the transport and it sank, taking about 5 thousand people to the bottom of the sea. On the morning of May 12, the large ship "Romania" burned out and sank.

The Crimean operation is an offensive operation of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander General of the Army F. I. Tolbukhin) and the Separate Primorsky Army (General of the Army A. I. Eremenko) in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet (Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky) and the Azov Military flotilla (Rear Admiral S. G. Gorshkov) April 8 - May 12 with the aim of liberating the Crimea from Nazi troops during the Great Patriotic War of 1941/45. As a result of the Melitopol operation on September 26 - November 5, 1943 and the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation on October 31 - November 11, 1943, Soviet troops broke through the fortifications of the Turkish Wall on the Perekop Isthmus and captured bridgeheads on south coast Sivash and on the Kerch Peninsula, but they failed to liberate Crimea at that time due to lack of strength. The 17th German Army was blockaded and, relying on defensive positions in depth, continued to hold the Crimea. In April 1944, it included 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions (about 200 thousand people, about 3600 guns and mortars, over 200 tanks and assault guns, 150 aircraft).

Soviet troops numbered 30 rifle divisions, 2 marine brigades, 2 fortified areas (about 400 thousand people in total, about 6000 guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1250 aircraft).

On April 8, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, supported by the aviation of the 8th Air Army and the aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, went on the offensive, the 2nd Guards Army captured Armyansk, and the 51st Army went to the flank of the enemy's Perekop grouping, which began to retreat. On the night of April 11, the Separate Primorsky Army went on the offensive with the support of the aviation of the 4th Air Army and the aviation of the Black Sea Fleet and captured the city of Kerch in the morning. The 19th Tank Corps, introduced in the zone of the 51st Army, captured Dzhankoy, which forced the Kerch enemy grouping to begin a hasty retreat to the west. Developing the offensive, the Soviet troops reached Sevastopol on April 15-16 ...

Great Soviet Encyclopedia

THIS WAS OUR TASK FOR MAY 9

I would like to dwell on the Crimean operation, because, in my opinion, it is not covered enough ...

If you look at the maps of the hostilities of 1855, 1920, 1942 and 1944, it is easy to see that in all four cases the defense of Sevastopol was built in approximately the same way. This is explained by the most important role played here by the natural factor: the location of the mountains, the presence of the sea, the nature of the terrain. And now the enemy clung to points that were advantageous in terms of protecting the city. The new commander, Almendinger, burst out with a special appeal to the search: “The Führer instructed me to command the 17th Army ... I received an order to protect every inch of the Sevastopol bridgehead. I demand that everyone be on the defensive in the full sense of the word; so that no one retreats and holds every trench, every funnel and every trench. In the event of a breakthrough of enemy tanks, the infantry must remain in their positions and destroy tanks both at the forefront and in the depths of the defense with powerful anti-tank weapons ... The honor of the army depends on the defense of every meter of the territory entrusted to us. Germany expects us to do our duty. Long live the Fuhrer!

But already on the first day of the assault on the Sevastopol fortified region, the enemy suffered a major defeat, was forced to leave the main defensive line and withdraw troops to the inner bypass. To liquidate the defense on it and finally liberate Sevastopol - that was our task for May 9th. The fighting did not stop at night. Our bomber aviation was especially active. We decided to resume the general attack at 8 am on May 9th. From the commander of the 2nd Guards Zakharov, we demanded to eliminate the enemy on the northern side of the city in a day and go to the coast of the Northern Bay along its entire length; with the left-flank corps, strike at the Ship Side and take it. The commander of the Primorsky Army, Melnik, was ordered to capture the Nameless Hill southwest of state farm No. 10 by night infantry operations and ensure the entry into battle of the 19th tank corps.

Exactly at 8 o'clock the 4th Ukrainian resumed the general assault on Sevastopol. The battles for the city continued all day, and by the end of it, our troops reached the defensive line prepared in advance by the enemy from Streletskaya Bay to the sea. Ahead lay the last strip of Crimea, which still belonged to the Nazis, from Omega to Cape Khersones.

On the morning of May 10, the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief followed: “To Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky. Army General Tolbukhin. The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, with the support of massive air and artillery strikes, as a result of three days of offensive battles, broke through the heavily fortified long-term defense of the Germans, consisting of three lines of reinforced concrete defensive structures, and a few hours ago stormed the fortress and the most important naval base on the Black Sea - the city of Sevastopol. Thus, the last center of German resistance in the Crimea was liquidated and the Crimea was completely cleared of the Nazi invaders. Further, all the troops that distinguished themselves in the battles for Sevastopol were listed, which were presented for the assignment of the name of Sevastopol and for awarding orders.

On May 10, the capital of the Motherland saluted the valiant troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, who liberated Sevastopol.

35 DAYS

On May 7 at 10:30, with the massive support of the entire aviation of the front, Soviet troops began a general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area. The troops of the main shock group of the front broke through the enemy defenses on a 9-kilometer sector and captured Sapun Mountain in the course of fierce battles. On May 9, front troops from the north, east and southeast broke into Sevastopol and liberated the city. The remnants of the German 17th Army, pursued by the 19th Panzer Corps, retreated to Cape Khersones, where they were finally defeated. On the cape, 21 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, captured a large number of technology and weapons.

On May 12, the Crimean offensive operation ended. If in 1941-1942. It took the German troops 250 days to capture the heroically defended Sevastopol, but in 1944 it took only 35 days for the Soviet troops to crack the powerful fortifications in the Crimea and clear almost the entire peninsula of the enemy.

The goals of the operation were achieved. Soviet troops broke through the defense in depth on the Isthmus of Perekop, the Kerch Peninsula, in the region of Sevastopol and defeated the 17th field army of the Wehrmacht. Its losses on land alone amounted to 100 thousand people, including over 61,580 prisoners. Soviet troops and fleet forces during the Crimean operation lost 17,754 people killed and 67,065 people wounded.

As a result of the Crimean operation, the last major enemy bridgehead that threatened the rear of the fronts operating in the Right-Bank Ukraine was eliminated. Within five days, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, was liberated and favorable conditions were created for a further attack on the Balkans.

Today is a memorable date in the military history of Russia. On May 12, 1944, the Crimean offensive operation ended. It was distinguished by well-balanced directions of the main strikes, good interaction between strike groups of troops, aviation and navy forces. At the beginning of the war, it took the Germans 250 days to capture the heroically defended Sevastopol. Our troops liberated Crimea in just 35 days.

THE BEGINNING OF OUR OFFENSIVE

35 DAYS

On May 7 at 10:30, with the massive support of the entire aviation of the front, Soviet troops began a general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area. The troops of the main shock group of the front broke through the enemy defenses on a 9-kilometer sector and captured Sapun Mountain in the course of fierce battles. On May 9, front troops from the north, east and southeast broke into Sevastopol and liberated the city. The remnants of the German 17th Army, pursued by the 19th Panzer Corps, retreated to Cape Khersones, where they were finally defeated. On the cape, 21 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, a large amount of equipment and weapons were captured.

On May 12, the Crimean offensive operation ended. If in 1941-1942. It took the German troops 250 days to capture the heroically defended Sevastopol, but in 1944 it took only 35 days for the Soviet troops to crack the powerful fortifications in the Crimea and clear almost the entire peninsula of the enemy.

The goals of the operation were achieved. Soviet troops broke through the defense in depth on the Isthmus of Perekop, the Kerch Peninsula, in the region of Sevastopol and defeated the 17th field army of the Wehrmacht. Its losses on land alone amounted to 100 thousand people, including over 61,580 prisoners. Soviet troops and fleet forces during the Crimean operation lost 17,754 people killed and 67,065 people wounded.

As a result of the Crimean operation, the last major enemy bridgehead that threatened the rear of the fronts operating in the Right-Bank Ukraine was eliminated. Within five days, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, was liberated and favorable conditions were created for a further attack on the Balkans.

P.P. Sokolov-Skalya. The liberation of Sevastopol by the Soviet army. May 1944

On April 8, 70 years ago, the Crimean strategic offensive operation began. It went down in history as one of the most important offensive operations of the Great Patriotic War. Her goal was to free Crimean peninsula, an important strategic foothold in the Black Sea theater of operations, by defeating the 17th German army, which held the Crimea, Colonel-General E. Eneke.

As a result of the Melitopol (September 26 - November 5, 1943) and (October 31 - November 11, 1943) Soviet troops broke through the fortifications of the Turkish Wall on the Perekop Isthmus, captured bridgeheads on the southern coast of the Sivash and on the Kerch Peninsula, but immediately liberated Crimea failed - there was not enough strength. A large grouping of German troops continued to remain on the peninsula, relying on defensive positions in depth. On the Perekop Isthmus and against the bridgehead on the Sivash, the defense consisted of three, and on the Kerch Peninsula - of four lanes.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (VGK) considered the Crimea as a strategically important area, and its liberation as the most important opportunity for the return of the main base of the Black Sea Fleet - Sevastopol, which would significantly improve the conditions for basing ships and conducting military operations at sea. In addition, the Crimea covered the Balkan strategic flank of the German troops and their important sea lanes, going along the Black Sea straits to the western coast of the Black Sea. Therefore, the German leadership also attached great military and political importance to keeping the Crimea in their hands, which, in their opinion, was one of the factors for maintaining support for Turkey and the allies in the Balkans. In this regard, the command of the 17th Army was obliged to hold the peninsula to the last.

At the beginning of 1944, the German army was reinforced by two divisions: at the end of January 1944, the 73rd Infantry Division was delivered to the peninsula by sea, and at the beginning of March, the 111th Infantry Division. By April, the army had 12 divisions: 5 German and 7 Romanian, 2 assault gun brigades, various reinforcement units and numbered more than 195 thousand people, about 3600 guns and mortars, 215 tanks and assault guns. She was supported by 148 aircraft.

The Soviet leadership entrusted the task of defeating the Crimean enemy grouping and liberating Crimea to the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander General of the Army), which included the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies, the 19th Tank Corps, the 16th and 78th th fortified areas, aviation support was provided by the aviation of the 8th Air Army and the Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet; A separate Primorsky Army (commander General of the Army), whose operations were provided by the aviation of the 4th Air Army; the Black Sea Fleet (commander admiral), whose forces supported the offensive on the coastal flanks and disrupted the enemy's sea communications; Azov military flotilla (commander Rear Admiral), which supported the offensive of the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army.

In total, the Soviet strike force consisted of about 470 thousand people, 5982 guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns (ACS), 1250 aircraft, including the aviation of the Black Sea Fleet. By April 1944, the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla included a battleship, four cruisers, six destroyers, two patrol ships, eight base minesweepers, 47 torpedo and 80 patrol boats, 34 armored boats, 29 submarines, three gunboats and other auxiliary vessels. In addition, the troops were supported by the Crimean partisan detachments. Created in January 1944, the partisan forces of the Crimea, numbering almost 4 thousand people, were combined into three formations: Southern, Northern and Eastern. Thus, the forces of the USSR significantly exceeded the forces of the enemy.

The ratio of forces and means of the parties to the beginning of the Crimean strategic offensive operation

Forces and means	Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Separate Primorsky Army	Troops of the 17th German Army
Divisions (estimated)	2,6	1
Total people	2,4	1
Guns and mortars	1,7	1
Tanks and self-propelled guns	2,6	1
combat aircraft	4,2	1

The actions of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Separate Primorsky Army were coordinated by representatives of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Marshal.

Preparations for the Crimean offensive began in February 1944. On February 6, Chief of the General Staff A.M. Vasilevsky and the Military Council of the 4th Ukrainian Front submitted to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command their views on the conduct of the Crimean operation, which was supposed to begin on February 18-19.

However, in the future, the start date of the operation was repeatedly postponed. So, on February 18, Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky, in accordance with the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, ordered Army General F.I. Tolbukhin to begin the Crimean operation after the entire coast of the Dnieper up to Kherson, inclusive, is liberated from the enemy. Despite this, the Stavka, in its further instructions, demanded that the operation begin no later than March 1, regardless of the course of the operation to liberate the Right-Bank Dnieper from the enemy. A.M. Vasilevsky reported to Headquarters that, given weather, The Crimean operation can only be started between March 15 and 20. The Headquarters agreed with the scheduled date, but on March 16 the front received new instructions that the Crimean operation "begin after the troops of the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front have captured the area of ​​​​the city of Nikolaev and advance them to Odessa." However, due to bad meteorological conditions, the front was able to start the operation only on April 8, 1944.

The entire operation of the 4th Ukrainian Front was planned to a depth of up to 170 km for a duration of 10-12 days with an average daily advance rate of 12-15 km. The rate of advance of the 19th Panzer Corps was determined at 30-35 km per day.

The idea of ​​the Crimean operation was to use the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front from the north - from Perekop and Sivash, and the Separate Primorskaya Army from the east - from the Kerch Peninsula, to deliver a simultaneous blow in the general direction to Simferopol and Sevastopol, to dismember and destroy the enemy grouping , preventing her evacuation from the Crimea. It was planned to strike the main blow from the bridgehead on the southern bank of the Sivash. If successful, the main grouping of the front went to the rear of the enemy's Perekop positions, and the capture of Dzhankoy opened up freedom of action towards Simferopol and the Kerch Peninsula to the rear of the enemy grouping located there. An auxiliary blow was delivered on the Perekop Isthmus. A separate Primorsky army was supposed to break through the enemy defenses north of Kerch, deliver the main blow to Simferopol, Sevastopol, and part of the forces along the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula.

On April 8, 1944, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front went on the offensive. Five days before, heavy artillery destroyed a significant part of the enemy's long-term structures. On the evening of April 7, reconnaissance in force was carried out, which confirmed the previous information about the grouping of Wehrmacht troops in the area of ​​​​Perekop and Sivash. On the day the operation began at 08:00, artillery and aviation preparation began in the zone of the 4th Ukrainian Front, with a total duration of 2.5 hours. Immediately after its completion, the troops of the front went on the offensive, striking with the forces of the 51st army of the lieutenant general from the bridgehead on the southern bank of the Sivash. After two days of fierce fighting, thanks to the courage of the Soviet soldiers, the enemy's defenses were broken through. The 51st Army reached the flank of the German Perekop group, and the 2nd Guards Army of Lieutenant General liberated Armyansk. On the morning of April 11, Lieutenant General's 19th Tank Corps captured Dzhankoy on the move and successfully advanced on Simferopol. Fearing the threat of encirclement, the enemy left the fortifications on the Perekop Isthmus and began to withdraw from the Kerch Peninsula.

The troops of the Separate Primorsky Army, having launched an offensive on the night of April 11, in the morning captured the fortress city of Kerch, a fortified enemy resistance center on east coast Crimea. In all directions, the pursuit of enemy troops retreating to Sevastopol began. The 2nd Guards Army developed the offensive along west coast to Evpatoria. The 51st Army, using the success of the 19th Panzer Corps, rushed across the steppes to Simferopol. A separate Primorsky army advanced through Karasubazar (Belogorsk) and Feodosia to Sevastopol. As a result, Evpatoria, Simferopol and Feodosia were liberated on April 13, Bakhchisaray, Alushta, Yalta on April 14-15.

The German troops continued their retreat. Aviation of the 8th and 4th air armies delivered massive strikes against the retreating enemy troops and communication centers. The forces of the Black Sea Fleet sank its ships and transports with evacuated troops. From attacks on sea convoys and single ships, the enemy lost 8,100 soldiers and officers.

Crimean strategic offensive operation April 8 - May 12, 1944

The Crimean partisans and underground fighters fought courageously. Crimean partisan formations received the task of destroying the rear, nodes and lines of communication of the enemy, destroying railways, arrange blockages and ambushes on mountain roads, disrupt the work of the Yalta port and thereby prevent the withdrawal of the German-Romanian troops to it and other places of loading for evacuation to Romania. The partisans were also entrusted with the task of preventing the enemy from destroying cities, industrial and transport enterprises.

On April 15-16, Soviet troops reached Sevastopol and began preparations for the assault on the city. In accordance with the decision of the commander of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, approved by the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters, Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky, it was planned to deliver the main blow from the Balaklava region with formations and units of the left flank of the 51st and the center of the Primorskaya Army, which became part of the 4th Ukrainian Front on April 18. They had to break through the enemy defenses in the area of ​​Sapun Mountain and the heights northeast locality Karan with the task of cutting it off from the bays located west of Sevastopol. In the opinion of the front command, the defeat of the enemy on Sapun Gora, with all the difficulty of its assault, should have made it possible to quickly violate the stability of the German defense. The auxiliary strike was planned in the zone of the 2nd Guards Army and, in order to divert the attention of the enemy, was planned two days earlier than the main strike. The army was to break through the enemy defenses in the area southeast of Belbek with the forces of the 13th Guards and 55th Rifle Corps and develop an offensive on the Mekenziev mountains and east coast North Bay in order to press the German group to the sea and destroy it.

On April 19 and 23, the front troops made two attempts to break through the main defensive line of the Sevastopol fortified region, but they ended in failure. A new regrouping and training of troops was required, as well as the supply of ammunition and fuel to them. On May 5, the assault on the fortifications of the city began - the 2nd Guards Army went on the offensive, which forced the enemy to transfer troops to Sevastopol from other directions.

On May 7 at 10:30, with the massive support of the entire aviation of the front, Soviet troops began a general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area. The troops of the main shock group of the front broke through the enemy defenses on a 9-kilometer sector and captured Sapun Mountain in the course of fierce battles. On May 9, front troops from the north, east and southeast broke into Sevastopol and liberated the city. The remnants of the German 17th Army, pursued by the 19th Panzer Corps, retreated to Cape Khersones, where they were finally defeated. On the cape, 21 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, a large amount of equipment and weapons were captured.

Soviet tanks on Frunze Street (now Nakhimov Avenue) during the days of the city's liberation from German invaders. May 1944

The Crimean offensive operation ended. If in 1941-1942. It took the German troops 250 days to capture the heroically defended Sevastopol, but in 1944 it took only 35 days for the Soviet troops to crack the powerful fortifications in the Crimea and clear almost the entire peninsula of the enemy.

Fireworks in the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944. Photo by E. Khaldei

The goals of the operation were achieved. Soviet troops broke through the defense in depth on the Isthmus of Perekop, the Kerch Peninsula, in the region of Sevastopol and defeated the 17th field army of the Wehrmacht. Its losses on land alone amounted to 100 thousand people, including over 61,580 prisoners. Soviet troops and fleet forces during the Crimean operation lost 17,754 people killed and 67,065 people wounded.

Combat composition, the number of Soviet troops and casualties *

Name of associations and terms of their participation in operation	Combat squad and troop strength to the beginning of the operation		Loss of life in operation
	amount compounds	number	irrevocable	sanitary	Total	average daily
4th Ukrainian Front (all period)	sd - 18, tk - 1, otbr - 2, UR - 2	278 400	13 332	50 498	63830	1 824
Separate seaside and 4th Air Army (all period)	sd - 12, sbr -2, selection - 1
Black Sea Fleet and Azov military flotilla (all period)
Total	Divisions-30, buildings-1, brigades-5, UR - 2	462 400	17 754 3,8%	67 065	84819	2 423

List of abbreviations: otbr - a separate tank brigade, sbr - rifle brigade, sd - rifle division, tk - tank corps, UR - fortified area.

The victory in the Crimea returned an important economic region to the country. In general, the territory was liberated, occupying an area of ​​​​about 26 thousand square meters. km. During the years of occupation, the Nazi invaders inflicted enormous damage on the Crimea: more than 300 industrial enterprises, the livestock was almost completely exterminated, cities and resorts were badly destroyed - Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia and Evpatoria were especially affected. So, in Sevastopol, by the time of liberation, there were 3 thousand inhabitants out of the 109 thousand people available in the city on the eve of the war. Only 6% of the housing stock survived in the city.

Considering the course and evaluating the results of the Crimean operation, it is clear that its successful completion was predetermined by the skillful choice by the Soviet command of the directions of the main attacks, the good organization of the interaction of strike groups of troops, aviation and navy forces, the decisive dismemberment and defeat of the main enemy forces (the Sivash direction), mastery of key defensive positions in a short time (storming of Sevastopol). The mobile groups (forward detachments) of the armies were skillfully used to develop the offensive. They quickly penetrated into the operational depth of the enemy's defense, preventing the withdrawing troops from gaining a foothold on intermediate lines and in defense areas, which ensured a high rate of advance.

For heroism and skillful actions, 160 formations and units were awarded the honorary names of Evpatoria, Kerch, Perekop, Sevastopol, Sivash, Simferopol, Feodosia and Yalta. 56 formations, units and ships were awarded orders. 238 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, thousands of participants in the battles for the Crimea were awarded orders and medals.

As a result of the Crimean operation, the last major enemy bridgehead that threatened the rear of the fronts operating in the Right-Bank Ukraine was eliminated. Within five days, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, was liberated and favorable conditions were created for a further attack on the Balkans.

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* Great Patriotic War without the stamp of secrecy. The book of losses. The latest reference edition /G.F. Krivosheev, V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov, V.V. Gurkin. - M.: Veche, 2010. S. 143.

Anna Tsepkalova,
employee of the Research Institute
military history of the Military Academy of the General Staff
Armed Forces Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences

May 1, 1944. 1045th day of the war

On the same day, the Sugar Loaf height was occupied, covering the entrance to the Inkerman Valley. The troops of the 2nd Guards Army, having captured the Mekenzievy Gory station after a four-hour battle, advanced towards the Northern Bay.

On May 18, the Soviet government sent a note to the government of Bulgaria regarding the ongoing cooperation between Bulgaria and Germany.

Sovinformburo. During May 31, in the area north of Yassa, our troops successfully repulsed all attacks by large enemy infantry and tank forces and inflicted heavy losses in manpower and equipment.

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An excerpt characterizing the Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War / May 1944

Christmas time came, and apart from the ceremonial mass, except for the solemn and boring congratulations from neighbors and courtyards, except for all the new dresses put on, there was nothing special commemorating Christmas time, but in a windless 20 degree frost, in a bright blinding sun during the day and in starry winter light at night, the need for some kind of commemoration of this time was felt.
On the third day of the holiday, after dinner, all the households went to their rooms. It was the most boring time of the day. Nikolai, who went to the neighbors in the morning, fell asleep in the sofa room. The old count was resting in his study. Sonya was sitting at a round table in the living room, sketching a pattern. The Countess laid out the cards. Nastasya Ivanovna, with a sad face, was sitting at the window with two old women. Natasha entered the room, went up to Sonya, looked at what she was doing, then went up to her mother and silently stopped.
- Why are you walking around like a homeless person? her mother told her. - What do you want?
“I need him ... now, this minute I need him,” said Natasha, her eyes shining and not smiling. The Countess lifted her head and looked at her daughter intently.
- Don't look at me. Mom, don't look, I'll cry now.
“Sit down, sit with me,” said the countess.
Mom, I need it. Why am I disappearing like this, mother? ... - Her voice broke off, tears splashed from her eyes, and in order to hide them, she quickly turned around and left the room. She went out into the sofa room, stood for a moment, thought, and went into the girls' room. There, the old maid grumbled at a young girl, out of breath, who had come running from the cold from the servants.
“That will play,” said the old woman. - There is all the time.
“Let her go, Kondratyevna,” said Natasha. - Go, Mavrusha, go.
And releasing Mavrusha, Natasha went through the hall into the hall. The old man and two young footmen were playing cards. They interrupted the game and stood up at the entrance of the young lady. "What should I do with them?" thought Natasha. - Yes, Nikita, please go ... where can I send him? - Yes, go to the servants and bring a rooster please; yes, and you, Misha, bring oats.
- Would you like some oats? Misha said cheerfully and willingly.
“Go, go quickly,” said the old man.
- Fedor, and you get me some chalk.
Passing by the buffet, she ordered the samovar to be served, although it was not at all the time.
Fok the barman was the most angry person in the whole house. Natasha loved to try her power over him. He did not believe her and went to ask if it was true?
- Oh, this young lady! said Foka, feigning a frown at Natasha.
No one in the house sent out so many people and gave them so much work as Natasha. She could not see people with indifference, so as not to send them somewhere. It was as if she was trying to see if she would get angry, if one of them would pout at her, but people did not like to fulfill anyone's orders as much as Natasha's. “What should I do? Where should I go? Natasha thought as she slowly walked down the corridor.
- Nastasya Ivanovna, what will be born from me? she asked the jester, who, in his kutsaveyka, was walking towards her.
- From you fleas, dragonflies, blacksmiths, - answered the jester.
“My God, my God, it’s all the same. Ah, where should I go? What should I do with myself? - And she quickly, clattering her feet, ran up the stairs to Vogel, who lived with his wife on the top floor. Vogel had two governesses, and there were plates of raisins, walnuts, and almonds on the table. The governesses talked about where it was cheaper to live, in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down, listened to their conversation with a serious, thoughtful face, and stood up. “The island of Madagascar,” she said. “Ma da gas car,” she repeated each syllable distinctly, and without answering m me Schoss’s questions about what she was saying, she left the room. Petya, her brother, was also upstairs: he and his uncle arranged fireworks, which he intended to set off at night. - Petya! Petka! she shouted to him, “take me downstairs. c - Petya ran up to her and turned his back. She jumped on top of him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he jumped up and ran with her. “No, no, it’s the island of Madagascar,” she said, and, jumping off it, went down.
As if she had bypassed her kingdom, tested her power and made sure that everyone was submissive, but still boring, Natasha went into the hall, took a guitar, sat in a dark corner behind a cabinet and began to pluck the strings in the bass, making a phrase that she remembered from one opera heard in St. Petersburg together with Prince Andrei. For outsiders, something on her guitar came out that had no meaning, but in her imagination, because of these sounds, a whole series of memories was resurrected. She sat at the cupboard, fixing her eyes on the streak of light falling from the pantry door, listening to herself and remembering. She was in a state of remembrance.
Sonya went to the buffet with a glass across the hall. Natasha looked at her, at the gap in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she was remembering that light was falling through the gap from the pantry door and that Sonya had passed with a glass. "Yes, and it was exactly the same," thought Natasha. Sonya, what is it? Natasha shouted, fingering the thick string.
- Oh, you're here! – shuddering, said Sonya, came up and listened. - I do not know. Storm? she said timidly, afraid of making a mistake.
“Well, she shuddered in exactly the same way, came up in the same way and smiled timidly when it was already,” Natasha thought, “and in exactly the same way ... I thought that something was missing in her.”
- No, this is the choir from the Water Carrier, do you hear! - And Natasha finished singing the motive of the choir in order to make Sonya understand it.
– Where did you go? Natasha asked.
- Change the water in the glass. I'm painting the pattern now.
“You are always busy, but I don’t know how,” said Natasha. - Where is Nikolai?
Sleeping, it seems.
“Sonya, you go wake him up,” said Natasha. - Say that I call him to sing. - She sat, thought about what it meant, that it all happened, and, without resolving this issue and not at all regretting it, she was again transported in her imagination to the time when she was with him, and he, with loving eyes looked at her.
“Oh, I wish he would come soon. I'm so afraid it won't! And most importantly: I'm getting old, that's what! There will be no more what is now in me. Or maybe he will come today, he will come now. Maybe he came and sits there in the living room. Maybe he arrived yesterday and I forgot. She got up, put down her guitar and went into the living room. All the household, teachers, governesses and guests were already sitting at the tea table. People stood around the table - but Prince Andrei was not there, and there was still the old life.
“Ah, here she is,” said Ilya Andreevich, seeing Natasha come in. - Well, sit down with me. But Natasha stopped beside her mother, looking around, as if she was looking for something.
- Mum! she said. “Give it to me, give it to me, mother, hurry, hurry,” and again she could hardly restrain her sobs.
She sat down at the table and listened to the conversations of the elders and Nikolai, who also came to the table. “My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, the same dad holds a cup and blows the same way!” thought Natasha, feeling with horror the disgust that rose in her against all the household because they were still the same.
After tea, Nikolai, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa room, to their favorite corner, in which their most intimate conversations always began.

“It happens to you,” Natasha said to her brother when they sat down in the sofa room, “it happens to you that it seems to you that nothing will happen - nothing; that all that was good was? And not just boring, but sad?
- And how! - he said. - It happened to me that everything was fine, everyone was cheerful, but it would occur to me that all this was already tired and that everyone needed to die. Once I didn’t go to the regiment for a walk, and there was music playing ... and I suddenly became bored ...
“Ah, I know that. I know, I know, - Natasha picked up. “I was still little, so it happened to me. Remember, since they punished me for plums and you all danced, and I sat in the classroom and sobbed, I will never forget: I was sad and felt sorry for everyone, and for myself, and I felt sorry for everyone. And, most importantly, I was not to blame, - said Natasha, - do you remember?
“I remember,” Nikolai said. - I remember that I came to you later and I wanted to console you and, you know, I was ashamed. We were awfully funny. I had a bobblehead toy then and I wanted to give it to you. Do you remember?
“Do you remember,” Natasha said with a thoughtful smile, how long, long ago, we were still very young, our uncle called us into the office, back in the old house, and it was dark - we came and suddenly it was standing there ...
“Arap,” Nikolai finished with a joyful smile, “how can you not remember? Even now I don’t know that it was a black man, or we saw it in a dream, or we were told.
- He was gray, remember, and white teeth - he stands and looks at us ...
Do you remember Sonya? Nicholas asked...
“Yes, yes, I also remember something,” Sonya answered timidly ...
“I asked my father and mother about this arap,” said Natasha. “They say there was no arap. But you do remember!
- How, as now I remember his teeth.
How strange, it was like a dream. I like it.
- Do you remember how we rolled eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin on the carpet. Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how daddy in a blue coat on the porch fired a gun. - They sorted through, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad senile, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where the dream merges with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she remembered did not arouse in her that poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they recalled Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had cords on his jacket, and her nanny told her that they would sew her into cords too.
“But I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that then I did not dare not to believe, but I knew that this was not true, and I was so embarrassed.
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the divan. - Young lady, they brought a rooster, - the girl said in a whisper.
“Don’t, Polya, tell them to take it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of conversations going on in the sofa room, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp in the corner. He took off the cloth, and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my favorite Monsieur Filda’s Nocturiene,” said the voice of the old countess from the drawing room.
Dimmler took a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: - Young people, how quietly they sit!
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” said Natasha, looking around for a minute, and continued the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmler began to play. Natasha inaudibly, on tiptoe, went up to the table, took the candle, carried it out, and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they sat, but the silver light of a full moon fell on the floor through the large windows.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently in indecision to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything , until you remember that you remember what was even before I was in the world ...
“This is metampsikova,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. “The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels there somewhere and here, and from this we remember everything.” …
- May I join you? - Dimmler said quietly approached and sat down to them.
- If we were angels, why did we get lower? Nikolay said. - No, it can't be!
“Not lower, who told you that it was lower? ... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal ... therefore, if I live forever, so I lived before, lived for eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
Why is it so hard to imagine eternity? Natasha said. “It will be today, it will be tomorrow, it will always be, and yesterday was and the third day was ...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. Sing me something, - the voice of the countess was heard. - Why are you sitting down, like conspirators.
- Mum! I don’t feel like it,” Natasha said, but at the same time she got up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha got up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother's favorite play.
She said that she did not feel like singing, but she had not sung for a long time before, and for a long time after, as she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreevich, from the study where he was talking to Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a pupil in a hurry to go to play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what an enormous difference there was between her and her friend, and how impossible it was for her to be in any way as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how something unnatural and terrible is in this upcoming marriage of Natasha to Prince Andrei.
Dimmler, sitting down next to the countess and closing his eyes, listened.
“No, countess,” he said at last, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this gentleness, tenderness, strength ...
– Ah! how I fear for her, how I fear,” said the countess, not remembering to whom she was speaking. Her maternal instinct told her that there was too much in Natasha, and that she would not be happy from this. Natasha had not yet finished singing, when an enthusiastic fourteen-year-old Petya ran into the room with the news that mummers had come.
Natasha suddenly stopped.
- Fool! she shouted at her brother, ran up to a chair, fell on it and sobbed so that she could not stop for a long time afterwards.
“Nothing, mother, really nothing, so: Petya scared me,” she said, trying to smile, but tears kept flowing and sobs squeezed her throat.
Dressed-up servants, bears, Turks, innkeepers, ladies, terrible and funny, bringing with them cold and fun, at first timidly huddled in the hallway; then, hiding one behind the other, they were forced into the hall; and at first shyly, but then more and more cheerfully and amicably, songs, dances, choral and Christmas games began. The countess, recognizing the faces and laughing at the dressed up, went into the living room. Count Ilya Andreich sat in the hall with a beaming smile, approving the players. The youth has disappeared.
Half an hour later, in the hall, among the other mummers, another old lady in tanks appeared - it was Nikolai. The Turkish woman was Petya. Payas - it was Dimmler, the hussar - Natasha and the Circassian - Sonya, with a painted cork mustache and eyebrows.
After condescending surprise, misrecognition and praise from those who were not dressed up, the young people found that the costumes were so good that they had to be shown to someone else.
Nikolay, who wanted to give everyone a ride on his troika along an excellent road, suggested that, taking ten dressed-up people from the yard with him, go to his uncle.
- No, why are you upsetting him, the old man! - said the countess, - and there is nowhere to turn around with him. To go, so to the Melyukovs.
Melyukova was a widow with children of various ages, also with governesses and tutors, who lived four miles from the Rostovs.
“Here, ma chere, clever,” said the old count, who had begun to stir. “Now let me dress up and go with you.” I'll stir up Pasheta.
But the countess did not agree to let the count go: his leg hurt all these days. It was decided that Ilya Andreevich was not allowed to go, but that if Louise Ivanovna (m me Schoss) went, the young ladies could go to Melyukova's. Sonya, always timid and shy, began to beg Louisa Ivanovna more insistently than anyone else not to refuse them.
Sonya's outfit was the best. Her mustache and eyebrows were unusually suited to her. Everyone told her that she was very good, and she was in a lively and energetic mood unusual for her. Some kind of inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and in her man's dress she seemed like a completely different person. Luiza Ivanovna agreed, and half an hour later four troikas with bells and bells, screeching and whistling in the frosty snow, drove up to the porch.
Natasha was the first to give the tone of Christmas merriment, and this merriment, reflected from one to another, grew more and more intensified and reached its highest degree at the time when everyone went out into the cold, and talking, calling to each other, laughing and shouting, sat down in the sleigh.
Two troikas were accelerating, the third troika of the old count with an Oryol trotter in the bud; Nikolai's fourth own, with its low, black, shaggy root. Nikolay, in his old woman's attire, on which he put on a hussar, belted cloak, stood in the middle of his sleigh, picking up the reins.
It was so bright that he could see plaques gleaming in the moonlight and the eyes of the horses looking frightened at the riders rustling under the dark canopy of the entrance.
Natasha, Sonya, m me Schoss and two girls sat in Nikolai's sleigh. In the old count's sleigh sat Dimmler with his wife and Petya; dressed up courtyards sat in the rest.
- Go ahead, Zakhar! - Nikolai shouted to his father's coachman in order to have an opportunity to overtake him on the road.
The troika of the old count, in which Dimmler and other mummers sat, screeching with runners, as if freezing to the snow, and rattling with a thick bell, moved forward. The trailers clung to the shafts and bogged down, turning the strong and shiny snow like sugar.
Nikolai set off for the first three; the others rustled and squealed from behind. At first they rode at a small trot along a narrow road. While we were driving past the garden, the shadows from the bare trees often lay across the road and hid the bright light of the moon, but as soon as we drove beyond the fence, a diamond-shiny, with a bluish sheen, a snowy plain, all doused with moonlight and motionless, opened up on all sides. Once, once, pushed a bump in the front sleigh; the next sleigh and the following jogged in the same way, and, boldly breaking the chained silence, the sleigh began to stretch out one after the other.
- A hare's footprint, a lot of footprints! - Natasha's voice sounded in the frosty constrained air.
– As you can see, Nicolas! Sonya's voice said. - Nikolai looked back at Sonya and bent down to get a closer look at her face. Some kind of completely new, sweet face, with black eyebrows and mustaches, in the moonlight, close and far, peeped out of the sables.
"It used to be Sonya," Nikolai thought. He looked closer at her and smiled.
What are you, Nicholas?
“Nothing,” he said, and turned back to the horses.
Having left on the torna, big road, greased with runners and all riddled with traces of thorns, visible in the light of the moon, the horses themselves began to tighten the reins and add speed. The left harness, bending its head, twitched its traces with jumps. Root swayed, moving his ears, as if asking: “Is it too early to start?” - Ahead, already far separated and ringing a receding thick bell, Zakhar's black troika was clearly visible on the white snow. Shouting and laughter and the voices of the dressed up were heard from his sleigh.
“Well, you, dear ones,” shouted Nikolai, tugging on the reins on one side and withdrawing his hand with a whip. And only by the wind, which seemed to have intensified against them, and by the twitching of the tie-downs, which were tightening and increasing their speed, it was noticeable how fast the troika flew. Nicholas looked back. With a shout and a squeal, waving their whips and forcing the natives to gallop, other troikas kept up. Root steadfastly swayed under the arc, not thinking of knocking down and promising to give more and more when needed.
Nikolai caught up with the top three. They drove off some mountain, drove onto a widely rutted road through a meadow near a river.
"Where are we going?" thought Nicholas. - “It should be on a slanting meadow. But no, it's something new that I've never seen before. This is not a slanting meadow and not Demkina Gora, but God knows what it is! This is something new and magical. Well, whatever it is!” And he, shouting at the horses, began to go around the first three.
Zakhar restrained his horses and turned his already frosted face up to the eyebrows.
Nicholas let his horses go; Zakhar, stretching his hands forward, smacked his lips and let his people go.
“Well, hold on, sir,” he said. - The troikas flew even faster nearby, and the legs of the galloping horses quickly changed. Nicholas began to take forward. Zakhar, without changing the position of his outstretched arms, raised one hand with the reins.
“You’re lying, master,” he shouted to Nikolai. Nikolay put all the horses into a gallop and overtook Zakhar. The horses covered the faces of their riders with fine, dry snow, next to them there was a sound of frequent enumeration and confusion of fast moving legs, and the shadows of a troika being overtaken. The whistle of runners in the snow and women's screams were heard from different directions.