April 2, 1938
“Birobidzhan Star” (12+) on the first page published a greeting from Hero of the Soviet Union I. D. Papanin to the workers of the Jewish Autonomous Region. The greeting text said the following:
“Warm greetings to the workers of the Jewish Autonomous Region on the tenth anniversary of the resettlement of Jewish workers to Birobidzhan, to the glorious Far East.
It is a great joy for me to welcome you, the builders of the young Jewish Autonomous Region, joyful and vigorous, illuminated by the light… of that Constitution that shone for us in the ice and nights of the Arctic.
It is joyful to congratulate on the remarkable successes of the previously oppressed and persecuted Jewish people, who are now involved in the creativity of socialism along with all our great Soviet people.
I wish you from the bottom of my heart to build a flourishing region, a beautiful star in the glorious constellation of Soviet national republics and regions.
With all my heart I wish you new victories and achievements for the glory of the entire Soviet people…
Long live our beautiful invincible homeland!..
I. D. Papanin.”
Clippings from the newspaper “Birobidzhan Star”. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
April 2, 1980
The Birobidzhan Star for April 2, 1980 published an article by L. Zvenigorodsky “The Banner over the Reichstag.” It is dedicated to our fellow countryman, Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Petrovich Kagykin.
Enough has been written about our fellow heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Their names are immortalized by their descendants in monuments, memorial plaques, and street names.
In his article, Zvenigorodsky resorts to official documents and memories of fellow soldiers about P.P. Kagykin. And this allows the reader to imagine what kind of person our heroic fellow countryman was.
Let's look at the text of the article:
“On the initiative of the command and political department of the 79th Rifle Corps, two groups of volunteers of 20 people were created from communists and Komsomol members to hoist the banner over the Reichstag. Their command was entrusted to young officers of the corps headquarters, Major M. M. Bondar and Captain V. N. Makov.
There were many volunteers. And although careful selection took place in all divisions of the rifle corps, the assault group turned out to be large.
The group was mostly young guys. Brave soldiers. How you had to love life, your homeland, so that in the last minutes of the great battle you could voluntarily volunteer for an operation, the outcome of which left little chance of staying alive.”
From the memoirs of retired colonel M. M. Bondar: “A short sergeant entered the room. Wearing a tunic of the Order of the Red Star, Glory of the third degree. Quietly, but clearly announced himself. Kagykin. Artilleryman.
— Isn’t that the same artilleryman whom the medical battalion lost on the Oder?
– Yes, no one lost me, Comrade Major. The injury is trivial.
There was a lot of talk about this case in the building. A shell fragment broke the gun sight, and Kagykin himself was wounded. The bloodied sergeant was taken to the doctors by orderlies. And half an hour later he was again at the firing line. But they noticed him only when, having deployed the cannon captured from the enemy, he opened fire on the tanks that suddenly appeared. Two of them remained on the battlefield. There were many such battles, where Kagykin’s crew distinguished themselves, both during the liberation of Warsaw and during the storming of Berlin.
– Can you handle it? You're not an infantryman, sergeant!
– It’s a common thing, Comrade Major!
– Communist?
– No, non-partisan. But consider me a communist, I won’t let you down. I’m from Stalingrad itself.”
Pyotr Kagykin with colleagues. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
From a letter from M. M. Bondar to the red rangers of the secondary school in the village. Leninskoye:
“Petr Petrovich Kagykin was a good warrior, a good comrade, a man who devoted himself entirely to serving the Motherland. Wherever he was, no matter what task was given to him, he always coped with it. He did not look for easy service, but was always where the fate of the battle was decided.
Even today I thank fate for bringing me together with him. There were just over twenty of us, and less than half left the Reichstag… And Pyotr Petrovich was caught by an enemy bullet. But he remained in service until the end of the battle. The lives and deeds of such people are worthy of being remembered.”
