In the last issue of the magazine, we published letters from front-line soldiers who died in the first months of the Great Patriotic War in battles with Nazi troops in the western territory of our country-from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. In this collection, we present to our readers invaluable documents of those who died a brave death in 1941, defending Leningrad and Moscow.

"Dear mother, Yulia and Volodya, hello!..

I am now on the North-Western Front. The path had to be overcome quite a long one... On this path, of course, I had to experience a lot, especially since the atrocities of the Germans are known to everyone.

We are now defending the approaches to our second largest city, Leningrad. The course of military operations should be known to you from the press... The Germans are very afraid of our artillery fire and aircraft... The energy with which the Germans went into battle in the first days of the war is already broken. So the day is not far off when the Germans will start to run away without looking back...

I'm in a hurry. I write a letter under the artillery thunder of my shots...

Hello to all of you. I kiss everyone. While. Good-bye." Your Misha.

18 / VII 41 years"

The letter of the twenty-three-year-old Red Army soldier Mikhail Krylov was the last. In one of the heavy battles in the summer of forty-one, he was captured by the Nazis and after terrible torture in January 1942, he died in a German prisoner of war camp in Witzendorf.

"Dear Tomochka, I am writing this note in a few minutes before going on the attack with the battalion. If I die, always be proud that I performed with honor the task assigned to me-the defense of the city of Lenin from the Nazis... Bring up our dear daughter Lucy honest, brave and brave.

30. IX. 41 g."

Senior political instructor Ivan Georgievich Startsev did not have time to send this note to his wife Tamara Dmitrievna. During the attack near the village of Gaitalovo, our soldiers encountered strong enemy resistance, and the battalion commander was seriously wounded. The enemy fire increased even more. The companies lay low. And then the voice of senior political instructor Startsev, who took command of the battalion, sounded over the battlefield.:

"Forward, comrades! Avenge the commander's blood!

The soldiers charged at the enemy again. Ahead of them was their commissar Ivan Startsev. The battalion broke through the line of enemy fortifications and captured an important Fascist stronghold. In this battle, on the very last line to the goal, senior political instructor Startsev died a hero's death. Automatic fire ripped through his chest.

It was then that Ivan Startsev's friends found a note to his wife in the pocket of his tunic. They sent it to Tamara Dmitrievna on the same day, and informed her that Ivan

Startsev died near the village of Gaitalovo on September 30, 1941.

"The Germans have been rushing to Leningrad for four months. But they can't do it, and they can't do it. Leningraders stand to the death. We are glad that the Germans are now being soundly beaten near Leningrad... If only I could survive this damned blockade, if only my health wouldn't fail me...

December 1941 "

Unfortunately, the health of the sanitary squad member Marta Sizova failed. At the beginning of 1942, it was decided to evacuate her along with a group of very weak and exhausted people to the rear. On March 5, 1942, on the day of her birth, on the day of her 18th birthday, Marta died in a Vologda hospital.

Yes, the enemy failed to take Leningrad. The city survived, it was bravely defended by the soldiers of the Red Army, they fought heroically near Moscow, and did not let the fascists enter the capital of our Motherland, as evidenced by the letters of the dead front-line soldiers.

"Dear Kolya!.. I send you my brotherly greetings. You may already know that I managed to shoot down an enemy plane on the outskirts of Moscow. The Soviet government highly appreciated my work: I was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union...

Now I'm treating the wound, visiting my parents. I look forward to going back to my unit and beating the hated Fascist reptile again... We were very happy to hear that you and your comrades-in-arms shot down an enemy plane. Do the same in the future... No mercy for the frenzied fascist bandits!..

Victor. August 1941 "

Fighter pilot Junior Lieutenant Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin participated in repelling the massive raids of Hitler's aviation on Moscow from July 22, 1941. He briefly told his brother Nikolai that he had managed to shoot down an enemy plane. And it was like this.

On the night of August 7, another group of Nazi bombers tried to break through to Moscow. Junior Lieutenant Talalikhin was among the first to intercept. Soon he found the Heinkel and fired a well-aimed burst at its starboard engine. After getting rid of the bomb supply, the enemy tried to escape. Talalikhin repeated the attack, but it was not so easy to shoot down the Heinkel with machine-gun fire. Soon the machine guns fell silent.

Victor decided not to miss the enemy. He managed to get behind the Heinkel. And then the fascist shooter struck from a large-caliber machine gun located in the tail of the bomber. The bullet burned his right arm. Talalikhin abruptly gave gas and the entire mass of his plane crashed into the Heinkel . The bomber caught fire and began to fall apart. After the strike, the fighter also stopped obeying the pilot. Victor struggled out of his seat belts and left the plane...

On October 27, 1941, Viktor led a group of fighters and once again took to the skies. Soon, he spotted six ME-109s and decided to attack. The first enemy plane was shot down together with the wingman, the second destroyed independently. However, the numerical superiority was on the side of the enemy. One of the enemy bursts pierced Talalikhin's cabin. The bullet hit him in the head.

In 1941, Viktor's brother, the naval pilot Nikolai Vasilyevich Talalikhin, to whom Viktor addressed the above letter, also died.

"Hello, my dear Lenochka, Ritochka and Shurochka! I live as before. My health is good. You have to work a lot. I haven't written recently because I was on a business trip...

How do children live and behave? I kiss you. Your Levik.

September 4, 1941 "

Colonel Lev Mikhailovich Dovator wrote this letter immediately after a "business trip" - a multi-day dangerous raid. On September 5, the Sovinformburo reported:

"A cavalry Cossack group under the command of Colonel Dovator penetrated the rear of the Nazis and for a long time smashed German troops and communications. In the first battle, the Cossacks completely destroyed the 3rd battalion of the 430th German Infantry Regiment...

Making their way through swamps and deep forests, the Cossacks appeared where the Germans least expected them. In one of the battles, the Cossacks defeated another battalion of the enemy, destroyed 3 guns, captured... 9 heavy machine guns, 16 light machine guns, a radio station. Then the Cossacks raided a German convoy and destroyed 138 German soldiers and officers, smashed 58 trucks, 3 cars, 3 fuel tanks.

The Germans threw tanks, planes, ambushes against our cavalry, but the Cossacks were elusive."

On September 11, 1941, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Lev Mikhailovich Dovator was awarded the rank of Major General.

Heavy defensive battles were fought by cavalrymen in October and November. The enemy moved new formations to Moscow. Dovatorians held back the onslaught of the enemy, showing courage and courage.

On December 19, 1941, Major General L. M. Dovator was killed. He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

"The cursed enemy is still striving for Moscow, but it will not reach Moscow, it will be defeated. The hour is not far off when we will drive him on and on, so that he will not know where to go.

Don't worry about me. I'm not going to die... Greetings, Dmitry.

30. XL41"

Unfortunately, the words of the company commander of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade of the Guard, Senior Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko, "I'm not going to die", did not come true. On December 18, 1941, he died a brave death in the village of Goryuni near Moscow.

General M. E. Katukov, later Marshal of the armored forces, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, wrote a letter to the mother of the deceased officer.:

"Your son Dmitry behaved like a true son of the Soviet people, like a son of the socialist Motherland. In battles with the enemy, not knowing fear, but burning with hatred for the enemy, he destroyed 52 enemy tanks and many soldiers and officers. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner.

In the winter, in the battles on the outskirts of Moscow, your son Dmitry died a hero's death for his people, for his collective farmers, for women and children, for his Soviet Homeland... For his death, we will avenge the enemy, we will destroy him..."

Letters from dead front-line soldiers in 1941 indicate that Hitler's blitzkrieg strategy failed. Despite the incredible difficulties, the most difficult conditions of the combat situation, in December of the forty-first, our army, as a result of a powerful counteroffensive, achieved a turn in the course of the war, winning the battle of Moscow. Here Hitler's plan for a "lightning war" was buried and the myth of the invincibility of the German - Fascist army was dispelled.