On April 9, 1943, by personal order of Stalin, the rank of Major General was awarded to Captain Mikhail Naumov. The case is unprecedented. For what such merits did the captain become a general at once?
Mikhail Naumov was born in 1908 in the Perm Region into a large peasant family. From the age of 18 he worked in the mines of the Perm region. He took an active part in the Komsomol movement. When he was 20, he joined the party. In 1930, a working guy was called up for active military service in the troops of the OGPU. Ideal profile, competent, party member - why not a future red commander? Mikhail was offered to stay in the army, he agreed.
From 1920 to the present day, the borders of our country have been guarded by security officers: border troops of the OGPU, NKVD, MGB, KGB, FSB. These were always elite troops, where even ordinary soldiers were selected by the piece, not to mention the commanders! In 1941, the border outposts, to capture which the Nazis allotted 20-40 minutes, held out for days.
Among the advanced units of the Wehrmacht, there was an unspoken instruction: not to take the soldiers in green caps prisoner. They did not take them, because they did not give up.
Mikhail Naumov was one of the border guards. Climbing the career ladder, Naumov graduated from the border school in 1933, and the Higher border school in 1937. On June 22, Mikhail met on the western border near Lvov, just the other day he received the rank of captain.
In the early days of the war, he was appointed commander of the rearguard of the 13th Rifle Corps. The rearguard must, covering the retreating units, stand to the last and has no right to retreat without an order under any circumstances. Naumov with his border guards did not retreat and therefore soon found himself surrounded.
The border guards made their way east, but the front rolled even faster. Naumov decided to switch to partisan warfare. In late autumn 1941, Naumov's detachment contacted the Sumy partisans. The people's avengers have their own laws. The captain's tie in the buttonhole meant nothing to them. Naumov, like everyone else, was enrolled in the detachment as an ordinary soldier. His right to command others had yet to be proven. And Naumov proved, becoming the chief of a combat group, a detachment commander, chief of staff of a partisan formation of 7 detachments, and in January 1943 - the commander of this formation.
For personal courage of the partisans, Naumov was awarded the medal "For Courage". This award, presented to the rank and file, was subsequently co-located next to the Golden Star on the general's chest.
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In February 1943, Naumov put his partisans on horses and carts, and the unit went on a raid along the enemy's rear. For 65 days, they covered 2379 km. along the route: Kursk region. - Sumy - Poltava - Kirovograd - Odessa - Vinnitsa - Zhytomyr - Kiev - Pinsk (BSSR).
Blown up bridges, destroyed garrisons, burned out warehouses, newly organized partisan detachments - the appearance of the Naumovites was always sudden and never went unnoticed. Already at the end of February, Naumov received a radiogram from the headquarters of the partisan movement that the raid aroused the interest of the High Command. On March 7, Naumov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The heaviest battles were in the Vinnitsa region. Naumov had no idea that he had laid the route directly through Hitler's headquarters. When Berlin learned that the partisans were going directly to the "Wolf's Lair", tanks and planes were thrown to liquidate Naumov's compound. However, it was not possible to destroy the group. The partisans jumped out of the ring, the raid continued and ended in early April 1943 in Belarus.
When Stalin was informed about the results of the Steppe raid carried out by the captain-border guard, the Supreme Commander shook his head: "Captain … No, it won't do - general." On April 9, 1943, Captain Naumov became a major general.
In July 1943, Naumov's equestrian unit made the second raid, and in January-April 1944 - the third. In total, under the command of Naumov, the partisans fought over 10,000 km and conducted more than 300 military operations.
After 1945, M. Naumov served in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from March 1953 he served as head of the department of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR. He died in 1974 and was buried in Kiev.