How much information about the Second World War has already been disseminated, filmed and became a legend. However, many still find for themselves previously unknown events of this war. This is how I, for example, just got acquainted with the events of the Great Patriotic War on Elbrus.
It happened almost like Vysotsky's. He led his squad up into the clouds - and did not return from the battle. Lost. But this time almost a miracle happened. Lieutenant Guren Grigoryants - the defender of Elbrus - returned after 70 years.
In the song of Vladimir Vysotsky, the battle was between two teams of climbers. But in the summer of 1942 it turned out differently.
Guren Grigoryants was not a climber. Head of a hairdressing salon at a bath and laundry plant - it is difficult to think of a profession that is more distant from the mountains. But it so happened that his fate was inseparable from the ice of Elbrus. In the truest sense of the word.
Shelter 11 … the height is a little over four thousand meters. For many years it was the highest mountain hotel in the USSR and Russia.
In August 1942, it was occupied by German mountain rangers. After that, they planted Nazi flags on Elbrus and actively used this fact in propaganda, "confirming" the successes in the Caucasus. However, in fact, the mountain passes were firmly held by Soviet troops, who repeatedly tried to knock the enemy out of Shelter 11 and from the adjacent heights.
At the end of September 1942, soldiers of the 242nd Mountain Rifle Division were thrown into the attack against the elite fighters of the Edelweiss division. The defenders successfully repelled the first attempt by the rangers to break through the Baksan gorge. Then the command of the task force decided to try to attack. Parts of the 63rd Cavalry Division were replaced on the passes by fighters from the 242nd Mountain Rifle Division.
Promotional video:
A German soldier guards the Shelter 11.
According to the plan, the Soviet forces were to drive the Germans out of the Chiper-Azau, Chviberi, Khotu-Tau passes and Elbrus itself: the Krugozor base and the Priyut 11 hotel.
In addition to mountain riflemen, fighters of a special group of NKVD detachments, which included experienced mountaineering instructors, were supposed to operate on Elbrus.
On the evening of September 26, a battle broke out on the slopes of the highest mountain in Europe. On September 27, observers noticed: the enemy, numbering up to 40 people, crossed from the "Krugozor" base to the Chiper-Azau pass.
Yes, and our artillerymen gave hope: in the area of "Shelter 11" they covered two enemy heavy machine guns and a mortar, which facilitated the upcoming assault.
The next day, the mountain riflemen were to attack the Germans at the Chviveri and Chiper Azau passes. And a separate detachment, formed from the best soldiers of the 897th Mountain Rifle Regiment, was tasked with advancing on "Shelter 11" and taking it.
Guren Grigoryants.
There were 102 of them in total, including the commander - Lieutenant Guren Grigoryants.
The officer himself was from the 214th Cavalry Regiment. Therefore, it is often written that the whole company was cavalry. But the only cavalrymen were scouts and the commander who had already fought on Elbrus.
In the evening of September 27, the detachment of Lieutenant Grigoryants began its journey to the Elbrus glacier.
Fog is usually considered one of the main hazards on Elbrus. Here you admire the piercing blue sky and the peaks around - and in a few minutes everything around is already covered with darkness. And every step is like a minefield. God forbid to stray off the path and fall into an ice crack.
The dispersed haze, which could have facilitated the group's advance, found the fighters. A fight ensued.
From operational report No. 23 of staff 242:
“Grigoryants' group of 102 people on the outskirts of the ELEVEN HOSPITAL was met with machine-gun and mortar fire of the enemy, suffered heavy losses, was surrounded, from which 4 people emerged. Grigoryants was wounded in both legs, remained on the battlefield, his fate is unknown."
German huntsman of the Edelweiss division at the Shelter 11.
The main battles in those days were for the Chviveri pass. On the evening of September 30, mountain riflemen knocked out the rangers from him. But a day later the Germans pulled up additional forces and recaptured the pass back.
And the details of the battle for "Shelter 11" in the division learned from the wounded who came out to their own.
From the report of the chief of staff of the 242nd mountain rifle division, it follows that the soldiers of Grigoryants, despite the superiority of the enemy in numbers and equipment, continued to move forward. They did not give up, even when about a third of the squad remained alive.
“The remains of the fighters lay down and fought until 14.00 on 28.09.42.
Taking advantage of the superiority in manpower and high intensity of fire, the enemy managed to surround the remnants of the detachment. Only one wounded commissar (political instructor Eliseev) and three wounded soldiers left the detachment. The detachment sent to help was met with enemy fire on the way and was unable to provide assistance to the group of Lieutenant Grigoryants."
Usually they write that the lieutenant was presented for the award posthumously. But in fact, the submission to the Order of the Red Star was signed two weeks before his death. "Continues to carry combat reconnaissance", "acts decisively and boldly." There, in these lines, the officer is still alive. But he did not have time to receive the order.
For a long time, the story of the German commander of the Elbrus defense sector, Major Hans Mayer, was considered the only evidence of the future fate of Grigoryants. In his memoirs, he told about a fight with a group of experienced climbers who climbed Elbrus along the northern slope for three days. The German also mentioned the captured commander - the wounded lieutenant. And about the commissioner who allegedly shot himself.
It was believed that the wounded officer mentioned by Mayer was Lieutenant Grigoryants. But, most likely, for the German commander, the attacks of two groups - mountain riflemen and an NKVD detachment under the command of Senior Lieutenant Maksimov - merged into one battle. After all, the commander of the mountain riflemen remained on the battlefield.
Return
In 2014, the melted Elbrus glacier gave up what it had stored for over 70 years. The mountaineering reconnaissance company of the 34th reconnaissance battalion of the Southern Military District (YuVO) and local search engines found the bodies of soldiers killed in the 42nd.
There were no documents with him, but tattoos on his hands and forearm were preserved, clearly indicating a criminal past. How many officers were previously convicted?
Having rummaged in the archives, the search engines found out: Guren Agadzhanovich Grigoryants spent four years in prison in the late 1920s, after which he was released with a clearing of his criminal record.
Monument to the defenders of the Elbrus region.
There was no doubt that it was him who had been found.
He returned from combat over 70 years later. And again he lay down next to his soldiers - in a mass grave near the monument to the defenders of the Elbrus region in the village of Terskol.
Evgeniya Irbisova
