Cossack Nedorubov biography. Cossack is a legend! Nedorubov Konstantin, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich - squadron commander of the 41st Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps of the North Caucasus Front, Guard Lieutenant.
Born on May 21 (June 2), 1889 in the Rubezhny village of the Berezovskaya village of the Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don Army Region, now part of the Lovyagin farm of the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region. From a family of hereditary Cossacks. Russian. In 1900 he graduated from three classes of rural primary school. He was engaged in peasant farming.
In 1911 he was called up to conscript service to Russian imperial army, served in the 15th Cossack Regiment of the 1st Don Cossack Division of the 14th Army Corps (Warsaw Military District), the regiment was stationed in the city of Tomashev, Petrokovsky province of the Kingdom of Poland. Since August 1914, he was a participant in the First World War; he fought throughout the war as part of his regiment on the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. He became the head of the reconnaissance team. He distinguished himself many times in daring forays behind enemy lines, in capturing prisoners, in defensive and offensive battles. In one of the night raids, he captured and delivered 52 captured Austrian soldiers and an officer to their positions; in another, at the head of a group, he captured the enemy headquarters. He was awarded four St. George Crosses (full Knight of St. George) and two St. George medals. The last military rank is sub-horseman.
In 1917, he was seriously wounded and was treated in hospitals in Kyiv, Kharkov, and at the Sebryakovo station near Tsaritsyn. At the beginning of 1918 he returned to his native farm. But I didn’t have the chance to engage in arable farming - the Civil War was already raging on the Don. At the beginning of the summer of 1918, he was mobilized into the White Don Army under General P.N. Krasnov, enlisted in the 18th Cossack Regiment. He took part in battles on the side of the white troops. In July 1918 he was captured and on August 1, 1918 enlisted in the Red Army.
Appointed commander of the 23rd squadron rifle division, participant in the defense of Tsaritsyn. At the beginning of 1919, he was captured again, this time by the whites (according to some sources, he deserted), and again enlisted in the white units. Since June 1919, again in the Red Army, squadron commander of the cavalry division named after M.F. Blinov in the 9th, 1st Cavalry and 2nd Cavalry armies. At one time in 1920, he temporarily served as commander of the 8th Taman Cavalry Regiment. Participant in hostilities on the Don, Kuban and Crimea. He was seriously wounded. In 1921 he was demobilized.
He returned to his native farm and worked as an individual peasant. Since July 1929 - chairman of the Loginov collective farm in the Stalingrad region. Since March 1930 - Deputy Chairman of the Berezovsky District Executive Committee. Since January 1931 - controller in the inter-district Serebryakovsky branch of the Zagotzerno trust, Stalingrad region. Since April 1932 - foreman (according to some sources - chairman) of the collective farm on the Bobrov farm in the Berezovsky district.
In 1933, he was arrested and on July 7, 1933, sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (abuse of power or official position) - he allowed collective farmers to use the few kilograms of grain left after sowing for food. He worked for three years on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal in Dmitrovlag. In 1936 for shock work was released early.
Returning to his homeland, he continued to work as a storekeeper, foreman, head of a horse-and-mail station, and supply manager at a machine and tractor station.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was not subject to conscription due to age (52 years). However, in October 1941, he succeeded in enlisting as a volunteer in the cavalry division that was being formed in the city of Uryupinsk. people's militia from Cossack volunteers. Cossack militias chose him as squadron commander in the Berezovsky district. A month later K.I. Nedorubov and his squadron joined the Mikhailovsky consolidated regiment of the Don Cossack Cavalry Division; in January 1942, the division was renamed the 15th Don Cossack Cavalry Division, and the 3rd Regiment, which included K.I. Nedorubov - in the 42nd Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment. In the spring of 1942, having completed its formation, the division was redeployed from Stalingrad to the Salsk region and became part of the North Caucasus Front. Since July 1942 it took part in hostilities, in August 1942 it was transformed into the 11th Guards Cavalry Division. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1942.
Squadron commander of the 41st Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps of the North Caucasus Front Guard, Lieutenant Nedorubov K.I. showed unprecedented courage and heroism in the defensive battles in the Kuban of the initial stage of the battle for the Caucasus. As a result of surprise raids on the enemy on July 28 and 29, 1942 in the area of the Pobeda and Biryuchiy villages of the Azov region Rostov region, August 2, 1942 near the village of Kushchevskaya, Kushchevsky district Krasnodar region, on September 5, 1942, near the village of Kurinskaya, Apsheronsky district, Krasnodar Territory, and on October 16, 1942, near the village of Maratuki, his squadron destroyed up to 800 enemy soldiers and officers. The squadron commander's personal combat account included over 100 enemy soldiers killed.
So, in the battle on August 2, 1942 for the village of Kushchevskaya, when the Germans captured the regiment’s positions, he and his son rushed to the left flank of the squadron. Both fighters fired at point-blank range from machine guns and using grenades, forcing the approaching enemy to lie down, after which Nedorubov raised the squadron to attack. In hand-to-hand combat, the enemy was driven back.
He accomplished a similar feat in the battle on October 16, 1942 for the village of Maratuki - after repelling four enemy attacks, he raised the squadron in a counterattack and in hand-to-hand combat drove it back with great damage - up to 200 soldiers. He was wounded twice in battles on September 5 and October 16, and in last battle- hard.
For the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 26, 1943, to Guard Lieutenant Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and medal " Golden Star».
After being seriously wounded, he was treated in hospitals in Sochi and Tbilisi. Since December 1943, Guard Captain Nedorubov K.I. - in reserve due to injury. Lived in the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky district, Volgograd region. Worked as head of the district department social security, head of the district road construction department, secretary of the party bureau of the forestry enterprise, was elected as a deputy of the district council of workers' deputies. Died on December 13, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.
Guard captain (1943). Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (including 10/25/1943), Order of the Red Banner (09/6/1942), St. George Cross 1st (1917), 2nd (1916), 3rd (11/16/1915) and 4 1st (10/20/1915) degree, medals, including 2 St. George medals “For Bravery” (including 1916).
Honorary citizen of the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd region.
In September 2007, in the hero city of Volgograd, a monument to the full Knight of St. George and Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. was opened in the memorial historical museum. Nedorubov. The name of the Hero was given to the Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps. Also named after the Hero are streets in the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd Region, and in the city of Khadyzhensk, Krasnodar Territory.
The biography was supplemented by Anton Bocharov (Koltsovo village, Novosibirsk region).

From the notes of a war correspondent:
Near Kushchevka, the Kuban people, overwhelmed by encirclement, rushed into the breakthrough - towards the German tanks of General Kleist. With the fury of the “doomed,” as the allied observer Gold wrote about them in his first sensation, the Cossacks, bending over in their saddles, smashed tanks with grenades, burned them with bottles of a fiery mixture, and, struck down, while galloping, fell either under the tracks or under the hooves horses neighing in pain and horror... In that battle, Dudak’s fellow countryman, a Georgivian cavalier of all four degrees, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov, and his son Nikolai, cut off seventy Germans who hated him from a machine-gun cart with a “Maxim”.
The fellow countrymen met at a gathering of corps veterans, where they arrived with their sons. “It was not the “doomed” who met, but the winners, although the final victory was still far away,” Dorogov wrote about them. Nedorubov and Dudak, both tall and still strong, like half-century-old oak trees, embraced and, weaving a forked beard with a drooping mustache, kissed three times. And while their sons, Romka and Nikolai, according to tradition, as befits boys, measured their strength, the fathers, looking at each other, talked about the war.
No way, Osipych, related his Georgievs to the Star?! - Ostap Ivanovich asked with involuntary envy, poking his finger respectfully and in surprise under the forked beard of his fellow countryman, at his steep chest with gold and silver crosses glistening under the Golden Star of the Hero.
Related, Ostap! How... Even though our Race is now under the Star, we shouldn’t forget about St. George the Victorious, while the same enemy is trampling her, mother,” Nedorubov said in a deep voice and, squinting his bulging eye at Dudak’s shepherd’s chest, asked in turn: “And where are your Georgies?..
Ostap Ivanovich grunted and looked back at his Romka:
What the hell did you do, son of encores! “Take off, Dad says, your old crosses, before we, Komsomol members, condemn you!” That’s what I listened to, the bis sons... - he explained sadly.
Since then, the Kopytyns have repeatedly moved from one Cossack corps to another, and, wherever the Dudaki rumbled with their machine-gun cart, Ostap Ivanovich remembered Nedorubov...
Tokarev K.A. "Buda is thirsty." Notes of a war correspondent. - M.: “Moscow Worker”, 1971, p. 36-37

From the memories of a veteran
“Our 42nd cavalry regiment was the first to enter the combat area,” K. I. Nedorubov wrote in his autobiography. - On July 29, at dawn, we found ourselves in the area of the Samarsky farm, but we were unable to forestall the enemy. Meanwhile, the enemy, having knocked down the outpost of the 30th Infantry Division, crossed the Kagalnik River and occupied three large settlements on its bank. Having assessed the current situation, division commander S.I. Gorshkov decided to restore lost positions. This difficult task was entrusted to the 42nd Cavalry Regiment, against which about 2 infantry regiments acted..."
Operating on foot, cavalrymen of the 42nd regiment and Nedorubov's squadron pushed the Nazis to the Kagalnik River. Soldiers of the 1st squadron broke into the Zadonsky farmstead, the 2nd - into Aleksandrovka, and the 3rd. to the village of Pobeda. Fierce street fighting ensued.
The battles with the enemy continued all day. And although the 42nd Regiment was unable to push the enemy back to the other side of the river, its squadrons achieved significant successes. By evening, the Nazis brought fresh forces into the battle and again pushed back parts of the regiment to the southern outskirts of the settlements captured by the Cossacks.
After a series of powerful enemy attacks, the Don Cossack Division was withdrawn for reorganization. By the end of July 31, its units received orders to go to the area of the village of Kushchevskaya. Divisional Commander S.I. Gorshkov decided to knock out the enemy with a night raid.
“The battles for Kushchevskaya were so fierce that attacks often ended in hand-to-hand combat,” Konstantin Iosifovich wrote in his autobiography. “By the end of August 1, our 42nd cavalry regiment captured the southeastern outskirts of the village, and the other two regiments captured the southern and western outskirts and the station, but they couldn’t completely take the village...”
Together with units of the 12th Cavalry Division, Colonel Gorshkov’s cavalry occupied the village of Kushchevskaya. The battle for the village lasted all day. The enemy's 42nd Mountain Infantry Division lost 500 soldiers and officers. However, being inferior to the enemy in manpower and equipment, the 15th Cavalry Division was forced to go on the defensive. A critical situation also developed in the sector of the 42nd Cavalry Regiment, in which K. I. Nedorubov fought with the squadron.
The regiment's soldiers steadfastly repelled the enemy's continuous attacks until the enemy managed to reach the left flank. There was a threat of encirclement.
Noticing this, Lieutenant Nedorubov and his son arrived at the breakthrough site. Armed with machine guns, with large supply grenade, they shot the Nazis almost point-blank, throwing grenades at them. The enemy is lying down. And then K.I.’s command was heard over the battlefield. Nedorubova: “Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don.” Having led the squadron, K.I. Nedorubov led it into a counterattack.
A fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued. Cossack militias destroyed 200 German soldiers and officers. The enemy attack was thwarted. Risking their lives, Konstantin Iosifovich and his son Nikolai saved the situation.

Born May 21, 1889 in x. Rubezhny village of Berezovskaya, Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don Army. Died December 13, 1978. Full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1911 he was called up for military service. During the First World War in the active army, in the troops of the South-Western and Romanian fronts. The first St. George Cross, the clerk of the 15th regiment of the 1st Don Cossack Division, K. Nedorubov, was awarded for the resourcefulness and heroism he showed on December 16, 1914 during reconnaissance, when he alone captured 52 Austrians. Participant of the Brusilov breakthrough. Podkhorunzhy.

In 1918 - 1920 at the fronts Civil War Squadron commander, acting commander of a cavalry regiment. As part of the troops of the 9th Army, and then the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Armies of the Southern Front, he participated in combat operations on the territory of the Ust-Medveditsky District, in the Salsky steppes, in Northern Tavria, and in the Crimea.

Returning from the front, he worked as chairman of the village council. Rubezhny. In 1930, he headed one of the first collective farms in the Berezovsky district.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a people's militia corps was formed in the Stalingrad region. K.I. Nedorubov took an active part in the creation of the consolidated Don Cavalry Division of Cossack hundreds. In the spring of 1942, the division went to the front as the 15th Don Cossack Cavalry Division (later the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division). K.I. Nedorubov took part in the battles near Azov, Rostov, Bataysk. Squadron commander. In fierce battles for the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, from July 30 to August 2, 1942, the squadron under the command of Nedorubov destroyed over 200 enemy soldiers and officers, about 70 personally by K. I. Nedorubov.

September 5, 1942 in the battle near the village. Kurinsky Krasnodar region K.I. Nedorubov threw hand grenades at 3 machine gun and 2 mortar points of the enemy. He was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. The height has been taken.
On October 16, 1942, near the village of Maratuki, Krasnodar Territory, a squadron under the command of K. I. Nedorubov repelled four attacks by the Nazis, destroying up to 200 enemy soldiers and officers.

By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated October 26, 1943, the commander of the cavalry squadron of the 41st Guards Cavalry Regiment, K. I. Nedorubov, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

IN last years lived and worked in st. Berezovskaya. On October 15, 1967, he was part of the honorary escort that delivered the torch lit from the Eternal Flame on the Alley of Heroes to Mamayev Kurgan.

Honorary citizen of the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky district, Volgograd region. Streets in the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd Region and in the city of Khadyzhensk, Krasnodar Territory are named after K.I. Nedorubov. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.

Cossack Nedorubov. Video

The Cossack is a legend!

Original taken from choodo7 in Cossack - a legend!

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich- full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three full Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.

The fate of Konstantin Nedorubov bizarrely resembles the fate of the hero Quiet Don Grigory Melekhov. A hereditary Cossack, a native of a farm with the characteristic name Rubezhny (now part of the Lovyagin farm in the Volgograd region), he, along with other villagers, was drafted to the German front. There it quickly became clear that war, with all its horrors and passions, was the native element of the Don Cossack.

He was awarded the first St. George Cross, 4th degree, for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite hurricane artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks led by sergeant Nedorubov burst into the enemy battery and captured it along with servants and ammunition.

Konstantin Iosifovich received the second Cross of St. George in February 1915 for his feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. December 16, 1914, while on reconnaissance and examining locality, in one of the courtyards he noticed enemy soldiers and decided to take them by surprise. Throwing a grenade over the fence, he handed in German command: “Hands up, squadron, surround!” The frightened soldiers and the officer dropped their weapons, raised their hands and hurried out of the yard into the street. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves under the escort of a Cossack on horseback with a saber in his hand. There was nowhere to go: the weapons remained in the yard, and all 52 prisoners were taken to the headquarters of the Cossack regiment. Scout K.I. Nedorubov, in full uniform, reported to the commander of his unit that, they say, he had been captured. But he doesn’t believe it and asks: “Where are the rest of the scouts? With whom did you capture the prisoners?” The answer is: “One.” Then the commander asked the enemy officer: “Who took you prisoner? How many were there? He pointed at Nedorubov and raised one finger.

The young Nedorubov received the third St. George Cross for distinction in battles in June 1916 during the famous Brusilov breakthrough (counteroffensive), where he showed selfless courage and courage. “His saber did not dry out from the blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from “Nedorubov” to “Pererubov”.

During three and a half years of participation in battles, he was wounded several times. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now Mikhailovka).

Finally that war ended. Before the Cossack had time to return to his native farm, the Civil War broke out. And again the Cossack was caught up in the bloody whirlwind of fateful events. It was all clear on the German front, but here, in the feather grass of the Don and Tsaritsyn steppes, they fought their own against their own. Who is right and who is wrong - go figure...

And fate, in this confusion of thoughts and passions of the Cossack Nedorubov, like Grishka Melekhov, swung like a living pendulum - from red to white, from white to red... Unfortunately, this was a fairly typical situation for that confused and bloody time. Ordinary Cossacks, who had not read Marx and Plekhanov and were not familiar with the basics of geopolitics, could not understand who held the truth in this terrible civil strife. But even being on opposite sides of the barricades, they fought bravely - they couldn’t do it any other way.

At one time, Konstantin Iosifovich even commanded the red Taman cavalry regiment and took an active part in the famous defense of Tsaritsyn.

In 1922, when the flashes of war finally subsided and it became clear that Soviet power had come in earnest and for a long time, Nedorubov returned to the village in the hope of taking a break from the two wars he had experienced. But they didn’t really let him live peacefully - after eight years, the Cossack was still repressed by commissars in leather jackets, recalling his service in both white and tsarist armies. Nedorubov was not at all surprised or broken by this.

“I’ve never been in such trouble before!” - the Knight of St. George decided for himself and “gave the country coal” during the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. As a result, he was released early for shock work - this is according to the official version. According to the unofficial story, the camp authorities helped by carefully studying his personal file. Still, in all centuries, men of all tribes and peoples respected courage and bravery...

"Give me the right to die!"

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Knight of St. George Nedorubov was no longer subject to conscription due to his age. By that time he was 53 years old.

But in July 1941, a squadron of Cossack militia began to be formed in the Don villages.

Together with his old combat friend Sutchev, Konstantin Iosifovich resolutely headed to the regional executive committee: “Give me the right to use all my combat experience and die for the Motherland!” At first the regional executive committee was dumbfounded, then they became inspired. And they appointed the Knight of St. George as the commander of the newly formed Cossack squadron (only volunteers were recruited into it).

But then, as the Cossacks say, one problem “stuck in”: his 17-year-old son, who had not reached conscription age by that time, “hung” on his father’s shoulders. Relatives rushed to dissuade Nikolai, but he was adamant. “Remember, son, you will not be given any concessions,” was all Nedorubov Sr. said. - I will ask you more strictly than experienced Cossacks. The commander’s son should be the first in battle!” So the third war came into the life of the Cossack Nedorubov... And also a world war - like the first.

In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov, a “weak link” was formed along the entire stretch from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don. It was clear that the advance had to be stopped at all costs. German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

The Kuban Cavalry Corps, which included the Don Cossack Division, was thrown towards the Germans. There were no other regular units on this section of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war.

There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks fought bone-to-bone with the Germans, forcing them into hand-to-hand combat at every opportunity. The Germans, however, did not like hand-to-hand combat, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved it. This was their element. “Well, where else can we celebrate Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” - they joked. Periodically (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then the battle site was littered with hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats...

Near Kushchevskaya, the Don and Kuban people held the line for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst and, with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided to launch a psychic attack. It was strategic mistake. The Cossacks brought them within grenade throw distance and met them with heavy fire. Father and son Nedorubov were nearby: the elder was spraying the attackers with a machine gun, the younger was sending one grenade after another into the German line.

It’s not without reason that they say that bullets fear the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing with bullets, not a single one of them touched the shooters. And the entire space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go to the end. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to get around the Cossacks on both sides, squeezing them into their “trademark” pincers. Having assessed the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. “Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!” - the lieutenant’s battle cry tore the villagers, who were flattened by bullets, from the ground. “The underdog and his son again went to seek his death, and we flew after him,” surviving colleagues recalled about that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was a shame to leave him alone...”

The militia fought to the death. The sons followed the example of their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience and endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the “Battle of Stalingrad” department State Museum defense of I.M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when the squadron had to repel superior enemy forces on the right flank, he with a machine gun and his son with hand grenades “fought an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis.” Konstantin Nedorubov many times stood up to his full height on the railway line and shot the Nazis at point-blank range. “In three wars, I have never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler’s heads.”

In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The fourth cavalry squadron rushed hand-to-hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.

If we hadn’t covered the flank, it would have been difficult for our neighbor,” recalled Konstantin Iosifovich. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without losses... How my boys stood! And Kolka’s son showed himself to be a great man that day. I didn't drift away. Only after this fight did I think that I would never see him again.

During the frantic mortar attack, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest for about three days. Women were passing not far from the forest plantation, and they heard a groan. In the dark, the women carried the seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and sheltered him for many weeks.

“Cossack conscientiousness” cost the Germans dearly at that time - in that battle the Donets crushed over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans for the squadron's encirclement were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, General Field Marshal Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: “Another Kushchevka will be repeated, you will not learn to fight, you will march in a penal company through Caucasus Mountains dot."

"We hallucinated the Cossacks..."

This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen, who survived the battle near Maratuki, wrote in his letter home, where Nedorubov’s Don forces finally got to the desired hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as at Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure became a trademark. “We can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “so why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”

“Nedorubovtsy” took part in raids on the enemy in the area of the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms, fought in the area of the village of Kurinskaya... According to the Germans who survived the horse attacks, “it was as if a demon had possessed these centaurs.”

The Don and Kuban people used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and were carefully passed on from generation to generation. When the lava fell on the enemy, there was a prolonged wolf howl in the air - this is how the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, pretending to be killed, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s position, slashing right and left and creating a bloody heap there.

In any fight, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all canons military science, was the first to get into trouble. In one battle, he managed, in official military language, “using folds in the terrain to secretly get close to three enemy machine gun and two mortar nests and extinguish them with hand grenades.” During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.

The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guard of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult one, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: “Unfit for military service.”

During the period of hostilities, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals for his feats. On October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich related the Red Star to the Cross of St. George,” the village residents joked about this.

Despite the fact that during his lifetime he became a living legend, Cossack Nedorubov never acquired any special benefits or assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But on all holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George Crosses.

The sub-horuner of the 1st Don Cossack Division, Nedorubov, with his attitude towards awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in this form at the Victory Parade in the front row. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook hands and thanked him for his participation in two wars.”

When I learned about this amazing person, I decided to find information not only about him. After all, he had parents, a wife, children. And also the history of the appearance of the St. George crosses. In the entire history of their existence, there are only 2000 full St. George Knights. For comparison, there were 11,739 Heroes of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War, and 2,672 full holders of the Order of Glory. A lot of information. And this is our story. Story? which you are proud of.Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich - full holder of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three full Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.
In 1807, Emperor Alexander I received a proposal to establish some kind of award for soldiers and non-commissioned officers who distinguished themselves in the performance of combat missions. They say that this will help strengthen the courage of Russian soldiers, who, in the hope of receiving the coveted reward (which provides a monetary reward and a lifelong pension), will fight without sparing their lives. The Emperor considered this proposal quite reasonable, especially since news reached him about the Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, in which Russian soldiers showed miracles of courage and endurance. At that time there was one a big problem: a Russian soldier who was a serf could not be awarded the order, since the order emphasized the status of its owner and was, in fact, a knightly insignia. Nevertheless, the courage of the Russian soldier had to be somehow encouraged, so Russian Emperor introduced a special “insignia of the order,” which in the future became the St. George Soldier’s Cross.

Konstantin Nedorubov was born on the Rubezhny farm in May 1889, and announced his future exploits while still in the cradle. According to tradition, a bullet was placed in the cradle of newborn boys in Cossack families, observing the baby’s reaction. Kostya grabbed the bullet into his fist, after which the men said approvingly: “The good Cossack will grow up!” That's how he grew up. By the age of 18, even adult village residents were afraid of his two-meter height and pound fists.

The father of the full St. George Knight - Joseph - was physically very strong. It happened that he himself harnessed himself to a cart instead of a horse and dragged it to the opposite side of the ravine that cut the Rubezhny farm in two: “... the horse must rest. She'll have to plow in the morning." In old Nedorubov's kuren there was no ceiling - a coffin was constantly suspended from the eaves of the roof - Joseph made them himself, saying that he did not trust this to anyone - they would do it badly, and it would be uncomfortable to lie in it. Joseph himself was buried in the fourth - he gave the first three to his friends for the funeral. Joseph was an avid fisherman and hunter. I swam on a kayak that I made with my own hands. This kayak became the cause of his death - the old Cossack, having capsized on it in an ice drift, did not want to lose the boat and pulled it to the shore, clinging to the chain with his teeth. After this he became ill, took ill and died a few weeks later. Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was the middle son in Joseph’s family. His elder brother Fedor participated in the First World War as a senior officer. He was awarded two St. George's crosses. At the front he was seriously wounded with a crushed right leg. He walked with a limp, using a crutch. He was shorter in stature than his brother Konstantin, but his physical strength was irrepressible. Fyodor had two sons: Konstantin and Alexander. Little is known about Nedorubov’s second brother Ivan. He died in the early 50s. last century. Konstantin was called up for military service in the Russian Imperial Army in 1911, serving in the 15th Cossack Regiment of the 1st Don Cossack Division of the 14th Army Corps.

Nedorubov himself always spoke about his exploits with humor. One day, Army Commander Samsonov called him, a regimental intelligence officer, and said: “Help, brother, there’s a bone stuck in my throat!”
The Cossack was confused and began to make excuses: I’m not a doctor, I don’t understand anything about this. The headquarters officers burst out laughing and explained: our troops are being hampered by the German battery - so it is a bone in the throat, no one can get close to it. They decided to send scouts led by Nedorubov. And the Cossacks did not disappoint - they approached the artillerymen, blew up their ammunition, and took the gun crew prisoner. For this feat, Konstantin Nedorubov received his first St. George Cross. He was awarded the first St. George Cross, 4th degree, for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite hurricane artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks led by sergeant Nedorubov burst into the enemy battery and captured it along with servants and ammunition.
“Soldier George,” as he was popularly called, could only be received by the lower ranks of the Russian army, who showed selfless courage on the battlefield. Moreover, this award was not distributed at the request of the command; the soldiers themselves determined which of them was worthy of receiving the St. George Cross. According to the rules existing at that time, it was necessary to wear the St. George Cross on special occasions. St. George's ribbon, which was threaded into the buttonhole. The first soldier who became a holder of the Order of St. George was non-commissioned officer Mitrokhin, who received it at the Battle of Friedland in 1807. Initially, the Cross of St. George did not have any degrees and was issued an unlimited number of times (this is in theory). In practice, the St. George Cross was awarded only once, and the next award was purely formal, although the soldier’s salary increased by a third. The undoubted advantage of a soldier awarded this distinction was the complete absence of corporal punishment, which was widely used at that time.
Konstantin Iosifovich received the second Cross of St. George in February 1915 for his feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. On December 16, 1914, according to Nedorubov’s recollections, he, as part of a group of scouts, went to the rear of the Austrians. As a result of the shootout, Nedorubov’s comrades died, and he himself was forced to make his way to his people through the village. I went out to a huge house and heard Austrian speech there. He threw a grenade at the doorstep of the house. When the Austrians began to jump out of the building, Nedorubov realized that there were too many of them and used his wits. “I command loudly: “Right flank - go around!” The enemies are huddled together, standing scared. Then I rose from the ditch, waved my hat at them, shouted: “Forward!” We listened, let's go. So I brought them to my unit.” When counting the prisoners, it turned out that one Cossack captured 52 people! The commander who received the prisoners could not believe his eyes and asked one of the Austrian officers to answer how many people were in the team that captured them. In response, the Austrian raised one finger.
In 1844, a special St. George Cross was developed for soldiers who profess the Muslim faith. Instead of St. George, who is an Orthodox saint, a double-headed eagle was depicted on the cross. In 1856, the St. George Cross was divided into 4 degrees, while its degree was indicated on the cross.

Impartial statistics testify to how difficult it was to obtain the 1st degree St. George Cross. According to it, there were about 2,000 full holders of the Order of St. George throughout its history. In 1913, the award officially became known as the “St. George Cross”; in addition, the St. George Medal for bravery, which also has 4 degrees, appeared. Unlike the soldier's award, the St. George medal could be awarded to civilians and military personnel in peacetime. After 1913, the St. George Cross began to be issued posthumously. In this case, the award was given to the relatives of the deceased and kept as a family heirloom.

Nedorubov was awarded the St. George Cross, 2nd degree, for the battles in the area of Balamutovka and Rzhavetsy. “... having passed through three rows of wire fences, they burst into the trenches and, after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, knocked out the Austrians, taking eight officers, about 600 lower ranks and three machine guns.” “His saber did not dry out from the blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from “Nedorubov” to “Pererubov”.
He received the fourth - the golden "George" 1st degree for being captured with a group of Cossacks from the headquarters of the German division, along with the general and operational documents.
During the First World War, about 1,500,000 people received the Cross of St. George. Of particular note is the first St. George Knight of this war, Kozma Kryuchkov, who received his first cross for the destruction of 11 German cavalrymen in battle. By the way, before the end of the war this Cossack became a full Knight of St. George.
The famous Durova, or “cavalry maiden,” who served as the prototype for the heroine from the “Hussar Ballad,” was awarded the St. George Cross for saving the life of an officer; The Decembrists Muravyov-Apostol and Yakushkin also had St. George's crosses, which they received for military services in the battle of Borodino; General Miloradovich received this award from the hands of Emperor Alexander, who personally saw Miloradovich’s courage in the battle of Leipzig; In the photo, Dmitry Ivanovich Mitaki (1892 - 1953) - Full Knight of St. George (awarded by Emperor Nicholas II in the Church of “Peter and Paul” in Bendery (Moldova), military intelligence officer, 19 wounds. Not preserved in the Museum of the History of Moldova (now the Republic of Moldova) everything, duplicates of his awards and several old photographs, numbers of medals “For Bravery”: No. 166722, No. 707194.

to his left: with 4 crosses and 2 medals P. I. Krizhenovsky Kozma Kryuchkov, who was a complete gentleman St. George's Order, became Russian hero in life. By the way, a Cossack died in 1919 at the hands of the Red Guards, defending the tsarist regime until the end of his life; Vasily Chapaev, who went over to the Red side, had 3 crosses and a St. George medal; Maria Bochkareva, who created the women's “death battalion,” also received this award. The memory of the St. George Cross was revived in 1943, when the Order of Glory was established. Nowadays everyone is familiar George Ribbon, with which people celebrating Victory Day decorate themselves. However, not everyone knows that although the ribbon symbolizes the Order of Glory, its roots go much deeper.
St. George Medal, 4th class: “On April 4, 1916, together with Romanovsky Afanasy, having volunteered as hunters to conduct reconnaissance of the Austrian guards in order to remove one of the field guards at night, crawled along the railway to the west of the village of Boyan, 150 steps from the Austrian wire fences, They discovered a landmine placed under the railway and decided to blow it up. When they began to carry out preliminary work, they were discovered by enemy artillery, which fired at them with heavy fire. When the landmine explosion failed, they discovered the explosive device and delivered it to their superior.”
Three years of war - four St. George's crosses and two St. George's medals. By 1916, Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Knight of St. George.
Nowadays.
The Russian military order of St. George and the sign "St. George's Cross" were restored in Russian Federation in 1992 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation dated March 2, 1992 No. 2424-I “On state awards Russian Federation". 11 people were awarded.
During three and a half years of participation in battles, he was wounded several times. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now Mikhailovka).
From October 1917 to July 1918, Konstantin Nedorubov was engaged in agriculture. But the war did not want to leave the brave Cossack alone. Before I had time to recover from the “German War,” the Civil War began.
At the beginning of the summer of 1918, he was mobilized into the White Don Army under General P.N. Krasnov, enlisted in the 18th Cossack Regiment. He took part in battles on the side of the white troops. In July 1918 he was captured and on August 1, 1918 enlisted in the Red Army. Appointed squadron commander of the 23rd Infantry Division, participant in the defense of Tsaritsyn. One day he was caught by a patrol - he was considered a counter-revolutionary. But when they looked at the inscription on the seized saber, they were stunned. On it was written “To the squadron commander Konstantin Nedorubov for unparalleled heroism and courage during the defense of Tsaritsyn.” And the signature is Budyonny. The hero was immediately released with an apology. At the beginning of 1919, he was captured again, this time by the whites, and again enlisted in the white units.
Since June 1919, again in the Red Army, squadron commander of the cavalry division named after M.F. Blinov in the 9th, 1st Cavalry and 2nd Cavalry armies. At one time in 1920, he temporarily served as commander of the 8th Taman Cavalry Regiment. Participant in hostilities on the Don, Kuban and Crimea. He was seriously wounded. In 1921 he was demobilized.
For the battles with Wrangel, Konstantin Iosifovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and red revolutionary trousers (somewhere a warehouse with red hussar riding breeches was discovered, which they decided to use “for the award ceremony”).
Nedorubov’s rich military biography also included participation in the liquidation of Father Makhno’s gang. He returned to his native farm and worked as an individual peasant. Since July 1929 - chairman of the Loginov collective farm in the Stalingrad region. Since March 1930 - Deputy Chairman of the Berezovsky District Executive Committee. Since January 1931 - controller in the inter-district Serebryakovsky branch of the Zagotzerno trust, Stalingrad region. Since April 1932 - foreman (according to some sources - chairman) of the collective farm on the Bobrov farm in the Berezovsky district.
In 1933, he “sat down” - being in the position of chairman of a collective farm, he was “convicted under Article 109 of the Criminal Code “for losing grain in the field.” (Hunger. For grain losses, imaginary and obvious, the authorities punished without hesitation.) Dark history. Sentence: 10 years in camps. I ended up in Volgolag, at the construction site of the Moscow-Volga canal. He worked there for almost three years and was released early. According to the official wording, “for shock work” (although they say that the writer Sholokhov, whom Nedorubov knew personally, greatly helped the Cossack here). However, at the construction site Nedorubov really worked “like a convict.” And not because they forced him, but because he couldn’t do anything halfway. After serving time, my license was not impaired.
Returning to his homeland, he continued to work as a storekeeper, foreman, head of a horse-and-mail station, and supply manager at a machine and tractor station.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Konstantin Iosifovich was not subject to conscription due to his age - whatever one may say, he was 52 years old. In October 1941, he volunteered to join the Cossack cavalry division that was being formed in the city of Uryupinsk, but was not accepted. Not even because of age, but because... a former White Guard, and he served time. And Nedorubov went to the 1st secretary of the Berezovsky district committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Vladimirovich Shlyapkin. The old Cossack cried: “I’m not asking to go to the rear!..” Shlyapkin immediately called the head of the district NKVD: “Under my personal responsibility!” Accepted. As well as Nedorubov’s 17-year-old son Nikolai.

In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov, a “weak link” was formed along the entire stretch from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don. It was clear that it was necessary at all costs to restrain the advance of the German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

The Kuban Cavalry Corps, which included the Don Cossack Division, was thrown towards the Germans. There were no other regular units on this section of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war. There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks fought bone-to-bone with the Germans, forcing them into hand-to-hand combat at every opportunity. The Germans, however, did not like hand-to-hand combat, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved it. This was their element. “Well, where else can we celebrate Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” - they joked. Periodically (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then the battle site was littered with hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats...
Near Kushchevskaya, the Don and Kuban people held the line for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst and, with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided to launch a psychic attack. This was a strategic mistake. The Cossacks brought them within grenade throw distance and met them with heavy fire. Father and son Nedorubov were nearby: the elder was spraying the attackers with a machine gun, the younger was sending one grenade after another into the German line.

It’s not without reason that they say that bullets fear the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing with bullets, not a single one of them touched the shooters. And the entire space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go to the end. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to get around the Cossacks on both sides, squeezing them into their “trademark” pincers. Having assessed the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. “Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!” - the lieutenant’s battle cry tore the villagers, who were flattened by bullets, from the ground. “The underdog and his son again went to seek his death, and we flew after him,” surviving colleagues recalled about that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was a shame to leave him alone...”

The militia fought to the death. The sons followed the example of their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience and endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the “Battle of Stalingrad” department of the State Defense Museum I. M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when he had to repel superior enemy forces on the right flank of the squadron, he was with a machine gun, and The son used hand grenades “to fight an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis.” Konstantin Nedorubov many times stood up to his full height on the railway line and shot the Nazis at point-blank range. “In three wars, I have never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler’s heads.”
In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The fourth cavalry squadron rushed hand-to-hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.
“If we hadn’t covered the flank, it would have been difficult for our neighbor,” recalled Konstantin Iosifovich. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without losses... How my boys stood! And Kolka’s son showed himself to be a great man that day. I didn't drift away. Only after this fight did I think that I would never see him again. During the frantic mortar attack, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest for about three days. Women were passing not far from the forest plantation, and they heard a groan. In the dark, the women carried the seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and sheltered him for many weeks.
“Cossack conscientiousness” cost the Germans dearly at that time - in that battle the Donets crushed over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans for the squadron's encirclement were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, General Field Marshal Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: “Another Kushchevka will be repeated, you will not learn to fight, you will march in a penal company through the Caucasus Mountains, period.”
"We hallucinated the Cossacks..."
This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen, who survived the battle near Maratuki, wrote in his letter home, where Nedorubov’s Don forces finally got to the desired hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as at Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure became a trademark. “We can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “so why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”
“Nedorubovtsy” took part in raids on the enemy in the area of the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms, fought in the area of the village of Kurinskaya... According to the Germans who survived the horse attacks, “it was as if a demon had possessed these centaurs.”
The Don and Kuban people used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and were carefully passed on from generation to generation. When the lava fell on the enemy, there was a prolonged wolf howl in the air - this is how the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, pretending to be killed, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s position, slashing right and left and creating a bloody heap there.
In any battle, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons of military science, was the first to get into trouble. In one battle, he managed, in official military parlance, “using the folds of the terrain to secretly get close to three enemy machine gun and two mortar nests and extinguish them with hand grenades.” During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.
The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guard of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult one, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: “Unfit for military service.”
During the period of hostilities, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals for his feats. On October 26, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich related the Red Star to the Cross of St. George,” the village residents joked about this. Despite the fact that during his lifetime he became a living legend, Cossack Nedorubov never acquired any special benefits or assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But on all holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George Crosses.
The sub-horuner of the 1st Don Cossack Division, Nedorubov, with his attitude towards awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in this form at the Victory Parade in the front row. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook hands and thanked him for his participation in two wars.”

On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, Don Cossack Nedorubov became part of a torch-bearing group of three veterans and lit the fire of Eternal Glory at the monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamayev Kurgan of the hero city of Volgograd. Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya. In September 2007, in Volgograd, in the memorial historical museum, a monument to the famous hero of the Don, full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. On February 2, 2011, in the Yuzhny village of the hero city of Volgograd, the grand opening ceremony of the new state educational institution “Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps named after Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubova."
Konstantin Iosifovich’s wife, Varvara Fedorovna (nee Nosaeva), was the daughter of a front-line friend, Joseph Nedorubov. They served in the same squadron in the south of Russia, which the Turks had always coveted. In one of the battles, Fyodor Nosaev was wounded, his horse was killed under him, and about a dozen Turks surrounded him and were going to capture him. Joseph broke through to Fedor, chopped up the Turks, picked up his comrade on the croup of his horse and rode off to his own.
After this, Joseph and Fyodor became blood brothers, and to consolidate this union, Fyodor proposed marrying the children. At first, Joseph refused because he was poor (the Nosaevs were one of the wealthiest in the area). But Fyodor insisted on his own - he took on all the expenses for the wedding, gave his daughter a rich dowry and even allocated part of his land plot for the young people. The wedding took place before Konstantin left for active service.
Varvara Fedorovna was a brave and decisive woman. In 1917, she traveled across Russia, with many stops, to visit her husband at the front. They lived together happily ever after.
Children and grandchildren. Konstantin Iosifovich and Varvara Fedorovna Nedorubov had four children:
Nina. She died of scarlet fever at the age of 22. She was married and lived in the Khokhly farm. She left behind her son Georgy, who died in a car accident in adulthood.
Georgy. Born in 1918. He was disabled since childhood, so he did not serve in the army. After graduating from seven classes of school in 1938, he was sent to study in Stalingrad, where he graduated from the FZO communications school. After graduating, he worked as a long-distance station supervisor at the Berezovsky communications office, and later as a station supervisor at the Berezovsky radio broadcasting center. In July 1948, he went to work at the Berezovsky district forestry enterprise as a forester. But he did not work in this position for long and already in July 1949 he returned to his previous place of work. He was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
Was married. He had three children - Nina (candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, senior teacher at the Volgograd Pedagogical Institute), Valentina (worked as a doctor at the Svetloyarsk regional hospital, now works at the Sergievsk district hospital in the Danilovsky district, does a lot of work to preserve the memory of his grandfather, often meets with journalists and young people ) and Tatyana (worked in Volgograd and in the village of Berezovskaya, currently retired).
Died July 13, 2004. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.
Maria. Born in 1920. Upon completion of eighth grade high school in 1939 she entered the FZO school at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant (STZ) with a degree in electrician.
She worked in the foundry shop of the plant as an electric control panel operator until November 1941. On November 28, 1941, she was sentenced by the Traktorozavodsky Court for absenteeism to four months in prison. The imprisonment took place in the camps of the Red October plant - from November 1941 to June 1942. From June 1942 to September 1943 she was mobilized to the Bolshevik collective farm for agricultural work.
In September 1943, Maria Nedorubova accepted the position of clerk in the Berezovsky district police department (registry office department), where she worked until April 1944. Later she worked in the correctional labor department at the Berezovsky district police department.
She died in November 1992. She left behind her children - Lidiya Alekseevna Bakulina (worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, currently retired) and Alexey Alekseevich Bakulin (lives in Volgograd, works as an auto mechanic).
Nikolai. Born in 1924. Favorite of Konstantin Iosifovich. He completed nine years of high school - from the tenth grade he volunteered for the front under the command of his father. In August 1942, he was seriously wounded in the battles for the village of Kushchevskaya ( Krasnodar region). In July 1943 he was demobilized due to injury and in August returned to the village of Berezovskaya.
Awarded the Order of the Red Star, medals “For the Defense of the Caucasus”, “For the Victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”. Another award found the hero after the war - in 1985 he was awarded the Order “ Patriotic War» I degree.
From February 1944 to October 1945 he worked as a military instructor at the Berezovsky secondary school.
From October 1945 to July 1950 he studied at Saratov state institute mechanization Agriculture. After graduating from the institute, he was awarded the qualification of a mechanical engineer.
He worked first in the Gornobalykleysky district of the Stalingrad region (Lipovskaya forest protection station), then in the Berezovsky forest protection belt (Berezovsky district of the Stalingrad region).
From 1954 to 1958, Nikolai Iosifovich Nedorubov was the director of the Malodelskaya LZS of the Frolovsky district, from 1958 to 1961 - the director of the Malodelskaya repair and technical station, from 1961 to 1964 - the director of the Malodelsky state farm, in 1964 he was appointed deputy head of the Frolovsky production plant collective farm and state farm management of agriculture of the Volgograd region, in 1965 - appointed head of the agricultural production department of the Surovikinsky district of the Volgograd region, in 1970 he became the chief state inspector for the purchase of agricultural products in the Surovikinsky district (he held this post until his death - until the winter of 1987).
In 1962 he was awarded the Small Silver Medal of VDNKh and a valuable prize, in 1968, 1973 and 1976 - the Order of the Badge of Honor (he had three in total!).
Was married. Had no children.
Great-grandchildren. Valentin Georgievich and Svetlana Grigorievna Nedorubov have four children: Dmitry, Oleg, Alexey and Andrey.
Andrey served in hot spots in Russia during the second Chechen campaign - as part of an intelligence group. He was awarded the Zhukov medal and a personalized watch.

Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov lived a long and heroic life. He is one of three people in Russian history, who are simultaneously holders of both the highest military awards Russian Empire, and the USSR. Two military commanders became Knights of St. George of all degrees and heroes of the Soviet Union - Marshal Budyonny and General Tyulenev, and an ordinary Cossack captain Nedorubov.

Konstantin Nedorubov was born in 1889 on the Rubezhny farm (Volgograd region). He is of Cossack origin - from a family of hereditary Don Cossacks. He spent his youthful years on a farm, leading ordinary life young Cossack. He received a primary education, only three grades. Later, many biographers of Nedorubov drew attention to the amazing similarity of his fate with the hero greatest novel M. Sholokhov by Grigory Melekhov.

At the age of 22, Konstantin was called up to serve in the Don Cossack regiment in the corps of General Brusilov. The regiment was stationed near Warsaw. This is where Nedorubova was found by the First World War. The Cossack showed courage on the verge of insolence, taking an active part in the battles on the South-West and Romanian fronts. As the leader of a reconnaissance team, he made numerous forays, capturing enemy soldiers, and once even the Austrian headquarters. The result of such heroic activity was the awarding of the Cossack, who by the end of the war had the low rank of sergeant, with all four degrees of the Cross of St. George and two medals of St. George.

A serious injury in 1917 put Nedorubov out of action. After long-term treatment in Kharkov, Kyiv, Tsaritsyn, Konstantin Nedorubov was faced with the question of where to move next - the civil war was flaring up. The following year he participates in battles in the army of General Krasnov on the side of the Whites. In the summer he is captured by the Reds and goes to serve in the Red Army. Six months later, history repeats itself - Nedorubov is captured by the Whites, pardoned because of his previous merits and again fights on the side of the Whites. In the summer of 1919, Konstantin Iosifovich was again in the ranks of the Red Army. He becomes the commander of a cavalry squadron, bravely fights in the Kuban, Don and Crimean peninsula.

After the end of the Civil War, Nedorubov returns to peaceful life in his native village. At first, an ordinary individual owner, later he was appointed deputy chairman of the collective farm, controller and foreman on various collective farms. The unwinding flywheel of repression affected Konstantin Nedorubov immediately. In 1933, for abuse of official duties (allowing peasants to keep leftover grain), he was sentenced to 10 years in the camps. Three years passed by hard work on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. Early release.

Nedorubov during the Great Patriotic War

In 1941, K.I. Nedorubov is not subject to mobilization due to his age, but he does not remain on the sidelines. In the fall of 1941, he signed up as a volunteer to defend his homeland. He takes his 16-year-old son with him. Nedorubov becomes the commander of a Cossack squadron of volunteers, and in the summer of 1942 his detachment takes part in fierce battles on the North Caucasus Front. Once again, almost 30 years later, Konstantin Iosifovich’s squadron distinguishes itself with daring and successful attacks on the enemy. By personal example he rouses his fighters to attack, rushing into hand-to-hand combat. Personally destroys hundreds of enemies.

For unparalleled courage and heroism in October 1943, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. At the same time, a serious wound put the already middle-aged hero out of action. After treatment in the Caucasus, he was sent to the reserve. Having already become a living legend, Nedorubov took part in the Victory Parade. Moreover, he proudly wore all his awards: both from Tsarist times and Soviet ones. About his St. George Crosses, he later repeated to everyone who was interested: “I walked in the front row at the Victory Parade like this. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook hands and thanked him for his participation in two wars.” IN post-war period Nedorubov held various party positions and was elected as a deputy of the district council.

In 1967, K.I. Nedorubov, among 3 veterans, lights the Eternal Flame with a torch at the memorial to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamayev Kurgan. Konstantin Iosifovich spent the rest of his life in the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd region, and this is where his grave is now located. He died shortly before his 90th birthday, in 1978.

Biographies and exploits of Heroes of the Soviet Union and holders of Soviet orders: