Alexey Eremenko was born on March 31, 1906 in the village of Tersyanka, Yekaterinoslav province. Due to the fact that there were many children in the family, Alexei had to go to work at the age of 14. At first he worked on the railroad, and later - at the factory. There he helped his parents. Aleksey Eremenko was Ukrainian by nationality. At that time, the first collective farms began to be created in the Zaporozhye region. According to some reports, the first collective farm was named "Vanguard", according to other sources, it was named after Krasin. At that moment, Alexey Eremenko was the head of the Komsomol cell. When he grew up, it was impossible not to notice that the young man had a natural gift to lead groups of people. Thanks to this fact, Aleksey Eremenko was appointed brigadier, later - party organizer, and at the end of his career - chairman of the collective farm. Absolutely everyone was satisfied with Eremenko's work.
Junior political instructor
Aleksey Eremenko was a worthy man. At the beginning of the war, he had a reservation for conscription, which was associated with work on a collective farm. Despite this, he could not sit quietly at home while his brothers and friends were at war. Therefore, the young man volunteered to join the ranks of the Red Army as a commissar. In the army, the man received the rank of junior political officer.
A political instructor in the USSR was a person who was a representative of the state or the ruling party. Junior political instructor Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko was supposed to oversee the command and personnel. His duties also included political, educational and educational work with the team. Political instructor Aleksey Eremenko fought for the 247th Rifle Division. Later, he ended up in the 220th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division.
The death of the legendary political officer
In the summer of 1942, as a result of fierce battles with the enemy, political instructor Alexei Eremenko died. There are many versions of the death of Alexei. One of them says that he gathered all the remaining soldiers around him and led them on the offensive against the German occupiers. Another version says that he was killed at the moment when he replaced the early company commander, Lieutenant Petrenko.
Aleksey Eremenko was buried in Ukraine, in the Luhansk region, in the village of Horogo in July 1942.
Alexey Gordeevich Eremenko. Photo story
As you know, Alexei Gordeevich was captured in the famous photograph called "Combat", although in fact he was not the battalion commander. The photo was taken by Max Alpert. He made it while in the trenches, before the start of the very battle when Alexei Eremenko died. The photo became very famous, and Alexei became one of the symbols of victory.
Max Alper took the legendary photo at the moment when Alexei was raising a soldier into battle, so he turned out to be very courageous and courageous in the photo, and the image of a soldier straightening up to his full height, calling for an attack, conveys to the viewer the spirit of war and fierce battles. Later, Max Alpert sat in a trench and de alt with his equipment. At that moment, the soldiers were running around and shouting that they had killed the battalion commander. Then the young photographer Max thought that we were talking about Alexei Eremenko. For this reason, he called the photo - "Combat". However, this is an erroneous name, but as it happened during the war, it was decided that nothing should be changed. Alpert thought he had damaged the film and wanted to throw it away, but at the last moment he changed his mind about doing it. If the photographer had not changed his mind, then, most likely, now there would not be so many monuments, photographs and posters dedicated to Alexei Gordeevich.
Who is in the photo?
However, things were not so easy. It was not immediately possible to determine who is depicted in the photo. Only in 2005, thanks to the employees of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" with the support of the youth organization from Lugansk "Molodogvardeets", it was possible to find the relatives of Alexei Gordeevich. In 1974, Alexei's wife wrote letters asking to find the photographer, but there was no response to them. This is due to the fact that she was not alone in writing letters to the management: many stated that it was their relative in the photo. Therefore, it was not possible to establish the identity of the soldier for a long time.
Letter to Alexey's wife
Activists of the youth movement and journalists of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" managed to find a letter that was delivered to his wife after the death of Alexei Gordeevich. It indicated that her husband Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko was missing. Every second family received such letters during the war. One was accompanied by an unusual photo, which later became one of the main symbols of the Great Patriotic War. Thanks to this letter, written to the wife of Alexei Gordeevich, it was possible to establish the identity of the person depicted in the photograph.
Commemorative coins
One photo was not enough. Already in our days, Alexei Gordeevich was depicted on some commemorative coins that are dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. Among them are the five-ruble coin "The Commander Raises the Soldiers to Attack", which is included in the "50 Years of Victory" set, issued in 1995, as well as 10 rubles called "55 Years of Victory", issued in 2000.
Collectors are the only ones who call the coin "Politruk" and not "Combat". The photo of Aleksey Gordeevich inspired the Ukrainian sculptor to create a monument to the hero of the Great Patriotic War. Work on the monument took more than ten years. Thus, thanks to the efforts of the inhabitants of the Lugansk region, a monument 11 meters high was erected. Below it you can see a table with the inscription: “In honor of the heroic deed of political workers of the Soviet Army in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945years.”
