Fedor Okhlopkov: The Yakut sniper never made mistakes. Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich - sniper of the Great Patriotic War Magic shooter Okhlopkov

Born on March 2, 1908 in the village of Krest-Khaldzhay (now located in the Tomponsky ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) in the family of a poor peasant. Yakut. Primary education. He worked as a miner-hauler of gold-bearing rocks at the Orochon mine in the Aldan region, and before the war as a hunter-trader and machine operator in his native village. He began the war as a machine gunner, the second name being his brother Vasily. Pursuing the retreating enemy, our fighters liberated the villages of Semyonovskoye and Dmitrovskoye, which had been burned to the ground, and occupied the northern outskirts of the city of Kalinin, which was engulfed in fire. The “Yakut” frost was fierce; There was a lot of wood around, but there was no time to light a fire, and the brothers warmed their hands on the heated barrel of a machine gun. After a long retreat, the Red Army advanced. The most pleasant sight for a soldier is a running enemy. In two days of fighting, the regiment in which the Okhlopkov brothers served destroyed over 1,000 fascists, destroyed the headquarters of two German infantry regiments, and captured rich military trophies: cars, tanks, cannons, machine guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges. Both Fedor and Vasily, just in case, stuffed a captured Parabellum into their overcoat pockets. The victory came at a high price. The division lost many soldiers and officers. The regiment commander, Captain Chernozersky, died the death of the brave; An explosive bullet from a German sniper completely killed Vasily Okhlopkov. He fell to his knees and pressed his face into the prickly snow, like nettles. He died in his brother's arms, easily, without suffering. Fyodor cried. Standing without a hat over the cooling body of Vasily, he swore an oath to avenge his brother, and promised the dead man to open his account of the destroyed fascists.

So Fedor became a sniper. The work was slow, but by no means boring: the danger made it exciting, it required rare fearlessness, excellent orientation on the ground, sharp eyes, composure, and iron endurance. Fedor was wounded several times, but remained in service each time. A taiga resident, he understood the rural pharmacopoeia, knew the healing properties of herbs, berries, leaves, knew how to heal diseases, and possessed secrets passed down from generation to generation. Gritting his teeth in pain, he burned his wounds with the fire of a resinous pine splinter and did not go to the medical battalion.

The division in which Okhlopkov served was transferred to the 1st Baltic Front. The situation has changed, the landscape has changed. Going hunting every day, from December 1942 to July 1943, Okhlopkov destroyed 159 fascists, many of them snipers. In numerous fights with German snipers, Okhlopkov was never wounded. He received 12 wounds and 2 contusions in offensive and defensive battles, when everyone fought against everyone. Each wound undermined his health and took away his strength, but he knew: the candle shines for people, burning itself out.

The enemy quickly made out the confident handwriting of the magic marksman, who put his vengeful signature on the forehead or chest of his soldiers and officers. Over the positions of the regiment, German pilots dropped leaflets, they contained a threat: “Okhlopkov, surrender. There is no salvation for you! We will take it anyway, alive or dead!”

I had to lie motionless for hours. This state was conducive to introspection and reflection. He lay and saw himself in Krest-Khaljai, on the rocky shore of Aldan, in a family, with his wife and son. He had an amazing ability to go into the past and wander through it along the paths of memory, as if in a familiar forest.

The command of the Soviet Army developed the sniper movement. Fronts, armies, divisions were proud of their accurate shooters. Fyodor Okhlopkov conducted an interesting correspondence. Snipers from all fronts shared their combat experience with each other.

For example, Okhlopkov advised the young man Vasily Kurka: “Imitate less... Look for your own fighting techniques... Find new positions and new ways of camouflage... Don’t be afraid to go behind enemy lines... You can’t chop with an ax where a needle is needed. .. You have to be round in a pumpkin, long in a pipe... Until you see a way out, don’t go in... Take out the enemy at any distance.”

Okhlopkov gave such advice to his many students. He took them with him hunting. The student saw with his own eyes the subtleties and difficulties of fighting a cunning enemy.

In our business, everything is suitable: a damaged tank, a hollow tree, a log house of a well, a stack of straw, the stove of a burnt hut, a dead horse...

One day he pretended to be killed and lay motionless all day in a no-man's land in a completely open field, among the silent bodies of slain soldiers, touched by the fumes of decay. From this unusual position, he brought down an enemy sniper who was buried under an embankment in a drainage pipe. The enemy soldiers did not even notice where the unexpected shot came from. The sniper lay there until the evening and, under the cover of darkness, crawled back to his own.

One day Okhlopkov was brought a gift from the front commander - a narrow and long box. He impatiently opened the package and froze with delight when he saw a brand new sniper rifle with a telescopic sight.

It was day. Sun was shining. But Okhlopkov was impatient to upgrade his weapon. Since yesterday evening, he noticed a fascist observation post on the chimney of a brick factory. I crawled to the outpost trenches. After a smoke break with the fighters, he rested and, merging with the color of the earth, crawled even further. His body was numb, but he lay motionless for 3 hours and, choosing an opportune moment, took out the observer with one shot. Okhlopkov’s revenge for his brother kept growing. Here are excerpts from the division newspaper: on March 14, 1943 - 147 fascists killed; as of July 20 - 171; on October 2 - 219; on January 13, 1944 - 309; on March 23 - 329; on April 25 - 339; on June 7 - 420.

On June 7, 1944, the commander of the Guard regiment, Major Kovalev, nominated Sergeant Okhlopkov to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The award list was not completed then. Some intermediate authority between the regiment and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did not approve it. All the soldiers in the regiment knew about this document, and, although there was no Decree yet, Okhlopkov’s appearance in the trenches was often greeted with the song: “The Hero’s golden fire burns on his chest...”

In April 1944, the publishing house of the army newspaper "Defender of the Fatherland" released a poster. It depicts a portrait of a sniper, with the words “Okhlopkov” written in large letters. Below is a poem by the famous military poet Sergei Barents, dedicated to the Yakut sniper.

In single combat, Okhlopkov shot another 9 snipers. The revenge count reached a record number - 429 killed fascists!

The great era of building communism counted down years equal to decades. Yakutia, the land of permafrost, was being transformed. More and more ships appeared on its mighty rivers. Only the old people, lighting their pipes, occasionally remembered the roadless land cut off from the whole world, the pre-revolutionary Yakut highway, the Yakut exile, the rich people - the toyons. Everything that interfered with life has forever sunk into eternity.

Two peaceful decades have passed. All these years, Fyodor Okhlopkov worked selflessly and raised his children. His wife, Anna Nikolaevna, gave birth to 10 sons and daughters and became a heroine mother, and Fyodor Matveevich knew: it is easier to string a bag of millet on a thread than to raise one child. He also knew that the reflection of the glory of parents falls on children.

The severe wounds received by Fyodor Matveyevich in the war made themselves felt more and more often. On May 28, 1968, residents of the village of Krest-Khaldzhai saw off the illustrious fellow countryman on his last journey. (Based on media materials)

About the Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov. The most productive sniper in the history of WWII. Destroyed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers with a sniper rifle.
I'll let you know when I'm finished!

It was day. Sun was shining. But Okhlopkov was impatient to upgrade his weapon. Since yesterday evening, he noticed a fascist observation post on the chimney of a brick factory. I crawled to the outpost trenches. After a smoke break with the fighters, he rested and, merging with the color of the earth, crawled even further. His body was numb, but he lay motionless for 3 hours and, choosing an opportune moment, took out the observer with one shot. Okhlopkov’s revenge for his brother kept growing.

Walking past the club in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai, a frail, short elderly worker of the Tomponsky state farm heard a fragment of a radio broadcast of the latest news. It came to his ears: “... for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the fronts of the struggle and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, award the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal to reserve sergeant Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich...”

The worker slowed down and stopped. His last name is Okhlopkov, his first name is Fedor, his patronymic is Matveevich, on his military ID in the “Rank” column it is written: reserve sergeant.

It was May 7, 1965 - 20 years since the end of the war, and although the worker knew that he had been nominated for a high rank a long time ago, without stopping, he walked past the club, through the village dear to his heart, in which almost his entire half-century of life was noisy.

He fought and received his: two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Red Banner, several medals. His 12 wounds still ache, and people who understand such matters equate each wound with an order.

Okhlopkov Fyodor Matveevich... And there is such a coincidence: the last name, the first name, the patronymic, and the title - everything came together,” the worker smiled, going out to the rapids Aldan.

He landed on the shore, covered with young spring grass, and, looking at the hills overgrown with green taiga moss, slowly went into the distant past... He saw himself as if from the outside, through the eyes of another person. Here he is, 7-year-old Fedya, crying over his mother’s grave, at the age of 12 burying his father and, having graduated from the 3rd grade, leaving school forever... Here he is, Fyodor Okhlopkov, diligently uprooting the forest for arable land, sawing and chopping wood for steamship fireboxes, enjoying his skill , mows hay, does carpentry, catches perches in ice holes in lakes, and sets crossbows for hares and traps for foxes in the taiga.

The anxious, windy day of the beginning of the war is coming, when everything familiar and dear should have been said goodbye, and perhaps forever.

It is not so far from Krest-Khaljai to the capital of the autonomous republic. After a week of traveling through the taiga on dogs, those drafted into the army were in Yakutsk.

Okhlopkov did not stay in the city, and together with his brother Vasily and fellow villagers went by truck through Aldan to the Bolshoy Never railway station. Together with his fellow countrymen - hunters, farmers and fishermen - Fedor ended up in the Siberian division.

It was hard for the Yakuts, Evenks, Odulas and Chukchi to leave their republic, which is 10 times larger in area than Germany. It was a pity to part with my wealth: with the collective farm herds of deer, with 140 million hectares of Daurian larch, sprinkled with sparkles from forest lakes, with billions of tons of coking coal. Everything was expensive: the blue artery of the Lena River, and gold veins, and mountains with chars and rocky placers. But what to do? We have to hurry. German hordes were advancing on Moscow, Hitler raised a knife over the heart of the Soviet people.

With Vasily, who was also in the same division, we agreed to stick together and asked the commander to give them a machine gun. The commander promised and for two weeks, while they got to Moscow, he patiently explained to the brothers the design of the sighting device and its parts. The commander, with his eyes closed, in full view of the enchanted soldiers, deftly disassembled and reassembled the car. Both Yakuts learned to use a machine gun on the way. Of course, they understood that they still had a lot to master before they became real machine gunners: they needed to practice shooting over their advancing soldiers, shooting at targets that suddenly appeared, quickly hiding and moving, and learn how to hit planes and tanks. The commander assured that all this would come with time, through combat experience. Combat is the most important school for a soldier.

The commander was Russian, but before graduating from military school, he lived in Yakutia, worked in gold and diamond mines and knew well that the keen eye of a Yakut sees far, does not lose animal tracks either in the grass, or on moss, or on stones and In terms of accuracy of hits, there are few shooters in the world equal to the Yakuts.

We arrived in Moscow on a frosty morning. In a column, with rifles at their backs, they walked through Red Square, past the Lenin Mausoleum and went to the front.

The 375th Rifle Division, formed in the Urals and merged into the 29th Army, was moving towards the front. The 1243rd regiment of this division included Fedor and Vasily Okhlopkov. The commander with two cubes on the buttonholes of his overcoat kept his word: he gave them a light machine gun for two. Fedor became the first number, Vasily - the second.

While in the forests of the Moscow region, Fyodor Okhlopkov saw fresh divisions approaching the front line and tanks and artillery concentrating. It looked like a crushing blow was being prepared after heavy defensive battles. Forests and groves came to life.

The wind carefully bandaged the bloody, wounded earth with clean strips of snow, diligently sweeping away the exposed sores of war. Blizzards raged, covering the trenches and trenches of the chilled fascist warriors with a white shroud. Day and night the piercing wind sang a mournful funeral song to them...

In the first line of their battalion, the Yakut brothers ran across, often burying themselves in the prickly snow, firing short oblique bursts at the green enemy overcoats. They managed to defeat several fascists, but then they did not yet count revenge. We tried our best and tested the accuracy of the hunting eyes. A hot battle involving tanks and planes lasted for two days without a break, with varying success, and for two days no one slept a wink. The division managed to cross the Volga on ice broken by shells and chase the enemies 20 miles away.

Pursuing the retreating enemy, our fighters liberated the villages of Semyonovskoye and Dmitrovskoye, which had been burned to the ground, and occupied the northern outskirts of the city of Kalinin, which was engulfed in fire. The “Yakut” frost was fierce; There was a lot of wood around, but there was no time to light a fire, and the brothers warmed their hands on the heated barrel of a machine gun. After a long retreat, the Red Army advanced. The most pleasant sight for a soldier is a running enemy. In two days of fighting, the regiment in which the Okhlopkov brothers served destroyed over 1,000 fascists, destroyed the headquarters of two German infantry regiments, and captured rich military trophies: cars, tanks, cannons, machine guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges. Both Fedor and Vasily, just in case, stuffed a captured Parabellum into their overcoat pockets.

The victory came at a high price. The division lost many soldiers and officers. The regiment commander, Captain Chernozersky, died the death of the brave; An explosive bullet from a German sniper completely killed Vasily Okhlopkov. He fell to his knees and pressed his face into the prickly snow, like nettles. He died in his brother's arms, easily, without suffering.

Fyodor cried. Standing without a hat over the cooling body of Vasily, he swore an oath to avenge his brother, and promised the dead man to open his account of the destroyed fascists.

At night, sitting in a hastily dug-out dugout, division commissar Colonel S. Kh. Ainutdinov wrote about this oath in a political report. This was the first mention of Fyodor Okhlopkov in war documents...

Reporting the death of his brother, Fedor wrote about his oath in the Cross - Khaljai. His letter was read in all three villages included in the village council. Fellow villagers approved of the courageous determination of their fellow countryman. His wife Anna Nikolaevna and son Fedya also approved the oath.

Fyodor Matveevich recalled all this on the shore of Aldan, watching how the spring wind, like flocks of sheep, drove white ice floes to the west. He was torn from his thoughts by the roar of a car; the secretary of the district party committee drove up.

Well, dear, congratulations. - He jumped out of the car, hugged and kissed.

The decree read over the radio concerned him. The government equated his name with the names of 13 Yakuts - Heroes of the Soviet Union: S. Asyamov, M. Zhadeikin, V. Kolbunov, M. Kosmachev, K. Krasnoyarov, A. Lebedev, M. Lorin, V. Pavlova, F. Popov, V. Streltsov, N. Chusovsky, E. Shavkunov, I. Shamanov. He is the 14th Yakut to be awarded the Golden Star.

A month later, in the meeting room of the Council of Ministers, in which hung a poster: “To the people - to the hero - aikhal!” Okhlopkov was presented with the Motherland Award.

Thanking those gathered, he briefly talked about how the Yakuts fought... Memories came flooding back to Fyodor Matveyevich, and he, as if from the outside, saw himself in the war, but not in the 29th Army, but in the 30th Army, to which his division was subordinated. Okhlopkov heard the speech of the army commander, General Lelyushenko. The commander asked the commanders to find accurate shooters and train them as snipers. So Fedor became a sniper. The work was slow, but by no means boring: the danger made it exciting, it required rare fearlessness, excellent orientation on the ground, sharp eyes, composure, and iron endurance.

On March 2, April 3 and May 7, Okhlopkov was wounded, but remained in service each time. A taiga resident, he understood the rural pharmacopoeia, knew the healing properties of herbs, berries, leaves, knew how to heal diseases, and possessed secrets passed down from generation to generation. Gritting his teeth in pain, he burned his wounds with the fire of a resinous pine splinter and did not go to the medical battalion.

Lieutenant Sitnikov, who commanded the group, gave the prearranged signal. The soldiers jumped to their feet and threw grenades and fuel bottles at the steel boxes; sighing heavily, the armored train moved away towards Rzhev, but an explosion was heard in front of it. The train tried to leave for Vyazma, but there, too, brave sappers blew up the track.

For several hours, a group of brave souls held a resisting armored train, devoid of maneuver, under fire. At noon, our bombers arrived, knocked out the locomotive, and threw the armored carriage down a slope. A group of brave souls mounted the railroad and held on until the battalion came to their aid.

The fighting near Rzhev became fierce. The artillery destroyed all the bridges and plowed up the roads. It was a stormy week. The rain poured down in buckets, making it difficult for tanks and guns to advance. The entire burden of military suffering fell on the infantry.

The temperature of the battle is measured by the number of human casualties. A laconic document has been preserved in the archives of the Soviet Army:

“From August 10 to 17, the 375th Division lost 6,140 people killed and wounded. The 1243rd Regiment distinguished itself in the offensive impulse. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ratnikov, died a heroic death in front of his troops. All battalion commanders and company commanders were out of action. Sergeants began to command platoons, sergeants - companies."

... Okhlopkov’s squad advanced in the forward chain. In his opinion, this was the most suitable place for a sniper. By flashes of flame, he quickly found enemy machine guns and silenced them, unerringly falling into narrow embrasures and crevices.

On the evening of August 18, during an attack on a small half-burnt village, Fyodor Okhlopkov was seriously wounded for the 4th time. Drenched in blood, the sniper fell and lost consciousness. There was an iron blizzard all around, but two Russian soldiers, risking their own lives, pulled the wounded Yakut out of the fire to the edge of the grove, under the cover of bushes and trees. The orderlies took him to the medical battalion, and from there Okhlopkov was taken to the city of Ivanovo, to the hospital.

By order for the troops of the Kalinin Front No. 0308 dated August 27, 1942, signed by the front commander, Colonel General Konev, the commander of the submachine gunner squad, Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The award sheet for this order says: “Okhlopkov, with his courage, more than once in difficult moments of battle stopped alarmists, inspired the fighters, and led them into battle again.”

Having recovered from his wound, Okhlopkov was sent to the 234th Regiment of the 178th Division.

The new division knew that Okhlopkov was a sniper. The battalion commander was delighted to see him. The enemy now has a sharp shooter. During the day, with 7 shots, he “shot” 7 of our soldiers. Okhlopkov was ordered to destroy an invulnerable enemy sniper. At dawn the magic marksman went hunting. German snipers chose positions at heights, Okhlopkov preferred the ground.

The winding line of German trenches turned yellow at the edge of a tall forest. The sun has risen. Lying in a trench dug with his own hands and camouflaged at night, Fyodor Matveyevich looked around the unfamiliar landscape with the naked eye, figured out where his enemy might be, and then through an optical device began to study individual, unremarkable sections of the terrain. An enemy sniper could have chosen cover on a tree trunk.

But which one exactly? Behind the German trenches was a tall ship forest - hundreds of trunks, and on each one there could be a clever, experienced enemy who had to be outwitted. The forest landscape is devoid of clear outlines, trees and bushes merge into a solid green mass and it is difficult to focus on anything. Okhlopkov examined all the trees with binoculars from roots to crowns. The German shooter most likely chose a place on a pine tree with a forked trunk. The sniper glared at the suspicious tree, examining every branch on it. The mysterious silence became ominous. He was looking for a sniper who was looking for him. The winner will be the one who is the first to detect his opponent and, ahead of him, pulls the trigger.

As agreed, at 8:12 a.m., a soldier’s helmet was raised on a bayonet in a trench 100 meters from Okhlopkov. A shot rang out from the forest. But the outbreak could not be detected. Okhlopkov continued to watch the suspicious pine tree. For a moment I saw a reflection of the sun next to the trunk, as if someone had pointed a speck of a mirror beam onto the bark, which immediately disappeared, as if it had never been there.

"What could it be?" - the sniper thought, but no matter how hard he peered, he could not find anything. And suddenly, in the place where the light spot flashed, like the shadow of a leaf, a black triangle appeared. The keen eye of the taiga hunter through binoculars discerned the sock, the nickel shine of a polished boot...

"Cuckoo" was hiding on a tree. It is necessary, without giving anything away, to wait patiently and, as soon as the sniper opens up, kill him with one bullet... After an unsuccessful shot, the fascist will either disappear, or, having discovered him, will engage in single combat and return fire. In Okhlopkov’s extensive practice, he rarely managed to take aim at the same target twice. Every time after a miss I had to search for days, track, wait...

Half an hour after the German sniper shot, in the place where they lifted the helmet, a glove appeared, one, then a second. From the outside, one might think that a wounded man was trying to rise, grabbing the parapet of the trench with his hand. The enemy took the bait and took aim. Okhlopkov saw part of his face and the black dot of a rifle muzzle appearing among the branches. Two shots rang out at the same time. The fascist sniper flew head down to the ground.

During his week in the new division, Fyodor Okhlopkov sent 11 fascists to the next world. Witnesses of extraordinary duels reported this from observation posts.

The air was filled with the smell of battle. The enemy counterattacked with tanks. Squeezing himself into a shallow, hastily dug trench, Okhlopkov coolly fired at the viewing slits of the formidable vehicles and hit. In any case, two tanks heading straight towards him turned, and the third stopped about 30 meters away, and the riflemen set it on fire with petrol bottles. The soldiers who saw Okhlopkov in battle were amazed at his luck and spoke about him with love and jokes:

Fedya as an insured person... Two-wire...

They did not know that invulnerability was given to the Yakut through caution and labor; he preferred to dig 10 meters of trenches than 1 meter of grave.

He also went hunting at night: he shot at the lights of cigarettes, at voices, at the clink of weapons, bowlers and helmets.

In November 1942, the regiment commander, Major Kovalev, nominated the sniper for an award, and the command of the 43rd Army awarded him the second Order of the Red Star. At the same time, Fyodor Matveevich became a communist. Taking the party card from the hands of the head of the political department, he said:

Joining the party is my second oath of allegiance to the Motherland.

His name began to appear more and more often on the pages of the military press. In mid-December 1942, the army newspaper “Defender of the Fatherland” wrote on the front page: “99 enemies were destroyed by the Yakut sniper Okhlopkov.” Front-line newspaper “Forward to the enemy!” set Okhlopkov as an example to all frontline snipers. The “Sniper's Memo”, released by the political department of the front, summarized his experience and offered his advice...

The enemy quickly made out the confident handwriting of the magic marksman, who put his vengeful signature on the forehead or chest of his soldiers and officers. Over the regiment's positions, German pilots dropped leaflets containing a threat: “Okhlopkov, surrender. There is no salvation for you! We’ll take it anyway, alive or dead!”

Okhlopkov is a man of few words and does not like to talk about himself. But what he keeps silent out of modesty is revealed in the documents. The award sheet for the Order of the Red Banner, which he was awarded for fighting in the Smolensk region, says:

“Being in infantry combat formations at height 237.2, at the end of August 1943, a group of snipers led by Okhlopkov steadfastly and courageously repulsed 3 counterattacks of numerically superior forces. Sergeant Okhlopkov was shell-shocked, but did not leave the battlefield, continued to remain at the occupied lines and lead a group of snipers.”

In a bloody street battle, Fyodor Matveevich carried out from under fire his fellow countrymen - soldiers Kolodeznikov and Elizarov, seriously wounded by mine fragments. They sent letters home, describing everything as it happened, and Yakutia learned about the feat of its faithful son.

The army newspaper Defender of the Fatherland, which closely followed the sniper’s successes, wrote:

"F. M. Okhlopkov was in the most brutal battles. He has the sharp eye of a hunter, the steady hand of a miner and a big, warm heart... The German he takes aim at is a dead German.”

Another interesting document has also survived:

“Combat characteristics of the sniper Sergeant Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov. Member of the CPSU(b). While in the 1st battalion of the 259th Infantry Regiment from January 6 to 23, 1944, Comrade Okhlopkov destroyed 11 Nazi invaders. With the appearance of Okhlopkov in the area of our defense, the enemy showed no active sniper fire, and stopped daytime work and walking. The commander of the 1st battalion is Captain I. Baranov. January 23, 1944."

For example, Okhlopkov advised the young man Vasily Kurka: “Imitate less... Look for your own fighting techniques... Find new positions and new ways of camouflage... Don’t be afraid to go behind enemy lines... You can’t chop with an ax where you need a needle... You have to be round in a pumpkin, in a pipe long... Until you see a way out, don’t enter... Get at the enemy at any distance.”

Okhlopkov gave such advice to his many students. He took them with him hunting. The student saw with his own eyes the subtleties and difficulties of fighting a cunning enemy.

In our business, everything is suitable: a damaged tank, a hollow tree, a log house of a well, a stack of straw, the stove of a burnt hut, a dead horse...

In April 1944, the publishing house of the army newspaper “Defender of the Fatherland” released a poster. It depicts a portrait of a sniper, with the words “Okhlopkov” written in large letters. Below is a poem by the famous military poet Sergei Barents, dedicated to the Yakut Yaniper.

In single combat, Okhlopkov shot another 9 snipers. The revenge count reached a record number - 429 killed fascists!

In the battles for the city of Vitebsk on June 23, 1944, a sniper, supporting an assault group, received a through wound in the chest, was sent to a rear hospital and never returned to the front.

In the hospital, Okhlopkov did not lose touch with his comrades and followed the successes of his division, which was confidently making its way to the west. Both the joys of victories and the sorrows of losses reached him. In September, his student Burukchiev died, struck by an explosive bullet, and a month later his friend, the famous sniper Kutenev, with 5 shooters, knocked out 4 tanks and, wounded and unable to resist, was crushed by the 5th tank. He learned that front snipers had killed over 5,000 fascists.

By the spring of 1945, the magic shooter recovered and, as part of the combined battalion of troops of the 1st Baltic Front, led by the front commander, Army General I. Kh. Bagramyan, took part in the Victory Parade in Moscow on Red Square.

From Moscow Okhlopkov went home to his family in Krest-Khaldzhai. For some time he worked as a miner, and then at the Tomponsky state farm, living among fur farmers, plowmen, tractor drivers and foresters.

The Soviet War Veterans Committee invited Hero of the Soviet Union Okhlopkov to Moscow. There were meetings and memories. He visited the site of the battles and seemed to go back to his youth. Where fires burned, where stone melted and iron burned under the fire, a new collective farm life bloomed wildly.

Among the great many graves of heroes who fell in the battles for Moscow, Fyodor Matveyevich found a neat mound, looked after by schoolchildren - the place of eternal rest for his brother Vasily, whose body had long ago become a part of the great Russian land. Taking off his hat, Fyodor stood for a long time over a place dear to his heart.

Okhlopkov visited Kalinin and bowed to the ashes of his division commander, General N.A. Sokolov, who taught him mercilessness towards the enemies of the Motherland.

The famous sniper spoke in the Kalinin House of Officers in front of the soldiers of the garrison, and recalled many things that had become forgotten.

I tried to honestly fulfill my duty to the Motherland... I hope that you, the heirs of all our glory, will worthily continue the work of your fathers - this is how Okhlopkov ended his speech.

Like goats being carried away into the Arctic Ocean, the time passed when Yakutia was considered a land cut off from the whole world. Okhlopkov left for Moscow, and from there he went home on a jet plane and after a 9-hour flight found himself in Yakutsk.

Thus, life itself brought the distant, once roadless republic with its people, its heroes closer to the warm heart of the Soviet Union.

To perpetuate the blessed memory of F. M. Okhlopkov, his name was given to his native state farm in the Tomponsky district of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and a street in the city of Yakutsk.

Added at 13:26
That's all I wanted to say.
(An article by S. Borzenko was published in the collection “In the Name of the Motherland”)
In the photo, the presentation of the Hero star

Recently I was in the homeland of Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov (March 2, 1908, the village of Krest-Khaldzhay, Bayagantaisky ulus, Yakut region, Russian Empire - May 28, 1968, the village of Krest-Khaldzhay, Tomponsky district, YASSR), USSR) - sniper of the 234th rifle regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union.
By June 23, 1944, Sergeant Okhlopkov killed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers with a sniper rifle

Born on March 3, 1908 in the village of Krest-Khaldzhay, now Tomponsky district (Yakutia), in a peasant family. Primary education. He worked on a collective farm. Since September 1941 in the Red Army. Since December of the same year at the front. Participant in the battles near Moscow, the liberation of the Kalinin, Smolensk, and Vitebsk regions. By June 1944, the sniper of the 234th Infantry Regiment (179th Infantry Division, 43rd Army, 1st Baltic Front) Sergeant F. M. Okhlopkov destroyed 429 enemy soldiers and officers with a sniper rifle. On May 6, 1965, for courage and military valor shown in battles with enemies, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he was demobilized. He returned to his homeland and was an employee. In 1954 - 1968 he worked at the Tomponsky state farm. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation. Died May 28, 1968. Awarded the orders: Lenin, Red Banner, Patriotic War 2nd degree, Red Star (twice); medals. The name of the Hero was given to the Tomponsky state farm, streets in the city of Yakutsk, the village of Khandyga and the village of Cherkekh (Yakutia), as well as a ship of the Ministry of the Navy.

Okhlopkov was drafted into the army at the beginning of winter. In the village of Krest-Khaljay, the soldiers were seen off with speeches and music. It was cold. For 50 degrees below zero. The wife’s salty tears froze on her cheeks and rolled like shot... It’s not so far from Krest-Khaljai to the capital of the autonomous republic. After a week of traveling through the taiga on dogs, those drafted into the army were in Yakutsk.
Okhlopkov did not stay in the city, and together with his brother Vasily and fellow villagers went by truck through Aldan to the Bolshoy Never railway station. Together with his fellow countrymen - hunters, farmers and fishermen - Fedor ended up in the Siberian division.
It was hard for the Yakuts, Evenks, Odulas and Chukchi to leave their republic, which is 10 times larger in area than Germany. It was a pity to part with my wealth: with the collective farm herds of deer, with 140 million hectares of Daurian larch, sprinkled with sparkles from forest lakes, with billions of tons of coking coal. Everything was expensive: the blue artery of the Lena River, and gold veins, and mountains with chars and rocky placers. But what to do? We have to hurry. German hordes were advancing on Moscow, Hitler raised a knife over the heart of the Soviet people. With Vasily, who was also in the same division, we agreed to stick together and asked the commander to give them a machine gun. The commander promised and for two weeks, while they got to Moscow, he patiently explained to the brothers the design of the sighting device and its parts. The commander, with his eyes closed, in full view of the enchanted soldiers, deftly disassembled and reassembled the car. Both Yakuts learned to use a machine gun on the way. Of course, they understood that they still had a lot to master before they became real machine gunners: they needed to practice shooting over their advancing soldiers, shooting at targets that suddenly appeared, quickly hiding and moving, and learn how to hit planes and tanks. The commander assured that all this would come with time, through combat experience. Combat is the most important school for a soldier. The commander was Russian, but before graduating from military school, he lived in Yakutia, worked in gold and diamond mines and knew well that the keen eye of a Yakut sees far, does not lose animal tracks either in the grass, or on moss, or on stones and In terms of accuracy of hits, there are few shooters in the world equal to the Yakuts. We arrived in Moscow on a frosty morning. In a column, with rifles at their backs, they walked through Red Square, past the Lenin Mausoleum and went to the front. The 375th Rifle Division, formed in the Urals and merged into the 29th Army, was moving towards the front.
The 1243rd regiment of this division included Fedor and Vasily Okhlopkov. The commander with two cubes on the buttonholes of his overcoat kept his word: he gave them a light machine gun for two. Fedor became the first number, Vasily - the second. While in the forests of the Moscow region, Fyodor Okhlopkov saw fresh divisions approaching the front line and tanks and artillery concentrating. It looked like a crushing blow was being prepared after heavy defensive battles. Forests and groves came to life. The wind carefully bandaged the bloody, wounded earth with clean strips of snow, diligently sweeping away the exposed sores of war. Blizzards raged, covering the trenches and trenches of the chilled fascist warriors with a white shroud. Day and night the piercing wind sang to them a mournful funeral song...
Machine gunners at work In early December, the division commander, General N.A. Sokolov, visited the battalions of the regiment, and a day later, on a blizzard morning, the division, after artillery preparation, rushed to the offensive. In the first line of their battalion, the Yakut brothers ran across, often burying themselves in the prickly snow, firing short oblique bursts at the green enemy overcoats. They managed to defeat several fascists, but then they did not yet count revenge. We tried our best and tested the accuracy of the hunting eyes. A hot battle involving tanks and planes lasted for two days without a break, with varying success, and for two days no one slept a wink. The division managed to cross the Volga on ice broken by shells and chase the enemies 20 miles away. Pursuing the retreating enemy, our fighters liberated the villages of Semyonovskoye and Dmitrovskoye, which had been burned to the ground, and occupied the northern outskirts of the city of Kalinin, which was engulfed in fire. The “Yakut” frost was fierce; There was a lot of wood around, but there was no time to light a fire, and the brothers warmed their hands on the heated barrel of a machine gun. After a long retreat, the Red Army advanced. The most pleasant sight for a soldier is a running enemy. In two days of fighting, the regiment in which the Okhlopkov brothers served destroyed over 1,000 fascists, destroyed the headquarters of two German infantry regiments, and captured rich military trophies: cars, tanks, cannons, machine guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges. Both Fedor and Vasily, just in case, stuffed a captured Parabellum into their overcoat pockets. The victory came at a high price. The division lost many soldiers and officers. The regiment commander, Captain Chernozersky, died the death of the brave; An explosive bullet from a German sniper completely killed Vasily Okhlopkov. He fell to his knees and pressed his face into the prickly snow, like nettles. He died in his brother's arms, easily, without suffering. Fyodor cried. Standing without a hat over the cooling body of Vasily, he swore an oath to avenge his brother, and promised the dead man to open his account of the destroyed fascists.
At night, sitting in a hastily dug-out dugout, division commissar Colonel S. Kh. Ainutdinov wrote about this oath in a political report. This was the first mention of Fyodor Okhlopkov in war documents... Reporting the death of his brother, Fyodor wrote about his oath in the Cross - Khaljai. His letter was read in all three villages included in the village council. Fellow villagers approved of the courageous determination of their fellow countryman. His wife Anna Nikolaevna and son Fedya also approved the oath. Fyodor Matveevich recalled all this on the shore of Aldan, watching how the spring wind, like flocks of sheep, drove white ice floes to the west. He was torn from his thoughts by the roar of a car; the secretary of the district party committee drove up. - Well, dear, congratulations. - He jumped out of the car, hugged and kissed. The decree read over the radio concerned him.
The government equated his name with the names of 13 Yakuts - Heroes of the Soviet Union: S. Asyamov, M. Zhadeikin, V. Kolbunov, M. Kosmachev, K. Krasnoyarov, A. Lebedev, M. Lorin, V. Pavlova, F. Popov, V. Streltsov, N. Chusovsky, E. Shavkunov, I. Shamanov. He is the 14th Yakut to be awarded the Golden Star. A month later, in the meeting room of the Council of Ministers, in which hung a poster: “To the people - to the hero - aikhal!” Okhlopkov was presented with the Motherland Award. Thanking those gathered, he briefly talked about how the Yakuts fought... Memories came flooding back to Fyodor Matveyevich, and he, as if from the outside, saw himself in the war, but not in the 29th Army, but in the 30th Army, to which he was subordinated division. Okhlopkov heard the speech of the army commander, General Lelyushenko. The commander asked the commanders to find accurate shooters and train them as snipers. So Fedor became a sniper. The work was slow, but by no means boring: the danger made it exciting, it required rare fearlessness, excellent orientation on the ground, sharp eyes, composure, and iron endurance. On March 2, April 3 and May 7, Okhlopkov was wounded, but remained in service each time. A taiga resident, he understood the rural pharmacopoeia, knew the healing properties of herbs, berries, leaves, knew how to heal diseases, and possessed secrets passed down from generation to generation. Gritting his teeth in pain, he burned his wounds with the fire of a resinous pine splinter and did not go to the medical battalion.

At the beginning of August 1942, troops of the Western and Kalinin fronts broke through the enemy’s defenses and began to advance in the Rzhev and Gzhatsk-Vyazemsky directions. The 375th Division, going to the forefront of the offensive, took the brunt of the enemy's attack. In the battles near Rzhev, the advance of our troops was delayed by the fascist armored train "Hermann Goering", which was running along a high railway embankment. The division commander decided to block the armored train. A group of daredevils was created. Okhlopkov asked to include him too. After waiting until nightfall, putting on camouflage robes, the soldiers crawled towards the target. The enemy illuminated all approaches to the railway with rockets.
The Red Army soldiers had to lie on the ground for a long time. From below, against the background of the graying sky, like a mountain range, the black silhouette of an armored train could be seen. Smoke curled above the locomotive, its bitter smell carried to the ground by the wind. The soldiers were creeping closer and closer. Here is the long-awaited embankment. Lieutenant Sitnikov, who commanded the group, gave the prearranged signal. The soldiers jumped to their feet and threw grenades and fuel bottles at the steel boxes; sighing heavily, the armored train moved away towards Rzhev, but an explosion was heard in front of it. The train tried to leave for Vyazma, but there, too, brave sappers blew up the track.
Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich From the base car, the crew of the armored train lowered new rails, trying to restore the destroyed track, but under well-aimed machine gun fire, having lost several people killed, they were forced to return to the protection of iron walls. Okhlopkov then defeated half a dozen fascists. For several hours, a group of brave souls held a resisting armored train, devoid of maneuver, under fire. At noon, our bombers arrived, knocked out the locomotive, and threw the armored carriage down a slope. A group of brave souls mounted the railroad and held on until the battalion came to their aid. The fighting near Rzhev became fierce. The artillery destroyed all the bridges and plowed up the roads. It was a stormy week. The rain poured down in buckets, making it difficult for tanks and guns to advance.
The entire burden of military suffering fell on the infantry. The temperature of the battle is measured by the number of human casualties. A laconic document has been preserved in the archives of the Soviet Army: “From August 10 to 17, the 375th division lost 6,140 people killed and wounded. In the offensive rush, the 1243rd regiment distinguished itself. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ratnikov, died a heroic death in front of his troops. All were out of action battalion commanders and company commanders. Sergeants began to command platoons, sergeants - companies." ...Okhlopkov’s squad advanced in the forward chain. In his opinion, this was the most suitable place for a sniper. By flashes of flame, he quickly found enemy machine guns and silenced them, unerringly falling into narrow embrasures and crevices. On the evening of August 18, during an attack on a small half-burnt village, Fyodor Okhlopkov was seriously wounded for the 4th time. Drenched in blood, the sniper fell and lost consciousness. There was an iron blizzard all around, but two Russian soldiers, risking their own lives, pulled the wounded Yakut out of the fire to the edge of the grove, under the cover of bushes and trees. The orderlies took him to the medical battalion, and from there Okhlopkov was taken to the city of Ivanovo, to the hospital. By order for the troops of the Kalinin Front No. 0308 dated August 27, 1942, signed by the front commander, Colonel General Konev, the commander of the submachine gunner squad, Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The award sheet for this order says: “Okhlopkov, with his courage, more than once in difficult moments of battle stopped alarmists, inspired the fighters, and led them into battle again.”

Having recovered from his wound, Okhlopkov was sent to the 234th Regiment of the 178th Division. The new division knew that Okhlopkov was a sniper. The battalion commander was delighted to see him. The enemy now has a sharp shooter. During the day, with 7 shots, he “shot” 7 of our soldiers. Okhlopkov was ordered to destroy an invulnerable enemy sniper. At dawn the magic marksman went hunting. German snipers chose positions at heights, Okhlopkov preferred the ground. The winding line of German trenches turned yellow at the edge of a tall forest. The sun has risen. Lying in a trench dug with his own hands and camouflaged at night, Fyodor Matveyevich looked around the unfamiliar landscape with the naked eye, figured out where his enemy might be, and then through an optical device began to study individual, unremarkable sections of the terrain.
An enemy sniper could have chosen cover on a tree trunk. But which one exactly? Behind the German trenches was a tall ship forest - hundreds of trunks, and on each one there could be a clever, experienced enemy who had to be outwitted. The forest landscape is devoid of clear outlines, trees and bushes merge into a solid green mass and it is difficult to focus on anything. Okhlopkov examined all the trees with binoculars from roots to crowns. The German shooter most likely chose a place on a pine tree with a forked trunk. The sniper glared at the suspicious tree, examining every branch on it. The mysterious silence became ominous. He was looking for a sniper who was looking for him. The winner will be the one who is the first to detect his opponent and, ahead of him, pulls the trigger. As agreed, at 8:12 a.m., a soldier’s helmet was raised on a bayonet in a trench 100 meters from Okhlopkov. A shot rang out from the forest. But the outbreak could not be detected. Okhlopkov continued to watch the suspicious pine tree. For a moment I saw a reflection of the sun next to the trunk, as if someone had pointed a speck of a mirror beam onto the bark, which immediately disappeared, as if it had never been there. "What could it be?" - the sniper thought, but no matter how hard he peered, he could not find anything. And suddenly, in the place where the light spot flashed, like the shadow of a leaf, a black triangle appeared. The keen eye of a taiga hunter through binoculars discerned a sock, a polished boot to the nickel shine... “Cuckoo” lurked in a tree. It is necessary, without giving anything away, to wait patiently and, as soon as the sniper opens up, kill him with one bullet... After an unsuccessful shot, the fascist will either disappear, or, having discovered him, will engage in single combat and return fire. In Okhlopkov’s extensive practice, he rarely managed to take aim at the same target twice. Every time after a miss, I had to search for days, track, wait... Half an hour after the German sniper shot, in the place where they lifted the helmet, a glove appeared, one, then a second. From the outside, one might think that a wounded man was trying to rise, grabbing the parapet of the trench with his hand. The enemy took the bait and took aim. Okhlopkov saw part of his face and the black dot of a rifle muzzle appearing among the branches. Two shots rang out at the same time. The fascist sniper flew head down to the ground. During his week in the new division, Fyodor Okhlopkov sent 11 fascists to the next world. Witnesses of extraordinary duels reported this from observation posts. On October 27, in the battle for the village of Matveevo, Okhlopkov destroyed 27 fascists. The air was filled with the smell of battle. The enemy counterattacked with tanks. Squeezing himself into a shallow, hastily dug trench, Okhlopkov coolly fired at the viewing slits of the formidable vehicles and hit. In any case, two tanks heading straight towards him turned, and the third stopped about 30 meters away, and the riflemen set it on fire with petrol bottles. The fighters who saw Okhlopkov in battle were amazed at his luck, and spoke of him with love and jokes: “Fedya is like an insured... Double-core... They didn’t know that invulnerability was given to the Yakut by caution and labor; he preferred to dig 10 meters of trenches than 1 meter grave. He also went hunting at night: he shot at the lights of cigarettes, at voices, at the clink of weapons, bowlers and helmets. In November 1942, the regiment commander, Major Kovalev, nominated the sniper for an award, and the command of the 43rd Army awarded him the second Order of the Red Star. At the same time, Fyodor Matveevich became a communist. Taking the party card from the hands of the head of the political department, he said: “Joining the party is my second oath of allegiance to the Motherland.” His name began to appear more and more often on the pages of the military press. In mid-December 1942, the army newspaper “Defender of the Fatherland” wrote on the front page: “99 enemies were destroyed by the Yakut sniper Okhlopkov.” Front-line newspaper "Forward to the enemy!" set Okhlopkov as an example to all frontline snipers. The "Sniper's Memo", issued by the political department of the front, summarized his experience and offered his advice...

The army newspaper "Defender of the Fatherland", which closely followed the sniper's successes, wrote:

“F. M. Okhlopkov was in the most brutal battles. He has the sharp eye of a hunter, the steady hand of a miner and a big, warm heart... The German he takes aim at is a dead German.”

Another interesting document has also survived:

"Combat characteristics of the sniper Sergeant Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich. Member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. While in the 1st battalion of the 259th Infantry Regiment from January 6 to 23, 1944, Comrade Okhlopkov destroyed 11 Nazi invaders. With the appearance of Okhlopkov in the area of our defense, the enemy does not show active sniper fire, stopped daytime work and walking. Commander of the 1st battalion, Captain I. Baranov. January 23, 1944."

F.M.Okhlopkov
The command of the Soviet Army developed the sniper movement. Fronts, armies, divisions were proud of their accurate shooters. Fyodor Okhlopkov conducted an interesting correspondence. Snipers from all fronts shared their combat experience with each other.

Okhlopkov gave such advice to his many students. He took them with him hunting. The student saw with his own eyes the subtleties and difficulties of fighting a cunning enemy.

In our business, everything is suitable: a damaged tank, a hollow tree, a log house of a well, a stack of straw, the stove of a burnt hut, a dead horse...

In single combat, Okhlopkov shot another 9 snipers. The revenge count reached a record number - 429 killed fascists!

In the battles for the city of Vitebsk on June 23, 1944, a sniper, supporting an assault group, received a through wound in the chest, was sent to a rear hospital and never returned to the front.

Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich
In the hospital, Okhlopkov did not lose touch with his comrades and followed the successes of his division, which was confidently making its way to the west. Both the joys of victories and the sorrows of losses reached him. In September, his student Burukchiev died, struck by an explosive bullet, and a month later his friend, the famous sniper Kutenev, with 5 shooters, knocked out 4 tanks and, wounded and unable to resist, was crushed by the 5th tank. He learned that front snipers had killed over 5,000 fascists.

Near the grave of Okhlopkov F.M. in the village Cross - Khaldzhay, Tomponsky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

On May 28, 1968, residents of the village of Krest-Khaldzhai saw off the illustrious fellow countryman on his last journey. To perpetuate the blessed memory of F. M. Okhlopkov, his name was given to his native state farm in the Tomponsky district of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and a street in the city of Yakutsk.

Okhlopkov visited Kalinin and bowed to the ashes of his division commander, General N.A. Sokolov, who taught him mercilessness towards the enemies of the Motherland.

I tried to honestly fulfill my duty to the Motherland... I hope that you, the heirs of all our glory, will worthily continue the work of your fathers - this is how Okhlopkov ended his speech.

Thus, life itself brought the distant, once roadless republic with its people, its heroes closer to the warm heart of the Soviet Union.

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

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Relevance of the work. Today, the younger generation rarely remembers those people who gave their lives for our bright future. The heroism of Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov is an example for the younger generation, poems and songs are written in his honor, schools and streets are named after him. With my work I want to draw attention to the military feat of fellow countryman Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov. Purpose of the work: to tell about the feat of F.M. Okhlopkov, as an example of the courage and heroism of the Yakut people during the Great Patriotic War.

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Objectives: 1. To trace the life and military path of Fyodor Okhlopkov. 2. To cultivate a sense of patriotism in the younger generation using the example of the life of our fellow countryman Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov. 3. Glorify the heroism and courage of the Yakut people during the Great Patriotic War. 4. Develop a sense of pride for your homeland. Hypothesis: Prove that the feat of a simple sniper Fyodor Okhlopkov made a great contribution to the victory of the Great Patriotic War.

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Life of Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov was born on March 2, 1908 in the village. Cross-Khaldzhai of the Tomponsky district of the YASSR in the family of a poor peasant. Lost his parents early. Through work and struggle with poverty, the village boy matured early. Fyodor did not study much at school - the consequences of the war with the white bandits interfered. In 1932, young Okhlopkov, at the call of the Komsomol, found himself at the Aldan gold mines, first working as a hauler, then as a mechanic on a dredge. Fedor bore the name of Komsomol member with dignity - he was always among the foremost. In 1933 he returned to his native collective farm and worked as a machine operator. In 1936 he became a Stakhanovite.

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Years of War In the Great Patriotic War, F. M. Okhlopkov participated from December 13, 1941 to June 23, 1944. Showing high Soviet patriotism from the first days of participation in battles, he fought as a machine gunner and machine gunner. Endurance and composure, endurance and self-control, flavored and enhanced by the dexterity of a hunter, peasant ingenuity - these are the qualities that distinguished him as a warrior. In the summer of 1942, Fyodor Okhlopkov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the fire of battles he became a sniper.

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Oath. During the war, Fyodor Matveevich’s brother Vasily died. And Fedor swore an oath: to avenge his brother. Fyodor wrote about the death of his brother and about his oath to his native village of Krest-Khaldzhai, from where he was drafted into the army.. In the winter of 1941-1942. During the general counteroffensive of the Soviet Army near Moscow, the Nazis were defeated.

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Wounds On March 2, April 3 and May 7, 1942, Okhlopkov was wounded. He knew how to heal diseases and knew the secrets of medicinal herbs. On August 18, Fyodor Okhlopkov was seriously wounded for the 4th time. Two Russian soldiers pulled out a wounded Yakut from under fire. The orderlies were taken to the hospital in the city of Ivanovo.

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In the terrible summer of 1942, Fyodor Okhlopkov and his regiment, as the commander of a squad of machine gunners, took part in the terrible bloody battles near Velikiye Luki and Rzhev. In these battles from August 10 to 17, 1942, the 375th Rifle Division lost 80% of its personnel killed and wounded. In these battles, as always, Fedor Matveevich distinguished himself.

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August 27, 1942 F.M. Okhlopkov was awarded his first military order, the Order of the Red Star, and in November 1942, a second order. The award sheet says: “With his courage, more than once in difficult moments he stopped alarmists, inspired the fighters and led them into battle again.”

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After the war, Fyodor Matveevich wrote in his memoirs: “..I was often asked about how I came out of many battles alive. I am sure of one thing, that I was saved by honest and conscientious performance of my duty. I will never forget my comrades in arms, who more than once saved me from certain death...”

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The glory of F. M. Okhlopkov as the best sniper of the division, army, and then the front thundered for almost 2 years. His distinctive feature as a sniper was his accuracy with all major types of small arms. This was a rare phenomenon even during the Great Patriotic War, when for the first time in the history of wars the power of sniper fire was widely used. He killed 429 soldiers and officers of Hitler's army with a sniper rifle.

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As a communist, F. M. Okhlopkov was distinguished by his boundless devotion to the cause of the party and the people, honesty and nobility, and the ability to devote all his strength without reserve to the defense of the Motherland. In battle he was always ahead.

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On June 23, 1944, during the Belarusian offensive operation, Fyodor Okhlopkov received the 12th through-and-through wound to the chest and was sent to a rear hospital. He did not have time to return to the front: he was undergoing treatment. Only in the spring of 1945 Okhlopkov was discharged from the hospital. And on June 24, 1945, F. M. Okhlopkov walked as part of a combined battalion of troops along Red Square in Moscow at the historical victory parade.

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After demobilization, Fedor Matveevich returned to Yakutia in 1945. The countrymen joyfully greeted their famous sniper. 20 years flew by unnoticed in peaceful labor. He raised ten children whom he loved very much. Journalists and writers often visited Okhlopkov, hoping to learn details about his front-line biography. But every time he fell silent, not wanting to remember it.

Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov (March 2, 1908, village of Krest-Khaldzhay, Bayagantaysky ulus, Yakut region, Russian Empire - May 28, 1968, village of Krest-Khaldzhay, Tomponsky district, YASSR, USSR) - sniper of the 234th Infantry Regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the Red Army since September 1941. From December 12 of the same year at the front. He was a machine gunner, a squad commander of a company of machine gunners of the 1243rd Infantry Regiment of the 375th Division of the 30th Army, and from October 1942 - a sniper of the 234th Infantry Regiment of the 179th Division.

Since January 1944, commander of the sniper squad of the 259th Infantry Regiment, 179th Division, 43rd Army, 1st Baltic Front. The best snipers of the front serve in his department: V. Sh. Kvachantiradze (534 killed enemy manpower), K. D. Smolensky (414 killed enemy manpower), Leonty Antonovich Ganshin (267 killed enemy manpower).

By June 23, 1944, Sergeant Okhlopkov killed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers with a sniper rifle. But according to his colleagues, in total he destroyed more than 1,000 Germans, also using a machine gun, but his official combat account recorded only 429 killed enemy soldiers; probably, the situation on the battlefield did not always make it possible to count his results more accurately. Was wounded 12 times.

On June 24, 1945, he took part in the Victory Parade over Nazi Germany on Red Square in Moscow.

It is not so far from Krest-Khaljai to the capital of the autonomous republic. After a week of traveling through the taiga on dogs, those drafted into the army were in Yakutsk.

At the beginning of December, the division commander, General N.A. Sokolov, visited the battalions of the regiment, and a day later, on a blizzard morning, the division, after artillery preparation, rushed to the offensive. In the first line of their battalion, the Yakut brothers ran across, often burying themselves in the prickly snow, firing short oblique bursts at the green enemy overcoats. They managed to defeat several fascists, but then they did not yet count revenge. We tried our best and tested the accuracy of the hunting eyes. A hot battle involving tanks and planes lasted for two days without a break, with varying success, and for two days no one slept a wink. The division managed to cross the Volga on ice broken by shells and chase the enemies 20 miles away. Pursuing the retreating enemy, our fighters liberated the villages of Semyonovskoye and Dmitrovskoye, which had been burned to the ground, and occupied the northern outskirts of the city of Kalinin, which was engulfed in fire. The “Yakut” frost was fierce; There was a lot of wood around, but there was no time to light a fire, and the brothers warmed their hands on the heated barrel of a machine gun. After a long retreat, the Red Army advanced. The most pleasant sight for a soldier is a running enemy. In two days of fighting, the regiment in which the Okhlopkov brothers served destroyed over 1,000 fascists, destroyed the headquarters of two German infantry regiments, and captured rich military trophies: cars, tanks, cannons, machine guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges. Both Fedor and Vasily, just in case, stuffed a captured Parabellum into their overcoat pockets. The victory came at a high price. The division lost many soldiers and officers. The regiment commander, Captain Chernozersky, died the death of the brave; An explosive bullet from a German sniper completely killed Vasily Okhlopkov. He fell to his knees and pressed his face into the prickly snow, like nettles. He died in his brother's arms, easily, without suffering. Fyodor cried. Standing without a hat over the cooling body of Vasily, he swore an oath to avenge his brother, and promised the dead man to open his account of the destroyed fascists.

After 2 years, having returned to his native place, Okhlopkov became an indispensable collective farm master machine operator. He repaired the only tractor, thresher, horse-drawn reaper, hay mower and rake at that time. They didn’t bring any spare parts - he fixed the broken parts and made them himself, that is, he was a blacksmith, mechanic, electrician and mechanic at the same time. He worked as a horse breeder, farm manager, and production site foreman. He sowed and harvested grain, mowed grass, raked, stacked and stacked them, and always better and larger than anyone else. Once in November - December, when the real cold set in, without a break, he set the tone in the work of the only industrial unit - the thresher: he fed sheaves into the threshing drum. Instead of the norm of 5,000 sheaves per day, Okhlopkov supplied up to 10,000 sheaves per day. Before or since, no one has achieved such ultra-high productivity. In 1936, he was the first in the Bayagantay nasleg to be awarded the rare honorary title “Stakhanovite.”

He was born in Krest-Khaldzhai, a Yakut village, which is now part of the Tomponsky ulus of the Sakha Republic, on March 2, 1908. At the age of seven, Evdokia Okhlopkova, his mother, died, and five years later the father of the family, Matvey Okhlopkov, also passed away, leaving sons Vasily and Fedor, and daughter Masha. The orphaned children were helped to get back on their feet by their older half-brother. However, Fyodor Okhlopkov managed to complete only three classes of school. He hunted and fished, cleared forests and cut firewood, then worked as a hauler at the Orochon mine. Having gotten back on his feet, Fedor returned to his native village, got married, began working as a machine operator, and hunted in the winter.

This division arrived on the Kalinin Front on December 12, 1941, at the height of the Soviet Army's counteroffensive near Moscow. In the 1243rd regiment of this division, Fyodor Okhlopkov began to serve as the 1st number of a light machine gun, and his brother Vasily - as the 2nd number. They were almost constantly on the front line. Judging by the combat characteristics, Fyodor Okhlopkov, from the first days of his stay on the front line, showed personal courage and a special ability to destroy the enemy.

Fedor’s courage in battle and accurate shooting did not go unnoticed. When the order for the training of snipers was issued, the command submitted his candidacy, and Fedor was enrolled in the 243rd Infantry Regiment. In March 1942, in battles near the village of Inchikovo, Okhlopkov killed 29 soldiers and one officer with a simple rifle, and, being wounded, remained in service. The valiant shooter was awarded the Order of the Red Star; it was also noted in the award documents that under his leadership 9 more soldiers trained in targeted shooting. After training in sniper courses, Okhlopkov led a group of snipers. During his entire stay at the front, he received four minor wounds, but remained in service. According to the old habit of commercial hunters, Okhlopkov preferred not to consult a doctor. He treated himself with folk methods, in particular, he treated his wounds with a burning pine splinter. In this case, it was possible to avoid sepsis, but the former taiga resident was not afraid of pain. In July 1942, in the battles near Smolensk, his group held the heights for two weeks and repelled several enemy counterattacks. In his personal account in this battle, Fedor recorded 59 fascists, while he was again wounded and received two shell shocks. For this feat, the Red Army soldier Okhlopkov was awarded another Order of the Red Star.

From the base car, the crew of the armored train lowered new rails, trying to restore the destroyed track, but under well-aimed machine gun fire, having lost several people killed, they were forced to return to the protection of iron walls. Okhlopkov then defeated half a dozen fascists. For several hours, a group of brave souls held a resisting armored train, devoid of maneuver, under fire. At noon, our bombers arrived, knocked out the locomotive, and threw the armored carriage down a slope. A group of brave souls mounted the railroad and held on until the battalion came to their aid. The fighting near Rzhev became fierce. The artillery destroyed all the bridges and plowed up the roads. It was a stormy week. The rain poured down in buckets, making it difficult for tanks and guns to advance.

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