Apparently the theme of the Great Patriotic War inexhaustible (and the Second World War). The question of the very existence, first of all, of the Russian people, and the Slavs of Europe in particular, was too serious. Our home-grown liberals and the media controlled by the “world behind the scenes” very often recall the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” (as they call it, although such a “pact” never existed, but there was a diplomatic agreement between the USSR and Germany, which existed and exist in practice of all states), a document that is normal in its essence, aimed at protecting the borders of its state and people. But the media NEVER REMEMBERS OR WRITES about the agreement between the heads of government of Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany, which went down in history as the “Munich Agreement,” which sanctioned Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia. This was the beginning of a global massacre that claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. But in this post I want to talk about something else that may be little known to young people. About the Czech Otakar Yarosh, who lived in the city of Buzuluk, and on January 30, 1943, as part of the 1st separate Czechoslovak battalion under the command of Ludwik Svoboda, he went to the front, and already on March 8 accomplished a feat. He was the commander of the 1st company. In the Czechoslovak Army, 1st Company is considered the best and is trusted to the best officer. Lieutenant Otkar Yarosh was the best... This story is about him.

Do you know what kind of guy he was!?...

(In memory of the Hero Soviet Union Otakar Yarosh)

The first Hero of the Soviet Union among foreigners, Otakar Yarosh, I type on the keyboard, and for some reason my consciousness protests against the formally correct, but essentially unacceptable in this case, word - “foreigner”. No! Not a foreigner, but one of our own! brother of my people - Otakar Frantsevich Yarosh! Here, in Buzuluk, he lived, breathed, walked the streets of the then military city, together with the senior commander Ludwig Svoboda, he prepared the soldiers of the first Czechoslovak infantry battalion to fight the fascist hordes that enslaved his native Czechoslovakia, and were going to pour blood and enslave the Soviet Union.

Then our peoples curbed the “brown plague” of fascism and, thanks to this, the peoples of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia in the 21st century have independence and decide for themselves how to live. This is exactly what super lieutenant (senior lieutenant) Otakar Yarosh dreamed of; for this, he, honestly as a soldier, without flinching in a difficult battle, gave his life near the small Ukrainian village of Sokolovo on March 8, 1943. What was Otakar Yarosh like, in what environment did he grow up and be brought up, what helped him become a giant of the human spirit?

He was born on August 1, 1912 in the small town of Lunech (sometimes spelled Louny) in the north-west of the Czech Republic in the family of a locomotive driver. The family was large, Otakar was the second of five sons. In 1923, the family moved to the town of Melnik, located 40 km away. south of Prague, at the confluence of the Vltava and Laba rivers. (Much later, a small city in the Orenburg region at the confluence of the Buzuluk and Samara rivers, from where Otakar will take a step into immortality, will vividly remind him of his native place and become a second homeland). For 5 years, Otakar studied at a real gymnasium and became a passionate bookworm. This was due to the influence of his mother Anna, who instilled in her son a love of books. Otakar read a lot of patriotic, historical, and adventure literature. I was well acquainted with the works of Russian classics: A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov.

The young boy devoted his free time from studying and reading books to sports; he was especially interested in chess and boxing, although he was a good football goalkeeper, did gymnastics, and swam well. Sports skills gradually helped forge a staunch warrior-fighter from the young man.

In 1928, Otakar entered and in 1934 successfully graduated from the Prague Electrotechnical College and was drafted into the Czechoslovak army. Then he entered and graduated in 1937 military school in Granik (Moravia), received the rank of lieutenant and served in one of the military units of Slovakia. A true patriot of the Motherland, Otakar Jaros had a hard time with the events that went down in history as the “Munich Agreement”: when in September 1938, as a result of a criminal agreement between the heads of government of Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany, the seizure of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany was sanctioned. “Without a shot, the Czech Republic was given to the fascists, without a single shot,” Otakar said bitterly to his comrades. (The help of the Soviet government was rejected by the Czechoslovak bourgeois government of those years).

Not wanting to live under the dictatorship of the Nazis, Otakar illegally crossed the border into Poland, where he joined the Czechoslovak unit called the “Polish Legion,” which participated in military clashes with the Nazis. However, when Poland was occupied by Germany in September 1939, this unit, under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Svoboda, transferred to the territory of the USSR. On July 18, 1941, by agreement between the government of the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Republic, the formation of the Czechoslovak military unit began on Soviet soil. Otakar Jaros became one of its first officers.

The future soldiers of the First Separate Czechoslovak Battalion arrived in the city of Buzuluk, Chkalov Region, on February 5, 1942. There were only 88 of them, but after 2 months there were already 600! Otakar Yarosh lived in Buzuluk on Chapaeva Street in house No. 69, whose owner was Maria Makarovna Maslova.

On May 27, 1942, in the Buzuluk cinema, then called “Proletary”, and now “Victory”, Klement Gottwald, the foreign leader of the communist Czechoslovak resistance, spoke to his fellow countrymen and said: “I am convinced that you will prove worthy of your Hussite ancestors, that you will prove worthy to fight alongside the Red Army.” The soldiers of the Czechoslovak battalion stubbornly prepared for battles with fascist invaders all of 1942.

Otkar’s company was the best in combat training; the soldiers respected their seasoned, intelligent, fair commander and tried not to let their “Ota” down, as he was affectionately called. In any weather: hot summer, rainy autumn, winter cold - the soldiers of the 1st company, according to Suvorov’s principle, “hard in training - easy in battle,” learned to wield their weapons, overcome obstacles: they went to cross the Samara River, storm the steep slopes of the Ataman Mountains. It was especially difficult in the winter, and Otakar himself once froze his toes so much that he could hardly move. And when one day the murmur of individual fighters was heard about the hardships military service, Otakar Yarosh led his 1st company to the Kuibyshev plant, where in the workshops Buzuluk young boys, aged 13-15 years, standing on stands made of wooden boxes or bricks, worked for 11-12 hours on machines, producing products for the needs of the front. This “excursion” was enough to make the company’s soldiers eager to get to the front as quickly as possible in order to fight the hated fascists in battle.

And finally, on January 30, 1943, the soldiers of the Czechoslovak battalion in train No. 22904 left for the West, and already on March 8, the 1st company of Lieutenant Otakar Jaros received unequal battle with the fascists near the Ukrainian village of Sokolovo, near the river with the short name Mzha.

It was fundamental important battle. The Nazis knew that they were facing an unfired Czechoslovak battalion, and hoped to quickly put an end to it. They believed that the destruction of a foreign unit on the Soviet-German front would prevent the appearance of other foreign units here, so they initially ensured a significant numerical superiority in the attack. In total, more than 80 tanks, reinforced by two battalions of machine gunners on 14 armored personnel carriers, were thrown against Otakar Yarosh’s company.

Ludwig Svoboda asked Otar Yarosh by telephone to hold out and not retreat: “You can’t retreat. Do you hear, brother Yarosh? “We won’t retreat, brother colonel,” Otakar promised and kept his word.

The battle was hot and furious. An armored tank armada, spewing deadly salvoes from cannons and machine guns, advanced, also using flamethrower installations, and a handful of brave men, positioned next to Orthodox Church, repelled these attacks using four anti-tank guns, three 76 mm. cannons, 8 anti-tank rifles, 3 mortars and 6 heavy machine guns.

Ukrainian huts set on fire from flamethrowers were burning, smoke was covering the sky, people were falling in battle, the company was holding out! But, having destroyed up to 60 fascist machine gunners, machine gunner Ignaz Spiegl died a heroic death, after destroying three tanks, platoon commander Jiri Frank was killed, comrades P. Gyori and G. Schwarz were killed, super lieutenant S. Lom was killed by enemy tank fire, Redish was killed... Fascist tanks were approaching the church. By this time, Otakar Jaros had already been wounded twice, his lung was shot, blood was coming from his mouth and nose, but, gathering all his will into a fist, the brave son of the fraternal Czech people fired from an anti-tank rifle, personally destroying two tanks. Bleeding, grabbing a bunch of grenades, he stepped towards the third tank, but was pierced by a machine-gun burst and fell a few steps short... Eyewitnesses of these last minutes of Otakar Yarosh’s life said that the tank ran into the hero, but exploded and caught fire. It seemed that the dead Otakar continued to fight... After the battle, the hero’s body was identified by the crowns on his teeth... In this battle, the Czechoslovak soldiers lost 86 people killed and 56 were wounded. Enemy losses amounted to 19 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers, and about 400 people killed. This is how the “unfired” Czechoslovak soldiers fought the Nazis! They did not know that messengers were sent to them twice, with the order to retreat to the main forces beyond Mzhu, but both messengers died... Even 10 tanks sent to help by L. Svoboda could not get through to them, since the loose March river ice could not withstand this mass metal, one of them failed...

On April 17, 1943, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was signed conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on Lieutenant Otakar Yarosh. First among foreign citizens. It was assigned to him military rank captain. A total of 87 soldiers of the Czechoslovak battalion received orders and medals of the Soviet Union.

67 years have passed since the war ended. But captain Otakar Yarosh is alive! Alive in the memory of grateful people! One of the central streets in the city of Buzuluk is named after him, there is a memorial plaque on the house where he once lived, townspeople come here to pay tribute to the memory of his bright name, in the local history museum of the city there is an exhibition dedicated to Czechoslovak heroes. And a young, handsome, courageous man looks at the visitors, whom the Buzulu residents, like the soldiers of his heroic 1st company, warmly and brotherly call Ota. Our Ota!

Otakar Jaros was born on August 1, 1912 in Louny (Czech Republic) in the family of a locomotive fireman. His parents gave him a name in honor of the Czech king, famous for his military victories. After graduating from the Prague Electrotechnical College, Otakar decided to become a career military man. In 1937, he graduated from the Higher Military School in the city of Hranice, then served in the Czech troops. After the occupation of the Czech lands in 1939 by Nazi Germany, he emigrated to Poland and then to the Soviet Union. The Munich events convinced Otakar Jaros that the Soviet Union was the main ally and defender of freedom of Czechoslovakia. He would have fought at home, but he couldn’t, there was another front, an underground one, which he didn’t really trust and was even afraid of… but he wasn’t afraid of meeting the enemy.” In February 1942, Otakar Jaros, together with Lieutenant Colonel L. Svoboda and a group of military personnel, came to Buzuluk and, as a professional military man, was appointed commander of the 1st company of a separate Czechoslovak infantry battalion. So the military telegraph operator became an infantry commander. At the first meeting with personnel company Otakar Yarosh said: “Soldiers, just as a pile of bricks does not constitute a building, a group of soldiers is not a combat-ready unit. I am your commander, and I will have to lead you into battle. Please be well aware of who we will have to fight. These are not some frightened youths, but fascists who have perfectly mastered the art of killing. If we want to successfully resist them, moreover, defeat them, then we must know a lot and be able to do a lot. We must know and be able to do more and better than them. I believe that you understand me and no task, even the most difficult, will knock you out of the saddle. This is where I will lead you from today. Don't expect any concessions from me. I will demand a lot from you."

And in any weather: in the rain, in the summer heat, in severe frost and in deep snow, they crossed Samara, stormed the Sukhorechensky mountains, built huts in the forest, developed the skills of living in the most difficult conditions. They acted according to the famous Suvorov principle: “It’s hard to learn, but it’s easy to fight!” Otakar Yarosh has always been an example in everything. As a commander, he was strict, demanding, and firm; nevertheless, he was loved and respected by the soldiers.

In a letter home, to his homeland, he said that he was going to the front and hoped that he would return home, but it might happen that he would not return...

On January 30, 1943, Otakar Yarosh, as part of the battalion, in train 22904, went to the Soviet-German front. Many residents of Buzuluk then came to see off the allied (Czechoslovak) military unit on the long journey...

Unloading from cars1 at Valuiki station. March through Alekseevka, Volchanok, Belgorod. The commander of the 1st company, Otakar Jarosz, like the battalion commander Ludwik Svoboda, walked with the soldiers on foot.

A short rest in Kharkov, recently recaptured from the Germans. Late in the evening of March 2, the Czechoslovak battalion received order No. 006 from the chief of defense of the Kharkov region, Lieutenant General D.T. Kozlova.

The company of lieutenant O. Yarosh was entrusted with defending the village of Sokolovo. He placed his observation post in the church.

B.C. Petrov, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, artillery general, recalled his meeting with Otakar Yarosh: From Soklov’s side, a man came out to the meeting, dressed in the same way as all the commanders of the Czechoslovak battalion: a hat with earflaps, an overcoat, equipment with shoulder straps. On the chest there are binoculars and a camera. A few steps away he stopped and raised his hand to his headdress in greeting. The staff officer introduced the counter lieutenant Otakar Yarosh, the commander of the 1st company. After shaking hands, Yarosh began to introduce us to his defensive area. Calmly, unhurriedly, without missing a beat, Yarosh outlined the tactical scheme of actions of platoons and squads, just as experienced front-line soldiers do. Oh, Lieutenant Yarosh inspired confidence! Among his compatriots, mostly tall people, the commander of the 1st company was distinguished not only appearance. In the firm gaze of his serious, even gloomy eyes, as in all the facial features of the Czechoslovak lieutenant, one could see the nature of a warrior, vulnerable, perhaps in the flesh, but not in the spirit.

And on March 8, 1943, at 13.00, about 60 tanks and 15 - 20 armored personnel carriers attacked Sokolovo. There is smoke over the village. The roar and roar was indescribable. Tank guns were ringing loudly and machine guns were firing. The single combat between the Germans and the Czechoslovak infantry began. The last conversation between the commander of the Svoboda battalion and O. Yarosh: “You can’t retreat. Do you hear, brother Yarosh? “Let’s not retreat, my brother colonel.” O. Yarosh was already wounded twice during the battle. Blood flooded his face, his broken fingers stuck to the trigger of the anti-tank rifle...

Reserve Colonel Yaroslav Perny (participant in the battle) talks about the last minutes of his life: “As he ran, Yarosh unhooked a bunch of grenades from his belt, apparently intending to throw them at the tank. But he fell dead, struck by a burst from a tank machine gun. The tank ran over him, Yarosh's grenades exploded, and the tank turned over on its side. Yarosh, even dead, managed to destroy the fascist tank... During the explosion, I was covered with earth, the fascists considered me dead, and this saved my life.”

It was about five in the evening. So Otakar Yarosh stepped into immortality. On April 17, 1943, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was signed to award lieutenant Otakar Yarosh the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). This was the first foreign citizen who was awarded such a title during the Great Patriotic War. honorary title. He was posthumously awarded the military rank of captain.

Streets in Buzuluk, Kharkov, are named after Yarosh. high school in the village of Sokolovo. In the city of Melnik, in Yarosh’s homeland, a monument was erected with the inscription: “Captain Otakar Yarosh”; a bust of the hero was installed in the regional museum.

Otakar was born in 1912 in the city of Louny in the Czech Republic, which in those years was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the family of a fireman at a railway depot. The family was large - five...

Otakar was born in 1912 in the city of Louny in the Czech Republic, which in those years was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the family of a fireman at a railway depot. The family was large - five sons. After seven years of school, he studied at the Electrical Engineering College, and when he was drafted into the army, he went to the non-commissioned officer school in Trnava. After serving for several years as a non-commissioned officer in the infantry forces, in 1937 he was sent to a military school in the city of Hranice na Morave, from where he graduated with an excellent diploma and an officer rank.

Otakar's hometown

Two passions determined all interests and everything inner world Otakar Yarosh. Above all else in life, he loved books and sports. There was a small, but tastefully selected library in the house. He loved the history of his native and long-suffering country, the history of the Czech Republic. Therefore, for the most part, I read books about that heroic time when Jan Hus, as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Constance by the cruel, self-righteous and hypocritical German Catholics of the Pope. And straightforward and responsive to the suffering of his people, national hero Czech Republic, the fearless Jan Zizka raised a flag against the German oppressors, on which in large letters was written a call to fight - “Pravda vitezi!” - “The truth wins!” Otakar especially liked to read historical novels Czech classics literature of the 19th century century by Alois Irasek.

But the Czech Republic, which broke away from the Empire after the First World War, was independent for a short time. In 1939, the Germans came... The patriotic young commander refused to serve the Nazis and secretly left for Poland. He worked as a simple electrician... But after a few months German troops, having broken the border, they flowed through Polish soil- The Second World War began.

Lieutenant Otakar Yarosh

For a young man with strong anti-fascist convictions, there were two options - to remain in the occupied country and join the partisans, or to leave for Russia. Otakar preferred the second - he already had a family... But the war is World War II, so that there are no safe places and safe statuses left in the world. In 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union.

Czechoslovak patriots living on Soviet territory sent a letter to the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The letter contained a request: to find use for their forces on the front of the fight against German fascist invaders. In February 1942, the 1st Combined Czechoslovak Battalion began to be formed from Czech immigrants in Buzuluk. Otakar Yarosh was among his first volunteers.

Parade before leaving for the front line

The young commander led the first company of this battalion. Since January 30, 1943 - on the front line, as part of the 25th Guards Rifle Division of the Voronezh Front.

The Czechs fought bravely and desperately, like those whose homeland has been groaning under the fascist boot for many years. On March 8, 1943, the battalion took part in battle with Nazi troops near the village of Sokolovo, Zmievsky district, Kharkov region. At noon, about 60 enemy tanks and several armored personnel carriers attacked the village, on the outskirts of which, in the village churchyard near an old church, Czech infantry sat in trenches.

Soldiers from Otakar Yarosh's company knocked out 19 tanks and 6 armored personnel carriers with machine gunners. About 300 enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed. During the battle, Yarosh himself was wounded twice - in the head and chest, but did not go to the medical battalion to be bandaged - he continued to command the company and fire from an anti-tank rifle at the advancing enemy. The cartridges ran out, the orderly, sent with a supply of ammunition to the second line of defense, died along the way. And the enemy tanks kept crawling and crawling through the melted March snow mixed with mud... The battalion suffered losses.

One of the tanks broke through to the churchyard gate ten meters away. Now he'll doubt it!..

Nádrže hlavy - hoří! (on the head - fire!) - Lieutenant Yarosh waved his mitten for the umpteenth time during this battle. But the armor-piercing men were silent... Some were killed, some clung to the parapet in anticipation of replenishment of ammunition. Retreat?.. But how long can you retreat...

The commander unfastened a bunch of grenades from his belt. One grenade will not do here - the German colossus is healthy! He rose to his height and rushed forward in dashes across the crunchy varnish crust - across the enemy...

Treskuchka was hit by a machine gun burst. She cut off the super lieutenant: his comrades saw from the trench how the hot bullets passing right through tore his uniform on his back. Staining the dirty snow with blood, Yarosh managed to take five more steps - only five, but they were enough! The officer fell directly under the tracks of the iron monster.

Feat. From a painting by a contemporary artist

A deafening explosion broke the track, and the damaged tank, by inertia, helplessly turned on its side towards the soldiers and fell on its side. Tankers climbed out of the burning car, stupefied by shell shock, in smoke and flames, and were immediately killed by a Czech machine gunner. The rest of the Germans did not dare to tempt fate any longer and retreated...

After the battle in mass grave village Sokolovo together with Soviet soldiers 120 Czechoslovak soldiers who gave their lives “for our and your victory” were buried. Among those buried was the super-lieutenant of the Czechoslovak army, Otakar Frantisek Jaros. The officer was identified only by a silver badge on his surviving sleeve.

Award list of Otakar Yarosh

Lieutenant Otakar Yarosh was posthumously awarded the rank of captain. And on April 17, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Otakar Yarosh, the first foreign citizen, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

To the 95th anniversary of the birth of the Czech warrior-hero, whose name is one of the most famous streets of Kharkov.

It is difficult to imagine Otakar Yarosh as a gray-haired old man with a wrinkled face. In our minds, he forever remained a young man, with a courageous, stern face and thoughtful gaze. His appearance eloquently conveyed inner essence this granite-hard, man of few words, whose life path became the logical prehistory of heroic death.

He was born in the small village of Louny, North Bohemian region, on August 1, 1912, into an ordinary proletarian family of average income. His father, Frantisek, worked as a locomotive driver at a railway station, his mother, Aninka, was a housewife. The Yarosh family had five children - boys who played different games from morning to evening, swam and bathed in the river, ran and competed. They especially loved football. They often organized yard games on their street.

When the children began to grow up, the family moved to the ancient town of Melnik, which rises with a high castle at the confluence of the Vltava River with the Laba (in Slavic Elbe). At the spout of these rivers, the boys loved to organize distance swimming competitions to see who was first. More often than others, Otakar, or Ota, as his brothers called him, won. He was the second son in the Yarosh family. Since childhood, he loved outdoor games and sports, and grew up to be a well-built and strong guy. He was not only physically strong, but also a fair, kind and honest young man. Therefore, he definitely enjoyed unquestioned authority in his youth team and always remained a recognized leader in the team.

Two passions determined all the interests and the entire inner world of Otakar Yarosh. Above all else in life, he loved books and sports. The house contained a small, but tastefully selected library. He loved the history of his native and long-suffering country, the history of the Czech Republic. Therefore, for the most part, I read books about that heroic time when Jan Hus, as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Constance by the cruel, self-righteous and hypocritical German Catholics of the Pope. And the straightforward and responsive to the suffering of his people, the national hero of the Czech Republic, the fearless Jan Zizka raised a flag against the German oppressors, on which in large letters was written a call to fight - “Pravda vitezi!” - “The truth wins!” Otakar especially loved to read the historical novels of the classic of 19th-century Czech literature, Alois Jirasek.

After school, he went to study in Prague, located 30 kilometers from Melnik. Entered electrical engineering school. IN free time loved visiting ancient churches, Prague Castle, St. Vita, wander over the brooding Vltava and the ancient alleys of the ancient Slavic capital. He fell in love with Prague for the rest of his life, she was his first love, she entered his flesh and blood and she accompanied him until the end of his days. Translated from Czech, "rga" means threshold, and he was aware that his native Prague was the threshold of the Slavic lands on the western borders of his homeland. He always felt the hostility and arrogance of strangers.

Slav's choice
More than 1 million Germans lived in the Czech Sudetes, who despised everything Slavic and national and tried to subjugate the local population to their influence. This is especially true
appeared during the Munich Conference, when on September 30, 1938, the governments of Germany, Italy, England and France signed an agreement on the introduction fascist troops to the Czech Republic. The next day, the German Nazis crossed the border and entered the western Czech Republic. Otakar was acutely aware of the enslavement and helplessness of his homeland. And the Sudeten Germans, in a fit of devotion to Adolf Hitler, threw bouquets of flowers at the fascist soldiers (looking ahead, we will say that by the decision of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, more than 2.5 million Germans were deported from Czechoslovakia to their historical homeland, Germany). Among the fascist divisions that entered the Czech Republic, units of the SS division “Totenkopf”, the personal guard of the Fuhrer, were among the first to occupy it.

Ota did not yet know that a few years later he would meet with them, these same thugs, in a mortal battle on the snowy fields near the Ukrainian village of Sokolovo. Where he would give his life for victory, for our Victory... He stood in the crowd and looked from under his brows with hatred at the well-trained SS executioners proudly walking across his land.

By this time, Otakar Yarosh had already become a career officer. After graduating from electrical engineering school, Ota served on active duty in Trnava (Eastern Slovakia), where he was noticed and appreciated as a skilled warrior. He was sent to the officer school in Hranice na Morave, from which he graduated with honors in 1937, a year before the Anschluss of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany. He had to choose - to remain in his occupied homeland, where he would have to serve the Hitler regime, or to be shot. Otakar Yarosh could not admit the thought of submitting to the hated fascists.

Everyone who could, many patriots of the Czech Republic, secretly, on freight trains, crossed the border and headed to Polyna, in Cieszyn Silesia. Here, in the Polish city of Wroclaw, Czech defectors and career military personnel joined the emerging military unit under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ludwik Svoboda. With the beginning of the Second World War, the Czech part went to the Soviet Union, to Western Ukraine, to the Ternopil region and the city of Kamenets-Podolsky. Afterwards - the evacuation of the thinned and still incapacitated military unit, first to Suzdal, and then to Buzuluk, Kuibyshev (now Samara) region of Russia. Time was needed to form and train incoming recruits - Czechs from different parts of the USSR and Transcarpathian Ukraine. Now the Czechoslovak battalion numbered about 1000 soldiers and officers. Several times the battalion headquarters sent reports to Moscow, to the Kremlin, with a request to voluntarily send them to the front. With victory Soviet troops V Battle of Stalingrad Czech brothers were already eagerly preparing to enter into battle with the fascist Germans
in hordes.

In the memory of the villagers

Their baptism of fire took place on March 8, 1943 near the village. Sokolovo, Zmievsky district, Kharkov region, where the Svoboda battalion took up defensive positions along the Mzha River. Here, on the outskirts of the village, in the snowy March snow, they held the line, having received a military order from the commandant of Kharkov, Lieutenant General D.T. Kozlov, not a single fascist tank or soldier should pass through Mzhu. “Not a step back, Kharkov is behind you!” - read the order.

The commander of Sokolov’s defense became the commander of the 1st company, the most combat-ready company in the Czechoslovak battalion, second lieutenant Ot. Yarosh. He voluntarily led the defense of the village. In the entire unit there was no more intelligent, experienced, competent and humane commander than him. Therefore, Ludwik Svoboda calmly and without fear entrusted the defense of this difficult sector to Second Lieutenant Yarosh.

The Czech battalion arrived in Sokolovo urgently, in a forced march, at dawn on March 3. During the period from March 3 to March 8, the Czechs actively built trenches, communication passages and dugouts. The villagers diligently helped them in this. All these days, commander Otakar Yarosh, his deputy Ignaz Spiegel, together with ordinary soldiers Gnat and Andriy, lived in a simple rural hut. We managed to find out that Yarosh was staying with Sokolov resident Natalka Khomovna Nesmiyan. On the site of her hut there is now a stadium in the center of the village. Early in the morning, the commander, together with Ignaz Spiegl, left to supervise the construction of the village defense. Before leaving, Natalka treated the soldiers with what she had - she put hot jacket potatoes and a bowl of sauerkraut on the table. They came home late in the evening. The housewife laid straw directly on the clay “topping up” (the floor in a rural hut) for all four fighters, and placed blankets on top in a row. They all slept together in one room, on straw. This fact from the life of O. Yarosh, published for the first time based on the memoirs of Natalka Nesmiyan, perfectly characterizes his simplicity and humanity, the absence of pride and arrogance towards ordinary soldiers.
Antonin Sokhor's scouts had already brought news several times that the Nazis were concentrating large forces of tanks and infantry in the area north of Taranovka. On March 7, Otakar knew that the next day there would be a fierce battle. But in the evening of that day, the exhausted commander found time and went to congratulate the girls of the medical unit on the upcoming holiday of March 8th. The nurse, and later reserve major Dana Drnkova, recalls: “March 7 was Sunday, on this day Yarosh had a lot of trouble. I was sent to the first company, commanded by Otakar Yarosh. A wonderful person, even in this difficult time He didn’t forget about us and came to congratulate us on the eve of International Women’s Day. We saw how terribly tired he was, as he had not slept at all for several nights. We asked him about the situation, he said that the battle with superior enemy forces would be very difficult.”

Last Stand
The battle was brutal and bloody. On that memorable day, the March snow, according to the recollections of the village residents, turned red from the spilled blood. Czechoslovakian fighters fought to the death.
They fought for every rural house, for every street. The poorly armed rifle infantry unit bravely repelled the attacks of the brutal SS men of the “Totenkopf” division. The Czechs were armed with Soviet weapons. Each fighter had a PPSh machine gun and two anti-tank grenades. The company was given 4 Maxim machine guns and 8 anti-tank rifles. The Red Army itself was experiencing great difficulties at that time, but they tried to help the Czech soldiers in any way they could. Three batteries of “forty-fives” (45 mm guns) were placed in front under the command of the Estonian Nikolai Mutle, the Russian Petr Filatov and the Czech Jiri Frank. Because of Mzhi, from Mirgorod, the Czechs were supported by batteries of 76 mm guns under the command of captains Gromov and Novikov.

To lead the battle, Otakar Yarosh chose a position on the bell tower of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which rose in the middle of the village. The church became the last line of defense for Sokolov’s defenders. The calm and cool-headed commander, without a trace of fear, slowly and judiciously gave commands to his contacts, one by one brought in reinforcements - the platoons of Antonin Sochor, Stanislav Stejskal and Hynek Vorac. This is where he fired his machine gun. True to documentary accuracy, Yarosh did not part with his camera during battle and recorded all the moments of the historical battle. The church was the center of defense of the Czechoslovak battalion. Beaten by shells and crushed by bullets, she stood in the middle of the village, not bowing or bending before the fascist attacks.

Otakar Yarosh had already been seriously wounded twice. His head was tightly tied with a bloody bandage, and his right lung was punctured. But the courageous commander, without losing his composure, confidently led the defense of the combat position entrusted to him. When German tanks, approaching the very gates of the church, they began firing cannons at its inner walls. Otakar Yarosh ran out of the church doors and, as he went, untying a bunch of grenades from his belt, he wanted to throw it under the tracks of the steel monster. At this time a burst of fire from a tank machine gun was heard. The dead-struck commander fell into the snow.

From the memoirs of the captain, and later reserve colonel Yaroslav Perny: “Up to a dozen fascist tanks broke through to the church. One of them drove up almost ten meters to the church gate and opened fire. The shells were already exploding inside the church when Otakar Yarosh ran out. At that moment I was three or four meters from the entrance to the church in a deep shell crater, so I saw everything. As he ran, Yarosh unhooked a bunch of grenades from his belt, apparently intending to throw them at the tank, which was already about five meters away. But before Yarosh could do this, he fell dead near the porch, struck by a burst from a tank machine gun. The tank ran into him, Yarosh’s grenades exploded and the tank turned over on its side. Yarosh, even dead, managed to destroy the fascist tank. During the explosion, I was covered with earth, the Nazis considered me dead and this saved my life.”

Epilogue

Otakar Yarosh, the first foreign citizen, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the rank of lieutenant (captain) posthumously. In the mass grave in the village of Sokolovo, along with Soviet soldiers, 120 Czechoslovak soldiers were buried, who gave their lives for our lives. Among them are the remains of the super-lieutenant of the Czechoslovak army, Otakar Frantisek Jaros. Every year on the day of the battle - March 8 and on Victory Day - May 9, villagers come here to lay flowers on the graves of the children who gave their young, blooming lives to the victory over fascism, hated by all the peoples of Europe... They don’t forget dead soldiers and Czech delegations who constantly come to Sokolovo to honor the memory of their fellow countrymen.

I Rosh (Jaros) Otakar - commander of the 1st company of the 1st separate Czechoslovak infantry battalion as part of the 25th Guards Rifle Division of the 3rd Tank Army of the Voronezh Front, lieutenant (captain, posthumously); the first foreign soldier to be awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

Born on August 1, 1912 in the city of Louny (Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic). Czech. He graduated from electrical engineering school in Prague in 1934.

Since 1934, he served in the Czechoslovak Army, serving in the 17th Infantry Regiment. In 1937 he graduated from the Higher Military School in the city of Hranice (Czech Republic, North Moravia), then served in the 4th Signal Battalion. After the occupation of Czech lands by troops fascist Germany emigrated in 1939 to Poland and then to the USSR.

In February 1942, he joined the 1st separate Czechoslovak battalion, formed from Czech and Slovak volunteers under the command of Colonel Ludwik Svoboda in the city of Buzuluk (Orenburg region). On January 27, 1943, the battalion was presented with a battle flag, under the shadow of which Czechoslovak patriotic soldiers took the military oath.

The 1st company of the Czechoslovak battalion under the command of Lieutenant Otakar Jaros in early March 1943 received baptism of fire as part of the 25th Guards Rifle Division of the Voronezh Front. Particularly fierce battles took place on March 8, 1943 near the village of Sokolovo, Zmievsky district, Kharkov region (Ukrainian SSR).

The Nazis threw up to 60 tanks and motorized infantry against the company of Lieutenant Yarosh, who was defending Sokolovo. During the offensive, the enemy managed to bypass the village, but its defenders continued the battle surrounded and did not give him the opportunity to cross the Mzhu River. The enemy suffered significant losses: 19 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers with machine gunners were shot down and burned, and about 300 soldiers and officers were killed. But many Czechoslovak soldiers also died the death of the brave. Among them is the fearless officer Otakar Yarosh. He was buried in a mass grave in the village of Sokolovo.

U KAZAK of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 17, 1943 for the skillful management of the unit and the heroism and dedication shown to the lieutenant Yaroshu Otakar awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. He became the first foreigner to be awarded highest degree differences of the USSR.

Military ranks in the Czechoslovak Army:
lieutenant (08/29/1937),
super lieutenant (25.10.1941),
captain (05/05/1945, posthumously).

He was awarded the Soviet Order of Lenin (04/17/1943; posthumously), Czechoslovak awards - the Order of the White Lion "For Victory" 1st degree (1948, posthumously), the Military Cross of 1939 (03/13/1943, posthumously), the Medal "For Merit" ( 1944, posthumously), Sokolov Commemorative Medal (03/18/1948, posthumously).

Streets in Buzuluk and Kharkov, and a secondary school in the village of Sokolovo are named after the Hero. In the Czech town of Melnik, a monument was erected to Otakar Jaros.