News of the story
"Victory Parade: Stories and Faces"
In the run-up to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Belarusian news agency BelTA together with the 7 Days newspaper launched a large-scale project. During the year we will be narrating the stories of the Belarusians who took part in the legendary Victory Parade in 1945. These men fought at Rzhev and Odessa, won the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, liberated Belarus, and took Berlin. On 24 June 1945 they marched triumphantly through Red Square in Moscow. They are the faces of our great Victory!
Perhaps any screenwriter would be interested in the life of war veteran Mikhail Golmanov. He narrowly survived his first battle, for which he was grateful to a stranger for the rest of his life. He saved the lives of his comrades, with whom he traveled the roads of war from the Arctic Circle to Ladoga. With them in the summer of 1945 he took part in the Victory Parade as a member of the composite regiment of the Karelian Front. But the war was not over for Red Army soldier Mikhail Golmanov: right from Red Square he went to Japan... 80 years later, thanks to Mikhail Golmanov’s daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter, who shared their memories and archive photos with us, we know the story of this brave man too.
Wait, son!
When the war started, Mikhail Golmanov was only 16 years old. A Belarusian boy from the village of Sipaila in Belynichi District, Mogilev Oblast, he worked for over a year at a military bomb factory in Cheboksary. In November 1942, when he was barely 18, he went to the front. The young soldier was sent to Gorky Oblast, then to the Karelian Front. At first he was a member of a Katyusha mortar artillery crew. When in one of the battles the commander was wounded, sergeant Golmanov took charge of the crew.
But all this might not have happened if it hadn't been for a fellow soldier who saved the guy in his first battle.
“My grandfather often recalled that battle and that fellow soldier,” said Oksana Kazakova, the veteran's granddaughter. “It happened in the vicinity of Leningrad. As soon as the preliminary artillery bombardment was over, the political officer with the words ‘for the Motherland, for Stalin!’ charged into the attack with a pistol in his hands. His example was then followed by many soldiers. My grandfather also started to get out of the trench, but he was stopped by a Siberian man in his 40s, a complete stranger. He pulled his overcoat back with the words: ‘Son, wait, don’t do this now. This phrase saved my grandfather's life: everyone who went into the attack was immediately killed.”
Tested by the Arctic
The soldier of the 64th Guards Mortar Regiment sustained his first injury on Ladoga. Mikhail Golmanov recalled: “We were delivering shells to the front line non-stop for 24 hours. Everyone was about to collapse from exhaustion. Seeing this, the battery commander decided to make a pause. We even found a suitable place: a small clearing on the edge of the forest. We had barely inspected half of the territory when an anti-personnel mine exploded about twenty steps away from me. The battery commander died on the spot, and a small fragment hit me in the eye.”
In early 1944, the defense of Ladoga was stopped: the enemy surrendered. Golmanov's regiment was transferred to the Arctic, where heavy fighting was underway at Murmansk. The Germans fired directly at the port, but our soldiers did not surrender the city. Mikhail Golmanov did not like to recall those battles and the death of his comrades. But sometimes he would open up to his children and grandchildren about how hard it was for drivers during the war. It was particularly dangerous in the Arctic. However, the impassable roads of the North frightened but certainly did not stop the soldiers. They delivered ammunition even when they had to cross rivers and move on ice. It was for the defense of Murmansk that Mikhail Golmanov received the Medal for Courage.
“Grandfather often recalled fellow soldiers of different ethnicities: Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Tatars. Some did not even speak Russian properly. But people understood each other without words and always came to the rescue. He remembered this mutual assistance until the end of his days and kept saying that he had never seen such a strong friendship as during the war,” Oksana Kazakova said.
Marching with the marshals
In the spring of 1945, the 64th Guards Mortar Regiment was stationed near Moscow at the Zelenogradskaya station. It was transferred there for regrouping after the strenuous defense of Murmansk. The soldiers were getting ready to be sent to the Western Front when the long-awaited Victory was declared. Besides happy memories, Mikhail Golmanov had a funny story to tell about that moment. “After learning about the Victory, we joyfully began to throw our sergeant major up. But we miscalculated and threw him up so high that he hit the dugout ceiling with his head,” the veteran recalled.
Mikhail Golmanov viewed the Victory Parade of 1945 as one of the most remarkable moments of his military biography. “We trained non-stop from midnight until six in the morning for more than a month on the grounds of the VDNKh. Everyone tried very hard: after all, our regiment represented the entire Karelian Front,” he said.
"My grandfather and his fellow soldiers spent nights preparing for the parade. They cleaned the vehicles meticulously and repaired them: God forbid one of them would stall at such a crucial moment. The moments before the parade started left the most vivid impression on him. The column he was in stood just a few meters away from the marshals. My grandfather felt like he could reach out and touch Zhukov and Rokossovsky. As a young man, he was in awe of these two great military leaders and could not believe his luck," Oksana Kazakova said. “He also recalled that while they were waiting for the parade to start, many people approached the marshals. Zhukov and Rokossovsky spoke with everyone and shook hands. My grandfather was impressed by their friendliness. When the column began moving across Red Square, it was difficult for my grandfather to concen-trate: he had to look forward, but his head kept turning to the side where Stalin, Kalinin, and Voroshilov were standing. He couldn't believe that they were only a few meters away!”
From parade to battle
Mikhail Golmanov and his fellow soldiers could not fully enjoy the special day. While the rest of Moscow was celebrating the Victo-ry, the soldiers went straight from Red Square to the railway station, and then to the east where the Soviet-Japanese war was breaking out.
"A few months after the parade we were sent to Chita. From there we went through Mongolia, crossed the Gobi Desert and the Greater Khingan Range. Then we outflanked the well-fortified positions of the Japanese and attacked them from the back. It was a complete surprise for the enemy," the veteran recalled.
Mikhail Golmanov received another award: For the Victory over Japan medal. He often compared it with the medal he received for the victory over Germany, noting one important difference: on the first medal Stalin looks to the east, but on the second one - to the west. In Japan, Mikhail Golmanov was wounded again, this time in the leg. The bat-tle scars affected him even decades later.
The war for Mikhail Golmanov ended only in 1948. He returned to his hometown and got married. He was able to spend time with his great-grandchildren. Only one of his dreams never came true: to march on Moscow's Red Square at the parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Victory.
If you are a relative or friend of a frontline soldier who took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square, Moscow, in June 1945 and you are willing to share your family story and photos with us, please call 8 (017) 311-33-17 or send an e-mail to ygavrilenko@belta.by. Let's tell the story of our Victors together!
Yulia GAVRILENKO,
7 Days newspaper
Photos courtesy of Mikhail Golmanov's family
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