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.
Piotr Selivanov, a participant of the Soviet Union’s first Victory Parade, remembered the rainy morning of 24 June 1945 for the rest of his life. The young soldier from the Polesie hinterland marched victoriously through Moscow's Red Square as part of the Leningrad Front's composite regiment. Standing at the Kremlin walls next to thousands of front-line soldiers like him, Piotr Selivanov could not have imagined that this day would become the beginning of a unique family tradition: decades later, first his son and then his grandson would walk through the same square in a parade dress uniform. Both chose a career in the military. Both participated in the Victory Parade!
“You thought every shell was for you”
It took us several weeks to find Piotr Selivanov's relatives. Dozens of residents of Oktyabrsky District of Gomel Oblast joined the journalist investigation: local historians, teachers, employees of the Oktyabrsky District Executive Committee. Even former residents of the village of Khoromtsy, where Piotr Selivanov was born and lived for a long time, contacted the editorial office. It was thanks to them that we managed to get in touch with his daughter Lyudmila Zhukova in Bobruisk. Having heard about the project “Victory Parade: Stories and Faces”, the veteran's family agreed to participate in it without hesitation.
...Piotr Selivanov was drafted into the army in 1935. After graduating from a tank school where he was trained as a mechanic/driver, he returned to his village of Khoromtsy in Oktyabrsky District. He got a job at a collective farm, got married and became a father of two daughters. When the war broke out, he was conscripted almost immediately - on 7 July 1941. The soldier was sent to a small town called Krasnoarmeyskoye near Stalingrad and after a two-month training he was appointed commander of a new tank T-60.
Piotr Selivanov's children carefully keep his photos in the family album. A cheerful guy smiles at us from faded and partially tattered photos. It is hard to believe that this young man took part in dozens of battles, was wounded, grieved the deaths of comrades. Lyudmila Zhukova carefully recorded the veteran's recollections. Sometimes the veteran cast his mind back to his first battle. It happened near Stalingrad. “The fascists built up their presence on this territory, so the Red Army had to fight for every inch of land. That battle lasted several hours. It was unbearable to sit in a vehicle heated by the hot July sun. It was even more terrifying to hear shells whistling through the air. It seemed like some of them would hit you eventually. Only nine tanks from the whole tank brigade survived this battle,” Piotr Selivanov recalled.
"Dad's tank was hit during one of the enemy raids. His comrades pulled him out of the burning vehicle, wounded and unconscious. He came to his senses in hospital, where he spent three months,” his daughter said.
Capturing a nameless hill
After completion of the treatment Piotr Selivanov was sent to Eastern Siberia. Here, the young tank commander was trained to use an anti-tank gun and became a “tank hunter”. He used his tank-hunting skills on many fronts ending up near Leningrad. For the heroism shown in the battles for this city, he received his first award - the Medal for Bravery. Soon after he got a second one. Senior sergeant Piotr Selivanov was awarded the Order of the Red Star for capturing a nameless hill in Pskov Oblast in January 1944. He received the award from the division commander. Our soldiers managed to drive the enemy out of the place only on the third day of battles, but at night the Germans resumed the offensive. In that battle Piotr Selivanov destroyed three self-propelled guns of the enemy with his anti-tank gun.
In March 1944 he was wounded again (a shrapnel wound in the arm affected the veteran for a long time). Yet, this did not shutter his faith in speedy victory. As soon as the wound healed, Piotr Selivanov returned to his 182nd Division.
The Red Army soldier was also awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. He received it in Latvia after a heavy passage through the enemy rear. Within a span of one night the soldiers of the 182nd Infantry Division captured more than 500 German soldiers and officers and seized about 20 self-propelled guns and other weapons.
Piotr Selivanov also participated in the battles to liberate Latvia and Lithuania. The war ended for him in March 1945 when he was in East Prussia. The senior sergeant was sent for training to become an officer at the headquarters of the Leningrad front. In June the decision was taken to send him among the best soldiers to Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade on Red Square.
“We, the participants of the Victory Parade, were overexcited. Each of us was overwhelmed with joy. We knew that we were taking part in a historic event. I will never forget the moment when we marched through the square and people rushed towards us! It was impossible to pass through that dense crowd. There were lots of flowers, lots of people with happy smiles on their faces,” the war veteran said describing the historic event.
Winner's successors
Piotr Selivanov returned to Khoromtsy in November 1945, but the village had been almost completely destroyed during the war. The fascists had twice set fire to the village. During one of their raids on 3 March 1944, they gathered the local residents in a barn and burned them alive, including Piotr's two daughters and his mother. His wife Yevgeniya and his father Kupriyan, miraculously survived in the Ozarichi extermination camp.
After going through the horrors of the war, the Selivanovs found the strength to move on. They built a new house, raised two sons and two daughters. Almost all the children followed in their father's footsteps and joined the army.
“My father often spoke about the war. Hearing these stories, I decided to follow in his footsteps. I enrolled in the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School in Leningrad. After graduating, I served on nuclear submarines of the former Soviet Union. Like my father, I was awarded numerous medals during my service. Unfortunately, my father did not live to see the most significant award for me: the Order of Courage. He died on 5 July 1980," Leonid Selivanov said. “The order was presented to me by Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin for my courage and selfless service. It was unfortunate that my father wasn't alive to witness this moment. He would have been very proud of me.”
The military awards of Piotr Selivanov are kept in St. Petersburg in the house of his son Leonid. He often looks at them, recalling his father's feats of war.
“Dad always proudly told us about the price he paid for these orders and medals. My sons and I still often recall his feats and war days," Leonid said.
Like his father did in 1945, Leonid Selivanov also took part in the Victory Parade years later. A few years after that, Leonid's son marched on Red Square during the parade. This is a unique family tradition of the Selivanovs.
Yulia GAVRILENKO,
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!
Piotr Selivanov, a participant of the Soviet Union’s first Victory Parade, remembered the rainy morning of 24 June 1945 for the rest of his life. The young soldier from the Polesie hinterland marched victoriously through Moscow's Red Square as part of the Leningrad Front's composite regiment. Standing at the Kremlin walls next to thousands of front-line soldiers like him, Piotr Selivanov could not have imagined that this day would become the beginning of a unique family tradition: decades later, first his son and then his grandson would walk through the same square in a parade dress uniform. Both chose a career in the military. Both participated in the Victory Parade!
“You thought every shell was for you”
It took us several weeks to find Piotr Selivanov's relatives. Dozens of residents of Oktyabrsky District of Gomel Oblast joined the journalist investigation: local historians, teachers, employees of the Oktyabrsky District Executive Committee. Even former residents of the village of Khoromtsy, where Piotr Selivanov was born and lived for a long time, contacted the editorial office. It was thanks to them that we managed to get in touch with his daughter Lyudmila Zhukova in Bobruisk. Having heard about the project “Victory Parade: Stories and Faces”, the veteran's family agreed to participate in it without hesitation.
...Piotr Selivanov was drafted into the army in 1935. After graduating from a tank school where he was trained as a mechanic/driver, he returned to his village of Khoromtsy in Oktyabrsky District. He got a job at a collective farm, got married and became a father of two daughters. When the war broke out, he was conscripted almost immediately - on 7 July 1941. The soldier was sent to a small town called Krasnoarmeyskoye near Stalingrad and after a two-month training he was appointed commander of a new tank T-60.
Piotr Selivanov's children carefully keep his photos in the family album. A cheerful guy smiles at us from faded and partially tattered photos. It is hard to believe that this young man took part in dozens of battles, was wounded, grieved the deaths of comrades. Lyudmila Zhukova carefully recorded the veteran's recollections. Sometimes the veteran cast his mind back to his first battle. It happened near Stalingrad. “The fascists built up their presence on this territory, so the Red Army had to fight for every inch of land. That battle lasted several hours. It was unbearable to sit in a vehicle heated by the hot July sun. It was even more terrifying to hear shells whistling through the air. It seemed like some of them would hit you eventually. Only nine tanks from the whole tank brigade survived this battle,” Piotr Selivanov recalled.
The soldier spent three weeks on the front line near Stalingrad. There he was wounded for the first time.
"Dad's tank was hit during one of the enemy raids. His comrades pulled him out of the burning vehicle, wounded and unconscious. He came to his senses in hospital, where he spent three months,” his daughter said.
Capturing a nameless hill
After completion of the treatment Piotr Selivanov was sent to Eastern Siberia. Here, the young tank commander was trained to use an anti-tank gun and became a “tank hunter”. He used his tank-hunting skills on many fronts ending up near Leningrad. For the heroism shown in the battles for this city, he received his first award - the Medal for Bravery. Soon after he got a second one. Senior sergeant Piotr Selivanov was awarded the Order of the Red Star for capturing a nameless hill in Pskov Oblast in January 1944. He received the award from the division commander. Our soldiers managed to drive the enemy out of the place only on the third day of battles, but at night the Germans resumed the offensive. In that battle Piotr Selivanov destroyed three self-propelled guns of the enemy with his anti-tank gun.
In March 1944 he was wounded again (a shrapnel wound in the arm affected the veteran for a long time). Yet, this did not shutter his faith in speedy victory. As soon as the wound healed, Piotr Selivanov returned to his 182nd Division.
“My father received his third combat award - the Order of Glory Third Class - for the battle at the Dno station. Then the soldiers managed to capture an enemy train and take 180 German soldiers and officers prisoner,” Lyudmila Zhukova said. “For the forcing of the Velikaya River in Leningrad Oblast, he was awarded the Order of Glory Second Class. Upon consolidating their positions on the other bank, the Soviet soldiers repulsed more than seven attacks a day.”
The Red Army soldier was also awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. He received it in Latvia after a heavy passage through the enemy rear. Within a span of one night the soldiers of the 182nd Infantry Division captured more than 500 German soldiers and officers and seized about 20 self-propelled guns and other weapons.
Piotr Selivanov also participated in the battles to liberate Latvia and Lithuania. The war ended for him in March 1945 when he was in East Prussia. The senior sergeant was sent for training to become an officer at the headquarters of the Leningrad front. In June the decision was taken to send him among the best soldiers to Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade on Red Square.
“We, the participants of the Victory Parade, were overexcited. Each of us was overwhelmed with joy. We knew that we were taking part in a historic event. I will never forget the moment when we marched through the square and people rushed towards us! It was impossible to pass through that dense crowd. There were lots of flowers, lots of people with happy smiles on their faces,” the war veteran said describing the historic event.
Winner's successors
Piotr Selivanov returned to Khoromtsy in November 1945, but the village had been almost completely destroyed during the war. The fascists had twice set fire to the village. During one of their raids on 3 March 1944, they gathered the local residents in a barn and burned them alive, including Piotr's two daughters and his mother. His wife Yevgeniya and his father Kupriyan, miraculously survived in the Ozarichi extermination camp.
After going through the horrors of the war, the Selivanovs found the strength to move on. They built a new house, raised two sons and two daughters. Almost all the children followed in their father's footsteps and joined the army.
“My father often spoke about the war. Hearing these stories, I decided to follow in his footsteps. I enrolled in the Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School in Leningrad. After graduating, I served on nuclear submarines of the former Soviet Union. Like my father, I was awarded numerous medals during my service. Unfortunately, my father did not live to see the most significant award for me: the Order of Courage. He died on 5 July 1980," Leonid Selivanov said. “The order was presented to me by Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin for my courage and selfless service. It was unfortunate that my father wasn't alive to witness this moment. He would have been very proud of me.”
The military awards of Piotr Selivanov are kept in St. Petersburg in the house of his son Leonid. He often looks at them, recalling his father's feats of war.
“Dad always proudly told us about the price he paid for these orders and medals. My sons and I still often recall his feats and war days," Leonid said.
Like his father did in 1945, Leonid Selivanov also took part in the Victory Parade years later. A few years after that, Leonid's son marched on Red Square during the parade. This is a unique family tradition of the Selivanovs.
Yulia GAVRILENKO,
Photos courtesy of Piotr Selivanov's family,
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