A small Don farm, which became a grave for thousands of Soviet and German soldiers during the Great Patriotic War, and later disappeared from all maps, was recently discovered by the search engines of Mius-Front. A small settlement of miners called Golubyachiy, which has not been visited by a single person for decades, has preserved traces of fierce battles.

“Remains of foundations of houses, German fortifications, machine-gun nests, mortar positions. Everywhere among the foliage one can see fragments of mines, spent cartridges, pieces of barbed wire. In several places there are rusted helmets of Soviet soldiers, shot through with bullets, ”describes the picture unfolding today in the Golubyachy farm, head of the search group "Mius-Front" Andrey Kudryakov... The members of this detachment were the first in the last 30 years to visit Golubyachy and, in fact, rediscovered it.

Miners lived in the Golubyachy farm in the early forties of the last century. This was the case before the start of the war, when fascist troops came to the settlement and occupied it. The farm became part of the Mius Front, a line that was held by the Nazis from December 1941 to August 1943. Already in those years, local residents left the farm, and their place was taken by combat vehicles and soldiers.

The history of the search for a small abandoned farm began back in 2008 with a vivid story by veteran Grigory Kirillovich Puzhaev, which he told young search engines, including Andrei Kudryakov. It was a story about five brothers Gurovs - natives of the Stavropol Territory, who forever linked their fate with the disappeared Don farm.

Alexei, Pavel, Nikolai, Mikhail and Dmitry Gurovs served in one unit of the 867th Infantry Regiment of the 271st Infantry Division, which stormed the impregnable Mius Front in February of the 43rd.

“On July 17, units of the 271st division began another assault on the German fortifications and crossed the Mius River. The regiment, in which the Gurov brothers served, seized a small bridgehead on the opposite bank of the river, in the place where the mining village of Golubyachy was located. From 17 to 19 July, at the position of the division defending this small settlement, the enemy abandoned all available reserves, but the attacks were repulsed at the cost of huge losses. For their valor and heroism, all the Gurov brothers were awarded the Order of the Red Star, all were unanimously accepted into the party right on the battlefield, ”says Andrei Kudryakov.

And on July 20, battles flared up with renewed vigor. The mortar crew of the Gurov brothers that day destroyed three Nazi heavy machine guns, suppressed the fire of two mortar batteries. And when the soldiers ran out of mines, the Gurovs, taking a convenient position in the trench, destroyed more than a hundred Wehrmacht soldiers from machine guns. July 20 did not survive the eldest of the brothers - Nikolai, he was 40 years old, and Mikhail Gurov. Most of the division, numbering about eight thousand fighters, died during the defense of the farm and was forced to return to their original positions, leaving the farm. But the three Gurov brothers survived. They ended up in the hospital. There, the heroes were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War.

In July of the 43rd, the Mius Front was not broken through. Only a month later, in August, our troops will be able to capture the impregnable German fortifications and liberate the Rostov region. During August 18, 19 and 20, bloody battles flared up for the farm again, during which Golubyachy, and eight days later the entire Mius Front, were cleared of the Nazis.

Today, on the site of the farm, you can see only the foundations of several houses, trenches and the remains of soldiers lying almost under your feet. According to the Podolsk archive of the Ministry of Defense, there are several large mass graves of Red Army soldiers on the territory of the farm, and hundreds more soldiers are listed as missing in battles for this settlement. In the next few days, the search engines of the Mius Front will come to the farm to unearth the remains of the soldiers and reburial them.

After the war, the three surviving brothers Gurovs every year came to the ruins of the Golubyachy farm to honor the memory of their brothers and fallen comrades in arms. They were last here about 30 years ago. Even then, Golubyachiy was a ghost farm. After the war, it disappeared from all maps, and for decades of desolation it was surrounded by a solid impenetrable forest and thorny bushes. It took the search engines almost six months to get here, and before that to locate the farm.

“We decided to find the place where this heroic farm was located in order to restore the mass graves and return the missing soldiers from the war. In determining the location of the farm, modern methods of overlaying GPS data on old military maps, as well as the stories of the residents of the Kuibyshevsky district, helped a lot, ”explains the head of the Mius Front.

I) Publication of the cartographic department of the corps of military topographers. Scale 10 versts in 1 inch (1: 420,000). Consists of eight images. It is possible to copy and combine into a single whole.

III)2. The modern Atlas of the Rostov region is necessary for reconciliation with old maps. High-quality image, pre-channel terrain.

Interesting site materials

It turns out that it is difficult to "recount" the settlements (villages, farmsteads, hamlets) that have disappeared in the whirlpool of time. The main problem is to decide from what point in time to count down. As a source (reference point) I will take a map of the General Staff of the Red Army in 1941, published on a scale of 1: 100,000, that is, 1 cm - 1 km. On it I will highlight those settlements that do not currently exist. I will repeat once again - all this is to help researchers of this interesting topic. A topic that will always excite the minds of researchers.

No wonder the classic once said:

Two feelings are wonderfully close to us
In them the heart finds food:
Love for the native ashes,
Love for fatherly coffins ...

I'll start with the Pervomaisky rural settlement, which is close to me. As a child, I often had to visit Lebedinka: fishing, and just went with my father to visit friends. So I have heard about Plestso, and about Perekrestov, and about Tamilyanka, where the church still stands. Although the farms themselves disappeared before I was born.

We called the place where the Plestso farm was located - Plestsy. There, on the melon, we with the guys - the weather, feasted on delicious "kavunami" and melons. I confess that we did not "extract" them in a very legal way.

Crossroads in my childhood is, first of all, a pond of the same name. And the fact that the pond got its name from the disappeared farm, I learned much later.

Above the map I highlighted:

1. Farm Friedrich Engels.

2. Kopani farm.

3. Farm Alekseevka.

4. Popasny farm (Mikhail Gribanov, author of Father's Tales about the War, was born in this farm).

5. Khutor Perekrestov.

6. Farm Pleszo.

7. Farm Tamilyanka.

8. Farm Pokrovka.

I will continue about the Lipchansky rural settlement, which is no less close to me. How many paths and field paths have been walked here in childhood, all these places are very familiar to me! You go, winding like this along a field road among the endless collective farm fields. Parents sent to mow herbs for domestic animals. And you see a place overgrown with weeds in front: the remains of foundations, cellars failures, wild cherries, apple trees, pears.

People used to live here!

For some reason, you always involuntarily shut up in such places.

Several years ago, together with the guys - the search engines, we went to the place where the Teplinka farm was located before the war. And until the mid-1990s - the MTF of the state farm "Vostok". They were looking for a burial place, which was reported by one pensioner from the Varvarovka farm. My grandmother, being in her advanced years, could not personally show this place, but “on her fingers” she told what was there and where. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to find anything, only everyone was worn out with the thorny "budyaks" with which the place of the former Teplinka farm was overgrown. Among our finds is a detail from an Italian gas mask, and several casings.

Marked above on the map:

1. farm No. 2 of state farm No. 106 (the former 2nd branch of the Vostok state farm. Residents of the 2nd farm moved to the Varvarovka farm in the 1970s).

3. Teplinka farm.

4. Farm Novo-Lipchanka.

5. Farm Sarmin.

6. Farm Novo-Mikhailovka (on the site of this farm, on older maps the farm Zhokhov (Zhokhovka)

7.Khutor Novo-Pokrovka.

In the area to the south and west of the village of Shurinovka, farms unknown to me are indicated on the map, perhaps they were located on the territory of the neighboring Kantemirovsky district:

8. Farm Novo-Bugaevka.

9. Farm Novo-Aleksandrovka.

10. Farm Zaikin.

But the Novaya Derevnya farm, indicated on the map, still exists. Now Novaya Derevnya is one of the streets of the Shurinovka village. Although now there are few residents living on Novaya Derevo.

Several families also live on the Chumakovka farm (in the local Chumachivka). But this name no longer appears on modern maps. There is a village Lipchanka.

By the way, for lovers of local toponyms! The village of Lipchanka is scattered widely on both banks of the Levaya Bogucharka River. I know of the following self-names of parts of the village: apart from the mentioned Chumachivka, these are Kruglivka and Progress, as well as Popovka (also a disappeared farm).

And on this map are marked:

1. Farm Neledovo.

2. Lofitsky farm.

3. Farm Liman.

4. Nikolenko farm (already Rostov region).

Medovskoe rural settlement. My maternal ancestors lived in the village of Medovo. And according to my mother's stories, I have always heard all these farmsteads. And when such cards became available, then, one might say, and in plain sight.

1. Farm Savkino.

2. Khutor Novy Byt.

3. Farm Zhelobok.

4. Farm Volny (originated in the 1920s)

5. Klenovy farm (it arose in the 1920s, from the old-timers I heard such a name - Klinovy).

6. Farm Sukhoi Log.

7. 3rd branch of the Bogucharsky state farm.

8. Khlebny farm (the place of fierce battles on December 20-21, 1942 with Italian-German units breaking through from the encirclement).

9. Inhabited locality designated as "state farm farm" (not far from Vasilievsky pond).

1. Badgers (Bursakov).

2. Kozlov (Kozlovka).

Kantemirovskie farms Dmitrovka and Grigorievka.

Below on the map are indicated:

1. Khutor Krasno-Orekhovoe (the farm was destroyed during the Second World War. During the fighting several times passed from hand to hand. Territory of the Verkhnemamon district)

2. Farm Solonetsy (also badly damaged during the fighting)

3. Olkhovy farm (marked as Kuselkin on Italian maps).

4. Khutor Goliy (Stepnoy).

Khutor Ogolev on the map below.

Here, it seems, and all the farms indicated on the maps of the times of the Great Patriotic War. If we take, for example, Schubert's maps, then the number of disappeared farmsteads will increase by an order of magnitude. But this is a topic for another study.

And most importantly, unfortunately, there are settlements in the Bogucharsky district that may soon replenish this sad number of forgotten, lost farmsteads. What and who is to blame? Leading comrades from the district and village administrations will surely say that everyone is to blame except them: the general situation in the country, the difficult legacy of the "dashing" 1990s, the very population of these farmsteads, these grandmothers and grandfathers who simply have nowhere to go from there.

Karazeevo, Kravtsovo, Dubovikovo, Novo-Nikolskoe, Batovka, Maryevka ... How much do they have left?

A five-storey building, consisting of three interconnected buildings. It has a length of 70 meters and a width of 15. Most of the windows on the first floor are boarded up with boards, the main entrance is bricked up, but you can enter from the stairs, of which there are two in the building. On the first floor, in many rooms, the entire wall is covered with drawings of various Soviet themes, from space to the traditions of the Russian peoples. Behind the building there is a cell tower for most of the city's operators, ...

In accordance with the plan for the development of the coal industry, mine No. 142 was laid in 1926, and in 1929 - mine No. 142-bis, which was commissioned in August 1931. In 1935, mine No. 142-bis was renamed into the Kirov mine. Closed in 1995. On the territory there is an administrative and amenity complex of a mine, a health center, a VGSP, a lamp, a laundress, a bathhouse and much more. Not far from this complex of structures is located ...

An old Soviet store that has been empty for several decades. The side door is not closed. There is almost nothing inside, except for the old Soviet wooden section of the counter and the four chairs held together. The windows are intact, because the building is being watched by the locals due to the fact that the store is located almost in the center of the village.

The three-storey mine administration building has two wings and is U-shaped. Abandoned before 2013 and sold out by tenants. The central and largest building of the building is abandoned and admission is free at the end of summer 2018. The building, despite the devastation, retained the Soviet interior attributes inside. The assembly hall is empty, but one of the walls depicts Lenin and scenes from the times of the industrialization of the USSR. On the third floor there is an exit to two ...

The Soviet four-story miners' dormitory is 40 meters long and about 14 meters wide. On the ground floor there are shops and a hairdresser. In the backyard, nearly all window openings are bricked or boarded up. The floors on the floors are wooden and removed in places. On each floor, a central corridor runs along the length of the building. The rooms are empty and debris in places. You can get inside through the second floor. The roof can be accessed through ...

A two-storey building 30 meters long and 12 meters wide with an oblong porch and a viewing balcony on it. Almost all of the glass has been broken, the lintels are on the floor, the wooden floors have been removed. Abandoned at least in the 2000s.

Remains of the former DOL "Druzhba", closed around the end of the 1990s. Remains of buildings have been preserved on the territory. On the territory there are houses for pioneers, the remains of a dining room, several gazebos, small remnants of a sports ground, someone's lovingly broken vegetable garden in the outskirts. Until recently it was empty, paintball games were held on the territory, now the territory was surrounded by barbed wire along the outer perimeter, and by a fence along the inner perimeter, ...

In these lands of the Neklinovsky district, where the river Mius writes out bizarre loops, making its way through thickets of reeds, local residents still find traces of that terrible war. Shell fragments, abandoned graves of unknown soldiers ...

Old-timers recall that during the protracted battles with the Nazis near Matveyev-Kurgan, the river water turned purple with blood, and the banks were completely covered with the bodies of the dead.

“Everything was bombed: the city, and nearby villages, and small farms, scattered on the outskirts of the district,” - recall the local residents.

Abandoned building of the former farm club. Photo: AiF-Rostov / Yulia Panfilovskaya

For example, the Zhatva farm, where about thirty families lived, was literally bombarded by the Nazis. The shelling prevented the digging of holes, and the dead were thrown into a large well in the middle of the farm. In a few hours it was hammered to the top ...

“How people survived all this, only God knows,” says pensioner Nina Lazutkina. - However, when the German was driven out, people put everything in order for a year, fixed houses, planted fields, fixed roads. And now, it would seem, there is no war, only we live in ruin. Maybe it is simply beneficial for someone that these places, for which our fathers and grandfathers stood to death, disappear from the face of the earth? "

Harvest at Sunset

It is only eight kilometers from the village of Bolshaya Neklinovka to the small farmsteads of Zhatva and Paliy. And these few kilometers cut the farmers from civilization ...

“We are already accustomed to living here like the damned,” says pensioner Valentina Grokhotova. - Buses do not go to us, the road is broken. In order to somehow survive in retirement, I take on one part-time job in the village, then another. And every day I walk eight kilometers there and the same amount back along the field. There is nowhere to hide from the heat, rain or snow. The other day it was so hot that I thought I wouldn't get there. I am standing under the scorching sun, my head is spinning, and there is no one even to call for help. Nearby is only Paliy, where several families stayed, and even those old people. Even though they will not hear the howl, but they will hear it, they will not come running: how much of that strength they have left ... They will soon die one by one, and their lonely houses will be overgrown with weeds, like all the other neighboring houses. The same fate awaits our Harvest ”.

The Zhatva farm is several times larger than the Paliy farm, which has six residential buildings. Once upon a time there was a collective farm brigade for thirty houses here, where farmers worked, a kindergarten, a school and a club. And in the dashing
The 90s fell apart. Since then, the farm, immersed in sunflower fields and a green grove, began to fade away. The youth left in search of a better life. Those who are richer saved some money, sold their huts and moved to Bolshaya Neklinovka or Pokrovskoe. There were only pensioners and a few families who believed that it was only necessary to wait out the hard times, and everything would be fine. Moreover, even in Soviet times, a gas pipe was stretched along the farm. They promised that they would connect every house.

Pensioner Nina Lazutkina: you need to walk eight kilometers to civilization. Photo: AiF-Rostov / Yulia Panfilovskaya

“And so all our lives we have been waiting for gas, even though it’s just a stone's throw away,” laments pensioner Lydia Fyodorovna Ivaschenko. - So we heat coal, firewood and we carry cylinders. A ton of coal, by the way, costs eight thousand rubles. You need four tons for the winter. With our pensions, a warm hut becomes a luxury. The authorities answer all our requests: they say, it is unprofitable to connect the farm to the pipe, live the old fashioned way. We would not mind living the old fashioned way, if only we were treated with respect as before. I am a labor veteran, in my brigade I worked as a milkmaid all my life, but for what? For the sake of giving up on us? Why is there gas! We don't have a store or a pharmacy here. Many pensioners get together, draw up lists and ask someone to go to the regional center. We have to prepare for frost ahead of time: store food, dry crackers, carry gas in cylinders. Like a snowfall, we are cut off from the world for several days. "

Did the people who have plowed here all their lives think that they will remain forgotten at the end of their lives? An ambulance rides for half an hour even in good weather, and at least lie down and die in bad weather.

Forgotten by god

The gas pipe and the proximity to the regional center became the main reasons why the large Lyashenko family moved here ten years ago. And it was they who became a trap for the mother of three children, Svetlana. Several years ago, she lost her husband, and she also had to take her sick father to her. Today, a woman keeps four cows and goats in order to somehow feed the children and the old man:

“Due to the fact that we don't have transport here, I can't even bring milk to the market, I hand it over to private dealers at half price. All earnings go to food, medicine and coal. For many years now I have been selling my father's hut in Paliy, there were many who wanted to see it, but as soon as people hear that we have no gas and even the opportunity to connect it, they immediately hang up. "

The lack of public transport also scares people. Previously, the local was picked up by a school bus, but today the driver does not take anyone: it is strictly prohibited.

The harvest farm is dying. Photo: AiF-Rostov / Yulia Panfilovskaya

“This is understandable, we had a tuberculosis patient with the children at one time, as we found out about this, we made a noise ourselves,” explains Svetlana. - A lot of young families are looking for inexpensive houses for maternity capital, and we have almost everything for sale here. But people come, look and turn back. We haven't had new settlers for many years. We just bought a hut. It looks like life has pressed on, there is absolutely nowhere to go ... Every morning we see a guy walking along the field to work, with a baby sitting on his shoulders. Dad goes to Bolshaya Neklinovka and takes the child to a kindergarten seven kilometers from home ... There are rumors that they will soon move out of here. The farm is dying out. People cling to any straw to escape from here. And the point is not that everyone is lazy, does not want to live on earth, or strives for a long ruble in the city, but that they are simply forced to leave their homes. I sometimes look at my children and think, why did they have such a life, in a God-forsaken place? We don't have a single playground, the club, which was once a cultural center, has long been packed with boards. Life is dying. But the places here are fabulous, the lands are rich. And to revive the farm, not so much is required - gas and transport. And people will go here. And maybe our small homeland will be reborn again ”.

And everything will be overgrown with weeds?

The cup of patience is also overflowing due to problems with water. The only well in the farm, from which people took drinking water, was shallow. The water in it is cloudy, you have to defend it before drinking or cooking on it. And in private wells, water is no better, it is only suitable for watering vegetable gardens and livestock. Many are forced to buy bottled water, but for this, again, you first need to get to the regional center.

“Here's how to live in such conditions, even for the old, even for the young? - asks Lydia Ivaschenko - I think the farm is living out its last years. The old people will die out, the children will stop coming to them, and here everything will be overgrown with weeds, as the neighboring Paliy has already overgrown. And will we disappear from the map of the Don region, as if we had never been here? It turns out that they betrayed us, still alive, to oblivion. There was no longer any strength left to fight. One activist lives in our farm - Sveta, she was always trying to achieve something, gathering people, writing letters, appealing to the administration. While she was stirring, we had at least some hope. And recently, Svetlana's husband fell seriously ill. Cancer. Medicines are expensive, you can't run into a hospital. And the man is dying out before her eyes. "Burn it all to waste!" - Sveta says now and hardly leaves the house. Sitting next to her dying husband for days on end. How much he still has left, God alone knows. However, like our farm ... "