It has long been known that the revolution is made by romantics. High ideals, moral principles, the desire to make the world better and fairer - only an incorrigible idealist can really set such goals for himself. Such a person was Nikolai Shchors, the son of a railway worker, an officer in the tsarist army and a red commander. He lived only 24 years, but entered the history of the country as a symbol of a just struggle for the right to live in a happy and prosperous state.
Parent House
A small wooden house nestled under the crown of a large sprawling maple tree. It was built in 1894 by Alexander Nikolaevich Shchors. In search of a better life, he moved to Snovsk from the small town of Stolbtsy in the Minsk region at the age of 19. He was drafted into the tsarist army, but after the service he returned to the town he liked. Here Alexandra was waiting for him - one of the daughters of the Tabelchuk family, from whom Alexander Nikolaevich rented a room. In their neighborhood, the newlyweds bought a plot of land and built a house on it. On June 6, their first child was born, named after his grandfather, Nikolai Shchors. Shel 1895year.
Father worked on the railroad. First, a handyman, a locksmith, a stoker. Then he became an assistant driver, and in 1904 he passed the exam for a driver - he drove a shunting locomotive along the Libavo-Romenskaya railway. By this time, four more children had appeared in the house. This is how the future hero of the Civil War Shchors began his life.
Childhood
Life in the family was not remarkable. The father worked, and the mother was engaged in household chores and raising children. Nikolai did not give her much trouble. The boy was smart and wise beyond his years. He learned to read and write at the age of six, and at the age of eight he began to attend classes with the teacher Anna Vladimirovna Gorobtsova - she prepared children for admission to the railway parochial school. In 1905, Shchors began to study there. His biography could not have turned out differently - the boy had an extraordinary thirst for knowledge.
A year later, grief befell the family - the mother died. She suffered from consumption and died in Belarus, where she went to visit relatives. Five children, a large household and work on the railroad. The house needs a woman - so decided the elder Shchors. Nikolai Alexandrovich later recalled that at first he took his stepmother with hostility. But gradually their relationship improved. Moreover, the new wife of her father, her name was Maria Konstantinovna, in subsequent years gave birth to five children. The family grew, and Kolya was the oldest of the children. He graduated from school in 1909 with a commendable diploma and really wanted to continueeducation.
Admission to military school
But my father had other plans. He hoped that his son would go to work and help the family. To understand the events that made up the life story of Shchors, one must imagine his immense craving for knowledge. So strong that in the end the father gave up. The first attempt was unsuccessful. When entering the Nikolaev Marine Paramedic School, Kolya missed one point.
Depressed, the young man returned home - now he agreed to go to work at the railway depot. But suddenly my father objected. By this time, his younger brother Konstantin also graduated from high school with a good certificate. Alexander Nikolayevich gathered both sons and took them to enter the Kyiv military medical school. This time everything turned out well - both brothers passed the entrance exams. Having allocated one ruble each to his sons, the satisfied father left for Snovsk. For the first time, Nikolai Shchors went so far from home. A new phase of his life has begun.
Officer of the tsarist army
The conditions of study at the military school were strict, but they had a great influence on shaping the character of the future legendary commander of the Red Army. In 1914, a graduate of the Kyiv military school Shchors arrived in one of the units stationed near Vilnius. Nikolai Alexandrovich began his service as a junior paramedic. The entry of the Russian Empire into the First World War soon followed, and the 3rd Light Artillery Battalion, in which the volunteer Shchors serves, is sent to the front line. Nikolay takes out the wounded and provides first aid. In one of the battles, the paramedic himself gets injured and ends up in a hospital bed.
After recovery, he enters the Vilnius military school, which was evacuated to Poltava. He diligently studies military sciences - tactics, topography, trench work. In May 1916, Ensign Shchors arrived in the reserve regiment, which was quartered in Simbirsk. The biography of the future division commander during this period of life made sharp turns. A few months later he was transferred to the 335th regiment of the 85th infantry division. For the battles on the South-Western Front, Nikolai Aleksandrovich received the rank of second lieutenant ahead of schedule. However, the unsettled trench life and poor heredity did their job - the young officer began to develop a tuberculosis process. For almost six months he was treated in Simferopol. In December 1917, having been demobilized from the army, he returned to his native Snovsk. Thus ended the period of service in the tsarist army.
The beginning of the revolutionary struggle
In difficult times, Nikolai Shchors returned to his homeland. There was an active struggle for power between various political parties. The civil fratricidal war swept over the Ukrainian lands, and soldiers returning from the front joined various armed formations. In February 1918, the Central Rada of Ukraine signed a peace treaty with Germany and Austria. German troops entered the country to jointly fight the Soviets.
Nikolay made his political choice at the front,when he met the Bolsheviks and understood the program of their party. Therefore, in Snovsk, he quickly established contacts with the communist underground. On the instructions of the party cell, Nikolai goes to the Novozybkovsky district, to the village of Semenovka. Here he was to form a partisan detachment to fight the German troops. An experienced front-line soldier coped well with the first responsible task. The united detachment he created consisted of 350-400 trained fighters and fought in the area of Zlynka and Klintsy, carried out daring partisan raids on the Gomel-Bryansk railway line. At the head of the detachment was the young red commander Shchors. The biography of Nikolai Aleksandrovich from that time was associated with the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power throughout Ukraine.
Retreat
The activity of the partisan detachment forced the German troops to suffer significant losses, and the German command decided to put an end to its existence. With heavy fighting, the partisans managed to break out of the encirclement and retreat to the area of the city of Unecha, which was located on Russian territory. Here the detachment was disarmed and disbanded - as the law prescribed.
Schors himself went to Moscow. He always dreamed of studying and wanted to go to medical school. The revolutionary whirlpool changed the plans of a recent front-line soldier. In July 1918, the First Congress of the Bolsheviks of Ukraine took place, followed by the creation of the Central Committee of the Party and the Revolutionary Committee, whose task was to create new military units from the fighters of partisan detachments - Nikolai returned to Unecha. Himinstructed to form and lead a regiment of local residents and fighters of the Dnieper partisan detachment. In September, the regiment was named after Ivan Bohun, an ally of Bogdan Khmelnitsky who died in the Chernihiv region. In memory of these days, opposite the railway station in Unecha, there is a monument to Shchors, one of the youngest commanders of the Red Army.
There was a detachment along the shore
The Bogun regiment consisted of 1,500 Red Army soldiers and was part of the First Insurgent Division. Immediately after the formation of the Red Army began to make sorties to the rear of the German troops. In combat conditions, they gained military experience and obtained weapons. Later, Nikolai Shchors became the commander of a brigade, which included two regiments - Bogunsky and Tarashchansky.
On October 23, 1918, a large-scale offensive began, the purpose of which was the complete expulsion of German troops from the territory of Ukraine. The soldiers liberated Klintsy, Starodub, Glukhov, Shostka. At the end of November, the Tarashchansky regiment entered Snovsk. The advancing Red Army soldiers rapidly occupied more and more new cities. In January 1919 Chernigov, Kozelets and Nizhyn were taken. The ultimate goal of the offensive was the liberation of Kyiv. The brigade commander was at the forefront all the time. The soldiers respected him for his personal courage and caring attitude towards the soldiers. He never hid behind the backs of the Red Army and did not sit in the rear. Written in 1936, the "Song of Shchors" almost documented the memories of soldiers about their commander.
Kyiv Commandant
When approaching Kyiv on the waythe Red Army stood up selected units of the Petliura troops. Shchors decides to immediately engage in battle and two regiments, Bogunsky and Tarashchansky, attack the positions of a numerically superior enemy. On February 1, 1919, the Petliura troops were defeated, and the Shchors brigade liberated the city of Brovary. After 4 days, Kyiv was taken, Shchors was appointed commandant of the capital of Ukraine. For his great contribution to the defeat of the enemy troops and for his personal courage, he was awarded a nominal golden weapon. In 1954, perpetuating the memory of this heroic time, a monument to Shchors will be erected in the capital of Ukraine.
The respite between fights was short-lived. The brigade again entered into hostilities and liberated Berdichev and Zhitomir. In March 19, Shchors became the commander of the First Ukrainian Soviet Division. The Petliurites suffered one defeat after another. The Red Army liberated Vinnitsa and Zhmerinka, Shepetovka and Rivne. The division was replenished with recruits from among the local residents, but there was a catastrophic lack of combat commanders. At the initiative of Shchors, a military school was created, in which 300 of the most experienced Red Army soldiers with front-line experience were sent to study.
Fatal Bullet
In June 1919, the Revolutionary Military Council reorganized the Ukrainian Front. The Shchors division became part of the 12th Army. The formation already had solid combat experience and glorious victories behind it. It is hard to imagine that the division was commanded by a commander who was only 24 years old. Shchors really had an amazing military talent. But this was the reason why against its connectionsuperior enemy forces advanced.
Under the pressure of the numerically superior enemy, the Shchors retreated to the Korosten area. On August 30, the division commander N. A. Shchors, his deputy I. N. Dubovoi and political worker Tankhil-Tankhilevich arrived at the Bogun division, which occupied positions near the village of Beloshitsa. Being at the forefront of defense, Nikolai Shchors was wounded in the head. I. N. Dubovoy bandaged him, but after 15 minutes the division commander died. His body was sent to Klintsy and then to Samara, where he was buried. Thus ended the life of one of the youngest and most talented generals of the Civil War.
Strange story
In 1949, when the reburial of the remains of N. A. Shchors took place, a previously unknown detail was revealed. A deadly bullet was fired from a short-barreled weapon and entered the back of the fearless commander's head. It turns out that Shchors died at the hands of a man who was behind him at close range. Various versions appeared - death at the hands of the "Trotskyites" and even the revenge of the Bolsheviks on the intractable and popular commander in the troops.
The name of N. A. Shchors was not forgotten, and his exploits are immortalized by many monuments, names of streets and cities. The people still hear the "Song of Shchors" - a courageous and selfless man who, until the last minute of his life, believed in the possibility of building a just and honest state.
