In the modern Russian language, common verbal cliches are common, which have become such due to frequent use. "Mamaeva devastation" is called a mess in the house, "battle on the ice" - the victory of our hockey team, "Mongol-Tatar yoke" - the oppressed position of a henpecked husband, "like a Swede near Poltava" - about someone's extremely difficult situation. Each of these formulations arose for historical reasons, although not everyone who uses them knows exactly why. The popular expression “closed the embrasure with his chest” is used in relation to those who were able to make a decisive contribution to the success of some business, regardless of personal interests and not paying attention to obstacles, and sometimes even a threat to their own interests, of course, in a figurative sense.
This phrase came into use relatively recently. It was near Pskov, where in February 1943 the Soviet army fought heavy offensive battles against the German Army Group North. Of the three German bunkers, two were suppressed, the third held on stubbornly. Private of the 2nd Battalion of the 91st Separate Siberian Brigade named after Stalin AlexanderMatrosov managed to get closest to him from the flank and throw two grenades into the loophole. The machine gun fell silent, but after a short time the enemy fire resumed, apparently, one of the shooters survived. Then Matrosov lay down with his chest on the embrasure and, at the cost of his own life, gave the advancing battalion the opportunity to continue the attack for several minutes, which turned out to be precious.
The hero was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his feat was actively used by military propaganda to raise morale and as an example to follow. Many printed publications, from front-line leaflets to the central press, colorfully described exactly how Matrosov threw himself at the embrasure with his chest. The photo of a simple Russian soldier was replicated. The date of the heroic deed was moved from February 29 to February 23, as if it was timed to coincide with the day of the Soviet Army. The last words that Alexander shouted out, lying with his chest on the embrasure, did not go unnoticed. Of course, without mentioning the native party, the beloved Soviet homeland and the name of Stalin, this feat could not be accomplished. It turned out that he was preceded by a rather long, ideologically adjusted speech.
In the post-war years, Alexander Matrosov, along with Nikolai Gastello, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Viktor Talalikhin and other heroes who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Victory, entered the official historiography of the Great Patriotic War. How everything really happened and what words he shouted, throwing himself with his chest at the embrasure,nobody figured it out. Usually, everything that is repeated very often gradually becomes the indisputable truth.
However, people who fought and had experience of breaking through the fortified positions of the enemy, sometimes in private conversations expressed cautious doubts about the effectiveness of this method of suppressing firing points. Hypothetically, it is possible to block the line of fire with your own body, but you need to act very carefully in order to fall exactly as the situation requires. Again, the defending enemy can push the corpse with the muzzle of the machine gun. In general, there are many inconsistencies. Opinions were even expressed that Matrosov did not want to lie down with his chest on the embrasure, but simply fell in front of it, trying to hit the enemy with more realistic means, for example, with the same grenades. It was risky to express such considerations for many decades, as well as to question the entire official version of Soviet historical science.
Actually, what Alexander Matrosov was thinking about at the time of his death does not matter much. Something else is important. In any case, he was a real hero, like all Soviet soldiers who fell in battle or returned from the war. And before 1943, and after it, only more than two dozen such feats were officially recorded, but the names of those who performed them are not so widely known. The biography of Alexander Matrosov was quite suitable for military propaganda, and his simple Russian name was easier to remember than, for example, the name of Geray Latif oglu Asadov, who also covered the embrasure with his body.
Eternal glory to the fallen defenders of the Motherland!
