Major Gavrilov is one of the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War. His feat is still remembered by the descendants of the winners, and the life path of Pyotr Mikhailovich is set as an example for the younger generation.
The defender of the Brest Fortress - the first line of resistance to the Nazi occupation - surpassed the physical and moral abilities of a person, thereby immortalizing and forever writing his name in history.
Biography: youth
Major Gavrilov was born in 1900 on the territory of the modern Pestrechinsky district. His family were ordinary peasants. Left without a father, Peter worked hard from childhood. To provide for his family, he helped the elders with the housework. And at the age of fifteen he was already working as a farm laborer. After that, he went to Kazan, where he got a job at a factory and was a laborer. Inhuman working conditions and the arbitrariness of the authorities caused Gavrilov sincere hatred for the regime existing in the Russian Empire and social inequality.
When the first unrest began, he immediately joined the revolutionaries. He took a direct part in the proclamation of the power of the people's councils inKazan and the region. With the outbreak of the Civil War at the age of eighteen, he volunteered for the established Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. Fights at the front against the Whites. Personally participated in battles with units of Kolchak and Denikin. Been on many fronts. Two years after the end of the Civil War, he joined the Bolshevik Party. Starts studying. Graduates from infantry school. A few years later, he marries and adopts a child.
First War
Career is moving up. At thirty-nine, the newly minted Major Gavrilov graduated from the Higher Military Academy. He is entrusted with an infantry regiment. In the same year, another war begins. Gavrilov is sent to the cold forests of Finland to participate in the Winter War. The Red Army is fighting in the most difficult conditions of food shortages and the actions of Finnish saboteurs. Despite this, Gavrilov's unit performs the tasks assigned to it. After the war, Gavrilov was transferred to Brest. This city became Soviet as a result of the Polish campaign of the Red Army. There, the soldiers are located in the old fortress.
First attack on the fortress
In June 1941, about nine thousand people were in the Brest Fortress. Major Gavrilov with the fighters was also stationed inside the old castle. Given the modern conditions of warfare, the fortress was not at all a serious fortification, and the fighters were placed there solely for reasons of logic. In the event of an attack by Nazi Germany, the soldiers who were in the fortress were supposed to take the Brest linefortifications. However, on June 22, at night, the old walls suddenly shuddered from artillery strikes. The shelling lasted about 10 minutes. Taken by surprise, the Red Army died in their own beds. Because of the suddenness, as well as the turmoil, panic began. There were also families of commanders with children on the territory of the fortress. Many tried to escape behind the fortress walls, but were caught by enemy fire.
Storm
Immediately after the shelling, the first attack began. A special battalion of Nazis broke through the gates and practically captured the citadel. However, the Soviet troops managed to group up and launch an attack. Gavrilov led one of the divisions. By morning, almost all the Nazis who entered the fortress were destroyed. But in the afternoon, reinforcements approached them. The defenders lost contact with the command and were not aware of the situation in the surrounding territories. Under almost incessant shelling, the remnants of the military managed to gather and draw up a plan of action. They were divided into several groups, one of which was headed by Major Gavrilov. The Brest fortress was half destroyed, and the Germans organized a new attack in the evening. The defenders fought day and night. Despite the lack of ammunition and provisions, they even managed to make sorties. The hardest thing was with water, because the water supply did not work for several days. Gavrilov with the soldiers took refuge in the Eastern Fort, where he managed to organize stubborn resistance. For several days the Nazis unsuccessfully stormed the fort and could not take it.
Destruction of the citadel
By the twenty-ninth, the Nazi command decided to drop a heavy aerial bomb weighing about two tons. After her hit, the ammunition depot detonated, many fighters died. A handful of defenders survived, among whom was Major Gavrilov. The Brest Fortress was almost completely captured by the Germans. Separate groups of fighters barricaded themselves in the premises and continued to resist.
Major Pyotr Gavrilov with a dozen Red Army soldiers leave the ruined fort and take cover in casemates. In addition to personal weapons, they had only four machine guns and some ammunition. While in the dungeon, they made sorties and repelled German attacks. The defense of the dungeon lasted almost a month. In conditions of poor rations, darkness and lack of ammunition, the defenders stubbornly resisted. These events had a bad effect on the morale of the Nazis. At the start of the war, Hitler promised to enslave the Soviet Union within a year. And the Nazis unsuccessfully tried to take the old castle for several weeks.
The Last Fighter
July 29 Major Gavrilov Pyotr Mikhailovich was left alone. The Nazis found him in one of the cellars. Despite extreme exhaustion, he entered into battle with them. Using hand grenades and a pistol, he killed and wounded several Germans. After being severely wounded, he was taken prisoner in unconsciousness. The Germans were shocked. The Major was emaciated and looked like a corpse. Gavrilov was dressed in a tattered, decayed dress officer's uniform. Doctors couldn't believe what elsesome time ago this person could fight. After being captured, Gavrilov is sent to a concentration camp. There he meets, among others, General Karbyshev.
After the war
In the spring of forty-five, he was released from the camp. In the fall, his rank is restored and he is entrusted with the post of head of the camp for Japanese prisoners. In this service, he also distinguished himself by preventing an epidemic. After being transferred to the reserve, he went to Kazan and found his family. In the fifties, excavations of the fortress begin, and the world learns about the heroic resistance of its defenders. In 1957, Major Gavrilov, defender of the Brest Fortress, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Participated in writing a book about the defense of the fortress, gave interviews that helped shed light on the events of the summer of 1941. He spent the last years of his life in Krasnodar, where he died in 1979. He was buried in Brest, at the garrison cemetery.
