Major Gavrilov: biography and photos

Major Gavrilov is one of the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War. His feat is still remembered by the descendants of the victors, and the life path of Peter Mikhailovich is set as an example to the younger generation. Defender of the Brest Fortress - the first line of resistance to Nazi occupation - surpassed the physical and moral abilities of a person, thereby immortalizing and forever inscribing his name in history.

Biography: youth

Major Gavrilov was born in 1900 on the territory of the modern Pestrechinsky district. His family was ordinary peasants. Left without a father, Peter worked hard since childhood. To provide for the family, he helped the senior in the household. At the age of fifteen, I already worked as a farm laborer. After that I went to Kazan, where I got a job at a factory and was a laborer. The inhuman working conditions and arbitrariness of the authorities caused Gavrilov sincere hatred for the regime and social inequality existing in the Russian Empire.

When the first disturbances began, he immediately joined the revolutionaries. He took direct part in proclaiming the power of the people's councils in Kazan and the district. With the outbreak of the Civil War, at the age of eighteen he enlisted as a volunteer in the created Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. He fights at the front against the White Guards. I personally participated in the battles with units of Kolchak and Denikin. I visited many fronts. Two years after the end of the Civil War, he joins the Bolshevik Party. She starts her studies. Graduates from the infantry school. A few years later he gets married and adopts a child.

The First War

Career moves up. At thirty-nine years the newly-minted Major Gavrilov graduated from the Higher Military Academy. He is entrusted with a rifle regiment. In the same year, another war begins. Gavrilov goes to the cold forests of Finland to participate in the Winter War. The Red Army fights in the hardest conditions of food shortages and the actions of Finnish saboteurs. Despite this, the subdivision of Gavrilov fulfills the tasks assigned to him. 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.

The first attack on the fortress

In June 1941 there were about nine thousand people in the Brest Fortress. Major Gavrilov with the soldiers was also quartered inside the old castle. Given the current conditions of war, the fortress was not at all a serious fortification, and the fighters were placed there solely because of logic. In the event of an attack by Nazi Germany, the soldiers in the fortress had to take the Brest line of fortifications. However, on June 22, at night, the old walls suddenly shuddered with artillery strikes. The shelling lasted about 10 minutes. Caught off guard, the Red Army men perished in their own beds. Because of the suddenness, as well as the turmoil, panic began. On the territory of the fortress there were also families of commanders with children. 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 almost captured the citadel. However, the Soviet troops managed to group and launch an attack. Gavrilov was in charge of one of the divisions. Already in the morning, almost all the Nazis who had entered the fortress were destroyed. But immediately there came reinforcements to them. Defenders lost contact with the command and were not aware of the situation in the surrounding areas. Under the almost continuous shelling of the remnants of the servicemen managed to gather and draw up a plan of action. They divided into several groups, one of which was headed by Major Gavrilov. The Brest Fortress was half destroyed, and the Germans in the evening organized a new attack. The defenders fought day and night. Despite the lack of ammunition and provisions, they even managed to make sorties. The most difficult thing was with water, because the water supply did not work for several days. Gavrilov with the soldiers took refuge in the East Fort, where he managed to organize stubborn resistance. For several days the Hitlerites unsuccessfully stormed the fort and could not take it.

Destruction of the Citadel

By the twenty-ninth number, the Nazi command had decided to drop a heavy bomb bomb weighing about two tons. After it hit a detonated ammunition depot, many fighters were killed. A handful of defenders survived, among whom was Major Gavrilov. The Brest Fortress was almost completely captured by the Germans. Individual groups of soldiers barricaded themselves in the premises and continued their resistance.

Major Pyotr Gavrilov with a dozen Red Army soldiers leave the ruined fort and take refuge in casemates. In addition to personal weapons, they had only four machine guns and some ammunition. While in the dungeon, they made sorties and repulsed German attacks. The defense of the dungeon lasted almost a month. In the conditions of a meager diet, darkness and lack of patrons defenders stubbornly resisted. These events badly affected the morale of the Hitlerites. At the beginning of the war, Hitler promised to enslave the Soviet Union for a year. The Nazis tried to take the old castle several weeks unsuccessfully.

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 joined them in battle. With the help of hand grenades and a pistol, he killed and wounded several Germans. After a serious injury, he was captured in unconsciousness. The Germans were shocked. The major was exhausted and looked like a corpse. Gavrilov was dressed in a tattered, decaying officer officer's uniform. The doctors could not believe that some time ago this man could fight. After the capture, Gavrilov is sent to a concentration camp. There he meets with others, General Karbyshev.

After the war

In the spring of 1945 he was rescued from the camp. In the fall, he is restored to the rank and entrusted with the post of chief of the camp for the captive Japanese. In this service, he also distinguished himself, preventing the epidemic. After leaving for the reserve, I went to Kazan and found my family. In the fifties, excavations of the fortress begin, and the world will learn about the heroic resistance of its defenders. In 1957, Major Gavrilov, the defender of the Brest Fortress, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Participated in writing a book on the defense of the fortress, gave interviews that helped shed light on the events of the summer of 1941. He spent his last years in Krasnodar, where he died in 1979. He was buried in Brest, in a garrison cemetery.