A small independent republic entered the war with Hitler immediately after the USSR

Which country was the first to support the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War? Yes, commonly referred to as Great Britain. But 11 hours before Churchill made his historic statement on the radio, Nazi Germany was declared war by a state that Hitler had never heard of before. It was the Tuvan People's Republic.

General war

Tuva became part of the Russian Empire as early as 1914; at the same time, they began to build a new capital of the region - Belotsarsk (in honor of the Russian emperor - the "white king"). However, after the revolution of 1917, everything began to change actively.

Commemorative coin of the Bank of Russia, dedicated to the entry of Tuva into the Russian Empire. wikipedia

At first, the White Guards, the detachments of Kolchak and Ungern, ruled Tuva, but at the end of the summer of 1921 they were expelled from there by the Red Army. The new Soviet state was in no hurry to include Tuva, but actively participated in its life. When both the whites and the tsar were finished, the capital of Tuva was named Kyzyl (“Red City”), and Tuva itself turned into a republic. In 1923, Soviet troops left Tuva, but pro-Soviet sentiments did not disappear.

The Tuvan squadron is escorted to the front. Kyzyl, 1943. wikipedia

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, mobilization was immediately announced in Tuva. The Tuvan arats sent a letter to Stalin in which they announced: "This is our war too."

It was said that Hitler only laughed at the news that a certain Tuva was going to oppose him; it never even occurred to him to find this country on the globe. According to another version, Hitler still bothered to look at the map, but he could not find any Tuva.

Skis, coats, horses

Tuva declared war on Germany on June 25, 1941. Almost immediately, this relatively poor country transferred its gold reserves and income from gold mining to the USSR. Echelons with warm sheepskin coats, mittens and felt boots, with birch skis, flour, honey, butter, canned berries and meat went to the USSR.

Monument to arat near Kyzyl. Agilight/wikimedia

In the autumn of 1942, the USSR decided to recruit volunteers from Mongolia and Tuva for military service. In May of the following year, 11 Tuvans joined the 25th separate tank regiment. In September 1943, another 206 Tuvan soldiers were enrolled in the 8th Cavalry Division; their task was raids on the rear of the Nazis and battles with Bandera.

During the Great Patriotic War, about eight thousand Tuvans fought on the side of the USSR.

Black Death

At first, the Tuvans instilled fear in the Germans with their appearance alone. Until the beginning of 1944, they dressed in national attire, before each battle they hung Buddhist amulets on themselves, armed with curved sabers, mounted their shaggy hardy horses and boldly attacked the enemy in this form.

The captured fascist soldiers admitted that "these barbarians", evoking associations with the hordes of the Huns led by Attila himself, terrified and deprived the Nazis of combat capability.

In 1944, the Soviet command turned to the Tuvans with a request to dress in the military uniform of the Red Army. But that didn't make them any less formidable fighters. The Tuvans fought furiously and mercilessly. They did not consider it necessary to take the Germans prisoner, were not afraid of death, rushed into battle even with a significant superiority of the enemy - and won in situations where, it would seem, defeat was inevitable.

They acted on the battlefield like fighting machines, they knew no fear and introduced enemies into a state of chilling horror. Der schwarze Tod, or "Black Death" - this is how the Nazis began to call Tuvan soldiers in 1944, after the battle in western Ukraine near Durazhno.

Churgui-ool Namgaevich Khomushku, Hero of the Soviet Union. wikipedia

Tuvan volunteers liberated 80 Ukrainian villages from fascist invaders.

During the war and after it, 5,500 fighters from Tuva received awards. 20 of them earned the Order of Glory, and a Tuvan named Khomushka Churguy-ool was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1944, Tuva became part of the Soviet Union as the Tuva Autonomous Region, part of the RSFSR. Today the Republic of Tyva (Tuva) is a subject of the Russian Federation.

And on August 17, 1944, the session of the Lesser Khural of the Tuva People's Republic adopted a declaration on joining the USSR, having filed a corresponding petition with the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. On October 11, 1944, this request was granted, and Tuva became part of the RSFSR as an autonomous region. And August 15 is the birthday of the Republic of Tyva. This holiday was approved by the law of the republic of February 12, 1999 "On holidays of the Republic of Tyva". In the Republic, this day is a day off.

From every family

The history of this Russian region is firmly connected with the history of the country, with its heroic pages. Including - with the military chronicle of the Fatherland. On the first day of the Great Patriotic War, June 22, 1941, a congress of the Great Khural was held in Tuva, at which the republic's entry into the war and support for the Soviet people in the fight against the fascist aggressor "until the final victory over him" were proclaimed.

The fact is that until 1944 Tuva was considered an independent state, with the USSR it was bound by treaties of friendship and cooperation. With the outbreak of war, the armed forces of the TPR were transferred to a special position, and the authorities offered the Soviet leadership to send Tuvan volunteers to the front, and they were immediately equipped with small arms and edged weapons, including local production. Moscow did not agree to this assistance, referring to the small population of Tuva.
Nevertheless, already in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, the Tuvans provided invaluable assistance to the warring country.

The gold reserve, which amounted to about 30 million Soviet rubles, was transferred to Moscow's disposal, as well as the entire extraction of Tuvan gold in the amount of about another 5 million rubles. The total amount of voluntarily transferred material assistance exceeded 60 million rubles. The Tuvan industry was reoriented to the fulfillment of military orders: a wagon shop and a dryer were built at the sawmill, mass production of skis for the Red Army was mastered, a sheepskin shop and additional wool-beating machines appeared at the tannery. This fact is known: from June 1941 to August 1944, the TPR supplied 50 thousand war horses for the needs of the army, as well as more than 700 thousand heads of cattle, and almost 650 thousand - free of charge. It is estimated that almost every Tuvan family provided ten to one hundred head of livestock.

Tuvans donated 27.5 thousand cows to liberated Ukraine. It was in the spring of 1944, and at the same time the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR addressed the presidium of the Lesser Khural of Tuva with words of sincere gratitude. “The Ukrainian people, like all the peoples of the USSR, deeply appreciate and will never forget that assistance to the front and the liberated regions, which the working people of the Tuva People's Republic provide in a brotherly way,” the message from Kyiv noted.

With the money collected by the population of Tuva, three fighter squadrons and two tank brigades were built. The Red Army received 52,000 pairs of skis, 10,000 sheepskin coats, 19,000 pairs of mittens, 16,000 pairs of boots, an impressive amount of food, as well as medicinal herbs that grow in these places, and national medicine. According to expert estimates, the total supplies of Tuva, together with Mongolia, turned out to be only a third less in volume than the allied assistance from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the Union of South Africa and New Zealand combined.

Memory is immortal

In the autumn of 1942, the Soviet government nevertheless decided to accept volunteers from Tuva for military service. The first two hundred Tuvan soldiers joined the Red Army in May 1943 and were enrolled in the 25th separate tank regiment of the 52nd Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. The regiment fought on the territory of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. At the front, Tuvans were called "Sayan Eagles". Cases are described when twice and thrice wounded soldiers did not leave the battlefield, fighting to the last breath. 23 Tuvan volunteers died a heroic death during the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Rivne. One of its streets for a long time bore the name of "Tuva Volunteers", and a memorial plaque with a corresponding inscription was also installed.

Has it remained now, when Ukraine is suicidally fighting its history, burning with a red-hot iron everything that is connected with the memory of the country and people...
In 2014, a book-album "Tuva to the Front" was published in Moscow. This popular science work, published under the general editorship of a native of the republic, the Minister of Defense of Russia, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, contains a significant number of documents on the participation of the population of Tuva in the Great Patriotic War. Many of the materials of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation cited in the publication turned out to be presented for the first time. According to the Deputy Head of the Research Center of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Yuri Rubtsov, the participation of Tuvans in repelling the fascist invasion was not at all symbolic. "The Tuvan people did everything possible and impossible to help their brother - the Soviet people withstand the blow of Hitler's military machine, and then turn back the enemy invasion," the historian emphasizes.

On the attack - "Black Death"

Here is one of the rare documents cited in this unique edition - the report of the commander of the 8th Guards Cavalry Division, Major General Dmitry Pavlov, which summarizes the results of the battles of January-March 1944. It is noted that “the first volunteer detachment of horsemen of the Tuva People's Republic proved to be quite combat-ready in battles. He has exceptional tenacity on the defensive and an exceptional impulse on the offensive. I note contempt for death and high patriotism. Here the division commander, taking into account the named fighting qualities of the volunteers and taking into account the large losses of the squadron, proposes to the higher command to replenish his formation with Tuvan fighters. It is known that this request was granted.

The division in question instilled just the same panicky horror at the Nazis. The unit's cavalry especially showed themselves in raids on enemy rear lines in western Ukraine, where they participated in the liberation of 89 settlements. In September 1943, a group of volunteers from Tuva, known as the squadron of Captain Tulush Kechil-ool, arrived in the division. As eyewitnesses testified, for their fearlessness and special fury, the Tuvans earned an eloquent nickname from the enemy - Der Schwarze Tod ("Black Death"). The German officer Remke, captured in January 1944 in the battle near Derazhno (now the Volyn region of Ukraine), reported during interrogation that the soldiers entrusted to him perceived the Tuvans as "the hordes of Attila", having lost all combat capability. And the same General Pavlov wrote in a letter to the leaders of Tuva: “The sons of your Motherland distinguished themselves in the glorious military deeds of our guards cavalry division, fighting the Nazi invaders in our ranks as volunteers ...

In the most difficult periods of the battle, when a clear advantage in manpower and equipment was on the side of the enemy, the Tuvans did not retreat a single step without the order of the commander, they stood to the death ... Fighting with the sworn enemy in the ranks of the guard, the sons of your Motherland raised the glory of our Motherland even higher Cossack formation, the glory of the cavalry. In your person, we thank the entire Tuvan people for raising such courageous, steadfast and brave sons.”

Golden Stars of Tuva

In total, during the war years, about 8 thousand residents of Tuva fought in the ranks of the Red Army. Many of them became holders of state awards, including the Gold Stars of the Heroes of the Soviet Union. The squadron commander of the 31st Guards Cavalry Regiment, Captain Tulush Kechil-ool, mentioned above, was presented with this high award back in 1944, but was awarded it only posthumously - after the war. And another native of Tuva, junior lieutenant of the tank troops Khomushku Churguy-ool became a Hero for the exploits committed in March 1944 when breaking through the enemy defenses near the villages of Ryzhanovka and Kobylyaki. In one of the battles, his tank broke into the location of the Germans at top speed, destroying firing points and manpower with fire and caterpillars.

The title of Hero of the officer was awarded in 1945. In general, among the Tuvan volunteers there were representatives of different branches of the armed forces - tankers, snipers, scouts, pilots. There was even a war correspondent - Kongar Khalyrbayevich Tulush. Women also took part in the battles. Vera Chuldumovna Baylak, a medical officer of the company, participated in the battles for Rovno, was awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, awards of Tuva. Sadly, Vera Baylak is the only Tuvan female volunteer who went to the front and survived. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the front-line soldier died ...

In 2015, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the head of the Republic of Tyva, Sholban Kara-ool, signed a decree on the establishment of September 1 (the day the Tuva volunteer cavalry squadron was sent to the front) of the Day of historical memory and honor of the volunteers of the Tuva People's republics. A Book of Memory has been published in the region, which contains an alphabetical list of names of Tuvans who died during the Great Patriotic War. In total, it contains about two thousand names. The streets of Tuvan settlements are named after some of them. And in the capital of the region, Kyzyl, there is a street of Tuva volunteers - the very ones who were the first to go to the front in May 1943 and immortalized the glory of their people forever.

The first Tuvan volunteers (about 200 people) joined the Red Army in May 1943. After a short training, they were enrolled in the 25th separate tank regiment (from February 1944 it was part of the 52nd army of the 2nd Ukrainian front). This regiment fought on the territory of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

In September 1943, the second group of cavalry volunteers (206 people) was enrolled, after training in the Vladimir region, in the 8th cavalry division.

The cavalry division took part in raids behind enemy lines in western Ukraine. After the battle near Durazhno in January 1944, the Germans began to call the Tuvans "Der Schwarze Tod" - "Black Death".

The captured German officer G. Remke during interrogation said that the soldiers entrusted to him “subconsciously perceived these barbarians (Tuvans) as the hordes of Attila” and lost all combat capability ...

Here it must be said that the first Tuvan volunteers were a typical national part, they were dressed in national costumes, wore amulets. Only at the beginning of 1944, the Soviet command asked the Tuvan soldiers to send their "objects of the Buddhist and shamanic cult" to their homeland.

The Tuvans fought bravely. The command of the 8th Guards Cavalry Division wrote to the Tuvan government:

“... with a clear superiority of the enemy, the Tuvans fought to the death. So in the battles near the village of Surmiche, 10 machine gunners, led by the commander of the Dongur-Kyzyl squad, and the calculation of anti-tank rifles, led by Dazhy-Seren, died in this battle, but did not retreat a single step, fighting to the last bullet. Over 100 enemy corpses were counted in front of a handful of brave men who died the death of heroes. They died, but where the sons of your Motherland stood, the enemy did not pass ... ".

A squadron of Tuvan volunteers liberated 80 Western Ukrainian settlements.

On January 31, 1944, in the battle near Derazhno (Ukraine), Tuvan cavalrymen jumped out on small shaggy horses with sabers against the advanced German units.

A little later, a captured German officer recalled that the spectacle had a demoralizing effect on his soldiers, who on a subconscious level perceived "these barbarians" as Attila's hordes. After this battle, the Germans gave the Tuvans the name "Der Schwarze Tod" - "Black Death".

In his memoirs, General Sergei Bryulov explained:

“The horror of the Germans was also connected with the fact that the Tuvans, committed to their own ideas about military rules, did not take the enemy prisoner in principle. And the command of the General Staff of the USSR could not interfere in their military affairs, after all, they are our allies, foreign volunteers, and in war all means are good.

From the report of Marshal Zhukov comrade. Stalin:

“Our foreign soldiers, cavalrymen are too brave, they do not know tactics, the strategy of modern warfare, military discipline, despite preliminary training, they do not know Russian well. If they continue to fight like this, none of them will be left alive by the end of the war.”

To which Stalin replied:

“Take care, do not be the first to attack, return the wounded in a delicate form with honors to their homeland. Living soldiers from the TPR, witnesses, will tell their people about the Soviet Union and their role in the Great Patriotic War.

"THIS IS OUR WAR!"

The Tuvan People's Republic became part of the Soviet Union already during the war, on August 17, 1944. In the summer of 1941, Tuva was de jure an independent state. In August 1921, the White Guard detachments of Kolchak and Ungern were expelled from there. The capital of the republic was the former Belotsarsk, renamed Kyzyl (Red City).

Soviet troops were withdrawn from Tuva by 1923, but the USSR continued to provide all possible assistance to Tuva, without claiming its independence.

It is customary to say that Great Britain provided the first support for the USSR in the war, but this is not so. Tuva declared war on Germany and its allies on June 22, 1941, 11 hours before Churchill's historic announcement on the radio. Mobilization immediately began in Tuva, the republic announced its readiness to send its army to the front.

38,000 Tuvan arats in a letter to Joseph Stalin stated: “We are together. This is our war."

There is a historical legend about Tuva's declaration of war on Germany that when Hitler found out about this, it amused him, he did not even bother to find this republic on the map. But in vain.

At the time of entry into the war with Germany, there were 489 people in the ranks of the army of the Tuva People's Republic. But it was not the army of the Tuvan Republic that became a formidable force, but its assistance to the USSR.

ALL FOR THE FRONT!

Immediately after the declaration of war on fascist Germany, Tuva transferred to the Soviet Union not only the entire gold reserves of the republic, but also the extraction of Tuvan gold - for a total of 35 million then rubles (the purchasing power of which is ten times higher than the current Russian ones).

The Tuvans accepted the war as their own. This is evidenced by the amount of assistance that the poor republic provided to the front.

From June 1941 to October 1944, Tuva supplied 50,000 war horses and 750,000 heads of cattle for the needs of the Red Army. Each Tuvan family gave the front from 10 to 100 heads of cattle. The Tuvans literally put the Red Army on skis, supplying 52,000 pairs of skis to the front.

The Prime Minister of Tuva, Saryk-Dongak Chimba, wrote in his diary: "They wiped out the entire birch forest near Kyzyl."

In addition, the Tuvans sent 12,000 sheepskin coats, 19,000 pairs of mittens, 16,000 pairs of boots, 70,000 tons of sheep wool, 400 tons of meat, melted butter and flour, carts, sledges, harness and other goods totaling about 66.5 million rubles.

To help the USSR, the arats collected five echelons of gifts worth more than 10 million Tuvan akshas (the rate of 1 aksha is 3 rubles 50 kopecks), food for hospitals worth 200,000 akshas.

Almost all this is free of charge, not to mention honey, canned fruits and berries and concentrates, dressing bandages, medicinal herbs and medicines of national medicine, wax, resin ...

In 1944, 30,000 cows were donated from this stock to Ukraine. It was from this livestock that the post-war revival of Ukrainian animal husbandry began.

FIRST VOLUNTEERS

In the autumn of 1942, the Soviet government allowed the recruitment of volunteers from Tuva and Mongolia. The first Tuvan volunteers - about 200 people - joined the Red Army in May 1943 and were enrolled in the 25th separate tank regiment (from February 1944 it was part of the 52nd Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front). The regiment fought on the territory of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

And in September 1943, the second group of volunteers - 206 people - was enlisted in the 8th cavalry division, which participated, in particular, in raids on the fascist rear and Bandera (nationalist) groups in western Ukraine.

The first Tuvan volunteers were a typical national unit, they were dressed in national costumes and wore amulets.

Only at the beginning of 1944, the Soviet command asked the Tuvan soldiers to send their "objects of the Buddhist and shamanic cult" to their homeland.

Many other combat episodes can be cited that characterize the courage of the Tuvans. Here is just one such case:

The command of the 8th Guards Cavalry Division wrote to the Tuvan government: “... with a clear superiority of the enemy, the Tuvans fought to the death. So, in the battles near the village of Surmiche, 10 machine gunners, led by the commander of the Dongur-Kyzyl squad, and the calculation of anti-tank rifles, led by Dazhy-Seren, died in this battle, but did not retreat a single step, fighting to the last bullet. Over 100 enemy corpses were counted in front of a handful of brave men who died the death of heroes. They died, but where the sons of your Motherland stood, the enemy did not pass ... ".

A small independent Turkic republic entered the war with Hitler immediately after the USSR. Which country was the first to support the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War? Yes, commonly referred to as Great Britain. But 11 hours before Churchill made his historic statement on the radio, Nazi Germany was declared war by a state that Hitler had never heard of before. It was the Tuva People's Republic. Tuva became part of the Russian Empire back in 1914; at the same time, they began to build a new capital of the region - Belotsarsk (in honor of the Russian emperor - the "white king"). However, after the revolution of 1917, everything began to change actively. At first, the White Guards, the detachments of Kolchak and Ungern, ruled Tuva, but at the end of the summer of 1921 they were expelled from there by the Red Army. The new Soviet state was in no hurry to include Tuva, but actively participated in its life. When both the whites and the tsar were finished, the capital of Tuva was named Kyzyl (“Red City”), and Tuva itself turned into a republic. In 1923, Soviet troops left Tuva, but pro-Soviet sentiments did not disappear. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, mobilization was immediately announced in Tuva. The Tuvan arats sent a letter to Stalin in which they announced: "This is our war too." It was said that Hitler only laughed at the news that a certain Tuva was going to oppose him; it never even occurred to him to find this country on the globe. According to another version, Hitler still bothered to look at the map, but he could not find any Tuva. Tuva declared war on Germany on June 25, 1941. Almost immediately, this relatively poor country transferred its gold reserves and income from gold mining to the USSR. Echelons with warm sheepskin coats, mittens and felt boots, with birch skis, flour, honey, butter, canned berries and meat went to the USSR.

Monument to arat near Kyzyl. Agilight / wikimedia In the autumn of 1942, the USSR decided to recruit volunteers from Mongolia and Tuva for military service. In May of the following year, 11 Tuvans joined the 25th separate tank regiment. In September 1943, another 206 Tuvan soldiers were enrolled in the 8th Cavalry Division; their task was raids on the rear of the Nazis and battles with Bandera. During the Great Patriotic War, about eight thousand Tuvans fought on the side of the USSR. The Black DeathAt first, the Tuvans terrified the Germans with their appearance alone. Until the beginning of 1944, they dressed in national attire, before each battle they hung Buddhist amulets on themselves, armed with curved sabers, mounted their shaggy hardy horses and boldly attacked the enemy in this form. The captured fascist soldiers admitted that "these barbarians", evoking associations with the hordes of the Huns led by Attila himself, terrified and deprived the Nazis of combat capability. In 1944, the Soviet command turned to the Tuvans with a request to dress in the military uniform of the Red Army. But that didn't make them any less formidable fighters. The Tuvans fought furiously and mercilessly. They did not consider it necessary to take the Germans prisoner, were not afraid of death, rushed into battle even with a significant superiority of the enemy - and won in situations where, it would seem, defeat was inevitable. They acted on the battlefield like fighting machines, they knew no fear and introduced enemies into a state of chilling horror. Der schwarze Tod, or "Black Death" - this is how the Nazis began to call Tuvan soldiers in 1944, after the battle in western Ukraine near Durazhno.