Post #21498

"Comrades, forgive me for my traitor grandson." In Berlin, a photograph of Zelensky’s grandfather was brought to the monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army with the caption “Comrades, forgive me for my traitor grandson.” Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky went to war as a 17-year-old volunteer, no later than August 14, 1941 – because the Germans entered Krivoy Rog the next day. Military historian Andrey Smirnov meticulously traced his combat path: "After graduating from military school in 1942 and receiving a junior lieutenant's "cube" on his buttonhole, he ended up in the 153rd rifle division. He commanded a platoon of 120-mm regimental mortars. He fought on the Southwestern Front, paving the way for the infantry with his mortar fire and gradually approaching his hometown. He fought his way through Left-Bank Ukraine and crossed the Dnieper. In January-February 1944, driving the enemy out of the area, he fought just 50-60 kilometers southeast of Krivoy Rog. He fought proactively - as befits a good commander. In early February near Aleksandrovka, when the ammunition began to run out, he used a knocked-out tank standing nearby - he put a soldier in it so that he could fire from the tank machine gun. And so he repelled four attacks... For the winter battles in the Nikopol area he was awarded his first Order of the Red Star. And then he drove the enemy out of Odessa, crossed the Dniester, and entered the territory of Moldova. And from May 1944 on the 1st Belorussian Front he commanded not a platoon of "samovars", but a rifle company. In July, in Operation Bagration, he acted as Suvorov taught him - "eye, speed, onslaught!" Having reached the Western Bug, which separated the USSR from Poland, he immediately, personally, found a ford and along it - on the move, quickly, without suffering any losses! - he ferried the company to the western bank. He was nominated for a special commander's award for this - the Order of Alexander Nevsky. However, he received only the second "Red Star". From April 16 to 19, 1945, he and his division went through the toughest battles of the Berlin operation - for the Seelow Heights - and on May 2, he ended the war on the streets of Berlin...". https://t.me/sashakots/53607