Sergey Nikanorovich Bogdanov - Vladimir - history - catalog of articles - unconditional love. Lieutenant General Mikhail Nikanorovich Gerasimov Actors and roles in the series

Andrey Nikanorovich Sidelnikov (August 28 (1895-08-28 ) , village Blagodarnoe, Novogrigoryevsky district, Stavropol province -, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, lieutenant general, participant in the First World War, the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War.

Biography

Born into a peasant family. He fought in the First World War and was promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1917-1919, as part of the red cavalry in the Stavropol region, including in the 6th Cavalry Division (First Cavalry Army). Then he studied at the red cavalry courses in Moscow, returning and commanded a squadron. Then the commander of the 32nd Beloglinsky Regiment of the First Cavalry Army, commander of the 31st Belorechensky Cavalry Regiment of the Chongar Division, head of the headquarters department of the Belarusian Military District, assistant commander of the 7th Cavalry Division, head of the Red Army Cavalry Inspection Department. Since 1939, commander of the 19th Mountain Cavalry Division.

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War on July 2, 1941, he was appointed commander of the newly formed 4th People's Militia Division, which gathered volunteers from the Kuibyshev district of Moscow. However, on July 8 he received a new appointment, heading the 43rd Cavalry Division. The 43rd Cavalry Division was enlisted in the active army on July 19, 1941 and, together with other divisions, took part in defensive battles on the territory of Belarus and the Smolensk region. As part of a cavalry group under the command of the commander of the 32nd Cavalry Division, Colonel A.I. Batskalevich, Kuban residents took part in the first cavalry raid in the history of the Patriotic War behind enemy lines. During a two-week combat raid, Soviet divisions weakened the active actions of two enemy army corps and three divisions of Army Group Center. The German offensive on the Western Front was temporarily suspended. The cavalry suffered heavy losses in this raid. The 43rd Division, operating behind enemy lines, experienced an acute shortage of ammunition and was surrounded. With heavy losses, she managed to reach her own people. Then the division was replenished with people, equipment, weapons and again participated in battles. In September 1941, covering the retreat of the 21st Army to the Dnieper, the Kuban divisions were again surrounded. In early November, due to irreparable losses, the 43rd Division was disbanded, and on November 10, 1941, it was expelled from the ranks of the active army. The remaining personnel went to replenish the 32nd Cavalry Division.

Sidelnikov participated in the development and implementation of many military operations. In 1944, he was appointed deputy commander of the 48th Army. September 13, 1944 A.N. Sidelnikov was awarded the next military rank of lieutenant general. From April 1945 until the end of the war, A.N. Sidelnikov served as chief of staff of the 67th Army. Since October 16, 1944, the 67th Army was part of the Leningrad Front and carried out the task of protecting and defending the coast of the Gulf of Riga. At the beginning of May 1945, its troops were involved in the disarmament and capture of the capitulated Courland enemy group. In June-July the 67th Army was disbanded.

Gerasimov Mikhail Nikanorovich

Brigade commander (11/26/1935, NPO No. 2484)

Divisional Commander (20.02.1940, NKO No. 0756)

Lieutenant General (4.6.1940 SNK)

Russian. Born on February 27, 1894 in Moscow, in a working-class family. Member of the CPSU(b) since 1942

He graduated from the 3rd grade of the primary city school in 1905.

He graduated from a 4-grade commercial school in 1909.

Graduated from the 3rd warrant officer school (1915)

2 years of the Faculty of Chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute in 1918 (?)

Higher Attestation Commission at the Military Academy named after. M. V. Frunze (1922), KUVNAS at the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze (1928). Higher Attestation Commission at the VVA named after. Voroshilov 1950

Since 1910, the family lived in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, where the father served as a clerk at Ivan Garelin’s factory. Gerasimov worked as an accountant at the same factory.

In 01.1915 he was drafted into the RIA. Private Novogeorgievskaya (Zegrzhskaya) fortress artillery. Jr. fireworks Graduated from the 3rd Moscow School of Warrant Officers. Junior officer of the company of the 199th reserve infantry battalion (Ivanovo-Voznesensk). Junior officer of the hundred (12.1915), assistant chief of the foot reconnaissance team (05.1916), company commander (12.1916) of the 4th Neman Border Foot Regiment. Company commander of the 708th Russian Infantry Regiment (01/1917). Company commander of the 80th Kabardian Infantry Regiment of the 20th Infantry Division (from 10.1917). Lieutenant. From 02.1918 he was dismissed on indefinite leave for the demobilization of the army.

Commander of the Ivano-Voznesensk reserve battalion. September 12, 1918

Company commander of the 158th regiment. 11.1918

Battalion commander of the 15th regiment. 6.1919

Assistant commander of the 15th regiment. 10.1919

Commander of the 13th regiment. 12.1919

Commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. 3.1920

In 1919, he took part in battles against the troops of General N.N. Yudenich near Petrograd and Pskov. During the Civil War he was wounded twice on 8.1919 and 9.1920.

Assistant commander of the 5th Infantry Division. 10.1922

Since October 1923, commander of the 33rd Infantry Division.

From January 1930, assistant inspector, then deputy inspector of the Physical Training Inspectorate of the Red Army.

Since January 1934, deputy inspector of the Red Army infantry.

Since November 1935, Deputy Chief of the 2nd Department of the General Staff of the Red Army.

Since April 1936, assistant to the head of the Combat Training Directorate of the Red Army.

Since July 1940, commander of the 19th Rifle Corps in the Leningrad Military District.

Since May 1941, commander of the 23rd Army of the same district.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, M. N. Gerasimov held the same position. From June 24, the army was included in the Northern Front and until the end of July defended the state border of the USSR north and northeast of Vyborg. Under the command of M. N. Gerasimov, army troops in difficult conditions repelled the offensive of Finnish troops on Leningrad from the north and, under the blows of superior enemy forces, retreated toline of the old state border, where they occupied the previously equipped Karelian UR. Being part of the Leningrad Front, the soldiers of the army and its command, showing great heroism, courage and bravery, stopped the enemy’s advance. During September, army troops, in cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla, repelled all attempts by the Finnish army to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops and, inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, forced him to abandon the offensive.

At the disposal of the Supreme Command Headquarters with secondment to the General Staff on September 10, 1941.

In September 1941, M. N. Gerasimov was placed at the disposal of the commander of the Leningrad Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov.

In June - September 1942, head of the control group for the formation of marching reinforcements in military districts.

Subsequently, M. N. Gerasimov was deputy commander of the troops of the Kalinin Front, at the disposal of the Main Directorate of Civil Command, deputy commander of the troops of the 2nd Baltic Front. During this period, M. N. Gerasimov participated in the Leningrad-Novgorod, Starorussko-Novorzhevsk, Rezhitsko-Dvina, Baltic, Riga offensive operations and the blocking of Army Group North by front troops in Courland. M. N. Gerasimov took an active part in planning operations and training front troops, as well as in controlling them during combat operations.

Temporary commander of the 3rd Shock Army on August 15, 1944.

Deputy Commander of the 2nd Baltic Front 5.9.1944

Since November 25, 1944, Chief Inspector of the Red Army Infantry.

After the war, M. N. Gerasimov, assistant commander of the TavVO troops (1950-1951)

At the disposal of the USSR Navy with secondment for research work to Ch. Military Scientific Directorate of the General Staff of the SA 30.7.1951

At the disposal of the State Administration on May 5, 1953.

Dismissed to the reserve under Article 59, paragraph “b” (illness) on July 2, 1953, with the right to wear a military uniform with a special distinctive sign on the shoulder straps.

He died on June 3, 1962 in Moscow.

Essays:

Awarded:

Order of the RVSR No. 41 of February 5, 1921. Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR No. 3983.

“The Order of the Red Banner is awarded... to the commander of the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, Comrade. Gerasimov Mikhail Nikanorovich for differences expressed in the following: during the period of operations on the Polish front from July 9 to August 29, 1920, comrade. Gerasimov showed exemplary management, enormous energy, determination and ability to command the units entrusted to him. During the offensive in July and August 1920, the brigade entrusted to him, under his skillful leadership, occupied the city of Bobruisk on July 12, and the city of Slutsk on July 15, cutting off the retreat route for three enemy armored trains with a rapid offensive... On July 31, parts of the brigade under the leadership of Comrade. Gerasimov, with stubborn battles, knocking down the enemy, approached the city of Brest-Litovsk. On August 1, after a heroic assault, under strong rifle, machine-gun, bomb and mortar fire and under hurricane fire from light and heavy enemy batteries, they took several well-fortified forts of the Brest-Litovsk fortress, surrounded by twelve rows of wire fences, and were the first to break into the city, capturing prisoners, machine guns and other trophies. On August 4, having been transferred to the Lengi-Shumaki area, parts of the brigade under the leadership of Comrade. Gerasimov went on the offensive and occupied the village of Yanov, capturing machine guns and prisoners. Subsequently, when units of the neighboring 8th and 10th divisions, located on the left bank of the Bug River, were attacked by superior enemy forces and were forced to begin a retreat, Comrade. Gerasimov and the brigade entrusted to him continued to stubbornly defend on the left bank, which gave the opportunity to the neighboring units to withdraw, put them in order and take out all the convoys... From August 17 to 23, during the general withdrawal of the army, Comrade. Gerasimov showed particular determination and skillful leadership of the brigade. Fighting off the advancing enemy cavalry throughout the entire retreat... he safely brought out the entire brigade and retained all the artillery. Previously, while in the Red Army as a battalion commander, and then as a commander of the 13th regiment on the Petrograd Front and later as a brigade commander in the Pskov sector on the Latvian front, Comrade. Gerasimov showed himself at his best as an extremely brave and decisive, knowledgeable and demanding commander.”

Order of the RVSR No. 353 of December 31, 1921. Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR No. 215 “2”. Issued instead of No. 3283. Secondary award.

“The following persons are awarded a second time with the Order of the Red Banner for the outstanding steadfastness and valor they showed during the former offensive battles for Warsaw and in the subsequent rearguard battles... brigade commander-4 comrade. Gerasimov Mikhail Nikanorovich"

Decree of the PVS of the USSR 09.22.1943 Order of "Kutuzov" 1st degree No. 54.

“For skillful and courageous leadership of combat operations and for the successes achieved as a result in battles with the Nazi invaders”

Decree of the PVS of the USSR July 30, 1944. Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree No. 1058.

“Deputy Commander of the 2nd Baltic Front. For skillful and courageous leadership of combat operations and for the successes achieved as a result in battles with the Nazi invaders"

By Decree of the PVS of the USSR of November 3, 1944, Order of the Red Banner of the USSR No. 1423"3"

By Decree of the PVS of the USSR on February 21, 1945, Order of Lenin No. 23529.

"For length of service in the Red Army and Navy"

By Decree of the PVS of the USSR of June 20, 1949, Order of the Red Banner of the USSR No.?

"For length of service in the Soviet Army and Navy"

Medals:

"XX years of the Red Army" - brigade commander. Decree of the PVS USSR 02/22/1938, medal and certificate number 300.

"For the Defense of Moscow" 1944

"For the defense of Leningrad" 1942

"For victory over Germany" 1945

"For victory over Japan" 1945

"In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" 1947

"30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy" 1948

After the death of Gerasimov M.N. in 1962, 7 orders and 1 medal were sent to the awards department of the USSR Military Military Service. The order book and six medals were left for safekeeping in the family.

Gerasimov M. N. since 1922, for six years, wore three Orders of the Red Banner of the RSFSR. This is evidenced by both documentary sources and photographic material.

Strekalov N.N. The following documents have been identified confirming this fact.

Certificate-report dated August 17, 1928 to the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs from the manager of the award commission of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR Gribov

« Commander of the 33rd division, Comrade N.M. Gerasimov. has and wears 3 Orders of the Red Banner

By orders of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner for distinction on the Polish front in 1920 in the position of brigade commander of the 4th attachment No. 41 and 353-1921. There are no documents or materials about awarding him with the third order in the Command Directorate not from Comrade Gerasimov himself. Two badges of the order /by order of the RVSR/ were awarded to him by the Command Directorate when he was a student of the Higher Attestation Commission in 1922; he received the third badge of the order from the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division at the end of 1920 without indicating an order for the award. In fact, he wears 3 badges of the order for 6 years. In a letter to you, he asks to issue his third order, and if not, to transfer him from the BVI to another district.

Instruction requested.

Administrator of the Award Commission of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR Gribov (signature)

Answer of the Administrator of the Award Commission of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR Gribov to M.N. Gerasimov dated August 26, 1928

“To the commander of the 33rd Samara Infantry Division, Comrade M.N. Gerasimov.

Mogilev BSSR.

People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs according to your letter dated May 31 of this year. I did not find it possible to leave you the third badge of the Order of the Red Banner and satisfy your request for transfer to another District. Please return the badge of the order to the GURKKA Command Directorate.

Ex. Affairs of the Award Commission of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR

(signature) Gribov."

Apparently Gerasimov M.N. did not agree with the decision and in 1930 sent his material to the head of the Main Directorate of the Red Army. And on November 13, 1930, a response was sent to him.

"Personally.

Pom. Inspector of Physical Training of the Red Army comrade. Gerasimov M.N.

The head of the Main Directorate of the Red Banner, having familiarized himself with your material, did not find it possible to reconsider the case of your third Order of the Red Banner due to the obvious evidence of receiving 2 badges of orders under the same order of the RVSR.

Pom. Head of the Command Directorate (signature) /Khoroshilov/

Head of Sector (signature) /Krasnoyarsk/ »

It remains to add that the third order had the number 2181.

Sources:

1. “Commanders” military biographical dictionary. M. 2005

2. Military history magazine 1969 No. 12.

3. Strekalov N. Sysolyatin I. “Awards of the Soviet Republics”

4. TsAMO. Code of Criminal Procedure, registration card for awards.

5. RGVA documents provided by N. N. Strekalov.

6. Gerasimov M. N. “Awakening” 1965

On May 22, 2017, Channel One will premiere a historical drama, a multi-part film entitled “Petr Leshchenko. All that has gone before…"

What is the series about?

This serial film is a biographical drama about the life of the legendary Soviet singer of romances and folk songs, Petre Leshchenko. In the series, the viewer will learn everything about the childhood, youth and youth of Peter Leshchenko, which passed in the city of Chisinau, about his close connection with the gypsies, the series will tell about the battles in the First World War, about his passionate and sincere love, about why and how his career as a singer and performer began and the peak of his stage fame began.

Total in the series is Petr Leshchenko. Everything that happened... 8 episodes

Pyotr Leshchenko was born in 1989 in the Kherson province of the Russian Empire, but spent most of his youth in the city of Chisinau. After World War I he became a subject of Romania. In the 1920s, Leshchenko gained fame, recorded many of his records and toured almost all of Europe with great success. Among his most famous songs are “Chubchik”, “Captain”, “At the samovar me and my Masha”, “Black Eyes”. During World War II, Pyotr Leshchenko performed directly at the front without any shadow of fear, but he was still constantly suspected of collaborating with both the USSR state security agencies and the fascists. After the end of the Second World War, in 1951, during the time of mass arrests and persecution of “dissidents” and “enemies of the motherland,” Pyotr Leshchenko was arrested right at his concert, and three years later he died while in custody.

Despite the fact that Peter Leshchenko was not a professional vocalist, the simplicity and sincerity of his compositions touched the hearts of listeners. His songs united people from different countries and classes. And the White Guards, and the Red Army, and the officers of the Soviet army, and the Romanians, and the Germans - everyone loved his songs very much and he was able to reach their hearts...

Actors and roles in the series:

Konstantin Khabensky– Peter Leshchenko

Ivan Stebunov– Pyotr Leshchenko in his youth + 102 – 6

Andrey Merzlikin– Georgy Khrapak, lieutenant, comrade-in-arms of warrant officer Pyotr Leshchenko

Miriam Sekhon-Zhenya Zakkit, singer, Leshchenko’s first wife

Victoria Isakova– Katya Zavyalova, singer, Leshchenko’s first partner

Timofey Tribuntsev– Sokolov, NKVD captain, investigator in Bucharest prison

Boris Kamorzin– Barankevich, NKVD colonel, investigator in Bucharest prison

Alexey Kravchenko– Sergei Nikanorovich Burenin, Lieutenant General, Hero of the Soviet Union, military commandant of Bucharest

Evgenia Dobrovolskaya– Masha, Burenin’s wife

Sergey Byzgu– Danya Zeltser, impresario Leshchenko

Evgeniy Sidikhin- Colonel in World War I, general in Civil War

Dmitry Lipinsky– Andrey Kozhemyakin

Nikolay Dobrynin– Konstantin, Peter's father

Oleg Mazurov– Vasil Zobar, son of a gypsy baron, friend of Leshchenko’s youth

Vera Panfilova– Zlata Zobar, Vasily’s sister, Peter’s first love

Mikhail Bogdasarov– Gheorghe Costakis, restaurant owner in Chisinau

Semyon Furman– Ciorbe, restaurant owner in Bucharest

Elena Lotova– Vera Belousova, singer, second wife of Pyotr Leshchenko

Olga Lerman– Katya Zavyalova in her youth

Evgeny Berezovsky– Zaletaev, captain, colleague of Leshchenko in the First World War

Yuri Anpilogov– Hauptmann the Nazi

Sergey Belyaev– Popescu, Romanian general

Oksana Burlay– Piterova - Peter’s mother

Alexey Yarmilko– Nikolai, Peter’s stepfather

Evgeny Gerchakov– Antonescu, owner of a musical instrument store in Bucharest

Alexander Klyukvin– Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin

Anatoly Kot– Deputy Commandant of Odessa, SS Hauptsturmführer

Anatoly Goryachev- Colonel of the NKVD in Bucharest

The bourgeois-democratic revolution does not satisfy either the people or the mass of soldiers. Bolshevik Linko convincingly explains to both Gerasimov and the soldiers that things are inevitably moving towards a socialist revolution. The process of Bolshevization of the Soviets spreads to the army: here the Bolsheviks take over the army committees. The struggle against the Society of Officers ends in a soldierly simple and straightforward manner: the soldiers expel Zhelikhovsky, Myakinin and the rest of the Kornilov Black Hundreds from the regiment. The scene when, to the whistle and shouts of “Down with the Black Hundred!”, “Roll to your Nikolai!” Twenty-three officers in phaetons are removed from the regiment, and behind them two vans are taking away their belongings, straight from the pages of the book it begs to be shown on the screen. Officer Gerasimov perceives in his own way the cleansing of the regiment from avid counter-revolutionaries: it seems to him that this is eradicating the cause of the soldiers’ discontent and their lack of discipline, and the army is getting rid of the danger of collapse and disorganization. However, reality, which he cannot yet grasp in all its interconnections, disappoints him. He is having a hard time experiencing the elements, which in the sum of all its manifestations meant the catastrophe of the old army. Of course, Lieutenant General M.N. Gerasimov could consider and evaluate this picture through the prism of those generalizations that history has made: “The army could not fight. An army that survived a four-year imperialist war, when it did not know what it was fighting for and vaguely felt that it was fighting for someone else’s interests - this army fled, and no force in the world could hold it back.” In essence, it is precisely this Leninist conclusion that the author reinforces, showing the full depth of the catastrophe, making the catastrophe of the army downright tangible. The pages devoted to this process involuntarily bring us back to the thought of how right Lenin was in not pinning any hopes on the old army and persistently seeking the conclusion of even a shameful and humiliating peace with Germany, but at a critical moment saving the revolution. The author here remained faithful to his creative method - he did not succumb to the temptation to at least to some extent endow Staff Captain Gerasimov with the understanding of the phenomena that later came to the Soviet General Gerasimov. All the pictures of the decay of the army are given to them in the perception of a staff captain who is restless and worried about its fate, and from this they acquire the convincingness of the truth of life. Such a depiction of reality, and even more so the memoirist’s disclosure of the movements of his own soul, is sometimes, through a misunderstanding, regarded as a manifestation of subjectivism. But this vice is only imaginary, and, in essence, even the dignity of memoirs. No one revealed this dignity better than the brilliant memoirist, honorary academician and revolutionary N.A. Morozov: “Whenever a stranger and little related to me in spirit characterized me, he characterized only the ghost of his imagination. But people close to me in spirit always guessed and understood me, because they judged me by themselves. So, in these memoirs of mine, I want to characterize my own kindred spirit comrades in my life and work...

Since I was not an exception in my environment, since I was one of many, then, characterizing my soul, I also characterize the souls of all people related to me in aspirations and ideals, who shared with me both joys and sorrows, and all my actions. I will never tire of repeating this to the reader so that he treats my book the way it deserves, and does not reproach me for only briefly mentioning this or that figure who played an outstanding role in the events of the period described.

I do not at all want to describe those events in which I did not take part, because when describing them, I, like any outsider, can only give their external appearance without a soul. And here I want to give the movement of the seventies or some idea about it based on what my own soul was experiencing then.”

This judgment can also be applied to the book by M. N. Gerasimov. Revealing the awakening of his own consciousness, he thereby shows us the complex, contradictory evolution of an entire layer of Russian officers who experienced illusions and disappointments on the way to serving their people.

Demobilization is underway. Gerasimov's battalion is melting. Finally, he himself goes home to Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The impression of general devastation he received from this long trip makes him think seriously about the past and the future. A conclusion formed in my head: the people’s past seemed like a complete nightmare, the future aroused hopes, but a struggle still lay ahead with the forces of the past. Gerasimov's place in this struggle is where the people are. Everything he experienced and felt led him to this decision.

His further path remains beyond the scope of the book. If you expand these boundaries, you can see 24-27-year-old Mikhail Gerasimov as a commander of a company, battalion, regiment, and brigade of the new army. He fights against the White Guards and interventionists on the Northern, Petrograd and Western fronts. He fights valiantly - evidence of this is two Orders of the Red Banner for military distinction in the civil war. Having graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Military Academy of the Red Army in 1922, Gerasimov commanded the 5th and 33rd rifle divisions and served on the General Staff. He begins the Great Patriotic War as the commander of the 19th Rifle Corps, then he is the commander of the 23rd Army (Leningrad Front), deputy commander of the Kalinin, 1st Baltic and 2nd Baltic fronts, in 1944–1949 - chief inspector of infantry (with June 1948 - Inspector General of Rifle Forces) of the Soviet Army. In 1950, Lieutenant General Gerasimov graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Higher Military Academy, but soon a serious illness interrupted his service. In 1953 he retired to the reserve. In the post-war years, many of his articles on combat training methods and the use of war experience in training troops were published in “Red Star”, the magazine “Military Herald” and others. In June 1962, Lieutenant General M. N. Gerasimov died, leaving a manuscript of memories of the three wars in which he had the opportunity to participate. He managed to write two parts of his memoirs - about the First World War and the Civil War; the third part, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, remained unfinished.

The book “Awakening,” which represents the first part of M. N. Gerasimov’s memoirs, is made a striking phenomenon in the “War Memoirs” series and its literary form. In this regard, the author continues the excellent tradition of Soviet memoir literature, inherited from Herzen, Lafargue, Korolenko.

The desire to convey to the reader the intensity of the passions experienced, to interest the widest possible readership in the treasures of memory, to captivate and convince them prompts a memoirist of any profession to achieve the greatest vividness of the narrative. What also matters here is falling in love with one’s work, in which the author cannot write dispassionately, sluggishly, indifferently. Hence the desire to choose the most reliable emotional means, to an artistic-fictional or journalistic style, to a combination of both. This is precisely what distinguishes the memoirs of the astronomer and chemist N. A. Morozov, academician mineralogist A. E. Fersman, revolutionary V. N. Figner, military leaders I. E. Yakir, V. M. Primakov, V. K. Putny, G. D. Guy, A. I. Verkhovsky. The memoirs of M. N. Gerasimov are also distinguished by high artistic merit. Written in lively, vivid language, they captivate the reader. The author reproduces life itself with all its anxieties, passions, and sorrows.

V. G. Belinsky considered “artistic reproduction of persons and events” and lively, fascinating character sketches to be among the important advantages of memoirs. The art of such depiction of contemporaries is not given to every memoirist: But for M. N. Gerasimov it is, as it were, an organic property of his writing style. Dozens of full-blooded images of soldiers and officers, unique in their individuality, emerge from the pages of his book. To a large extent, their individuality is manifested in the dialogues, skillfully reproduced by the author.