KALMYKS IN THE DEFENSE OF SEVASTOPOL

Abstract

.  Introduction. The article is devoted to the participation of the natives of Kalmykia in the defense of Sevastopol and their future fate. The purpose is to describe and analyze the contribution of Kalmykia to the heroic defense of Sevastopol, to trace their further fate. Materials and methods. In the course of the study, the author used a wide range of archival materials, including the previously unknown to researchers journal of patients of the hospital for Soviet prisoners of war Dulag-241, as well as a complete list of defenders of Sevastopol compiled by the staff of the Museum of History of the 35th coastal battery.

Results. In the course of the study, the authors identified all natives of Kalmykia who served in the Primorsky Army or the Black Sea Fleet from October 1941 to July 1942. As the study showed, they are most massively represented in a Separate 40th cavalry division, dispersed in almost all other units of the Primorsky Army and the Sevastopol defensive region. The subsequent fate of the defenders of Sevastopol is tragic: either death in the defense of the city, or captivity. The list of prisoner–of-war camps in which Kalmyks defenders of Sevastopol found themselves includes the whole of Europe. These are camps for Soviet prisoners of war in Romania, Poland, Germany, and Norway. For the first time in the article, all Kalmyks defenders of Sevastopol who died in a camp for Soviet prisoners of war in Simferopol and buried in mass graves at the old Jewish cemetery on Shirokaya Street are named by name, indicating the place and year of birth, military unit, time and place of captivity. It is told about Kalmyk, one of the few defenders of the city who was awarded a combat award. The work carried out by the staff of the museum of the history of the Dulag-241 Soviet prisoner of war camp to search for relatives who died in the camp and were buried in Simferopol is shown. The results of the study led to the conclusion that the Kalmyks made a significant contribution to the heroic defense of the city, sharing the tragic fate of its defenders. Of the 64 participants in the defense, 25 people died in the battles for Sevastopol. 39 were captured. Of these, 12, previously considered missing, died in the Dulag-241 prisoner of war camp and were buried in Simferopol. The search for the relatives of the victims continues. Communication has been established with the administrations of the Sarpinsky and Yashaltinsky districts of the Kalmyk ASSR, as well as the Limansky district of the Astrakhan region, which before the war was called Dolbansky and was part of the Kalmyk ASSR.