Pavel Tsoroyev, Nazran. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
From May 8th to the 10th the President of China, Xi Jinping, visited Moscow. On September 3rd the President of Russia Vladimir Putin plans to visit China. He will participate in a military parade in Beijing, devoted to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory of the Chinese people in the war against Japan. On the territory of Asia, the history of the greatest battle of the 20th century finished, when China was liberated from many years of occupation. Natives of Ingushetia also participated in the struggle against the Japanese militarists.
For many decades, we have been self-distancing from celebrations of the Victory in the World War II; as if we agreed with the view that the USSR didn’t participate in defeating Japan. It wouldn’t be easy to restore the real scale of the events in the social conscience, especially today when even the leading role of the USSR in the defeat of fascist Germany is put in question. According to a public poll conducted by the British ICM Research, only 13% of UK French and German residents think that the Red Army liberated Europe from fascism; and 43% of them are sure that it was done by the US Army.
Japanese militarists had plans to occupie the Soviet Far East, organizing military provocations on the borders. At their strategic places of arms in Manchuria, they held major military forces in the multimillion Kwantung Army. The situation became morw acute when fascist Germany started a war against the USSR. All the fresh divisions were needed at the western front, and the USSR had to keep several armies on the alert in the Far East. Japan was waiting for the moment to start a war against the Soviet Union.
On August 1935 the Soviet Union, which was committed to the international debt, joined the war against Japan, fulfilling its liabilities determined at the Tehran and Yalta conferences. Experienced fightees against fascists soldiers were destroyed the Kwantung Army, which used to be powerful. 93 soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union; six of them got the Gold Star of a Hero for the second time. 308 thousand people were awarded medals and orders.
After the victory over fascist Germany, Senior Lieutenant Dzhabrail Archakov participated in the capitulation of the Kwantung Army in the Far East and demobilized in 1946. But just like thousands of Soviet soldiers, he didn’t return to his homeland – the Caucasus, but had to live in a special residential area in North Kazakhstan.
He was born in the village of Kantyshevo in the Nazran district. But he fought on the Leningrad Front during the whole blockade of the city on the Neva River. For courage and heroism in battles of January 1944 during the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation, Senior Lieutenant Archakov of the 1229th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the 58thHowitzer Artillery Brigade of the 18th Artillery Division was awarded the Medal of Bravery. The decoration order said: “Neglecting danger during heavy firing by the enemy, he personally targeted two mortar batteries of the enemy and corrected our firing, considering location of the mortar batteries. Moreover, he many times delivered military reports to the enemy’s activities and dislocation of our infantry” Dzhabrail Archakov was awarded the Medal for the Victory over Japan.
Akhmet Sultygov also received the Medal for Victory over Japan. In June 1941 he was a student of the Ministry of the Engineering Academy. He went to the front and was awarded the 1st Rank Order of the Patriotic War. In April 1944 Captain Sultygov was ordered to organize the defense near the village of Kontrateshti. Sultygov was injured during the fighting, but he stayed on the battlefield till the fascists withdrew. Sultygov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, but after the repressions of 1944, the documents didn’t come into force.
Ingush citizen Ahmed Gorchkhanov also fought for the freedom of the Chinese people on Manchuria’s steppes. He was recruited in 1943 and was injured twice. He was granted the Medal for Defense of Leningrad, the 3rd Rank Order of Glory, and the Medals for the Victory over Germany and the Victory over Japan, and the Medal of Bravery – 8 medals altogether.
Beksultan Aushev distinguished himself during the war against the Japanese militarists as well. In 1939 he was recruited from the Nazran district to the Red Army. He served in the Far East in the 2487th Howitzer Artillery Regiment. He was awarded the 2nd Rank Order of the Patriotic War, and medals including the Medal for Victory over Japan.
