(On the 100th anniversary of the border troops)
100 years ago, on May 28, 1918, on the signiture of V.I. Lenin, a decree of the Soviet of People's Commissars "On the establishment of the border guard" was adopted. This date from 1958 began to be celebrated in the USSR as Border Guard Day.
Border Guard Day is celebrated in the Russian Federation, as well as in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Initially, the border guard was in the system of the People's Commissariat for Financial Affairs of the RSFSR, later - for some time in the system of the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry, and then the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs.
Along with this, already in the first period of the organization of the border service, three district and 34 district emergency border commissions were set up (RCSC), 60 Cheka commissioners were set up at customs checkpoints, and a border department was established under the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK). In the first instruction, the Chekist structures approved in August 1918 indicated that the Cheka takes care of the protection of land and sea borders, customs, highway and railway stations, and the duty of these structures is to monitor foreign spies, counterrevolutionaries and smuggled goods . On the Border ChK and commissioners in frontier customs points, in addition, it was assigned to observe everything that is happening in the neighboring territory. Certain successes in this activity were noted, in particular, at the Conference of the Border Guards, which took place on September 1, 1918.
Later, in the course of the civil war and military intervention, when practically the entire country found itself in the ring of fronts, only separate customs agencies operated. With the liquidation of the fronts, in March-July 1920 the Soviet of Labour and Defense adopted decisions on the military protection of the state border. In connection with the presence of hostile intrigues on the part of a number of neighboring states and actions from armed bands, special significance was attached to the military aspect of the protection of state borders. In connection with this decision of the Soviet of Labour and Defense of November 24, 1920, the protection of the borders was assigned to the bodies of the Cheka. September 27, 1922, saw the establishment of Separate Frontier Corps of the State Political Administration (GPU) (since November 15, 1923 - the troops of the OGPU). Since that time, the frontier troops until 1946 were in charge of the OGPU - the NKVD of the USSR. From 1946 to 1953 - under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, from 1953 to 1957 - under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and in 1957, the Main Directorate of Frontier Forces was established within the KGB of the USSR. Since the organization of the border troops, the leadership of the GPU and personally F.E. Dzerzhinsky focused them on cooperation with the broad masses of working people. In a letter to graduates of the highest frontier school in 1925, F.E. Dzerzhinsky noted that "by winning the sympathy of the population, you will have better assistants in the matter of protecting the borders." On August 3, 1925, the OGPU telegram was sent to all plenipotentiary representatives of the OGPU districts about the organization of work among the local population of the border strip. And these instructions were carried out by the Soviet border guards both in these and in subsequent years.
In the 1920s and 1930s, they, often with the active support of both the local population and units and subdivisions of the border districts of the Red Army, succeeded in successfully countering counter-revolutionary gangs on our territory, sending spies and saboteurs to Soviet territory, disrupting the border provocations of the neighboring hostile minded states, and also to fight against smuggling. Quite a few border guards and their assistants in this struggle were killed or injured. Many were awarded high government awards. In particular, in 1932 for the great services in the protection of the Soviet border and active participation in the economic and political strengthening of the border areas, the border troops of the GPU of the Byelorussian SSR were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the BSSR.
Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, border guards across the western border of the USSR took upon themselves the first blow of Hitler's troops and the troops of their allies. And they gave the enemy fierce resistance. The Hitler plan to overcome the resistance of border guards was given from 30 minutes to one hour. But the border guards detained the enemy for days and weeks, stood to the death - to the last bullet.
In total, 666 frontier guards guarded the state frontier of the USSR from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. 485 of them were attacked on the first day of the war - the rest began fighting in June 29, 1941. And they all defended the sites assigned to them steadfastly. Up to one day 257 outbreaks were defended, over 20 days, more than two days - 16, more than three days - 20, more than four and five days - 43, seven to ten days - 4, more than eleven days - 51, more than twelve days - 55, more than fifteen days - 51 outposts. Up to two months, 45 outposts fought over. And on the site of the 82nd border detachment of the Murmansk region by August 3, 1941, the wedged units of the enemy were knocked out from the Soviet land and until the end of hostilities the state border at the site of the detachment was inviolable throughout its entire length. As early as June 24, the Pravda newspaper wrote: "As the lions were fighting, it was the Soviet border guards who took the brunt of a vile enemy."
For the courage and heroism shown in the first battles with the enemy, 826 frontier guards were awarded orders and medals of the USSR, 11 frontier guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 5 of them were posthumous. On July 2, 1941, all the border units, which were in operational subordination to the combined-arms command on the Soviet-German front, were reoriented to ensure the security of the rear. In addition, in the summer of 1941 from the border troops for the transfer to the army was allocated about 13.5 thousand people.
By the end of 1942, from the military of the border and internal troops of the NKVD, a combined-arms army was formed, which in February 1943 became the 70th Army.
In all, during the war years, the border troops sent about 100,000 people to form combined arms formations. Directly in the fighting at the front took part 113 thousand border guards, including 19065 officers and generals.
During the actions to protect the rear of the army, 322,000 enemy soldiers and officers were killed and captured, 12,654 spies, 35,222 henchmen and an accomplice of the enemy were arrested, 870 gangs were eliminated, 8,889 were destroyed, and about 29,000 bandits were arrested.
For the acquisition of partisan detachments, 1,000 border guards and internal troops were sent, including 95 commanders. 50 partisan detachments were led by frontier guards in the rear of the enemy. Partisan unit under the command of the frontier guard, Senior Lieutenant M.I. Naumova in 1943 conducted several deep raids on the enemy's rear, having fought more than 10 thousand kilometers. In March 1943, M.I. Naumov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and in April - the rank of Major-General.
During the Great Patriotic War, more than 60,000 border guards were killed. About 200 border guards became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Thirty-six border regiments were awarded orders, 25 were given honorary names. The contribution of the border troops to the achievement of victory was highly appreciated in the memoirs of the Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukova and S.S. Biryuzov.
During the years of Soviet power, 107 frontier posts were given the names of heroically fighting border guards, many of whom were killed in battle with the enemy. Among them are representatives of different nationalities. The names of such heroes as A.M. Babushkin, A.I. Korobitsyn, L.A. Kravchenko, G.I. Kofanov, Z.Ya. Mozgovoy, S.S. Pustelnikov, A.E. Makhalin, A.V. Lopatin, A.M. Kizhevatov, V.M. Usov, A.G. Iliev, M.A. Pavlenko, N.F. Kaimanov, F.V. Okk, P.F. Tereshkin and many others.
It should also be noted the dedicated service of the border guards who, during this period, served in the rather troubled southern and Far Eastern borders of our Motherland.
In the post-war period, the border troops, in addition to the usual border guards, had to participate in a direct armed struggle against the nationalist bandit groups operating in the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States practically up to the second half of the 50s of the 20th century. In peacetime, they also carried out a struggle against violators of the state border, including agents of imperialist intelligence services, ideological saboteurs, smugglers and currency traders. All this required constant combat readiness, including readiness for self-sacrifice.
This is how our glorious frontier guards stood guard over the Soviet homeland. And it is not their fault that the Motherland, for which they have done so much, turned out to be treacherously destroyed during the 1991 counter-revolutionary coup.
Stanislav Gradov,
Minsk
