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| Evpatoria in the WWII Years |
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| In the summer of 1941, the peaceful labor of the soviet people was destroyed by the fascist invasion. The citizens of Evpatoria suffered through terrible ordeals. In the first days of the war many health clinics turned into hospitals. Thousands of Evpatorians left for the front to fight the enemy. | |
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On October 28, 1941, fascists, having broken through the Ishunsky fortification, rushed deep into the Crimean peninsula. On the morning of October 31, the invaders entered the city and installed a regime of repression and terror. Execution by firing squad was threatened for breaches of the ‘new order.’
On November 22, 1941 on Krasnaya Gorka (Red Hill) two thousand communists, komsomol members and city activists were executed, about 800 women, elderly and children were executed by the fascists simply because they did not belong to the Aryan race. For 29 months, the fascists sharply punished patriots and those who sympathized with them. In a trench on the northern outskirts of Evpatoria 12,560 Evpatorians were executed. About 5,000 young boys and girls were sent by force to work in Germany. The memorial "Krasnaya Gorka" is dedicated to the memory of the people of Evpatoria, soldiers, partisans and members of the underground, fallen during the years of the occupation.
But no amount of cruelty could kill their hope for liberation.
On the night of January 4,1942 from a siege of Sevastopol left a detachment of ships - the minesweeper ‘Vzrevatel,’ a tug and seven duty boats with the first landing echelon. A native of Evpatoria, captain Buslayev, was nominated to be the commander of the navy detachment and the landing. On January, 5 1942 the amphibious landing on the fascist occupied coast began. The detachment’s aim was to acquire a staging area for moving onto Simferopol.
During the landing of the main force of the detachment on the passenger pier, the fascists opened heavy fire onto the ships. The commandoes suffered losses. Captain Buslayev died and the command of the landing was taken over by the regiment commissar Boyko. At 10 AM, Sevastopol received the message: The old city is in our hands.
ВThe enemy’s forces attempted to cut the commandos off from coast to surround them. With ammunition dwindling and troops thinning out, the sailors would fight to the last person. By evening it became clear that holding onto the pier would not be possible: the encirclement pressed around the commandos. But they knew that during the night on January 6, the help of the second echelon must come. The destroyer ‘Smishlenie’, minesweeper ‘Yakor’ and four motorboats delivered reinforcements but a full landing was not possible - with evening a huge storm arrived and the ships were forced to return to Sevastopol. On January 6, at 8 PM another attempt was undertaken: for the second echelon to the Evpatoria coast went the ship ‘Tashkent’, the minesweeper “Yakor’ and two motorboats but the storm did not weaken...
On January 5, the minesweeper Vzrevatel was lost. Supporting the fire of the commandos, it received significant body damage and lost control and was thrown by the storm upon a shoal. The fascist planes in the air and the tanks on the coast opened fire on the motionless minesweeper...
On June 7, 1970, at the location of the minesweeper Vzrevatel’s heroic loss, directly on the seashore, a nine-meter monument of copper and concrete was erected. The architectural-sculptural composition was created by a group of Moscow artisans under the direction of the sculptor Bratzuna. On the pedestal there is the following inscription:
"The motherland glorifies your feat. The award is immortality".
...At the end of 1943 Hitler’s troops transformed the Evpatoria port into a transport base for the navy and delivered ammunition and reinforcements to Crimea, removing property stolen from here. To disrupt the transportation, soviet scouts monitored enemy ship actions and sent intelligence about the enemy transport movement.
On January 30, 1944, receiving a report about a fascist transport leaving the port, our planes rushed to intercept. The enemy ships opened fire to destroy, not to merely contain. Hearing about this, the mine-torpedo division commander, Air Brigadier General (and Hero of the Soviet Union) H. Tokarev took the controls of a plane himself... Torpedoes, sent by the general, met their goal: the ships sank. But Tokarev’s plane attracted fire and he was wounded. The general attempted to aim his plane toward a spot near Lake Moynaki but flames reached the fuel tank first and it exploded.
A monument stands at the city’s Theater Square. On a six-meter pedestal of black Labradorite is a bronze figure of the hero-pilot, who lived his prewar years in Evpatoria. The engraved inscription reads:
"Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Air Major General Nickolai Alexanderovich Tokarev. Heroically perished in combat against the German-Fascist invaders. 1907 to 1944".
The memorial, made in the Leningrad ‘Monument-Sculptor’ factory by a project of the sculptor V. Tzegalya and architect V. Kalinina was unveiled on February 23, 1957. It stands about 9 meters high. The base is made from Diorite.
...The troops of the forth Ukrainian front, consisting of the second army guard, began the assault on Perekop on April 8, 1944. In spite of the ferocious resistance of the enemy, its defense was broken and the troops of the second army guard rushed southward. In the morning of April 13, 1944, almost simultaneously approaching the city were troops from the third guard division under the command of Major Ctebunov and troops from the army under the command of Colonal L. Puzanov, Hero of the Soviet Union. They freed Evpatoria from the German invaders. That night, Moscow saluted the liberators with 12 artillery volleys from 124 weapons.
On Lenin Avenue on May 9, 1973, a majestic 18-meter monument to the memory of Evpatorians lost during the civil war and World War II was unveiled (created by sculptor A. Shmakov and architects V. Yakimenko and V. Gavrilov). At its foot an eternal flame was lit, kindled from the eternal flame of the Malahova Barrow (Sevastopol), later taken to Krasnaya Gorka. | |
