How, thanks to a 14-year-old pioneer, it was possible to defend the Starokarantino quarries from the Nazis: the feat of Volodya Dubinin

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the summer of 1941, immediately after the start of the war, the inhabitants of Kerch began to prepare for the arrival of the Nazis - the peninsula was an important strategic target. The Star Quarantine quarries, where the grandfather and father of Volodya Dubinin, a pioneer hero, who forever remained fourteen, once worked, were the best suited for placing food and ammunition.

The partisan and the son of the partisan

The limestone deposit in the village of Staryi Karantin, or Kamysh burun, has been developed since antiquity, and under the tsarist regime, stone mining has been carried out there since 1860. Back in the civil war, the Kerch quarries harbored partisans of the Red Army, and among them were Nikifor Dubinin and his cousin Ivan Gritsenko. Less than a quarter of a century will pass, and their children will become the heroes-defenders of the Kerch quarries.

Volodya Dubinin was born on August 29, 1927. From early childhood, he listened to his father's stories about the military past, grew up as an intelligent boy, loved to read and photograph, and was fond of aircraft modeling. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, my father was called to the front, and her mother, Evdokia Timofeevna, with her children moved from Kerch to the village of Stary Karantin, to her relatives.

Soon after the start of the war, two partisan detachments, Starokarantinsky and Adzhimushkaysky, were created in Kerch, which were engaged in sheltering food and weapons supplies in the quarries in case of occupation by Nazi troops. By the fall, most of the Kerch Peninsula was controlled by the Germans, and the quarries were in the enemy's rear.

Volodya, who by that time had turned fourteen, began to ask the commander of the Staro Quarantine partisan detachment to take him to him - and he agreed. The boy turned out to be very useful - short, dexterous, agile and quick-witted, moreover, well-versed in the passages of the quarries, he became the favorite "son of the regiment", numbering a little less than a hundred partisans.

Storming the quarries and siege

On November 13, 1941, the Staro Quarantine detachment carried out the first military operation. The partisans attacked the German headquarters located near the quarries. Information about his whereabouts was brought by Volodya Dubinin. The Nazis were pelted with grenades, destroying part of the enemy unit. During the attack, the commander of the detachment, Alexander Zyabrev, was heroically killed. The partisans took refuge in the underground corridors again.

In the following days, the Germans attacked the entrances to the quarries, and on November 20 and 21, battles were fought inside. But the enemy's attempts to destroy the partisans and seize ammunition were unsuccessful, including thanks to the talent of the intelligence officer Volodya Dubinin. The pioneer learned that the Nazis were planning to flood the quarries literally a few hours before the operation - this was enough for the Old Quarantine partisans to have time to build a system of dams and avoid death. Attempts to poison the quarry defenders with asphyxiant gas also failed. Then the Germans poured concrete over all exits they knew, mined the area around the quarry and surrounded them with barbed wire. The Soviet soldiers were practically walled up in their shelter. Now only Volodya could get out - only a very narrow opening was available. The boy continued to carry out the tasks of his commander and obtain information important for the detachment - in this he was helped by his friends Tolya Kovalev and Vanya Gritsenko.

The territory of the Kerch Peninsula was liberated during the Kerch-Feodosia operation, which lasted several days - from December 28, 1941 to January 2, 1942. The partisans learned that the siege had been lifted, thanks to the same Volodya Dubinin - having got out of the quarries to carry out their the next task, he was met by Soviet paratroopers. Further work was carried out by sappers - it was required to defuse mines left by the Nazis around the fortifications. The boy then volunteered to help - he knew the quarries like no one else. But on January 4, an explosion was heard - several sappers died during demining, and with them - and Volodya Dubinin.

Memory

The boy was buried along with other perished partisans in a mass grave a few kilometers from the quarry. The pioneer hero, like other Old Quarantine partisans, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Quarries still became the arena of hostilities during the war - in 1943-1944. The front line passed through Kerch four times during the war.

The name of Volodya Dubinin was familiar to almost everyone in the Soviet Union - streets and settlements were named after him, literary and musical works were dedicated to him. Lev Kassil wrote the novel "The Street of the Youngest Son" - in memory of the pioneer partisan. At present, the Staro Quarantine quarries are officially closed to the public and become the object of study only by enthusiastic speleologists, who discover, in the endless tunnels and passages of the quarries, sometimes eerie evidence of ancient events.

Adzhimushkay quarries appeared in the play by Alexei Kapler "Two out of twenty million", which was used to make the film "Descended from Heaven" with Alexander Abdulov and Vera Glagoleva.