Soviet "agent 007": Why did the fascists call Soviet officer Dayan Murzin "black general"

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

The legendary hero of the Great Patriotic War, a hero and holder of the highest orders of Czechoslovakia, an honorary citizen of 16 cities, a personal enemy of Hitler - all this is a native of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Dayan Murzin. However, his merits are better known abroad than in his native land. Hitler himself announced the hunt for him, but, in spite of everything, they could neither eliminate him, nor take him alive. Who was this Soviet superhero and how did Hitler know about his existence?

Paradoxically, they know much more about the exploits of a Soviet officer abroad than at home. He was truly elusive, a real threat of fascism. The bold actions of the brigade under the command of Murzin infuriated the enemy. The point is not only that while fighting for the liberation of occupied Czechoslovakia, he destroyed more than four thousand fascists, but how he did it. He managed to turn everything under the enemy's nose and all the measures they took were useless, and attempts to catch Murzin were in vain.

He managed to derail 60 German trains carrying equipment and ammunition. But the most daring and outstanding act was the capture of the German general of the tank forces Miller. And they did it almost right from under Hitler's nose. After that, Hitler added Dayan Murzin to his "execution list", which he kept especially for his personal enemies. It included, for example, Stalin, Roosevelt, Zhukov.

He became the hero of many films, most of them were filmed abroad, including in England, the Czech Republic and Germany. No less recognized front-line soldiers and heroes tell about the personality of Murzin in documentaries. For example, the head of foreign intelligence Markus Wolf, legionnaire of Turkestan Murat Tachmurat, illegal intelligence officer Jan Ondrovchak. Often, the exploits of military intelligence officers become generally known only after decades, for obvious reasons. When the "classified" stamp was removed from the materials, this information is no longer popular and in demand, and therefore such heroes do not receive their portion of recognition and fame.

Dayan Bayanovich Murzin is just such a hero. A young guy with the rank of major, who became "enemy number one" for the Germans, was included in Hitler's execution list, nicknamed "the black general", whose name is akin to a legend in Eastern Europe.

The beginning of the battle path

If not for the time in which Dayan Murzin happened to live, his brilliant intelligence and saboteur abilities would have remained undisclosed. After all, he was born in a quiet Bashkir village of Starye Balykly (which means a fishy place), graduated from a pedagogical school and returned to work in his native village as a teacher. Later he became the director of a school in another village. It is possible that he would have had a good teaching career, but in 1940 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. Seeing the potential in a young intelligent boy, he is sent to the Riga military school. However, on his account there will be many more schools and military courses.

That is why the Great Patriotic War began for him earlier than for his fellow soldiers. On June 19, he, along with the rest of the soldiers, was transported to the city near the border, no orders were received. Subsequently, it turned out that two communists, moreover of Germans by origin, warned the commander, in whose subordination Dayan was, that an attack was being prepared. Preparation began.

The boys dug trenches and joked, they say, well, what kind of war. On the night from 21 to 22, the soldiers were in full combat readiness, and in the early morning the first fascist planes appeared overhead. The war began.

For Dayan, who was on the border, the very first days of the war became the most terrible memory: the noise of planes flying over to bomb your country, a line of tanks, bullets whistling nearby, hundreds of wounded comrades - the Germans burst forward with inexorable speed. Already on the fourth day since the beginning of the war, he received a bayonet wound in the stomach, then his comrades carried him out of the battlefield.

However, they could not carry the wounded comrade to the hospital or infirmary, he was too bad, he asked his comrades to finish him off, but no one dared to do it. They agreed that he was left near a small forest road, the soldiers could not carry him further. He lay in the ditch for about two days, then he was able to come to his senses and call for help, since a Latvian peasant was passing by, who took him to the doctors. Having come to his senses a little, he rushed to catch up with his own, but was captured, from which he was quickly helped to escape, but the front line was already too far away. Already at that moment it was clear that Murzin was not just a soldier, there was literally a fire burning inside him, which did not allow him to sit out in the occupied territory, having written off himself because of his injury.

However, the fact that he lagged behind the front line did not prevent him from waging his own war against fascism. In 1942, on the territory of Ukraine, he gathered a detachment of partisans. More precisely, he himself enters the partisan detachment "For the Motherland!" They carried out large-scale activities, derailed German trains, leaving the enemy without weapons and equipment, and smashed the military garrisons of the Germans.

Around the same time, he is wounded in the head. He gets to the hospital, and after treatment he is sent to a sabotage school for training.

In the same year, he is a member of the enemy Turkestan Legion in the form of a "decoy duck", works as an agent and collects the necessary information. However, secret agitation and demoralization of personnel are becoming the main task. The results were obvious - it was thanks to Murzin's efforts that some of the legionnaires went over to the side of the Red Army.

Soviet agent "007"

Now it was absolutely clear that Dayan Murzin was a talented agent, he was being sent to study at an international school of saboteurs. In the summer of 1944, he already commanded an international partisan brigade, despite the fact that he was then only 23 years old. Meanwhile, in his brigade there were more than a thousand people, and more than half of them are twice his age.

It was because of his age that they began to call him the "black general". At the saboteur school, where Dayan was trained to lead partisan and sabotage brigades, they advised to grow a beard in order to look more respectable and more mature. And so he did. But the beard of a native of the Muslim republic was thick and black as pitch. It was because of her that he received the nickname "black general". He wore a beard for a year and a half and shaved it off only after the war, but even then his fellow soldiers were extremely surprised that the commander suddenly turned out to be not a serious man, but quite a “boy”.

But this "kid" had no equal in business. He assembled detachments of several hundred people, and people of different nationalities and in the occupied territory. It included Russians, British, Italians, French, Czechs, Slovaks and Germans as well.

Murzin became a real headache for the Nazis, because it was never possible to know with certainty where his brigade would hit next time. One has only to imagine how the Germans hated Murzin when he captured their airfield with 18 planes! On account of Murzin and his brigade, 19 destroyed tanks, more than two hundred vehicles, about 20 railway bridges, 250 fascists were taken prisoner. On account of Murzin, the capture of former Soviet general Andrei Vlasov - his capture was a matter of honor for the Soviet army, because he turned out to be more than a traitor. This is exactly what Murzin succeeded in, and he did it saving Vlasov's life and handed him over to the command for interrogation and further execution.

Murzin was recalled to Moscow for another training, there he took another course and was transferred to Moldova, where his partisan detachment worked. He underwent another training, now in Kiev and went to occupied Czechoslovakia, to work behind enemy lines. It was during this period that he did so much that the Czechoslovak people recognized him as their hero, names streets in his honor.

In April 1945, Murzin and his fighters were able to capture Major General of the German army Mueller. It is his image that is embodied in the famous Soviet TV series "Seventeen Moments of Spring". This fact, to put it mildly, shocked the leadership of the fascist army, so unheard of was the audacity, professionalism and luck of the black general and his fighters. But at that moment the Red Army was already actively advancing on all fronts and the loss of the general, as well as a spit in the face from Murzin, became only part of a series of disappointments.

Hitler's personal enemy

Despite the fact that the Nazis had long known about Murzin's tricks and who he was, they were in no hurry to bring information about him to the command of their army. It is understandable, then his capture would become their headache, and it was almost impossible to do it. After all, of course, they tried to do this many times, with different divisions and the best German specialists, but to no avail - Dayan was elusive.

However, it would be difficult to hide from Hitler the existence of such a talented saboteur, the Fuhrer learned about Murzin even before he took Muller. It happened during his trip from Prague to Romania, the Fuhrer wished to ride through the occupied territories, having personally visited them. It was ordered to prepare an armored train, but his subordinates said they could not guarantee the leader of the Third Reich complete safety. And all because at that moment our hero masterfully derailed the train there.

At that time, Murzin had the rank of major or, to be more precise, brigade commander. The Fuhrer's accomplices did not dare to tell him that the trip should be postponed because of the tricks of some major. This is where the nickname "black general" came in handy. The saboteur immediately gained some kind of become and explainable authority. This information reached the Fuehrer somewhat modified in principle. Allegedly, the commander's name is Yuri Murzin and he is a Georgian, a general, wears a black beard.

For obvious reasons, this information infuriated Hitler, he immediately put him on his "execution list" and appointed a bounty for his head in two million marks.

Even a special unit, which can also be considered legendary, under the command of the German saboteur Otto Skorzeny, was even looking for him. It was he who saved Mussolini from prison. But that was Mussolini, and that was Murzin. He turned out to be more agile, nimble and cunning than his German colleague and continued to wreak havoc right under his nose, leaving him with nothing over and over again. And the kidnapping of Mueller was a nice addition, the cherry on the cake, the last chord from Murzin.

In the fall of 1944, they tried to raid him, Murzin went to a meeting with a representative of the Central Committee, with him there were several more fighters. Fascist submachine gunners who got in their way began to shoot at the legs - Murzin was needed alive. Murzin jumps into the river and is carried away by the current, the Germans chase him from the bank, fearing to let him go, and with him two million marks.

But still he manages to get out of the water, escape from the pursuit and get to the forester's house. But it was too dangerous, they were looking for Murzin everywhere. The forester treated his wounds and took him to a bear den. The hero himself recalled those four days that he spent in the balance of death - he saw how in 15 meters the Nazis burned hay, and the dogs all circled around the den, but the smell of the animal was interrupted by the human one.

In the den, he lost consciousness - the wound began to fester, but his comrades-in-arms carried him to a safe place in time. Meanwhile, Hitler was informed that the detachment and Murzin himself were destroyed, awards and money were presented, but the joy of success did not last long. After all, it was after this that Müller was captured. Do not say anything, but Murzin knew how to "walk like a horse."

In the latter, he was helped by the support of the local population; among the residents he had his own system of informers and agents. So, a relative of one of the partisans worked in a wealthy house, where Mueller usually visited. Then it was a matter of technology. And the same population did not betray Murzin despite the promised reward, apparently valued him too highly.

Awards and post-war life

Dayan Murzin had a total of 86 orders and medals, and most of them are by no means Soviet. The legendary black general never received the Star of the Hero, but he himself believed that the main reward was victory and the life he lived - bright, eventful, full of exciting events. In the Czech Republic, a street is named in his honor and a bronze monument is erected; in the same country, in 16 cities, he is an honorary citizen, is a hero of Czechoslovakia. And in Russia there are no streets with the name of Dayan Murzin.

After the war, he also found himself, showing himself to be a necessary and active person even in a peaceful life. Despite his health undermined during the war, he worked a lot and fruitfully, he was the deputy minister of internal affairs. His wife was a former radio operator, he met her during the war.

Until old age, he remained in a clear memory, urging his children to value what they have and to cherish the most precious thing - their homeland and their family. He always willingly talked about his military achievements and rarely repeated, despite the fact that his memories could become the basis of an exciting film, for Dayan Murzin it fit into one life which he lived as he saw fit, in fairness, honestly and openly. leaving all the cunning and resourcefulness for the enemies, for whom he remained an elusive black general.