Khrenov Arkady Fedorovich General of the family. Alma Mater of the Engineer Troops

Russian.
A native of the city of Bykhov, Mogilev region of the BSSR.

Born into a family Arkady Fedorovich(5.2.1900 – 29.12.1989) – graduate KUKS at Leningradskaya KVISH with KUKS (1929), Soviet military engineer and military leader, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General of the Engineering Troops and Sofia Vasilievna, née Khondogo from Stary Bykhov.

Member of the Komsomol since 1941
Graduated from 9th grade of secondary school.
In the ranks of the spacecraft from July 16, 1943. Instead of 10th grade, he voluntarily entered Military Engineering School in Bolshevo, Moscow region. Cadet.

Participant Great Patriotic War .

He fought on the Volkhov, 2nd Belorussian (from 2.1945), Karelian, 1st Far Eastern fronts.
Platoon commander 2nd Guards Oshisb 20mshisbr RGK.

«… lieutenant Petr Khrenov. Yes, by that time my eldest son had graduated engineering school , arrived at our front, and I assigned him to a platoon in the 20th assault engineer brigade, away from his father’s care. I wanted the young man to fully experience front-line life and sapper service. But, being in Moscow, I decided to make an exception to the rules and took it with me - the brigade was in reserve, in Yaroslavl, and the trip to the activethe army could benefit the young lieutenant».

Acting commander 3rd engineer 2nd Guards Oshisb 20mshisbr RGK. Guard Lieutenant.

During offensive operations (7-8.1943) in the area of the villages of Porechye, Voronovo, commanding an assault group, broke through the enemy’s defenses and reached the specified line, ensuring the success of the battle for an important height. Under fierce enemy fire (2.1945), he completed the assigned task of equipping a ferry crossing across the Vistula, despite the failure of 3 subordinate officers. For a week he led the crossing. The brigade commander was presented (30.5.1945) and awarded the order Red Star(Project No. 1/n dated June 7, 1945, 20th Mshisbr RGK).
Company commander 2nd Guards Oshisb 20mshisbr RGK.
Awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” (delivery certificate No. 1051 dated June 7, 1945, 20th Mshisbr RGK).

Participant Soviet-Japanese War .

Under enemy fire, he skillfully organized engineering reconnaissance in the area of 3 tunnels near the station and the town of Pogranichnaya, identified the approaches and photographed the fortifications. During the offensive, he repeatedly clashed with groups of suicide bombers. NS brigade major A.N. Salomadin presented (28.8.1945) and awarded the order Patriotic War 2 Art. (Project No. 84/n dated September 9, 1945, 5A).

« The 1st Far Eastern Front was tasked with quickly capturing the cities of Harbin and Girin. Before the start of hostilities, Khrenov carried out engineering preparation and provision of an offensive bridgehead in Primorye. When the offensive began, Khrenov proposed landing airborne assault forces on enemy airfields, playing on surprise. It was a “pure adventure.” But it was impossible to allow the explosion of bridges across the Songhua River. The daring landings - operation codenamed "Bridge" - ended in complete triumph. A.F.’s son took part in one of the landings. Khrenova - lieutenant Petr Khrenov ».

Continued his service in the spacecraft (SA). Guard senior lieutenant.
1953 – graduated from VIA named after. V.V. Kuibysheva. Military engineer.
He served in the troops of the Leningrad, Baltic, and Belarusian Military Districts, and in the GSVG.
1968 – graduated from the Higher VA of the USSR Armed Forces. Colonel.
Senior lecturer at VIA named after V.V. Kuibysheva.
1972 – teacher, senior lecturer at the Department of Engineering Troops of the Higher Military District of the USSR Armed Forces named after K.E. Voroshilov. Major General of the Engineering Troops.
1979 – Deputy Head of the Department of Engineering Troops of the Higher Military District of the USSR Armed Forces named after. K.E. Voroshilov.
On the occasion of the Victory anniversary he was awarded the Order Patriotic War 1 Art. (1985).
Resigned (4.1987).
11.1987 – head of the secret library of the Higher Military Academy of the USSR Armed Forces named after. K.E. Voroshilov.
Place of residence: Moscow.
Married.
Died (11/26/1992) in Moscow. He was buried at Troekurovskoye Cemetery.

Arkady Fedorovich Khrenov(February 5, 1900, Ocher - December 29, 1987, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, Colonel General of the Engineering Troops (1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (March 21, 1940).

Biography

In the Red Army since 1918. Participant in the Civil War of 1918-1920.

He graduated from advanced training courses for command personnel (1929). Member of the CPSU since 1931. Teacher at the Leningrad Military Engineering School. Assistant to the Chief of Engineering Troops of the Leningrad Military District. Participant in the Soviet-Finnish War as chief of the engineering troops of the 7th Army: colonel, chief of the engineering troops of the North-Western Front.

In 1940-1941 - Head of the Main Directorate of Military Engineering Troops of the Red Army, since June 4, 1940, Major General. Before the start of the Second World War, he was appointed head of the engineering troops of the Moscow Military District.

Head of the engineering troops of the Crimean (April - May 1942), Leningrad and Volkhov (1942-1944), Karelian (1944-1945), 1st Far Eastern (1945) fronts.

After the war - chief of the engineering troops of the Primorsky Military District, then the Far East Forces (December 1945-May 1949), inspector general of the engineering troops of the Main Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense (1949-1960).

Retired since September 1960.

Awards

Medal "Gold Star";
three Orders of Lenin;
Order of the October Revolution;
three Orders of the Red Banner;
two Orders of Kutuzov, 1st degree;
Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree;
Order of Kutuzov, 2nd degree;
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;
foreign orders;
medals.

Literature

Khrenov A. F. Bridges to victory. - M: Voenizdat, 1982. - 349 p.

In the Red Army since 1918. Participant in the Civil War 1918-20.

He graduated from advanced training courses for command personnel (1929). Member of the CPSU since 1931. Participant in the Soviet-Finnish War as chief of the engineering troops of the 7th Army: colonel, chief of the engineering troops of the North-Western Front.

On June 22, 1941, he was appointed chief of the engineering troops of the Southern Front. From August 19, 1941 - assistant commander for defensive construction of the Odessa defensive region. After leaving Odessa - head of the engineering troops of the Sevastopol defensive region (1941-1942). Head of the engineering troops of the Crimean (April - May 1942), Leningrad and Volkhov (1942-44), Karelian (1944-45), 1st Far Eastern (1945) fronts.

After the war - Chief of the Engineering Troops of the Primorsky Military District, then the Far East Troops (Dec. 1945-May 1949), Inspector General of the Engineering Troops of the Main Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense (1949-60).

Retired since September 1960. Died on December 29, 1987 in Moscow. He was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery.

Awards

3 Orders of Lenin,
3 Orders of the Red Banner,
2 Orders of Kutuzov 1st degree, Orders of Kutuzov 2nd degree,
Order of Suvorov 2nd degree
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree
foreign orders and medals.

born in 1900 in Ocher. In the Soviet Army— since 1918. Participant in the Civil War. Since 1929— teacher of the military engineering school, assistant chief and head of the engineering troops department of the military district. Member of the CPSU since 1931. In the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, chief of the army engineering troops. During the Great Patriotic War he was the chief of engineering troops on a number of fronts, and in 1944 he received the rank of colonel general of engineering troops.

Mannerheim Line... The name of this system of long-term fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus is probably included in all encyclopedias, textbooks and manuals of many armies of the world.

The reactionary Finnish government, with the participation of German, British, French and Belgian military specialists, built this line from 1927 to 1939. Here, in a wooded and swampy area, near Leningrad, a powerful springboard was created for an attack on the Soviet Union.

The Mannerheim line consisted of more than two thousand wood-earth and long-term fire structures. In front of the fortifications there is a chain of barriers: up to 12 rows of stone obstacles, from 15 to 45 rows of networks of wire fences. In addition, there are numerous anti-tank ditches and a system of minefields.

Each settlement was turned into a fortification center with radio communications, with supplies of ammunition, fuel, food, that is, with everything that the garrison needed for combat operations. The highway system made it possible to quickly transfer troops from one area to another.

From this powerful bridgehead, the White Finns, encouraged by their Western allies with promises of help, attacked our country in the fall of 1939. The fighting took place on a huge front from the Barents Sea to the Gulf of Finland.

Arkady Fedorovich at that time headed the engineering troops of the Leningrad Military District. He took part in engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line.

As a result of thorough reconnaissance, the system of fire and defense of the White Finns along the entire front from Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland was clarified. Based on these data, a plan was drawn up to break through the fortifications.

The engineering units had a huge job to do: it was necessary to make passages in minefields and barbed wire barriers, to ensure the passage of tanks through gaps and anti-tank ditches. It was necessary to take care of maintaining front-line roads in order, and the winter of 1940 turned out to be incredibly snowy and harsh. It was necessary to do a lot, a lot of other things in order to create favorable conditions for the advance of tanks, infantry, and artillery, and during the breakthrough of the defense line, help them destroy resistance nodes.

Having launched an attack on the Mannerheim Line on February 11, 1940, by the end of February 13, our units had already broken through the main strip of this line, and on February 28 - the second strip, and a day later - the third, rear, and reached Vyborg. On March 11, the assault on Vyborg began. After two days of fierce fighting, it was taken by our troops.

Khrenov showed his organizational skills and talent as a military leader in these battles. He was constantly in the units, directing their actions. And the Golden Star of the Hero was the crown of his military work, done in the harsh winter of 1939-40.

During the Great Patriotic War, Arkady Fedorovich participated in the defense of Odessa, Crimea, and Sevastopol. Then - on the Volkhov Front and again on the Karelian Isthmus. The second time he had to organize engineering support for breaking through the Mannerheim Line, which the enemy managed to restore.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Arkady Fedorovich served in the Far East. As part of the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, he participated in the defeat of the Kwantung Army of Japan.

Khrenov Arkady Fedorovich // Book of Memory. 1941-1945. Ochersky district. T. 1. - pp. 112-115.

The author of the article was told about him in his distant childhood by his grandfather, a comrade in arms of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General of the Engineering Troops Arkady Fedorovich Khrenov. “Remember,” he said, pointing to a lean man of short stature with intelligent, calm eyes, in which a sly cunning was hidden somewhere deep. “This general did a lot for the Victory. Especially then, in ’41, when many had already lost faith in it.”

Contemporary of the century

Arkady Fedorovich was born in Ocher in the family of a factory worker in 1900. Contemporary of the century - that’s what he called himself and under the same title he conceived a book telling about the turbulent events of the 20th century. He had something to tell his descendants. Red Army telephone operator of the famous Blucher division in the civilian, the main destroyer of the impregnable “Mannerheim Line” in the White Finnish, the head of the engineering troops of a number of fronts in the Great Patriotic War, one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union in the Kama region... He was appreciated by the main saboteur of the USSR, Colonel Ilya Starinov, and the writer - intelligence officer Vladimir Karpov, the poet Konstantin Simonov and the editor of “Red Star” David Ortenberg liked to argue with him about literature.

Leaving Odessa-mama

The evacuation of the troops of the Odessa defensive region, oddly enough, is a classic example of the highest military art. For the first time in the history of wars, a huge army, armed with sophisticated military equipment, in one echelon, secretly from the enemy, withdrew from the front line to the port in one night, then within a few hours loaded onto ships and was transferred to another strategic direction without losses. This looked even more advantageous against the backdrop of the sometimes panicky retreat of 1941, when they abandoned everything: weapons, equipment, and people. Arkady Fedorovich was then entrusted with the most responsible task: everything that could not be evacuated was to destroy, carry out mining, camouflage, disinformation. The general paid special attention to what seemed to be a completely non-military facility - the UNKVD state security house on Engels Street. The fact is that our intelligence managed to obtain a plan for the deployment of occupation troops in Odessa, which the pedantic and confident Germans, of course, drew up in advance. In the “house of the Chekists” the fascists intended to locate the headquarters of the Wehrmacht command, the bloody Romanian secret police - the Siguranza - and its no less bloody sister - the German Gestapo. At the suggestion of Arkady Khrenov, it was decided to prepare a surprise for the invaders in the form of a good mine, the charge of which should have been more than enough to bring the kingdom of heaven to both insolent warriors and executioners.

Surprise from General Khrenov

In order not to arouse anyone's suspicions, the Khrenov house was inspected with sappers under the pretext of placing rear guards from the military field construction department there for winter quarters. The “tenants” worked in strict secrecy under the watchful eye of the security officers. There were cobwebs hanging everywhere in the basements, they were not touched or removed - this was also an element of camouflage. The sappers knew that, according to intelligence data, above these basement compartments there would be an office of the future commandant of Odessa, a reception room and a meeting room. It took six days to complete the mining task: about three tons of TNT were laid. The igniter with the detonator was carefully filled with stearin to keep the primer from moisture, and the detonator was attached to the terminal of the radio receiver. For greater reliability, two 100-kilogram aerial bombs and two additional mines, set to non-removable, were placed in the underground. In case enemy sappers tried to open the stone slabs and neutralize the main radio mine.

To the music of Wagner

At dawn on October 16, the defenders left Odessa. General Khrenov sailed on the last ship. Only the underground workers remained in the city, who were supposed to report when the maximum number of fascists would gather in the NKVD house. Four days later, intelligence officers radioed to the mainland about the upcoming important meeting of the occupation authorities - right in the house on Engels Street. The information arrived on time, and Khrenov gave the order to use a radio bomb. In the evening of October 22, signals of a coded command went on the air, unnoticeable against the backdrop of bravura Prussian marches and Wagnerian music. When the last signal arrived at the mine receiver, a powerful explosion was heard in Odessa. The building was completely destroyed, down to the last stone, and under its ruins 18 generals, dozens of senior officers and more than a company of SS men found their graves.

“Well, now we have already completed all operations in Odessa, we are handing over the watch to our partisans and underground fighters,” Arkady Fedorovich then said to his sappers.

General and man

However, General Khrenov is known not only as a destroyer, leaving behind twisted iron, piles of ruins and mountains of enemy corpses. On the contrary, he was remembered by his contemporaries as a creator, a creator. The work of a sapper also means clearing enemy mines, restoring cities and villages destroyed by the war, building roads, bridges over water barriers - bridges to Victory (that, by the way, is the name of Arkady Fedorovich’s book about the hard times of war). Khrenov also did a lot for the development of military engineering science after the war: almost all famous Soviet sappers are proud to consider themselves his students. But perhaps the most important thing is that Arkady Fedorovich, with all the brilliance of the general’s stars, was never a martinet, a sort of Griboyedov’s Skalozub. Everyone who knew him emphasizes Khrenov’s exceptional intelligence, modesty and at the same time unshakable strength of character when it came to issues of honor, truth and justice. Even in front of the formidable and unpredictable Stalin in his behavior. And, as you might guess, all these qualities did not contribute to career growth and proper assessment of the general’s merits neither in Stalin’s, nor in Khrushchev’s, nor in Brezhnev’s times. Here are lines from the memoirs of war correspondent Ivan Dmitrievich Pyzhov, a friend of Konstantin Simonov: “We discussed all sorts of topics! Sometimes I would argue with him and disagree with something. And he? He will boil, jump off the chair, step aside, remain silent and say conciliatoryly: “Sorry, I’m probably wrong.” How important it is when the general does not kill the person in himself! Honesty, readiness in any situation not to rub one’s glasses in, but to insist on the truth, no matter how bitter it may be. At least in front of the front commanders, at least in front of the Supreme Commander himself, even in the situation of 1941, when everyone was nervous, unsettled by failures at the front.”

This was all the real Khrenov: the one who is no sweeter than a radish for cowards and selfish people, and a good comrade for those who did not give up in difficult times for the country, did not throw down the rifle and believed that after June 1941 there would be May 1945- th.

Risked his son

However, the victorious May did not end the war for Khrenov - alas, he still had to suffer... In the summer of 1945, when the whole country continued to celebrate the Victory, Arkady Khrenov with the shoulder straps of a lieutenant colonel on his jacket and under the false name “Fedorov” was traveling to the Far East. The undefeated enemy, Japan, was still raging there.

Marshal Kirill Meretskov was appointed commander of one of the Far Eastern fronts, who greatly appreciated Khrenov, calling him “Totleben of the 20th century.” Upon his appointment, Stalin recalled the obstinate truth-teller: “You have a cunning engineer there with a caustic name who will find a way to deceive the Japanese. He fooled both the Finns and the Germans, and this is not the first time he has torn apart fortified areas.” And the front was given the task of quickly capturing the occupied Chinese cities of Harbin and Girin. Before the start of hostilities, Khrenov carried out detailed engineering training, and when the offensive began, the general proposed landing airborne assault forces on enemy airfields, playing on surprise. At first glance, it was a pure adventure, in which the command did not believe. “You will destroy people in vain,” they warned Arkady Fedorovich. However, he believed in success, and the following fact served as proof of this: the general’s own son, young lieutenant Pyotr Khrenov, took part in one of the landings, which was entrusted with the most difficult task. And the operation, daring in concept, ended in complete triumph with almost no losses, bringing the surrender of the Japanese troops closer by several weeks. By the way, this story was reflected in the Russian television series “The Order”, in which the role of our fellow countryman, an honorary citizen of the city of Ocher, General Khrenov, was played by actor Alexander Naumov, and the role of his son Peter was played by Nikita Lobanov. So, they still remember the humble general...

P.S. Well-known Ocher journalist Evgeny Pepelyaev said that when fellow countrymen wanted to name one of the city streets in honor of Arkady Fedorovich, somewhere at the top they protested: the name, they say, was dissonant. Well, it really has always been unfavorable: both for the enemy at the front, and for various hypocrites, sycophants and scoundrels in peacetime...

Text: Maxim Shardakov
Photo from the funds of the Ochersky Museum of Local Lore