Hero of the Great Patriotic War, Kyrgyzstani Tulberdiev Cholponbai

Hero of the Soviet Union Tuleberdiev Cholponbay.

Born on April 13, 1922, in the village of Chimkent, now Chymgent in the Talas region of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, into a peasant family. Kyrgyz. Completed 7 grades. Before the war, he worked on a collective farm — herding horses with his father.

In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, nineteen-year-old Cholponbay was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. The first and last step of the young soldier's military career was as a rifleman in the 363rd Rifle Regiment of the 160th Rifle Division of the 67th Army of the Voronezh Front, private...

Tuleberdiev Cholponbay is one of the predecessors of the hero Alexander Matrosov, who performed his feat in February 1943.

In August 1942, the 160th Division was defending on the left bank of the Don. Our troops successfully carried out the order of the homeland: "Not a step back." In August, it was to cross the Don and take up defense on the right bank near the villages of Uryv and Selyavnoe. Near the village of Selyavnoe, the bank is a chalk mountain. The Germans hollowed out a niche in the limestone, barricaded it with logs, and set up a machine-gun nest.

The 363rd Rifle Regiment was tasked with destroying the enemy's firing points on the dominating heights near Selyavnoe-Vtoroe and establishing a foothold there. The operation to suppress the pillboxes was entrusted to volunteers from the 9th company, where Cholponbay served. On the night of August 6, a team of 11 volunteer soldiers, under heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, crossed the Don by boat and climbed the steep cliff to the chalk mountain. However, being in open terrain, they could not get closer than 30 meters to the enemy's firing point.

It was impossible to destroy or at least suppress the enemy's firing point with small arms fire.

Cholponbay volunteered to destroy it. He managed to crawl to the pillbox within 4-5 meters. Being wounded in the right shoulder and having used up all his grenades, Red Army soldier Tuleberdiev, disregarding the mortal danger and fulfilling his soldier's duty, rushed to the embrasure and covered it with his body, forcing the enemy machine gun to fall silent for a few seconds. No one knows what was in Cholponbay's soul at that moment, but everyone saw him jump to his feet, rush towards the pillbox, and fall onto its fiery embrasure with his chest. In the next moment, the Germans threw the dying soldier from the embrasure, but by that time, Cholponbay's comrades — privates Gorokhov and German — were already within grenade-throwing distance from the point. They destroyed the pillbox with grenades.

This feat of the Kyrgyz youth ensured the success of the division, which crossed to the right bank of the Don and defended the Uryv foothold for several months. Cholponbay Tuleberdiev became the first Hero of the Soviet Union of the division.

This title was posthumously awarded to him. He was buried with military honors at the site of his feat on the top of Lysaya Mountain near the village of Selyavnoe-Vtoroe in the Liski district of the Voronezh region.

And six months later, in February '43, guard private Alexander Matrosov would repeat Cholponbay's feat by throwing himself onto the embrasure of a pillbox near the village of Chernushki near Velikiye Luki. Then, about four hundred Red Army soldiers would lay down their bodies on enemy machine guns during the war.

The presentation for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, certified by the battalion commander senior lieutenant Danielyan and political officer Koblev, was written on August 10, 1942. On August 18, 1942, battalion commissioner Viktor Aslanovich Muradyan described the hero's feat in detail in the front-line newspaper "Combat Alarm." In 1952, Muradyan published a whole book — a story about Cholponbay Tuleberdiev...

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 4, 1943, Red Army soldier Tuleberdiev Cholponbay was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin.

Monuments to the Hero have been erected in Kyrgyzstan:

in the city of Bishkek on the Alley of Heroes, Young Guard Boulevard
in the village of Cholponbay, Talas region

in Russia:

in the city of Voronezh
in the city of Liski, Voronezh region
in the village of Selyavnoe, Voronezh region
in the village of Kirovskoye, Voronezh region

Places named after the hero:

His native village (the village of Chymgent was renamed Cholponbay)
A street in Bishkek
A school in the village of Selyavnoe, Voronezh region
A school in the village of Davydovka, Voronezh region
School No. 2 in Novovoronezh, Voronezh region
A street in the city of Liski, Voronezh region