Hero of the Soviet Union Rodenko Konstantin Gerasimovich
Konstantin Gerasimovich Rodenko was born in 1923 in the city of Tashkent. Russian. Komsomol member. Before the war, he lived with his mother in the village of Leninpol, Leninpol District, Kyrgyz SSR. He fought on the front lines of the Great Patriotic War starting in 1944. He was a gun commander in an artillery regiment, sergeant.
He fought on the 1st Baltic Front in the Zemland Group of Forces. He displayed exceptional bravery and resourcefulness in the battle on the approaches to Königsberg.
On April 19, 1945, for his courage, bravery, and personal heroism displayed in battles against the Nazi occupiers, Konstantin Gerasimovich Rodenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. For his combat merits during the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Medal "For Courage".
After the war, he was demobilized from the ranks of the Soviet Army. He currently resides in Tashkent, a pensioner.
AT THE WALLS OF THE FORTRESS
April 1945 in East Prussia was foggy and damp. A fine drizzle hung between the sky and the earth, the ground was chilled since night, trees dissolved in the whitish fogs, and the red roofs of houses sank into the mist. A sharp, penetrating wind blew from the Baltic, and even in the dugout, it was hard to warm up.
It seemed that water had soaked everything around.
The brief lull at the front lines promised only a small respite before the decisive assault on Königsberg, a fortress of reinforced concrete.
The troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front were tightening the noose around the city more and more and were preparing for a decisive assault. Everyone — both generals and ordinary soldiers — understood: the enemy would not be taken easily. Three powerful defensive lines surrounded Königsberg. The approaches to the attackers were blocked by three-story reinforced concrete forts, surrounded by a twenty-meter anti-tank ditch seven meters deep. And in the space between the forts — pillboxes, bunkers, camouflaged tanks, and self-propelled guns.
Our command concentrated a significant amount of equipment on the approaches to the fortress. Heavy bombers were stationed at field airfields, and long-range artillery was being prepared to strike at pre-designated targets. But everyone understood well: careful preparation for the assault needed to be reinforced by the courage and heroic spirit of the soldiers, their determination to win.
At night, the artillery regiment read the address of the Military Council and the political administration of the front.
Gun commander Sergeant Konstantin Rodenko listened to the emphatic, stirring words as if they were directed personally at him: “Attack the enemy pillboxes more boldly, smoke out the fascists from their concrete burrows with fire, break the enemy's resistance, burn their tanks and self-propelled guns, destroy their manpower. Forward, comrades, to the assault on Königsberg!”
The political officer of the regiment finished reading and looked at the gun commanders.
— Maybe someone wants to speak?
— I will speak,— Konstantin stood up. — I will say this: we will fight the damned fascists so that they find their doom here, in this fortress. My crew and I are set on this: we will not spare ourselves, but we will accomplish our task!
— Say it for Vera and Nadia,— Sergeant Sergey Obukhov looked at Konstantin.
— And I will say,— Konstantin gritted his teeth.— For all our people taken into captivity, we will strike the fascists. For our girls...
Recently, they had occupied some landlord's estate. And suddenly Sergey shouted: “Guys, come here quickly, look what’s here!” There at the porch lay chains and handcuffs. And on the wall of the cattle yard, the soldiers saw a hurried inscription: “Dear brothers! Tomorrow we are being taken further. We can’t go on, and there is no life left. Hurry to free us. Vera, Nadia. We are from Poltava.” The fighters stood in silence. It was as if they were guilty for coming here to East Prussia too slowly — and now they were late.
— And we will also hold the tears of those girls against the fascists,— said Konstantin Rodenko then.
Now, looking at his friends and comrades, he repeated, as if taking an oath: “We will accomplish our task!” and understood that everyone was burning with the same desire — to fight faster.
The battle promised to be fierce, but the sergeant was confident in every fighter of his crew, knowing that he could rely on anyone. Both the gunner Mikhail Gubaydulin, and the loader Nikolai Sokov, and the breech loader Pyotr Us — they had all fought side by side since October 1944, six months, but in wartime, time is counted differently, so they felt as if they had been together for a lifetime.
— You know, Misha,— the sergeant said to the gunner, anything can happen. Let’s exchange addresses just in case.
Gubaydulin smiled not very cheerfully:
— What address do I have? Ufa, orphanage. Simple and clear.
— Well, you can write to me in Kyrgyzstan. Leninpol — that’s the name of the village. In the Talas Valley. To Zinaida Petrovna Morkovkina. Mother. She will be waiting for news.
They shook hands, as if saying goodbye for a long time, but most likely they were sealing their friendship and their shared desire — to fight at the walls of Königsberg, sparing no effort and not retreating a step.
At six in the morning, the earth trembled from the roar of thousands of guns and mortars. Thus began the artillery preparation, and at noon the troops went on the assault of the enemy fortifications.
The fascists resisted desperately. The battles raged for every meter of land. After retreating, the Nazis would launch counterattacks after a while. The fighting did not cease for a minute. During the day, clouds of smoke, pushed by explosions from the ground, rose to the sky, and at night, flames illuminated the horizon. Our artillerymen received the order: “Act boldly, not hesitating to move into open positions ahead of the infantry.”
Sergeant Rodenko with his gun seemed to be looking for the most dangerous spot. Assault troops were advancing directly towards them, supported by two tanks.
— Let them come closer, closer,— Rodenko whispered, and then waved his hand. — Fire!
The shot was accurate; the first shell shattered the “Tiger” fuel tank, and the steel machine burst into a bright flame. The crew opened the hatch and rushed to flee, but the fascists did not get far; the gun covered them with a shrapnel shell.
One enemy counterattack replaced another — the fascists did not want to accept the loss of the fortified position northwest of Königsberg.
Again, the “Tigers” appeared ahead. Konstantin wiped the sweat from his face, adjusted the strap of his helmet — calmly, just don’t rush. And then a mine exploded right next to their gun, shrapnel flew in all directions, the sergeant ducked and saw that gunner Gubaydulin had fallen and was not getting up. And the tanks were advancing closer and closer.
— Misha! — called the commander to the gunner.
Silence. He couldn’t hear. He was stunned, or maybe...
The sergeant dashed to the box, grabbed an armor-piercing shell, and, throwing back the breech block, loaded the gun. In the sight panorama, he saw the tank starting to turn and immediately pressed the trigger.
Got it! Hit! The “Tiger” spun in place, blocking the path of the other tanks.
Our guns fired from both the left and right at the chains of machine gunners advancing under the cover of tanks — and the fascists retreated, but after a while, they again rushed forward with desperate determination.
Rodenko ran out of shells. He opened fire with his submachine gun. But the ammunition was running low too. As if sensing this, the Nazis stood up fully and ran towards the dead gun and this desperate Russian who did not want to leave his position.
— You lie! You won’t take it! — Konstantin gritted his lips and pulled the pin from a grenade. The explosion stunned him, and he was immediately hit by an enemy bullet — he fell, losing consciousness.
He woke up. Nearby were the bodies of fascists, a submachine gun with a magazine lay on the ground. He crawled over, picked it up: even enemy weapons would come in handy. And when he saw the fascists rising for another attack, he fired a burst at this hated target.
Two days of continuous fighting. Konstantin Rodenko did not leave the front line even after being wounded. Ammunition was delivered, and he again tirelessly fired at the fascists trying to break out of the doomed fortress. He destroyed four machine guns with accurate fire, knocked out an observation post, and two guns.
He had to shoot both directly and even engage in hand-to-hand combat. It seemed there were more Nazis, but they could not withstand the fearlessness of the fighters led by the sergeant into the assault.
They captured seven — unshaven, dirty, with a dull, indifferent expression on their faces. Apparently, the Nazis had already despaired of breaking through, not knowing what else to oppose to the courage of the attackers, and captivity probably seemed to them a natural outcome.
The second day of the assault was coming to an end. Soviet troops broke into the city and methodically, block by block, cleared it of fascists. And near the stronghold of Moditten, on the outskirts of the citadel, Konstantin Rodenko was fighting his last battle in this war. Two machine guns had already been destroyed, a tank set on fire. But enemy soldiers were pressing in, having burst out of the bunker. The sergeant spared no enemies, but he did not spare himself either. Once again raising the fighters into hand-to-hand combat, he did not manage to reach the bunker and fell onto the rain-soaked ground.
The wound turned out to be severe; Rodenko was sent to the hospital. For several days he fought for his life, and his mighty body endured. There, in the hospital, Konstantin Gerasimovich Rodenko was informed that by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 19, 1945, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
...Old wounds remind of themselves, even though so many years have passed. He has not left Tashkent, where he came after the war, where he worked all these years and retired.
But he has visited Kaliningrad — at the invitation of the Veterans Council of their army. There are many memorial sites related to the April battles of 1945, but perhaps there is no place more dear than the narrow square surrounded by stone buildings with a tall granite obelisk. It was erected in honor of our soldiers.
Could a war veteran read the words inscribed on the obelisk without emotion:
You have glorified the Soviet Motherland,
And the Motherland will glorify you forever.
The Fatherland has raised you as heroes,
And you fought heroically for the Fatherland.
Your courage was unparalleled,
Your will was unyielding,
Your glory is immortal.
Of course, he was moved. After all, this was said about him, Konstantin Gerasimovich Rodenko. About him and his battle comrades.
V. NIKSDORF