MYSTERIOUS DIVISION COMMANDER KUDRYASHOV. • Russia today Posting in CHAT: RussiaWho commanded the Moscow Rifle Division at the Parade on November 7, 1941, held on Red Square in Moscow. Part 2. But who was the first division commander of the Moscow Rifle Division? Who formed it and commanded it during the Parade on Red Square?Nicoljaus, the author of the publication, devoted his investigation to this issue: “I’m hooked.”As he discovered in the unit’s form: “On October 18, 1941, the formation of the Moscow Rifle Division was completed (MVO Directive No. 109065 dated 10/21/41), on November 4 the division was renumbered into the 2nd Moscow Rifle Division (MVO Directive No. 0047 dated November 4. 41) The leadership core of the division consisted of: Division Commander - Colonel KUDRYASHOV.”As already mentioned, Vasily Andreevich Smirnov, the former head of the Podolsk Infantry School, subsequently took command of the division. There are his orders signed in December. But these are some crumbs deposited in the documents of the 137th howitzer artillery regiment.There is a slightly larger number of documents signed by the chief of staff of the 2nd MSD, Lieutenant Colonel Nizhegorodov. But not a single document signed by the commander (and commissar) of the 2nd MRD in November has been posted...According to the author of the investigation, among the senior officers of the Red Army in Moscow there were only two Kudryashovs.The first is Major General Alexander Ivanovich Kudryashov, who was the head of the operational group of the Moscow Military District, the chief of the Moscow defense staff, and the chief of staff of the Moscow defense zone.However, it is absolutely unlikely that a commander of this level would also be the commander of the division being formed. One might say that this is completely unrealistic.There is “another candidate” - this is Colonel Andrey Kuzmich Kudryashov. In November-December, he briefly commanded (or VRID) the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division (3rd MCSD, in his maiden name - the "Moscow Workers" division, later - the 130th Infantry Division). In the spring of 1942, he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner; at that time he was deputy commander of the same division (only with number 130).Colonel Kudryashov Andrei Kuzmich died on the Don at the very beginning of the “Little Saturn”, on December 17, 1942, he was then the commander of the 267th Infantry Division. Received OKZ posthumously.In 2007, his remains were found by searchers of the Don detachment in an abandoned grave and reburied in mass grave No. 84 in the regional center of Verkhniy Mamon, Voronezh region, where he was formally “reburied” a long time ago.By the way, the editor-in-chief of the Russian Spetsnaz newspaper, Evdokimov, is his grandson and wrote about this whole story in great detail: “When we raised the remains of the division commander, he was the only soldier we found who was buried in a coffin. We found him about a kilometer from his “official” burial site. Under the road where tractors drove. In the 1940s, they began to collect the remains of dead soldiers from common pits, the so-called sanitary burials, and move them under monuments. But in fact, few people were transferred, limiting themselves to embossing names and surnames on the central monuments. Often “mass graves” were created where soldiers were not buried.”But now I look at the data on this Kudryashov - nowhere is it mentioned that he fought in the 3rd ICSD. Maybe this is a different person altogether? But the year of birth from the award is the same - 1904, and the year of joining the Red Army is also 1919 (yes, he went to fight at 15.5 years old - this is also not very typical).I’m almost sure that Kudryashov, who signed the orders for the 3rd MCSD, died in December 1942 and was reburied in 2007. Apparently, he was a man of great personal courage and did not sit out in the distant rear...This is the information I found about my case, Divisional Commander Andrei Kudryashov, on the Internet.What can I say from myself... At the start of the war, my grandfather was the head of the course at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. Afterwards, as stated in his personal file, he was the commander of the 22nd anti-aircraft machine gun regiment, which defended Moscow from enemy air raids.I can only assume (although the collected facts indicate exactly this) that my grandfather, as a “crisis manager,” was instructed to form the Moscow Rifle Division, which he did, commanded it during the November 7 Parade on Red Square, and then handed it over to the heroic commander of the Podolsk cadets Vasily Smirnov.That's the story, friends! Original source Source link