On foot to the Red Army: how the Leningrad Komsomol members made 9,000 km in 145 days

St. Petersburg blogger Poltina Oskolskaya published an amazing story that happened back in 1935 in the Stalinist USSR:

“In St. Petersburg sometimes you can just go around the corner and find a terrific story. Today I went to the dentist. Her new place of work is located in the business center, which once was a factory long ago. Red brick building. This means that there used to be a gateway, gates closed to ordinary mortals, and now there is free access to the territory of former factory buildings, many offices and institutions. And then I penetrate the courtyard, and inside the building hangs a commemorative plaque of the following content:

"The participants of the unprecedented pedestrian crossing Leningrad - Khabarovsk 9000 kilometers in 145 days, committed by Komsomol conscripts of the Krasnaya Zarya plant to the place of military service in 1935." Names and map yet. Established in 1985, the year of the 50th anniversary of the event. The local tablet, for its own, is from the history of the plant, so you can’t even find the right information on the Internet. But the truth is some unprecedented (what a word!) Event! The thought flickered that I really did not want to get into the army in order to come up with a legal way to get there as long as possible. But in 1935 there were different orders and other motives. In general, in this one little story with some kind of tablet there are a lot of strokes of time.

I can not vouch for reliability, retelling what I found on the Internet, but in a nutshell. The Krasnaya Zarya plant produced telephones, Komsomol members went in for sports, and the country had a time of social competition, large-scale projects, and personal feats (the Stakhanov movement and all that). In general, some dudes managed to make a ski transition from the Amur to Moscow in the winter of 1934 (which, in fact, is also quite powerful). Then the six Komsomol members-iconists of the TRP (picked up this word in a newspaper clipping!) Decided to drop an answer - and we will reach you from Leningrad. We still do not need to go to the Far East to serve. In fact, everything was very official - permission of the People's Commissar of Defense K.I. Voroshilov. They started in a festive atmosphere on May 1 from Uritsky Square in Leningrad (everyone knows that this is Palace?), Finished on October 30.

You have already read the numbers on the plate - 9000 km in 145 working days. In terms of days, it turns out that it was necessary to walk 62 km per day. They walked not lightly, but with full uniforms. And not on asphalt roads, presumably, those were not particularly. For me, the limit of the pedestrian load in the campaign is 30 km per day. How to make a double norm - I can’t imagine, not even so much in strength as in time — we don’t run under a backpack. In general, probably, Mr. Tikhonov, a witness of the era, was not without reliability: you can make nails from these people.

Another sign of the era is the real fate of the participants, hidden on a proud tablet with carved names. You look at the map, read the names of six people and mentally imagine people of an ideal heroic life. This is the essence and meaning of pathos commemorative tablets. However, the authors of this granite slab preferred to remain silent about the fact that three of the group did not reach the end of the route. They died. No, not from illness or fatigue. They stupidly fell under the train - September 18, 1935.

Quote from the then newspaper: “Informational message. September 18, at 9 a.m. local time, on the Shilka-Ukurei section of the Trans-Baikal Railway, freight train No. 706 jumped up and killed three athletes of the Leningrad Telephone Plant Krasnaya Zarya, who made six people on foot, crossing Leningrad - Khabarovsk . The so-called Vladimir Vasilyev, Pavel Brenchaninov and Alexander Nosov died. An urgent investigation is underway into the circumstances of the disaster”.

In general, "bounced and killed". But the transition continued. And this is written in the next note. I am enclosing a quote because the syllable of the Soviet newspapers of the 1930s is inexpressible: “CHITA, 22 (VSTASS). The workers of the city were buried with honors, the Red Army and commanders who died tragically under the wheels of train No. 706 due to the fault of the driver Merkun, the Komsomol members of the Leningrad Plant "Krasnaya Zarya", comrades Volodya Vasiliev, Sasha Nosov and Pavlik Brenchani, members of the Leningrad-Khabarovsk trek. The Presidium of the Leningrad Council decided to erect a monument in Chita on the grave of fallen heroes, and to give families about 3 thousand rubles in the form of assistance. Inspired by the attention, care and Bolshevik moral support from the Leningrad Council, the Komsomol Regional Committee, workers and leaders of the plant, as well as party, Soviet, trade union, Komsomol and military organizations, the Chita, the brave Komsomol members Ivanov, Ananyev and Chistyakov, accompanied by Chita athletes TT. Nystera, Kerzhavin and Moseykina drove to Ukurei station, from where they would move on. Chita athletes will accompany pedestrians to Skovorodino station. Here they will pass the baton to the three athletes of the Far East who will accompany the staunch pedestrians to Khabarovsk”.

There is a monument in Chita, by the way. And this story has a very sad feeling of contradiction - on the one hand, we see an example of the extraordinary limit of human capabilities, and on the other, the absolute helplessness of the same people in front of technological progress and the mechanical, high-speed and generally inhuman world, which is just a whistle of a steam locomotive and the rattle of those who did not have time to brake the wheels completely devalued all this many-day work and feat. You can’t imagine it, that's the truth. If I were a writer, I would take this story as the basis of the story..."