''… It happened at the end of the war on April 21. A group led by Zharchinsky returned from a reconnaissance mission and uncovered a prisoner-of-war camp in the forest. As it turned out, fascist were going to kill all the prisoners. Zharchinsky's group consisted of eight men. The senior lieutenant made a bold decision. He sent a ranger with a report to the commander of the regiment, and decided to attack the camp with the remaining people.'' This is the way the events before the last fight of the hero from Rashkovo are described by his schoolmate and colleague D. Ilyashevich.
This day the Senior Lieutenant Feodor Zharchinsky (1913-1945) saved lifes of several thousand concentration camp prisoners. This happened two weeks before the Great Victory.
A month later, he was posthumously presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The documents contained Rashkovo teacher battle merits list. There is also an exhaustive description of Feodor Zharchinsky military qualities: ''knows no fear'', ''ignores mortal danger'', ''impart accurate information about the enemy'', ''demonstrate courageously and bravery''. The documents also described the events near Treuenbrietzen, 50 km south-west of Berlin on April, 21.
Last days of the war
On April 16, 1945, the Red Army launched the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation to capture the capital of the Third Reich. The operation involved three fronts: 1st Belorussian Front (Georgy Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian Front (Konstantin Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian Front (Ivan Konev). The plan was to surround the remains of the Wehrmacht troops in Berlin and to defeat them.
Treuenbrietzen was an important transport hub. There were also three plants where prisoners of the concentration camps worked. The locals hoped there will be no any time soon fightings, as the city was separated from the front line by a reliably fortified German capital. Indeed, 1st Belorussian Front attacked Berlin from the east, but it was increasingly difficult for Zhukov to overcome the resistance of the defenders and the Busse’s 9th Army on the south.
Under these conditions, it was decided to send into battle Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front to bypass Berlin from the south. The 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies were to block the Berlin group from the south-west to prevent it from getting of new Wehrmacht reinforcements. This units inevitably had to pass through Treuenbrietzen.
On April 16-18, units of the 4th tank army have successfully hacked the weakened defenses of the enemy. In the evening on April 21, General Yermakov 5th Mechanized Corps reached Treuenbrietzen. Yermakov sent forward reconnaissance unit headed by Feodor Zharchinsky.
Deadly fight
Intelligence showed that a large Wehrmacht detachment had left the city the day before to escort a group of prisoners of war. Zharchinsky went to inform the headquarters of the regiment that the city is empty, but on the way came across the concentration camp. Most of the guards had already left the posts, so Feodor Zharchinsky decided to attack the remnants of the garrison. Zharchinsky was the first who snuck into the camp, destroyed 6 fascists, but also suffered a severe wound himself. The camp commandant fired at him. Bleeding, the senior lieutenant had a short hand-to-hand fight with the SS and neutralized him. It was the last fight of Feodor Zharchinsky: the wound turned out to be deadly.
Thanks to the bold actions of the teacher from Rashkovo, the prisoners of the camp were saved. Among them, there were the Commander-in-chief of the Royal Norwegian Armed Forces Otto Ruge and the famous Polish actress Jadwiga Walewska.
Maya Ionko in the book «Honored fate» devoted to Feodor Zharchinsky biography has described the following scene of the hero last minutes:
''A senior lieutenant is dying,'' someone said. One of the prisoners knelt down and, leaning, kissed him on a cold dead forehead''.
Feodor Zharchinsky was buried in a military cemetery in Treuenbrietzen. In the center of the cemetery, there is a monument. At the bottom, there is a marble slab with the names of two Heroes of the Soviet Union – Senior Lieutenant Feodor Zharchinsky and Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Diakin, who died a few days later during a counter-attack by the Wehrmacht on Treuenbrietzen.
In Rashkovo near the school, where Feodor Zharchinsky studied and worked, there is a monument to the hero. In 1936 he became the director of this first seven-year school in Kamensky district. He taught history there.
Teacher and tankman
It is worth noting that Feodor Zharchinsky has started his pedagogical career in the 5th grade. He taught in the literacy courses for villagers. That time Feodor Zharchinsky was 13 years old.
Just before the war, Feodor Zharchinsky has graduated from the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute with distinction. And in July 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army and fought on the South-Western Front until August. He was wounded, and after the recovery, he was sent to the Poltava Tractor Military School, which was evacuated in Pyatigorsk (North Caucasus). The front needed competent tank-men, and educated people were sent to study.
As a cadet, Zharchinsky fought under the town Prohladny near Elbrus. There he showed leadership qualities. In August 1942, he and a group of cadets went reconnaissance, opposed the attack of tanks, and removed a group of his fellow students from the surrounding. During Baksan river crossing he saved the company commander and received the Medal for Bravery.
Feodor Zharchinsky was appointed to the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps as commander of the Т-34 tank. During the battle near Schorsk (autumn 1943), his combat vehicle hit the flank of the Wehrmacht armored unit and destroyed several tanks and assault guns. Feodor Zharchinsky received the Order of the Red Star.
There is a description of a fight where his tank opposed several German ''Tigers''. Several times the tank was hit, but Feodor Zharchinsky crew acted quickly and accurately. As a result, they destroyed armored vehicles and enemy's infantry remained on the battlefield.
In 1944 Feodor Zharchinsky participated in the liberation of right-bank Ukraine in Kirovograd and Uman-Botoshany Offensive and in the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkasy Pocket. A street in the settlement Spikov, Tulchyn district of Vinnytsia region of Ukraine is named after him. There is even a commemorative plaque there.
