Tiraspol, February 11. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Ivan Soltys from the village of Kuzmin, Kamensky District heroically died 75 years ago. In the battle for Luisenthal (in 1945, Germany), he threw himself in front of the embrasure of the bunker. Thus, he silenced the enemy's machine-gun, saved the lives of his comrades in arms, and ensured battlefield success. Soltys himself died. He was 21 years old.
Soltys was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for this feat. During the entire Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), there are known names of more than three hundred soldiers who threw themselves in front of the enemy bunker`s embrasure. His award sheet will tell how Ivan Soltys did this.
He was a machine gunner in the 116th infantry division (II formation), where he was sent immediately after the liberation of Pridnestrovie from the Nazi-Romanian occupiers. However, Soltys`s war began even earlier.
During the occupation, he, along with a group of young men and women, was driven to build a road where they worked without food or rest for a whole day. As a result, Soltys escaped, joined the underground fighters from Kamenka of the Jacob Kucherov`s group, and took an active part in the resistance until the spring of 1944.
On April 11, 1944, Ivan Soltys was drafted into the Red Army, and on May 2 he participated in the battle during the forcing of the Dniester. As noted in the Historical Almanac of Pridnestrovie, he was injured in this battle. After a two-month treatment, he is participating in the liberation of Poland with a light machine-gun.
In the letter to his father he replies to insistent requests of relatives to send Soltys`s photograph from the front: “I will not send you photographs, since they’re not taking pictures at the front, but fighting”.
After a month and a half in Germany, near the village of Luisenthal, Soltys will quickly cross the river, cover the crossing of his comrades, suppress the fire of three enemy machine-gun points. Then there will follow the assault of the settlement. Soltys will be the first to burst in Luisenthal, shooting the enemy from a light machine-gun. Grapple with the Nazis hand to hand. After which he throws grenades at an enemy machine-gun point. At that moment, fire from a disguised bunker will follow. Wounded Soltys will cover it too. He used his own body as a weapon.
Shortly before this, Soltys’s family received his letter. It was written in a Ukrainian language dialect, which was widespread in the village of Kuzmin. In this letter, Ivan wonders if his family got bread.
«Здравствуйте дорогii батька вперивих строках своего письма хочу вам написат що я жив i здоровий I того вам жилаю всiого як найкращего примить на белом светi. Ваще письме я получив яке вы менi написали 26/ХI-44 ноября i очень я рад був що получив пiсьмо. Прошу пищiт до мени пiсьма. Зомною вместьi нiкого из сила нима тiльки я один. I напишiть манi поскiльки дали вам... хлиба як коло хати у вас.
Фотокарточки я вам не вышлю бо на фронтi не фотографiроют а воюют.
Пока досвiданiя. Покльiн усiм сосiдам вiд мени Олi,Нинi, Наталi яка писала вам пiсьмо i Мiхасовi
В тоске i тревоге нестиi на пороге я вернус когда растает снег.
Одержу я победу дамой я приеду
на гарячем боевом коне.
Пока досвiданiя Иван Солтыс»
(the text is unchanged)
Translation into English:
“My dear father. In the first lines of my letter I want to inform you that I am alive and well, and I wish you the same, my very best to you. I received your letter, which you wrote to me on 26/XI-44, and I was very happy to receive the letter. Please, do write me letters. There is no one with me from the village, there is only me alone. And please, write to me how much bread have you been given, and what`s it like near the house.
I won’t send you photographs, because they’re not taking pictures at the front, but fighting.
Goodbye. I bow down to all my neighbors: Olya, Nina, Natalya, who wrote you a letter, and Mikhasya.
Do not stand there on the threshold moping and worrying, I will return when the snow melts.
I will win, I will come home
On a hot war horse.
Goodbye. Ivan Soltys”
The letter, dated December 21, 1944, is kept in the Tiraspol United Museum. Representatives of the Pridnestrovian Historical and Geographical Society, who launched the educational project Heroes of the Pridnestrovian Land by the 75th anniversary of the Victory, helped to read it. As part of the project, researchers are working with archival and museum documents as the most reliable and objective sources of events and people during the Great Patriotic War.
May 9, 2020 in Kamenka, there will be opened Heroes Square in memory of four natives of the area, awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. It will be a stele on which there will be installed bas-reliefs with images of Peter Vershigora, Fedor Zharchinsky, Ivan Koval and Ivan Soltys. Full Cavalier of the Order of Glory Ivan Krachevsky will also be there with them.
In January 1965, there was opened a monument to Ivan Soltys in the village of Kuzmin. These were schoolchildren who raised funds for it. Sculptor A. Maiko and architect S. Vasiliev immortalized the image of the hero in bronze - straightening himself up to his full height, it seems like Soltys is taking his last step ...
