Grigory Petrovich Bulatov: biography, family, photo

We all know from the school bench about the last days of the Great Patriotic War and the feat of the Red Army men Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria who hoisted the Red Banner of Victory above the German Reichstag . For decades, official history said that they were the first to establish a banner announcing the victory over defeated Berlin. However, today there is another version: a soldier, who used to fix the red banner above the Reichstag building, was 19-year-old private Grigory Petrovich Bulatov. His nationality is the Kungur Tatar. For a long time, Bulatov was not mentioned in the historical literature. And only in recent years, Russia has learned about the exploit of this brave boy.

early years

Bulatov Grigory Petrovich, whose biography will be considered in this article, was born on November 16, 1925 in the Urals. His homeland is a small village Cherkasovo, located in the Berezovsky district of the Sverdlovsk region. The boy's parents were simple workers. Soon after the birth of their son, they settled in Kungur (Perm region). At the age of four, Grisha moved with his parents to the town of Slobodskaya (Kirov region) and began to live in one of the houses owned by the distillery.

At the age of 8 Bulatov went to the local school number 3. As his classmates remembered, he studied without special hunt. However, it was impossible to call the boy lazy, as he constantly helped his parents in the household. Grigory provided livestock with fodder, was an excellent mushroom picker and fisherman. Childhood of the boy passed on the river Vyatka. He was very good at swimming and repeatedly rescued sinking. He had many friends, among whom he enjoyed great authority.

Work at the plant, mobilization

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Grigory Petrovich Bulatov was forced to immediately grow up. His family, like many others, began to defend their homeland from fascism. The boy's father went to the front, and Grigory himself went to work at the "Red Anchor" Combine, located in Slobodsky, which produced plywood for the needs of Soviet aviation during the war.

In 1942 a funeral for his father came to the Bulatov family. Grisha did not want to be in the rear anymore and went to the military enlistment office to volunteer for the front. But because of a young age, and then Bulatov was only 16 years old, he was refused. To achieve his boyfriend had a whole year. In June 1943, Gregory was drafted into the Red Army. Bulatov was sent to guard military depots located near Slobodskoye in the village of Vakhrushi.

In the epicenter of the war

Grigory Petrovich got to the front in the spring of 1944. At first he was a rifleman, and then - an ordinary scout of the 150th Infantry Division under the command of S. Sorokin, part of the First Belorussian Front. In many battles, Grigory Petrovich Bulatov distinguished himself with special courage. Briefly describing this stage in the life of the young guy, we can say that together with the division he reached Berlin, took part in the liberation of Warsaw and the Battle of Kunersdorf. When the Soviet troops broke through in the spring of 1945 to the German capital, Bulatov was 19 and a half years old.

On the approaches to the Reichstag

The assault on Berlin lasted a week. On April 28, the troops of the First Belorussian Front found themselves on the outskirts of the Reichstag. Further events developed so rapidly that enemy forces could not resist the enemy. On April 29, the Moltke Bridge, laid across the River Spree, came under the control of Soviet soldiers of the 150th and 191st divisions. At dawn the next day they stormed the house, in which the Ministry of Internal Affairs was located, and opened their way to the Reichstag. The Germans were driven out of their citadel only at the third attempt.

Red banner

Bulatov Grigory Petrovich stormed the Reichstag together with his intelligence group, which was headed by Captain Sorokin. It was she who managed to break through to the building first. The Soviet command promised those who would be able to hoist the red banner over the Reichstag beforehand, to attach to the title of Heroes of the USSR. April 30 at 2 pm to the building first broke Bulatov and party organizer Viktor Provatorov. Since they did not have this Banner of Victory, they made a flag from a red cloth under their hands. The self-made banner was first attached to the window located on the second floor. The commander of the division, Semyon Sorokin, considered that the flag was set too low, and told the guys to climb to the roof. Fulfilling the order of the captain, Grigory Bulatov at 1425 hours, along with other scouts from his group, climbed the front door of the Reichstag and attached the homemade banner to the harness of the bronze horse, which is part of the sculptural composition of William I.

The victorious flag hung over Berlin as much as 9 hours. At a time when Grigory Petrovich Bulatov hoisted the banner above the German parliament, in the city itself there were still battles. Kantaria and Egorov set the flag on the same day at 22:20. By that time, the fighting for Berlin was over.

There is another version by which Bulatov installed a red banner at the Reichstag along with his fellow soldier from Kazakhstan Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev. But according to this information Grigory Petrovich was the first who managed to break through to the building. Supported by Koshkarbayev for his feet, he hoisted the banner at the level of the second floor. This event can be read in the book "We stormed the Reichstag" written by Hero of the USSR I. Klochkov.

Euphoria after the Victory

On the feat of a young scout on May 5 wrote "Komsomolskaya Pravda". In an article dedicated to him, it was said: after the Germans were ousted from the Reichstag, a snub-nosed soldier from the Kirov region broke through the building. He, like a cat, climbed to the roof, and, crouching under the enemy bullets flying past, fixed on it a red banner announcing the victory. A few days was a real hero Bulatov Grigory Petrovich. The photo of the scout and his comrades in the background of the Reichstag, made by the correspondents Schneiderov and Ryumkin, was published in Pravda on May 20, 1945. Apart from Bulatov himself, the scouts of his group of Pravotors, Oreshko, Pochkovsky, Lysenko, Gibadulin, Bryukhovetskii, and Also commander Sorokin. The feat of the first standard-bearer was captured on the film by documentary filmmaker Carmen. For the shooting, the young scout had to climb up again on the roof and hoist the banner over the Reichstag.

Three days after the feat Grigory Petrovich Bulatov was summoned to the very marshal Zhukov. The commander of the First Byelorussian Front solemnly handed his photo to the private, a donation inscription confirming the heroic deed of the boy.

The payment for the feat

The joy of the young hero did not last long. Suddenly, for him, soldiers, the first to establish a victorious banner on the pediment of the parliament, announced Kantaria and Egorov, who managed to climb the roof 8 hours after Gregory. They got the titles of Heroes of the USSR, honors, their names were forever immortalized in historical books.

Soon after the end of the war, Grigory Petrovich Bulatov was summoned to the carpet for Stalin. The guy hoped that for the award, but his expectations were not justified. The leader, congratulating Grisha and shaking hands with him, asked him to give up the title of Hero of the USSR for the whole 20 years, and during this time to tell no one about his feat. After that, Bulatov was sent to the dacha to Beria, where he, intentionally accused of raping a maid, got straight to prison. After spending a year and a half among the criminals, Grigory was released. In his native Slobodskaya, he returned only in 1949. All in tattoos, aged and offended by life, he for 20 years kept the word given to Stalin.

The further life of Bulatov

In 1955, Grigory Petrovich married the girl Rimma from his town. A year later the young wife gave him a daughter Lyudmila. After the war, Bulatov lived in Slobodskoye and worked on timber rafting.

Two decades after the end of the war, Bulatov stopped talking about his feat. He appealed to various authorities, hoping that he would still be given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but to no avail. No one in the country was going to rewrite the official history and recall the long-past events. The only ones who believed Grigory Petrovich were the participants in the fighting. They gave Bulatov the nickname "Grishka-Reichstag", which entrenched him for the rest of his life.

Rumors about the hero's death

April 19, 1973 Grigory Petrovich was found hanged. According to the official version, he committed suicide, disappointed in life and the charter to prove to others his feat. But fellow Bulatova rumor has it that he was killed. On the day of the death of Grishka-Reichstag near the checkpoint of the factory where he worked, for a long time two unknown men in civilian clothes were spinning. After they disappeared, no one saw Bulatova alive. He was buried at the local cemetery in Slobodskoye.

The memory of Bulatov

Grigory Petrovich was again spoken about after the collapse of the USSR. In 2001, the documentary "Soldier and Marshal" was shot by the director Marina Dokhmatskaya, which tells of the forgotten feat of Private Bulatov. In 2005, near the central entrance to the cemetery in the town of Slobodskoye, a granite monument was erected to Grigory Petrovich with the inscription "The standard-bearer of Victory". And in May 2015 the Bulatov monument was inaugurated in the central park of Kirov.

Local authorities of the Kirov region have repeatedly promised that they will restore historical justice and achieve Grigory Petrovich's conferment of the title of Hero of the USSR, which he so dreamed of during his lifetime. And at least to get to the truth in 70 years after the Victory is not so simple, I want to believe in a happy outcome of this case.