The cavalry-mechanized group was ordered to go on the offensive on December 6, but due to the fact that it did not have time to concentrate, Lieutenant General F. Ya. Kostenko and the chief of staff of the group, Major General I. Kh. Bagramyan managed to postpone the attack a day later, proving the expediency of striking with all forces of the group at the same time. Their calculation was completely justified. The blow was powerful and unexpected for the enemy.
Having gone on the offensive on December 7, the left flank formations of the Kostenko group (5th Cavalry Corps) met stubborn resistance from units of the 95th Infantry Division and advanced only 2 - 4 km during the day of battle. At the same time, the right-flank 1st Guards Rifle Division, whose attack hit a weak point in the enemy’s defense, advanced 5 - 15 km. In the following days, units of the front's cavalry-mechanized group, overcoming the resistance of enemy troops, successfully developed an offensive in the northern direction. The cavalry corps of V.D. Kryuchenkin gradually increased the pace of advancement.
On December 8, the corps fought forward to 10 km, on December 9 - to 12, and on December 10 - to 20 km. Kostenko’s group was reinforced by the 34th motorized rifle brigade of Colonel A. A. Shamshin, which was immediately thrown at the forefront of the offensive. By mid-day on December 10, parts of Kostenko’s group cut the main communication line of the XXXIV Corps - the Livny-Elets road. The 1st Guards Rifle Division stood with its front to the east on the route of the German troops' withdrawal to the west. At the same time, the 13th Army launched an attack on Yelets from the front, which was abandoned by the enemy on December 9. The general retreat of the XXXIV Corps to the west began. On December 10, the troops of the 13th Army began pursuing the enemy along the entire front. During the day, the advance was 6 - 16 km.
The next step was to close the encirclement ring around parts of the 45th and 134th infantry divisions of the Metz corps, concentrated west of Yelets. On December 11, the commander of the Southwestern Front ordered the 13th Army to increase the pace of the offensive and by the end of December 13 to reach the Verkhovye-Livny line and thereby connect with the front’s mobile group. Developments forced a change in the form of the operation.
The exit of Kostenko’s mobile group to Livny prompted the German command to retreat not to the west, but to the north-west - there still remained a 25-kilometer gap between the two mobile groups. To prevent the XXXIV Army Corps from breaking out of the emerging “cauldron,” Moskalenko’s group was ordered to advance not in the southwest, but in the west. The 57th brigade of NKVD troops under the command of brigade commander Sokolov, transferred from near Kharkov, arrived to reinforce the mobile group of the 13th Army.
By December 12, Kryuchenkin’s cavalry corps captured Rossoshnoye and Shatilovo, villages northwest of Yelets. Thus, the Yelets - Orel railway was intercepted. The cavalrymen immediately came under attack from units of two infantry divisions breaking out of encirclement. The cavalry corps that had rushed forward experienced a shortage of ammunition and fuel. Under pressure from infantrymen rushing out of encirclement, Kryuchenkin’s corps was forced to leave Rossoshnoye and Shatilovo and take up defense to the west of them. Units of the 34th Motorized Rifle Brigade were also stopped due to lack of fuel and could not come to the rescue of the cavalrymen. The commander of the cavalry corps reported to the headquarters of the Southwestern Front: “The enemy, trying to break out to the west, is flowing around the flanks of the corps.” Moskalenko’s group, meanwhile, was stuck in battles for Izmalkovo, another village on the Yelets-Orel highway. The encirclement ring around the XXXIV Corps remained open. Nevertheless, already on December 12, Halder considered his divisions defeated: “The 134th and 45th infantry divisions are no longer combat-ready at all. There is no supply. The command of the troops on the front between Tula and Kursk suffered complete bankruptcy.”
Moskalenko’s group managed to bypass Izmalkovo with the forces of the 55th Cavalry Division and the 57th NKVD Brigade and meet the 5th Cavalry Corps on December 11–12.
The meeting of two mobile groups and the completion of the encirclement took place on December 14. By the evening of the same day, the last attempt was made to break out of the encirclement of the 134th Infantry Division. On the night of December 15, its commander, Lieutenant General von Kochenhausen, shot himself. Subsequently, the former commander of one of the regiments of the 134th division, Wilhelm Kunze, recalled:
“A steep, deeply cut river valley. Lyubovsha became fatal for numerous vehicles and carts of the division. Hungry and exhausted horses simply could no longer pull out the guns and other equipment that had been left behind. Material losses were very heavy: the division lost almost all its vehicles, anti-tank guns and communications equipment.”
By December 14, the resulting “cauldron” was squeezed to the limit from all sides and was being shot through not only by artillery, but also by small arms. During December 15, the encircled units of the two German divisions were split into several parts, and on December 16 they were destroyed.
The remains of the Soviet military leader, deputy commander of the Southwestern Front, Lieutenant General Fyodor Kostenko, who went missing on May 25, 1942 in the Kharkov cauldron, will be reburied, by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on June 20 at the Military Memorial Cemetery in Moscow. Anatoly Trushin, military commissar of the Rostov region, reported this to “KP” - Rostov-on-Don.
In fact, a huge and very complex joint work was carried out between Ukrainian and Russian search engines, as well as employees of our military registration and enlistment office, - Trushin told. - Despite the fact that for several years now there have been no former friendly relations between our countries, this was possible - although I had to use, admittedly, old friendly ties with former colleagues who live today in the Kharkov region.
WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
Fyodor Kostenko - a native of the Bolshaya Martynovka settlement, Rostov region, fought in the First World War in the tsarist army, rose to the rank of senior non-commissioned officer, voluntarily joined the Red Army during the Civil War, was an assistant squadron commander in the 1st Cavalry, fought against the troops of generals Mamontov, Shkuro, Denikin, was wounded three times. From then on, his career as a military leader began: he rose through the ranks from commander to commander of the 26th Army (at some time, by the way, he served under the future Marshal of Victory Georgy Zhukov) - commander of Kostenko and met the Great Patriotic War.
The Southwestern Front, in which he fought the enemy, fought bloody defensive battles from the first days of the war. His formations took part, in particular, in the defense of Kyiv. Then it was he, General Fedor Kostenko, by the way, who led the operational group of front troops during the successful Yeletsk offensive operation, which ended with the defeat of several German divisions and the liberation of four hundred (!) settlements - this was, for a moment, December 1941, when The Wehrmacht still stubbornly, despite the fierce resistance of the Soviet troops, moved forward.
After this operation, Kostenko was appointed commander of the Southwestern Front, which participated in the offensive Kursk-Obodyansk and Barvenkovo-Lozovsk operations, which allowed the Germans to be pushed back 100 km.
But in April 1942, the Southwestern Front again headed Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, and Kostenko again became his deputy. And here is another operation, which the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief insisted on and which was led by Tymoshenko, as well as Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan And Member of the Military Council Nikita Khrushchev, became fatal for Fedor Kostenko.
The initially successful offensive of the Soviet troops then turned into a powerful counter-offensive of the Wehrmacht, as a result of which the troops of the Southwestern Front fell into a trap, were surrounded and suffered colossal losses: more than 270 thousand people, of which about 170 thousand were classified as irrevocable (we are talking about the dead and missing persons). Among the latter was Lieutenant General Fedor Kostenko.
Many Soviet soldiers were captured.
And the consequence of this defeat was a new retreat, the second fall of Rostov-on-Don, the entry of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht on the approaches to Stalingrad.
THEY THOUGHT THAT THE GENERAL HAD SHOT HIMSELF REFUSED TO LEAVE HER SERIOUSLY WOUNDED SON
Meanwhile, there is no exact information about how Kostenko died - there is only an assumption, but experts are also inclined to this version: most likely, he committed suicide. Whether he was wounded is unknown.
For a long time it was believed that Fyodor Kostenko shot himself, not wanting to leave his seriously wounded son to the enemy. The fact is that in the place where his remains were found (a forest near the village of Gusarovka, Balakei district, Kharkov region), there were two graves nearby - in one lay the bones of a large man, which was Kostenko, with fragments of clothing with general’s stripes and in the jacket lay a miraculously surviving piece of paper on which one could make out “Kostenko” (it crumbled in the hands of the search engines after a few seconds), in the other - a 30-35-year-old captain (the emblems were preserved).
And they thought that this captain, whose legs, as Ukrainian search engines said, were broken by shrapnel and apparently developed gangrene, was the son of Fyodor Kostenko - Peter. And supposedly the general, realizing that Peter in his condition would not be able to escape from the encirclement, shot himself along with him.
Incidentally, errors played a certain role in this memoirs of Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov:
“Under his (Kostenko. - Ed.) command, the units and formations fought so stubbornly that, suffering colossal losses, the fascist troops were unable to break into the depths of Ukraine in the first days. Unfortunately, Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko was not lucky enough to live to this day. He died a hero's death in a fierce battle in the Kharkov direction, being deputy commander of the Southwestern Front. His beloved eldest son Peter died with him. It was impossible not to love Pyotr Kostenko. I remember that while still a boy, Peter studied military science, and he especially liked horse riding and chopping. Fyodor Yakovlevich was proud of his son, hoped that Peter would make a worthy cavalry commander, and he was not mistaken.”
In fact, confusion arose, which was resolved with the help of the granddaughter of General Tamara Kostenko, the daughter of his other son Budimir (there was a family legend that the Kostenkos named their children according to the expression “There will be Peace, Joy and Love” - ed.), who brought to Rostov-on-Don a rare photograph of her grandfather, where he was captured with two of his adjutants - Major Alexei Ilyich Gavrilin and Captain Vasily Ivanovich Petrovich - explains Rostov military commissar Anatoly Trushin.- So, probably, there was an accidental confusion with the surname “Petrovich” and the name “Peter”, which was conveyed in a distorted form to Zhukov. Plus, indeed, there was another general, also a Don native, Leonid Bobkin, with whom his son died in the same cauldron - however, that boy was 12-13 years old, but several factors overlapped.
Pyotr Kostenko, as it turned out, was a pilot and died at a different time: on September 27, 1942, near Stalingrad, he was shot down in battle and buried on the northern outskirts of the village. Verkhne-Pogromnoe.
EXPERTS CONFIRMED: THERE IS NO DOUBT, THIS IS GENERAL KOSTENKO
The burials of Fyodor Kostenko (this was confirmed by the conclusion of the 111th Main State Center for Forensic Medical and Criminalistics Examinations, whose specialists checked the DNA of the remains with biomaterial taken for research from his granddaughter) and, with a high degree of probability, his adjutant Vasily Petrovich were found by a Ukrainian search party "Orientir" in November 2016.
By the way, one of the local Kharkov TV channels aired a completely sincere story about how the remains of the lieutenant general were found; There is not a word in it about the line about “Soviet occupiers” being replicated from Kyiv.
Then it took about six months for excavations and preliminary identification, after which work began to resolve the issue of transferring the found remains from Ukraine to Russia: this finally happened at the end of March 2018 at the border checkpoint in the Belgorod region.
On June 18, a farewell ceremony will take place with the remains of General Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko in the garrison Officer's House in Rostov-on-Don, - Trushin reported.- After which they will be sent by plane to Moscow, where they will be met by a company of honor guard. The funeral will take place on June 20.
February 22, 1896 – May 26, 1942
Soviet military leader, participant in the Great Patriotic War, lieutenant general
Biography
Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko was born on February 22, 1896 in the settlement of Bolshaya Martynovka, now the Martynovsky district of the Rostov region into a peasant family. Ukrainian.
In the tsarist army since 1915. Participant of the First World War, senior non-commissioned officer. In 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army. During the Civil War, assistant squadron commander of the 1st Cavalry Army division. Participated in battles against the troops of generals K.K. Mamontov, A.G. Shkuro, A.I. Denikin.
Education
- training team (1916),
- Leningrad courses for middle command personnel (1924),
- cavalry KUKS (1928 and 1934),
- KUVNAS at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army named after. K.E. Voroshilov (1941).
Participation in wars and military conflicts
- Civil War (Red Army soldier; squadron sergeant major; squadron assistant commander);
- campaign in Western Ukraine (room of the 2nd Cavalry Corps of the 6th Army).
During the interwar period
- com. 1 squadron (from November 1922),
- etc. beginning regimental school (since February 1926),
- beginning regimental school (since October 1928),
- pom. com. (from April 1931) 23 Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad) Cavalry. shelf;
- com. and military commissar (from July 1936) of the 19th cavalry. shelf;
G.K. Zhukov: On the same day I went to the 19th Manychsky Cavalry Regiment - the head, oldest regiment of the division, commanded by Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko, one of the first cavalrymen. I didn’t know him personally before, but I had heard a lot about this conscientious commander, a great cavalry enthusiast, an indispensable participant in all equestrian competitions, which were widely practiced in the cavalry at that time. The Great Patriotic War found F. Ya. Kostenko in the post of commander of the 26th Army, which defended our state borders in Ukraine. Under his command, units and formations of this army fought so stubbornly that, suffering colossal losses, the fascist troops were unable to break through into the depths of Ukraine in the first days. Unfortunately, Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko was not lucky enough to live to this day. He died a hero's death in a fierce battle in the Kharkov direction, being deputy commander of the Southwestern Front. His beloved eldest son Peter died with him. It was impossible not to love Pyotr Kostenko. I remember that while still a boy, Peter studied military science, and he especially liked horse riding and chopping. Fyodor Yakovlevich was proud of his son, hoped that Peter would make a worthy cavalry commander, and he was not mistaken.
- com. (7th Cavalry Division June 1937);
- com. Special Cav. divisions named after I.V. Stalin (from June 1937);
- com. 36 cavalry divisions; com. 2 Cav. corps (since April 1939);
- commands Army cavalry group of troops KOVO (since July 1940).
- Since October 1940, Lieutenant General F. Kostenko has been commander of the 26th Army.
In 1941 he completed advanced training courses for command personnel at the Military Academy of the General Staff.
Great Patriotic War
The 26th Army fought heavy defensive battles as part of the Southwestern Front. Then it was withdrawn to Kyiv, where it participated in the defense of Kyiv. In the most difficult situation, the army was withdrawn to the left bank of the Dnieper and again took up defensive positions. In September 1941, he was appointed deputy commander of the Southwestern Front (second formation).
He headed the operational group of front troops during the Yeletsk offensive operation from December 6 to 16, 1941, which ended in the defeat of several enemy divisions. As a result of the Yelets operation, Soviet troops liberated 400 settlements, including Yelets. In mid-December 1941, F. Ya. Kostenko was appointed commander of the Southwestern Front. From April 1942 - again deputy commander of this front.
Troops under the command of Kostenko fought near Kiev, Moscow, and participated in the Kursk-Oboyan, Barvenkovo-Lozov and Kharkov operations.
Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko died on May 26, 1942, being encircled with his troops during the Kharkov operation. The burial place is unknown.
Awards
- The order of Lenin
- Order of the Red Banner
- 2 Orders of the Red Star
- medals
Memory
The following were named in honor of F. Ya. Kostenko:
- Street and alley in Lipetsk.
- Kostenko street in Yelets.
Fedor KOSTENKO was born on February 22, 1896 in the settlement of Bolshaya Martynovka, Salsky District, Don Army Region. From 1915 he served in the tsarist army and took part in the First World War. In 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army. During the civilian years, he was an assistant squadron commander and took part in battles. In 1919 he was wounded near Rostov-on-Don. He was a squadron commander and head of the regimental cavalry school. From 1932 - commander of the 19th Manych Cavalry Regiment, from 1937 - commander of the Special Cavalry Division named after Stalin, from April 1939 - commander of the 36th Cavalry Division, then commander of the 2nd Corps. Participated in the military campaign of the Red Army in the eastern regions of Poland and Western Ukraine. Since October 1940 - commander of the 26th Army.
FIRST we contacted representatives of Orientir. They clarified that two graves located nearby were found in a forest 50 kilometers from the city of Zmiev. One contained the remains of a man aged 30–35 years old in military uniform with captain’s buttonholes. In the second - the remains of an older, tall man, fragments of clothing with general's stripes, a piece of paper with the name "Kostenko" was found in the pocket of his jacket, which immediately crumbled.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the troops of the 26th Army fought heavy defensive battles in the Vinnitsa direction, and in July 1941 they took part in the Kyiv defensive operation. Finding themselves surrounded, they were able to fight their way out to their own people. In September 1941, Kostenko became deputy commander of the Southwestern Front. He distinguished himself while commanding a mobile group during the counter-offensive near Moscow, in the Yeletsk offensive operation. Since December 1941, Kostenko has been commander of the Southwestern Front, and since April 1942, deputy commander of this front.
In the memoirs of Marshal Georgy Zhukov we find: “On the same day I went to the 19th Manych Cavalry Regiment - the head, oldest regiment of the division, commanded by Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko, one of the first cavalrymen. I didn’t know him personally before, but I had heard a lot about this conscientious commander, a great cavalry enthusiast, an indispensable participant in all equestrian competitions, which were widely practiced in the cavalry at that time. The Great Patriotic War found F.Ya. Kostenko as commander of the 26th Army, which defended our state borders in Ukraine. Under his command, units and formations of this army fought so stubbornly that, suffering colossal losses, the fascist troops were unable to break through deep into Ukraine in the first days. Unfortunately, Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko was not lucky enough to live to this day. He died a hero's death in a fierce battle in the Kharkov direction, being deputy commander of the Southwestern Front. His beloved eldest son Peter died with him. It was impossible not to love Pyotr Kostenko. I remember that while still a boy, Peter studied military science, and he especially liked horse riding and chopping. Fyodor Yakovlevich was proud of his son, hoped that Peter would make a worthy cavalry commander, and he was not mistaken.”
TOGETHER with the employees of the regional military registration and enlistment office, we are searching for the general’s relatives. We turned for support to the Russian Ministry of Defense Directorate for Perpetuating the Memory of Those Who Died in Defense of the Fatherland, the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, and search engines. Searches in the Martynovsky district did not yield any results. From the capital's archives, only the composition of Fyodor Yakovlevich's family was reported: wife Vasilisa Panteleevna, daughter Ulyana born in 1914, son Peter born in 1923, daughter Rada born in 1925, son Budimir born in 1925. Good news from the Office for Perpetuating the Memory of Fallen Defenders of the Fatherland - they are reporting about the granddaughter of General Tamara Budemirovna Kostenko. It turns out that the registry office workers made a mistake in her middle name when they issued the birth certificate. The granddaughter has lived in Hungary for many years and works at the Russian embassy. Tamara Budemirovna’s adult children, Daria and Nikita, also live in Hungary.
They began to settle formalities related to the transfer of the found remains to Russian territory. This process took quite a long time. It involved a lot of people on both sides of the border. At the same time, the issue of conducting an identification examination was being resolved in Branch No. 2 of the Federal State Institution “111th Main State Center for Forensic Medical and Forensic Examinations” of the Russian Ministry of Defense, better known as the 124th Military Forensic Medical Laboratory. Fragments of the remains were initially transferred here - the main part of them remained on Ukrainian territory.
Tamara Kostenko was invited to the Don capital. She visited the laboratory where DNA samples were taken. The general’s granddaughter spoke about the Kostenko family and showed a photo from the family album. However, there was still no answer to the key question - about the last days of Fyodor Kostenko's life.
The first thing that can be said firmly today is that son Peter, along with General Kostenko, did not die! Marshal Zhukov, who appears to have been misinformed, was mistaken in his recollections. This was confirmed by the general’s granddaughter. What about the archives? We read information from the report about irretrievable losses: “Kostenko Petr Fedorovich, born in 1923, native of the village. Martynovka, Rostov Region, pilot of the 273rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, shot down in battle near Stalingrad on September 27, 1942, fell on the northern outskirts of the village. Verkhne-Pogromnoye, buried there. Posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree."
LET'S RETURN to the Kharkov events of May '42.
The main goal of the Soviet offensive operation was the defeat of the enemy group, the capture of Kharkov and the creation of conditions for the development of an offensive jointly with the Southern Front in the Dnepropetrovsk direction.
The operation of the South-Western direction was led by Marshal S.K. Timoshenko, member of the Military Council N.S. Khrushchev and Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General I.Kh. Bagramyan. The operation began on the morning of May 12 and at first progressed successfully. On May 15, our troops were 20–30 kilometers from Kharkov. However, already on May 17, General Kleist’s 1st Tank Army delivered a cutting blow to the rear of the Soviet troops and advanced 25 kilometers to the north, closing the encirclement ring. In the most difficult days of the operation, Marshal Timoshenko united the encircled Soviet troops into an army group under the command of Lieutenant General Fedor Kostenko and ordered it to break through the encirclement and reach the left bank of the Seversky Donets.
It was not possible to implement this plan - the enemy, having forestalled the Soviet troops, resumed the offensive on a wide front on the morning of May 24, trying to dismember the encircled group. General Kostenko on May 25 decided to strike in the direction of Csepel with the forces of three rifle, two cavalry divisions, three tank brigades, the remnants of tank corps and break through to the main forces of the front. However, the unexpected happened: uncontrolled units of the 337th, 47th and 253rd rifle divisions, which were supposed to ensure a breakthrough, entered the deployment area of the strike group, leaving their positions without orders. A disorderly accumulation of a large mass of people, military equipment, and vehicles formed. The breakthrough failed. Kostenko and his staff did everything to establish control and organize a new offensive. But given the almost complete disorganization of the troops and the lack of communication, this was impossible.
In the vicinity of the village of Lozovenka, from May 26 to May 29, battles raged continuously, fierce and bloody. The generals went to break through the encirclement, shoulder to shoulder with their soldiers and commanders. Only a few managed to escape the encirclement. Kostenko was not among them... During the 18 days of the Kharkov operation, the losses of our troops amounted to 277,190 people, of which 170,958 were irrevocable (killed, missing, died from wounds) and 106,232 were sanitary (sick, wounded, shell-shocked, who were sent to the rear). The exact number of those captured is still unknown - according to various sources, it ranges from 100 to 200 thousand people. After the war, the main culprits of the Kharkov tragedy, Timoshenko, Bagramyan and Khrushchev, occupied high government positions and did everything to ensure that the truth about the events of May 1942 was hidden. In his famous report to the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev placed all the blame for the Kharkov defeat on Stalin.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES of Kostenko's death are still unknown. He was not among the prisoners of war; in archival documents he was listed as missing in action on May 25, 1942, in other sources he was listed as killed on the battlefield. There are also suggestions that he shot himself.
One of the photographs brought by Tamara Budemirovna Kostenko shows Fyodor Yakovlevich with two officers, a major and a captain. Below is the signature: “Adjutants of the G.L. Kostenko T.T. Gavrilin and Petrovich." We can easily find information about them on the Ministry of Defense website “OBD. Memorial". According to archival documents, both Major Alexey Ilyich Gavrilin and Captain Vasily Ivanovich Petrovich were considered missing in May 1942. But in 1947, Gavrilin, according to a report from the Moscow military commissar, was recognized as alive, but V.I., called up from the Lugansk region. Petrovich, apparently, was with his commander until the end.
The remains of the second soldier bore the captain's buttonholes; the surname Petrovich closely resembles the name Peter (in Ukrainian: Petro). One can guess why Marshal Zhukov was mistaken in his memories.
– We can say with complete confidence that the name of General Kostenko is on a par with the heroic commanders of the first days of the Great Patriotic War, such as the commander of the 33rd Army Mikhail Grigorievich Efremov, the commander of the 19th Army Mikhail Fedorovich Lukin, the commander of the Southwestern Front Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos and many others,” notes regional military commissar Anatoly Trushin. – Fyodor Yakovlevich fulfilled his military duty to the end, remained faithful to the military oath, his Motherland and his people...
AS the examination of the fragments has shown, the remains of Lieutenant General Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko were indeed found near Kharkov with a “high degree” of probability. The Ukrainian side, having familiarized itself with the expert opinion, handed over the discovered remains to representatives of the military commissariat of the Rostov region. We'll let you know what happens next.
We thank for the work done and assistance in preparing the material the employees of branch No. 2 of the 111th Main State Center for Forensic Medical and Criminalistic Expertise of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian search engines Sergei Bursov, Mikhail Sayany, Oleg Bidulin, Maxim Kolosov, and their Belgorod colleagues from the search team “Rodina” (headed by Roman Abbasov), representative of the military registration and enlistment office of the Rostov region Nikolai Ponomarenko and Nikolai Maslennikov, who is a confidant of the Kostenko family.
Kostenko's troops in the summer of 1941 put up fierce resistance to the enemy. The Nazis were unable to quickly advance across the territory of Ukraine. And in December, the offensive near Yelets and the defeat of several German divisions accelerated the victory in the battle of Moscow.
Volleys of guns and a guard of honor. After 76 years - a farewell, as befits a general. All this time, Fyodor Kostenko, commander of the Southwestern Front in 1941 and 1942, was considered missing. Only two years ago, near Kharkov, Ukrainian search engines discovered the burial of Soviet soldiers. One - judging by the remains of clothing - clearly belonged to the highest command staff. With him is a piece of document with the name Kostenko.
“The burial is located on the territory of another state, there were certain difficulties in this matter, but at the same time, together with search engines from Ukraine and Russia, we succeeded. The remains were transported to Rostov-on-Don,” said Valery Kudinsky, deputy director of the Russian Ministry of Defense for perpetuating the memory of those killed defending the Fatherland.
The present investigation lasted a year and a half. Archives, approvals, months of laboratory research. It was literally a miracle that we managed to find our granddaughter - she works in Hungary.
“She has a very rare middle name - Budimirovna. In 1925, when Kostenko had triplets, they named their triplets based on the combination “There will be peace, joy, and love.” The result was a son - Budemir, Rada and Lyubov,” said military commissar of the Rostov region Anatoly Trushin.
In the family of Tamara Budimirovna Kostenko, a photo album with photographs of her grandfather is a real relic. Looking at the pictures, since childhood she wanted to know what happened to him. Arriving in Russia, I took a DNA test, and it gave a positive result.
“When it was discovered, it was very difficult to believe. Of course, it’s very exciting, my legs are shaking, my hands are shaking, when I met him at Chkalovsky, I was hysterical, for example, I don’t know why. It seems to me that he hears me,” Tamara Kostenko worries.
Lieutenant General Fedor Kostenko in May 1942 fell into the enemy’s ring. This was the infamous Kharkov operation, when the Soviet army lost about 300 thousand people. Georgy Zhukov sadly recalled General Kostenko, who went missing in this cauldron, in his memoirs. The marshal valued him for his vast military experience.
Fedor Kostenko participated in three wars. At the age of 19 - the First World War, then the Civil War, he was one of the first legendary cavalrymen. During the Great Patriotic War he participated in the defense of Kyiv and led a group of troops in the Yeletsk offensive operation.
The result of that offensive was the defeat of several enemy divisions and the liberation of hundreds of settlements. Lieutenant General Fedor Kostenko is buried at the Federal War Memorial Cemetery. Among those who, like him, gave their lives for the Fatherland.