Александр Петрович Еланский / Alexandr Petrowitsch Elanskij 1920 - 1941

Born 10.10.1920 in Matweewki
Died 27.11.1941 in Mauthausen

Biography

Alexandr Petrovich Elansky was born on 10 October 1920 in the village of Matveevka in today’s Staromainsky region of the Ulyanovsk oblast. Before the war he and his father were living in the city of Kuybyshev in the Tartar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

As can be seen from his service record card, he served in the 238th Rifle Regiment. But this is only correct if remarks added later by the Soviets are to be believed. In the original file, the number three in the centre looks very much like a nine, which makes our search more difficult, although it does narrow it to one division (the 298th Rifle Regiment was, like the 238th Rifle Regiment, part of the 186th Rifle Division of the 22nd Army).

Alexandr Petrovich was called up on the very first day of mobilisation – on 23 June 1941. On this day, or a little later, Elansky and other reservists climbed into one of the last train carriages of the division, which had already been en route to other positions before the outbreak of war, although the whole thing was probably part of the secret mobilisation of the Red Army. Elansky and his regimental comrades were originally given the order to mount a defence in the Sebezhsky Fortified Area on the former border with Latvia. But the enemy came up against a completely different division there since at that time, the 186th Division was gradually being moved to another section of the front to the west of Vitebsk. The 298th Rifle Regiment formed a line of defence in the Ulla-Kardon area on the north bank of the Daugava river. And since there was also a sturdy railway bridge there, a desirable target for the enemy, the regiment also defended the bridgehead. As the divisional diary reports, ‘on 4 July at 4pm we saw the first motorbikes, tanks and armoured vehicles driving along the road to the bridge. After the motorised cavalcade was greeted with our prepared firearm, machine gun and artillery fire, it quickly retreated suffering great losses.’ But as it turned out, this was just the beginning: ‘The bitter fighting lasted until 3 o’clock in the morning, when the battalion drew back from the superior force of the enemy to the opposite bank of the river and blew up the bridge behind it.’ For the next two days the regiment held the line at the river but on 7 July, it was partly encircled and was forced to retreat. The regimental command’s chief of staff, Captain Zelentsov, committed suicide in order to avoid capture.

It is likely that Elansky fought with the 298th Regiment and took part in these battles, which lasted for four days nonstop.[1] An excerpt from the divisional diary of the 186th Rifle Division states: ‘On 8 July the delayed trains arrived with the 1st and the 3rd Battalions of the 238th Rifle Regiment at Sirotino station. They had been given the order by division command to take the road to Vitebsk in hand and form a hedgehog defence in the area around Staroye Selo to defend it. On the 9 and 10 July the enemy moved around the flanks of the 1st and 3rd Battalions and began to close in around them. At 11pm they were ordered to break out of the pocket and join up with the 2nd Battalion of the 238th Regiment...’

This breakthrough that started on 11 July only ended on 13 July when the battalions of the regiment were finally reunited. But for Alexandr Elansky the war was over already on 10 July.

In captivity he was held first in Stalag VI B in Neu-Versen in Lower Saxony, near to the border with Holland, where he was assigned camp number 35038. On 20 October 1941 A.P. Elansky was put on the first transport of around 2,000 prisoners of war who were transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp, arriving there two days later.

Alexandr Petrovich did not live for long in Mauthausen – a little over a month. He died on 27 November 1941 and shared the fate of many of his fellow countrymen who did not survive the first autumn and the first winter of imprisonment.

Roman Nikitin

 

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

 

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