[Regnum] 81 years after the death of Senior Lieutenant Dmitry Donskoy, his award — the Order of the Red Star — was solemnly presented to his grandson Alexander Merkelov in Moscow, in the Pantheon of Defenders of the Fatherland.
As the official representative of the "Search Movement of Russia" in the DPR Alexander Maltsev, who took direct part in returning the award to the family of the Soviet soldier, told the Regnum news agency, the path of this order is very long and not easy. Thus, several awards were taken from an old marauder, who in his declining years began to be tormented by his conscience: the man himself came to the head of the Gorlovka administration with a proposal to bury the remains of soldiers.
"It turned out that in the 90s he actively "bombed" the battle sites in the Slavyansk region, on the Mius Front, they had a group of five people, they took only what could be sold - awards, ammunition, personal belongings. They threw the bones back, looted both ours and the Germans. I took everything from him, and since 2016 we have been looking for relatives, handing them awards, and there was one insert of a death medallion. And the search for Donskoy reached a dead end," Alexander said.
His descendants were searched for in vain first in the Voronezh region, where the officer was from, then in Rostov, where another branch of the family was located. In the end, Donskoy's grandson called himself: on the eve of May 9, his son suggested looking for his grandfather, they typed the name into an Internet search - and immediately found an article about awards and the search.
For another two years, the meeting was postponed for various reasons, and on December 13, as part of the opening of the international conference “The Fate of a Soldier,” the hero’s star finally returned to his family.
“When I shook his hand, he was almost thrown up, the guy was really touched,” Maltsev shared his emotions and lamented that the officer’s remains would never be identified.
It is quite possible that they were found in subsequent years and buried with honors - like a nameless warrior.
Dmitry Zakharovich served in the Red Army from June 24, 1941 and during this time he did not receive any wounds or concussions. He fought as a deputy company commander of the 68th separate engineer battalion of the 50th rifle division, and showed himself to be excellent. In April of 1943, Donskoy was responsible for establishing crossings across the flooded Seversky Donets in the area of the village of Yarovaya, then Stalin's region.
For skillful actions "under constant artillery, mortar fire, and enemy air strikes" during three days of work on the crossing, the 50th Rifle Division units were awarded the Medal "For Courage". And he received the "Red Star" for the battles on the bridgehead west of the river.
The young commander died in a fierce battle on August 4, 1943, near the village of Golaya Dolina, during a powerful German counterattack. In many areas, the fighters resorted to hand-to-hand combat, even fighting with entrenching tools and helmets. Donskoy's body remained in an aerial bomb crater in an unnamed grove. According to the looter's stories, it was approximately localized, but over the years, many search parties have worked in these areas.
The loss documents will still contain the vague statement “Killed in action.”
| Still, a lovely tale. |