A.F. Dubitsky as a sapper of the 29th Rifle Division: highlights of biography and frontline life (based on the materials of the archive of Nur-Sultan)

Abstract

The article covers the highlights of the biography and the heroic path of a sapper and front-line newspaperman of the 29th Rifle Division named Andrei Fedorovich Dubitsky (1915–2005), based on the materials of the archive of Nur-Sultan. A.F. Dubitsky was born in the Cossack village of Akmolinskaya stanitsa, which is one of the constituent parts of the city of Akmolinsk. In 1931, he graduated from a seven-year school in Akmolinsk and entered the Omsk Art College. In 1936, having successfully graduated from college, he returned to Akmolinsk and began to work as a teacher of drawing and drafting in 5–10th grades. He collaborated with “Socialist construction” and “Akmola truth” newspapers on a part-time basis. A.F. Dubitsky loved to write poems, essays, stories, drawings about the daily life of his city. In December 1941, he was drafted into the Red Army by mobilization and enlisted as a soldier in the 78th separate sapper battalion of the 29th rifle division, which was formed in Akmolinsk and Karaganda. In January 1943, F. Dubitsky was promoted from a soldier to a junior lieutenant and he was appointed an executive secretary of “Soviet Bogatyr” division newspaper. In this position, together with the 72nd Guards Rifle Division, he left Stalingrad for Kursk Bulge. The harsh front-line daily routine of a fighter A.F. Dubitsky was reflected in hundreds of notes, dozens of life-drawings (mainly portraits of soldiers and commanders), and his own poems. Together with the 72nd Guards Krasnograd Red Rifle Division, he went through Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Transylvania, Hungary, and he was in Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. He ended the war in the same 72nd Guards Division as a senior lieutenant, executive secretary of the Soviet Bogatyr division newspaper. A.F. Dubitsky was awarded for the combat and labor exploits, i.e., two orders of the Patriotic War, “For courage”, “For the defense of Stalingrad”, “For the capture of Budapest”, “For labor valor”, “For distinguished labour”, “For the development of virgin and fallow lands” medals and other awards. He is an author of the collections of short stories named “Donin Kindergarten”, “Forged Helmet”, “Smile”, “Raspberry Blagovest”, novels “Barrier”, “Sultry Interfluve”, “Hard Life”, books of local history “Akmola — the glorious city”, “Where Ishim flows”, “Let’s walk along the streets of Tselinograd”, “Tablets of history” and others. The article notes that the main highlinghts of A.F. Dubitsky’s biography and front line will become an eternal example, evoking pride and respect among not only the members of present generation, but also the future one.