The Battle of Velikiye Luki in 1941 in the Fates of the Generals of the 22nd Ural Army I. P. Karmanov and T. K. Silkin

During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army lost more than 400 generals in battle, ten of whom are still considered missing in action. This article examines the fates of two generals of the 22nd Army, formed in the Urals before the war, namely, I. P. Karmanov and T. K. Silkin. The former commanded the 62nd Rifle Corps, the latter, the 170th Rifle Division. According to official information, both were listed as missing in action in October 1941. To resolve the issue, the author refers to the memoirs of Soviet participants in the military operations in the Velikiye Luki direction in August 1941, i. e. General B. A. Pigarevich, chief of staff of the 22nd Army, and Colonel K. I. Sazonov, commander of the 51st Rifle Corps, as well as materials from German formations – corps and divisions. In the course of the research it is established that on 25 and 26 August 1941, in the defence area of the 19th Tank Division of the enemy, two generals of the Red Army, who were trying to escape from the encirclement to the east, were killed in firefights, one of them at the positions of the 8th battery near the village of Svinkino, and the other at the positions of the 9th battery near the village of Detkovo. Documents from the Ic (reconnaissance) department of the German XXXX tank corps made it possible to establish that one of them – General I. P. Karmanov – died near the village of Svinkino – and, apparently, was buried there. Consequently, the other general who died near the village of Detkovo was General T. K. Silkin. The dates of their deaths can then be considered, respectively, August 25 and 26, 1941. Unfortunately, in 1946–1950, during the reburials from the surrounding villages to the cemeteries of Velikiye Luki, the graves of the generals were lost. However, the research conducted makes it possible to conclude that generals I. P. Karmanov and T. K. Silkin did not go missing but died in battles for the Motherland in August 1941.