EPISTOLARY DOCUMENTS OF THE STUDENT OF THE CRIMEAN PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE, HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION TEYFUK ABDUL - A HISTORICAL SOURCE ABOUT HIS LIFE AND FEAT OF ARMS

Based on an extensive set of materials deposited in the funds of the Museum of History of V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University (Simferopol), the biography of a native of Crimea, a graduate of Crimean State Pedagogical Institute named after M.V. Frunze Teyfuk Amitovich Abdul, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, has been reconstructed. Numerous documents and photographs from the family archive, transferred to the University History Museum by his descendants in 2010, are used, including an autobiography compiled on December 1, 1944, shortly before his death, as well as the surviving correspondence of Teyfuk Abdul from the war period. Thanks to the documents found in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Podolsk), the combat path of the Hero is traced, with an emphasis on his feat of arms during the forcing of the Dnieper in 1943, for which he was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. During the military actions, he was also awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degree and the Red Banner Order. Extracts from the award documents are provided, testifying to his courage and heroism. Letters from the front of Teyfuk Abdul, addressed to his mother, brother and sisters, are used as a meaningful historical source.