Fedor Komal
DSc in History, Professor, Academician of the Academy of Military Historical Sciences, Colonel Fedor Komal (1913–2005) worked for about 30 years at LISI (SPbGASU), ten of which he headed the Department of Party History. Lecturer at a number of higher educational institutions, permanent chairman of the Problem Council on the History of the Great Patriotic War, author of scientific papers and textbooks on military history, mentor of the younger generation - these are the main milestones in the life and professional path of the St Petersburg historian and Red Army soldier who joined the fight with the German invaders at dawn 22 June, 1941.
A rural orphan shepherd, a homeless child, an orphanages boy, Fedor Komal graduated from a railway school at the Avdeevka station in the Donbass and became an assistant locomotive driver. In 1935 he entered the tank troops of the Red Army, served on the banks of the Dnieper near Kiev. Before the war, he graduated with honors from the Moscow Military-Political School named after V. I. Lenin and was appointed the troop political officer and executive secretary of the party bureau of the 63rd separate reconnaissance battalion of the 33rd rifle division of the Belarusian Special Military District, which was stationed in Lithuania near the border with Germany. Fedor Komal recalled how tense the situation was there: the Germans often violated the border, gathered large forces to it - everything indicated that they were about to start a war.
“By order of the battalion commander, we left all our machinery in the woods for the night, but on the night of 21-22 June, the commander decided to line it up along the road and thereby saved it. At about four o'clock in the morning, the Germans launched heavy artillery fire into the forest. But the powerful return fire of machine-gunners of border guards from well-equipped fortifications and the fire of our tankettes repulsed the attack, the enemy suffered losses. However, soon, under the superior force of the enemy, our troops were forced to pull back, ”recalled Fedor Borisovich Komal.
Political officer Komal, one lieutenant and 50 submachine gunners - all who survived from the battalion and reached the headquarters. But even during the retreat, they skillfully penetrated the columns of German troops, delivering valuable data to their command. In one of the battles, Fedor Komal was shell-shocked. After treatment, he learned that the battalion was disbanded, and he was appointed commissar of the armored train "Commander Suvorov." In November 1941, in Ufa, he received an armored train and headed for Stalingrad to support the 208th Infantry Division, which was fighting heavy battles with the advancing enemy.
“The enemy noticed the arrival of our armored train, but all attempts to destroy us failed. Therefore, they began to attack from the air. On 3 August, 1942, we arrived at the Gniloaksayskaya station, and already at three in the morning, 18 enemy bombers bombed the second armored platform of the train. By the morning of the next day, an enemy raid again: nine aircraft dropped bombs and fired machine guns. The third armored platform got broken. A fire broke out, and there was ammunition! We extinguished it with what we had at hand: we even carried water with kettles. We prevented the explosion, and even knocked out two fascist planes. Repulsing the attacks and restoring the railway tracks, without sleep and normal food, we got to Stalingrad, having completed the task", the front-line soldier recalled.
At Stalingrad, he was awarded the rank of captain. After that, Komal graduated from the courses of deputy commanders of tank regiments and was sent as a senior instructor in agitation and propaganda to the tank brigade of the Guards Mechanized Corps of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Participated in the battles for Berlin, and met the victory in Prague. According to the stories of a front-line soldier, the Czechs greeted the Soviet soldiers with shouts of “Hurrah!”, “Long live the Red Army!”, hugged and kissed the fighters, indicated the places wh ere the remaining Nazis were hiding.
Until 1948, Fedor Komal served in the group of Soviet troops in Germany, then in the Leningrad Military District. He graduated from the Military-Political Academy named after V. I. Lenin with honors and a gold medal. In 1957 he defended his Ph.D. thesis “Measures of the Communist Party to strengthen the Soviet armed forces on the eve of the Great Patriotic War” and was soon appointed head of the socio-economic cycle of the Leningrad Military Engineering School named after A. A. Zhdanov (1958–1960). Then he taught at the Department of the History of the CPSU and Party and Political Work of the Military Academy of Communications named after S. M. Budyonny (1960–1972).
In 1964, Fedor Borisovich was awarded the academic title of associate professor. In 1969 he became a doctor of historical sciences, a professor. In 1972, he was transferred to the reserve.
A specialist in the field of national history, historiography, political and military history, author of over 100 published works, including three monographs, editor of a number of scientific papers, teacher Fedor Komal admitted that he had lived a hard life. But the Motherland always remembered its defender. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees and 20 medals, including "For Courage", "For Military Merit", "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For the Capture Berlin", "For the liberation of Prague". Among his awards was also the Czechoslovak Order "Military Cross of 1939".
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Researcher who Developed Science in Besieged Leningrad
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Engineer of the 3rd Belorussian Front
Nineteen-Year-Old Gunner Stormed Berlin
Path of a Volunteer: from Front-Line Roads to Space Development
Ivan Solomakhin: "The Most Memorable Battle was for this Devil's Hill!"
Fiery Dnieper of the Hero of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Prygunov
Approaching to the Victory