Legendary scout Gennady Yushkevich passed away at the age of 97 in Belarus
In 1944, he joined a special reconnaissance group with the call sign “Jack” and became the youngest scout in the history of the Soviet Union. Together with his combat comrades in July 1944 Yushkevich was thrown into the territory of East Prussia. The group operated near the famous and super-secret Hitler's headquarters “Wolf's Lair”.
Gennady Vladimirovich, like many other legendary and honored front-line soldiers, by virtue of natural modesty did not like to tell about his life. What was, was. And in this life there were so many feats, he, a dumb boy, so many times walked on the blade of life and death, that it would be enough for several adult lives.
Six years ago, on the eve of the anniversary of the liberation of Belarus, I managed to communicate with the hero. I thought that, as they say, we would just say a few words, but we talked for about two hours. I was struck by the sharp mind, insight, clear memory, which kept the most precise details of the man, who was already over ninety.
Then once again came the thought that thanks to such strength of spirit, will, clear mind so many legendary scouts live so long. Until his last days Gennady Vladimirovich appeared in public in an army uniform with dozens of orders.
His carefree and happy childhood was spent in Minsk in the family of his mother - the famous ballerina Elizaveta Khatkevichi, father - Vladimir Yushkevich, an actor of the theater troupe “Blue Blouse”, with the beginning of the war - the head doctor of the sanitary unit of the Narovlya partisan brigade № 27 named after Kirov. Young Gena attended various clubs at school, which later, as he said, came in handy in sabotage and reconnaissance work. He knew how to give first aid, how to treat wounds with bandages and absorbent cotton, how to make bandages on the elbow and on the head.
The long-suffering Belarus was the first to take the blows of the Nazis and experienced all the atrocities of the punishers. It is believed that during the war every fourth resident of the republic died. From the very beginning of the occupation Gennady's mother joined the first underground group in the city. It was then that the famous Belarusian underground began to emerge.
Meanwhile, the Germans organized a real terror in Minsk. “The atrocities began in Minsk somewhere in the middle of July 1941, when the Nazis realized that the inhabitants of the city they would not be able to break. They tried to suppress and destroy anyone who dared to show disloyalty to the occupation authorities. It was then, in the middle of July, that a ghetto for Jews began to be created in Minsk. About the same time special punitive commands and brigades appeared in the city, whose tasks included the elimination of underground fighters,” said the veteran.
From the middle of summer mass shootings began in Minsk. The Nazis arrested Gennady's mother in early October 1941, and on October 26 she was executed among other underground fighters near the city administration building. “I saw with my own eyes how at one of the stations near Minsk the punishers placed a train with our prisoners of war, driving them to starvation and cannibalism. Those who begged for mercy and asked for food were immediately shot. Then the surviving prisoners of war were executed near the Chervensk market”, - said the hero.
Yushkevich ended up in an orphanage, whose director was a fascist henchman. When he learned that Gennady's mother, a well-known artist in Minsk, had become an underground fighter, he threatened to destroy him. He was helped to escape from the orphanage by his teacher Vera Andreyevna, who knew his mother. He started as a liaison of the partisan reconnaissance group “Seagull”, later, along with adults, the 14-year-old boy participated in ambushes on highways, blew up fascist railroad trains, destroyed communications.
Despite the Center's appeals to the commander of the “Seagull” detachment, consisting of seven people, to take care of the boy, young Gena began to perform the most difficult tasks behind enemy lines, becoming a bomber. He learned to collect and detonate mines. For incomplete two years he learned German. He eavesdropped on the conversations of the occupants, becoming, in his words, “eyes and ears” of the sabotage and reconnaissance group.
In 1944 he was taken to the group of the 3rd Intelligence Department of the 3rd Belorussian Front, which consisted of 10 people and was named “Jack” after the operational alias of its commander. They were well-prepared young guys: the oldest was 29 years old, and the youngest - Gennady Yushkevich - 16. They took part in the preparation of the Red Army operation to liberate Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad). It was the most exciting and deadly dangerous period of a teenage scout's life.
On the night of July 27, 1944 in the area of the present-day village of Gromovo, Slavsky district, there was an unsuccessful landing of the detachment, which killed its commander “Jack”. Thus began the sabotage work deep behind enemy lines, which lasted 5 months. On September 28, 1944, the surviving fighters fell into two ambushes. A member of the squad Napoleon Ridevsky seriously injured his leg, and Gena more than 70 kilometers carried the wounded comrade on himself. And at that moment, when it seemed that there was no hope for salvation, a miracle happened. In the place Minhenwald exhausted scouts gave shelter to German anti-fascists Ernst Reitshuk, August Shillat and his son Otto. They provided the Soviet scouts with food and clothing, as well as a radio.
Only 3 out of 11 members of the group with the call sign “Jack” survived. During the special operation they managed to transmit 67 especially important reports to the Center. The scouts stayed behind enemy lines for 179 days. In early January 1945 Gennady Yushkevich arrived for further service in the 208th Army Reserve Rifle Regiment of the 3rd Belorussian Front. But here one more test was waiting for him. On May 6, he was blown up on a booby trap during a special operation to clear the town of Gumbinnen.
And again he survived. Even before coming of age, Gennady Yushkevich became a holder of the Order of Patriotic War I and II degree and the Order of Glory III degree. Until the spring of 1953, he was an operative commissioner of the Department to combat banditry of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Belarusian SSR and took a direct part in the liquidation of nationalist gangs, including detachments of the Army of Krajowa, who committed bloody atrocities in the territory of Grodno and former Pinsk regions of Belarus. He worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs until his retirement, fighting bandits, and then generously shared his experience with young colleagues.
WHORE , SOON VERY SOON
