There is a small, beautiful monument near the secondary school in the village of Skuratovo. It was installed in honor of a Soviet pilot who died during the heroic defense of Tula from the Nazi invaders. And the monument appeared thanks to the perseverance and efforts of a school teacher, veteran Mikhail Ivanovich Mednov.
He was born on December 31, 1924 in Meshchovsk, Kaluga region. He graduated from the seventh year, and in 1939, at the age of fifteen, he began teaching.
In March 1942, when he turned seventeen, he volunteered for the front and fought from Kaluga land through Smolensk, Orsha, Minsk, Grodno to East Prussia, where he celebrated Victory Day. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal "For Military Merit".
After the war, he worked as a teacher in the Kaluga and Tula regions, in the city of Tula and in the Skuratov secondary school as a teacher of geography and biology.
One day, the boys showed the teacher an unmarked grave. Local old-timers reported that the plane of a downed Soviet pilot had crashed here. Mikhail Ivanovich suggested that the guys try to identify the hero with him.
Thus, the military-patriotic circle "Poisk" appeared at Skuratov Secondary school No. 68, which marked the beginning of the school's museum of local lore.
Local historians and M.I. Mednov spent thirteen years searching for the name of the pilot who died in the Tula sky. And it was established for certain that it was a twenty-year-old junior lieutenant Nikolai Ivanovich Dolgikh.
The 171st Fighter Aviation Regiment covered the sky over Tula. In it, the unit consisting of pilots Nikolai Ishanov, Nikolai Dolgikh and Viktor Akimakh was particularly brave and effective.
On October 29, 1941, Commander Nikolai Ishanov's flight blocked the path of 27 Nazi bombers in the Yasnaya Polyana area near Tula. A heated battle ensued. Ishanov was the first to shoot down the Junkers, and Dolgikh and Akimakh were destroyed by another fascist aircraft.
On the way to his airfield, a MIG-3 piloted by Dolgikh was shot down and caught fire. The courageous pilot directed him to the enemy's location. The pilot died and was buried by local residents.
A monument was unveiled near Skuratovskaya Secondary School in honor of the hero pilot on May 9, 1978.
Nikolai Dolgikh's brothers, Grigory and Vladimir, and their families came to the unveiling of the monument. And in 2006, MOSOSH No. 68 in Tula was awarded the honorary title of "Nikolai Ivanovich Dolgikh School".
The work of the front-line teacher was appreciated. He became an excellent student of public education, was awarded the medals "For Valiant Labor in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin" and "Veteran of Labor".
For many years, Mikhail Ivanovich Mednov headed the Skuratov public organization of War and Labor veterans. And he not only led, but also continued active search work at the same time. According to his lists, thirteen previously omitted surnames were included in the "Regional Book of Memory".
Together with the students, M.I. Mednov made constant trips around his native land. As a result, twenty graves from the Great Patriotic War were discovered, and the exact coordinates were reported to the administration for registration of graves.
In the seventh volume of "Soldiers of Victory" M.I. Mednov presented the names of 262 people.
The burial place of the platoon commander of the 491st separate sapper battalion, Lieutenant Pyotr Mikhailovich Terpugov, has been established.
The lists of mass graves near the Pervomaisky settlement were supplemented with the names of newly identified 225 people.
The names of all the veterans of the Skuratovo war and all the nearby villages in the number of 625 people have been restored.
This bright, dedicated man, teacher and veteran of the Great Patriotic War passed away on January 30, 2009. Now the school museum of local lore is named after M.I. Mednov.
On March 3, 20177, on the birthday of military pilot N.I. Dolgikh, a presentation of a personalized postcard issued as part of the project "Heroes of the Defense of the city of Tula in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" took place at Skuratovskaya Secondary School. The author of the project, V.L. Tikhmyanov (son of the former chairman of the Tula Regional Committee of DOSAAF, Hero of the Soviet Union L.P. Tikhmyanov), and writer, local historian, employee of the regional military Historical Museum E.M. Polozov visited the students. Now a colorful postcard will spread all over the world, telling about the glorious feat of the Russian pilot near Tula .
Literature
1. The Battle for Tula. Collection of documents, Tula, 1969
2. Tula region. Documents and materials. Part 2. Tula, 1968
3. Our region is Tula. A travel guide. Tula, 2007.
