Location: Gulaev street 64-68
Aksay like any other town in the region bears scars of the World War II. People still find numerous artifacts from the bygone era in the city itself and its vicinity. Additionally there are numerous monuments dedicated to the years of war that became known as Great Patriotic War. Gulaev street has such monument. It was erected in 1985 and became known simply as "Crossing". It is presented by WWII lorry of ZIS factory with anti- aircraft gun in the back that stands on a white slanted cement slab as a type of pedestal. It was dedicated to the dramatic events of 1942. German armies took Aksay twice in the years between 1941 and 1943. In 1942 when it became clear that Germans will come back Soviet army command decided to move civilians from both sides of the River Don. Aksay was a natural choice for a crossing due to slow moving waters and fairly narrow river. Thousands of civilians made it across this crossing eastward to safety. German aircrafts did attempt to destroy the makeshift crossing, but many were destroyed in their futile attempt by mobile anti- aircraft batteries of the 3rd Division 485 artillery regiment. Soldiers put their anti- aircraft guns on ZIS trucks and moved around Don River constantly changing their position and inflicting damage on a German Air force or Luftwaffe. Their honorable act and thinking out of the box yearned them gratitude from a residents of Aksay.
A ferry near the former village existed
in the Don Cossack Region and a postal road to the Caucasus passed
through it. Its basis was a pontoon bridge that connected the right
bank of the Don with the Olginskaya dam. The exiled Decembrists went
by post routes to the Aksai ferry and further to the Caucasus: A.I.
Polezhaev, A.A. Bestuzhev and others. In 1823, the future composer
M.I. Glinka went to the mineral waters, who in his diary mentioned
the Aksai crossing over the Don.
The crossing was a strategic
object during the Civil War, when it suffered, it was repaired for a
long time and the crossing was carried out by a small ferry, moving
by hand along a cable, and flat-bottomed boats owned by private
owners. Only in 1934 a new pontoon bridge was built according to the
project of engineer K.G. Tereshchenko.
When, in the first
months of World War II, German aviation bombed the railway bridges
in Rostov-on-Don, it was decided to build the Aksai railway bypass,
which consisted of a temporary wooden bridge erected below the Aksai
glass factory and a single-track track from Aksai to Bataysk, laid
along Olginskaya dam. In addition to them, there was also a small
floating bridge over the Aksai River. The ferry with a carrying
capacity of 16 tons was brought in by the 35th separate motorized
pontoon-bridge battalion under the command of Major B.D.Nominas.
Fighting near the village of Aksayskaya began on November 19,
1941, where the 1177th Infantry Regiment under the command of Major
F.G. Rybkin held the defense. For two days, the regiment repulsed
attacks from units of the German 60th Infantry Motorized Division.
On the night of November 21, the Germans broke through the Soviet
defenses and began to advance into the village. The regiment
received an order from the commander of the 347th rifle division,
Colonel N.I.Seliverstov, to withdraw the units to the left bank of
the Don. The 70th Cavalry Division of Colonel N.M. Yurchik covered
the retreating units of the Red Army. The defense of the crossing
was carried out by the 196th cavalry regiment and a platoon of the
230th regiment of the NKVD. As a result of the hostilities, the 60th
motorized division of the Wehrmacht captured the village.
After the retreat of our troops, all bridges (railway, pontoon and
floating) were partially blown up. Neither side was going to
completely destroy them, since both of them planned to use these
bridges for their own purposes in the future. After the
replenishment and regrouping of units, the troops of the 56th and
9th armies of the Red Army began an offensive on Rostov and the
village of Aksayskaya. Units of the 353rd Rifle Division and the
16th Rifle Brigade, in cooperation with units of the Novocherkassk
operational group, liberated the village by the morning of November
29. By that time, ice had already appeared on the Don, on which the
infantrymen could move without using bridges. On November 29, the
pontoon bridge was repaired for crossing the tanks of the just
arrived 54th Tank Brigade to the right bank. But only a few cars
were able to be transported, since the bridge was damaged due to
German air raids. Because of this, the remaining units of the 54th
Tank Brigade were forced to look for crossings in other places.
After the liberation of the village of Aksayskaya, the
restoration of bridges and a ferry began, which were destroyed
during the battles of 1941. In the summer of 1942, the situation at
the front began to develop extremely unsuccessfully for the Red Army
- the troops began to retreat to the Caucasus and Stalingrad. By
July 1942, the crossing at the village of Aksayskaya again began to
play an important role for the retreating Soviet troops. The Germans
sought first of all to destroy the crossings across the Don River,
including the Aksai. They continuously bombed all the crossings of
the Red Army. By July 25, German aviation destroyed the crossing in
the village of Aksayskaya. During the operation of the crossing,
115,157 people passed through it, transported 58 guns, 98 mortars
and 16 tanks, as well as a large number of cars and carts.
The future famous Soviet and Russian theater and film actor Vladimir
Etush took part in the hostilities at the Aksai ferry in July 1942.
In 1985, he came to Aksai for the grand opening of the "Crossing"
monument - the Aksai Museum keeps a photograph of him at this
monument, on which Vladimir Abramovich left his donation signature.
Currently, the Aksai military-historical museum with
underground stone rooms and the memorial complex "Pereprava", which
are an attraction and an object of tourism in the Rostov region, is
operating in Aksai.
There is a monument on Gulaev Street in
the city dedicated to the soldiers who died on the Don crossings.