Arkady Pavlovich Lependin (born presumably around 1924–1925) — a native of Vysokovo, a participant in the Great Patriotic War and a veteran of self-propelled artillery. He left memoirs preserved in a family archive and published on the Nizhny Novgorod historical-documentary Otkrytiy Tekst (Open Text portal))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))). Arkady Pavlovich Lependin was born on 21 August 1925 and died on 30 April 2015; in his later years he lived in Nizhny Novgorod and is buried at Mar'ina Roscha Cemetery.[1][1]
Family and Origins
Lependin grew up in Vachsky District in a family of Volga river workers, which he himself described as "famous — not for wealth, but for labor and wit." His great-great-grandfather Matvey worked as a burlak (a barge hauler) on the route from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan; his great-grandfather Dmitry Matveyevich became a skipper on a barge; his grandfather Vasily Dmitrievich became a captain who worked for the Samara Light Steamship Partnership aboard the steamers Sudba and Nadymov. His father, Pavel Vasilyevich (born 1896), began serving as a sailor at the age of 14, served in the First World War as a signals telegraphist, witnessed the Brusilov Offensive, and later became a communist and worked for the administration of the Volga Shipping Company. Arkady grew up alongside his brother; both were Oktyabryata (Little Octobrists), then Pioneers, and joined the Komsomol in the 7th grade.[1]
The War Years
When the war began, Lependin, then a 9th-grade pupil, joined his classmates in October 1941 to dig anti-tank ditches (3 m deep, 7 m wide). In May–June 1942 he took part in the construction of a Gorky airfield. From June to October 1942 he worked as a stoker aboard the steamer Mikhail Kalinin: the vessel carried out assignments for the State Defense Committee — transporting troops and equipment to Stalingrad and evacuating civilians across a Volga strewn with German mines and under constant aerial attack. The steamer was covered by armed vessels of the Volga Military Flotilla. During one voyage, a triple overload caused the boiler to start leaking.[1]
The remainder of Lependin's combat career was bound up with self-propelled artillery — the branch of service in which he would finish the war. In 1943 Lependin graduated from the Saratov Military School and from September of that year took part in combat operations as part of the 400th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, commanding an SU-85 self-propelled gun; he fought on the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts, rising to the rank of Guards Captain. For his combat service, Lependin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1945), the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (1985), two Orders of the Red Star (1944), and the medals "For Valor" and "For Combat Merit."[1][1][1]
After the War
Lependin's memoirs, written in his own hand, are dated spring 2008. In the text he describes his youth, his military service, and his family history, emphasizing the continuity of generations of working river people. After the war ended, Lependin continued his military service, retired with the rank of major, and then worked aboard vessels of the Volga United River Shipping Company, carrying on the family's river tradition. In the postwar years Lependin also worked as a military instructor at School No. 182 in Leninsky District of the City of Gorky.[1][1][1]
Sources
- names52.ru — Lependin Arkady Pavlovich (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Arkady Pavlovich Lependin — veteran of self-propelled artillery — OTKRYTY TEKST (archive)