Hero of the day. Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri

Meeting in Spain

Before leaving (from Spain) I once again went to Lister's. While I was sitting with him, a tall boy ran into the room in military uniform. Black as a gypsy, with a dazzling smile and cheerful eyes. Peering into the features of his face, I noticed something familiar, seen before, but where? I've never met a guy, I knew that for sure. But someone already had the same eyes, the smiling boy barely had time to close the door behind him, when he immediately threw himself into Lister's arms. They hugged for a long time, slapped each other on the back, shook hands, and from the side it seemed that father and son met. But Lister had no children.

(E. Lister - Commander of the famous "Fifth Communist Regiment" of Republican Spain)

"Pavlito," Lister's radiant face turned in my direction. - This is the son of our Pasionaria, - Lister nodded at the stranger, - Corporal Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri.

So that's why this young man seemed familiar to me! He was very much like his mother. We shook hands tightly. Cheerful and sociable, he spoke incessantly. His youthful enthusiasm captured both me and Lister. I wanted to laugh in the same way, wave my arms in the same way and tell with the same conviction how Ruben did it.

The orderly brought wine, sandwiches, lemonade, oranges, and Lister invited us to drink a glass. For my departure, as he put it, and for our meeting.

I told Ruben that I admired his military deeds: at the age of seventeen, being a corporal and having rich experience in fighting and commanding is not given to everyone. He was embarrassed only for a moment, and with the same ease that slipped through in any of his actions, he answered:

You spoke about my youth. Obviously, you think it's too early for me to fight? How could I not be among the freedom fighters? My blood, my life belongs to my people, my Spain.

“Don't be surprised, Pavlito, at the age of thirteen, when Ruben and his mother arrived in Madrid, he was selling an underground party newspaper on the streets of the city and in working-class districts, deceiving the police who were hunting for the newspaper.

He glanced at Reuben briefly.

“From childhood,” Lister continued, “he participated in demonstrations. Together with his senior comrades, at the grave of the workers killed by the police, he swore to take revenge on the stranglers of freedom. And now you see in front of you Sergeant Ibarruri, a conscious fighter for the republic.

He looked back at Reuben.

"Cheer up, my boy!" and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't be shy, old man. If only there were more such eagles, lacquers like our Pavlito, and the brown plague would suffocate in impotent rage. Do you guys know what a scorpion does when it senses danger? He kills himself with his own poison. So it will be with the brown plague if all peoples and their governments stand in its way. But this requires good, fighting guys, a lot of guys like you, friends.

He paused for a moment and walked over to my chair.

“That is why, Pavlito, I am sincerely sorry to part with you,” there was warmth and sadness in his words, which touched me to the depths of my soul. - In the few months that you were with us, we fell in love with the Russians, kamarada ...

- How? Ruben was surprised. “Are you leaving?...At a time like this...” His angry gaze rested first on me, then on Lister. - Yes, this is...

"No, it's not what you thought, my boy," Lister interrupted. “This is a command order.

“Order…” Reuben said slowly. — Excuse me, Pavlito! “Your Suvorov,” Ruben touched my hand, “rightly said: “If you don’t learn to obey, you won’t learn to command.” I remember this from the time when I was with you, in the Union. For life!... I wish you all the best.

- Thank you.

Lister and Reuben escorted me to the lobby.

“You need to study, Ruben,” I said to him in parting, “you must study.” Having received military knowledge, you will become a hundred times stronger. We shook hands tightly. “I hope to meet you as an illustrious commander, Reuben.

Meeting in Moscow

In 1940, on duty, I had to visit the school named after Supreme Council RSFSR, which I graduated in 1932. I go to the Hall of Fame. I saw myself at the booth of the first graduates of the school. We were photographed in 1930 together with the commander and head of the school against the backdrop of the Kremlin wall. Then I went into one of the classes, where the cadets were studying the Maxim heavy machine gun.

I listened to the answers of the cadets. I myself was impatient to join the classes: I wanted to pick up a machine gun, which had been for me for a long time true friend in Spain. A disassembled machine gun lock lay on the table. And then I could not stand it. Picked it up, pulled the trigger.

- And who can collect the "maxim" with his eyes closed? I asked the cadets.

There was silence. It felt like the guys were confused. Perhaps they were embarrassed by our presence. No one wanted to hit the face in the dirt.

— Who is it? the teacher repeated.

- Let me.

A tall, slender cadet got up from behind the farthest table and stood at attention. Eyes turned to the daredevil. Dark-skinned and dark-haired, he stared at me intently.

I didn't believe my eyes. The cadet made a slightly noticeable movement in my direction.

“Ruben,” I shouted and, ignoring the bewildered looks of those around me, rushed to him.

We hugged. We were surrounded by cadets.

This was our second meeting.

Indeed, the earth is narrow. We were both surprised and delighted at the same time. unexpected meeting. They remembered the defense of Madrid, Guadalajara. I asked him how he got into the school.

“It's a long story, Comrade Pavlito,” Ruben smiled thoughtfully.

.................

It was not easy for the young man's heart when, under the onslaught of heavily armed interventionists, he left the bleeding Spanish land. Having crossed the border of France, Ruben was interned and ended up in one of French concentration camps . He endured many disasters and hardships until he managed to escape and make his way to the Soviet Union, which became his second home.

As a boy, in 1935, when the police threw Dolores Ibarruri into prison and the children were left alone, Rubén came to our country with his sister Amaya and other Spanish children. Cheerful and sociable, Ruben quickly became related to new people for him. He made especially many friends among the workers of the Moscow Automobile Plant, where he entered as an apprentice.

The spirit of camaraderie, mutual assistance, love for one's profession, the craving for knowledge that reigned in the workshops of the plant - everything resonated in Ruben's soul. In everything he tries to be like his new comrades - the creators and builders of a happy future. He reads a lot, participates in public life.

The fascist rebellion interrupted Ruben's studies and work. Hiding his name and age, he returned to Spain and joined the Republican army. The command sent him as a private in a mountain company. The brave warrior, Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, for courage, resourcefulness and skill shown in battles with the rebels, is promoted to corporal, and then to sergeant - a great rank at that time. Three years of war - and now Ibarruri is here again, in the Soviet Union. I learned all this later, but for now we are standing side by side in the classroom of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

- What specialty did you choose?

- Machine gunner! he answered proudly.

- Well done!

Of course, at that time I did not think that Ruben and I would soon have to wage an even more cruel and difficult struggle against fascism.

First days of the War.

And then the terrible year of 1941 came ...

In early July, in Belarus, near the city of Borisov, on the Berezina River, where Napoleon ended his inglorious campaign against Russia, Lieutenant Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, with a small group of brave men, was assigned to cover the forced withdrawal of the regiment's units.

agonizing minutes of waiting. The Nazis ceased fire, they counted on an easy success. The machine gunners of the cover were also silent.

But now, from behind a turn in the road, hidden by a hillock, enemy armored vehicles appeared.

What Ruben had heard before about tank attacks from seasoned, seasoned officers was not like this fight. The tanks quickly jumped the hillock, passed the field at high speed. The barrage of artillery did not harm them. But when two cars suddenly ran into mines, the movement of the entire group stopped. The commander of the tank group was obviously cunning, and for good reason he maneuvered at our front line. He tried to cover his infantry, which ran after the vehicles, but the armor did not reliably cover the soldiers, and they understood that procrastination was like death. And so it happened. They hesitated, and two more vehicles were hit by armor-piercers of the company.

In the trench there was a cry of victory twice, someone cursed intricately and cheerfully, someone laughed loudly.

In the first calculation, a machine gunner was killed, and Ruben had to replace him. The new "Maxim" worked obediently and clearly. And when a group of enemy soldiers began to fuss at the wrecked tank, a hundred meters from the ledge of the trench, Ruben covered them with a long line and for the first time heard soldier's praise in this battle. But he understood that the culmination of the battle was ahead. The Germans prepared a tank attack on the "patch" near the bridge openly and quite carefully, with little disguise, then pulling up the infantry, then rebuilding the battle formation of vehicles. The fight was demonstrative, planned to the minute. He was followed by generals who arrived on a special plane from Hitler's headquarters. Fifty tanks and two motorized infantry battalions, covered by bomber aircraft and artillery, were supposed to complete the operation in an hour. Officers and non-commissioned officers, vehicle commanders received brand new chronometers before the battle. It is difficult to understand what it was: a subtly thought-out psychological move or an action from an excess of self-confidence.

Chronometers counted time, as it should be. However, one detail failed in this bulky, smoky machine - people. The arrow ran in a circle, overtaking the schedule, while the infantry and tanks stood still.

Reuben clearly imagined this attack. On the eve of the scouts brought brand new chronometers found from the tankers, whose wrecked vehicles remained in the neutral zone. Now the chronometers lay in front of Reuben on a broken biscuit box next to the telephone, but they counted another time, his time.

Ruben waited for the attack, like a fight with a typhoon. In fact, everything turned out to be easier. Events developed so quickly that he did not catch the turning point in the course of the battle, and for some reason the Germans began to retreat. At first, the enemy infantry was confused: the soldiers, cut off by machine gun fire from the vehicles, tried to lie down, dig in, and find shelter. The slope of the shore was bare and rolled: no notch, no bush, no tubercle. The sun had already risen over the bridge trusses, and the sloping slope, covered with faded, brown grass, was brightly lit. And the heavy machine guns installed in the trench worked flawlessly.

The Germans asked for planes to help the retreating infantry.

To the west, a torn cloud appeared over the bluish border of the forest. It grew watery gray below, and almost black above. Rolls of thunder seemed to arise in her. But the cloud was far away, and the thunder kept rolling and growing heavy, shaking and compacting the air, and then above the ground, in the cloudy sky, some arrows spread out and a rattling dry stream gushed out ...

Ruben had never seen such a number of planes simultaneously lifted into the sky. They came in a huge wedge, pointed at the bridge, subtly attached to each other. Invisible supports barely supported this weight, and the sun shone on their planes.

The blast wave struck obliquely along the trench, collided with another, oncoming one, spun like a shaggy whirlwind, and for a minute, or maybe more, Ruben could not move his arm or leg. He was not afraid for himself, probably, he did not have time, he was afraid for the bridge: it was here, at its turn, that the Germans could crush the defenses and make their way to the bridge.

Finally, he was able to push off the wall. His feet got stuck in loose scree, he stumbled and fell. His hand groped for something rounded, soft. Shoulder?... Yes, shoulder and that's the face. He withdrew his hand. Her cheek was cold and hard, and silky hair flowed through her fingers.

He pushed through the gap and pulled himself up to the machine gun. The earth shook again. The soldier at the machine gun lay on his side, giving way to Ruben next to him.

— Carousel... Damn carousel!... I heard about it. They bombed Madrid the same way,” Reuben barely had time to say.

Rising up on a pile of discarded clay, Ruben looked around. The trench is gone. From the distant village to the river, dumps of earth piled up in disorder and blackened pits. The shore was completely pitted with funnels. Islands grew behind the ridge. Chips, disheveled branches, reed stalks were randomly tossed about on the water. At the stone support of the bridge, large flakes of foam looked like huge ice floes.

The world has changed. He became sadder and stricter. Silence spread over the land. And suddenly Reuben heard voices and laughter from the collapsed trench.

“Hey, old man, why, the bomb took pity on you, saved you, like a mother of a baby!” Swaddled with earth and ... helped out. You, my dear fellow, write thanks to Mr. Krupp...

There was something to be surprised: only three were killed in the company, and seven were wounded. All the machine guns survived, there was still enough ammunition, the signalmen quickly found and stitched a broken wire.

— How are you? - asked the battalion commander.

- According to orders...

The commander chuckled for some reason.

Ruben lay at the machine gun and looked at the distant forest, at blue cloud in splashes of light and thought that something similar had once happened: the same pre-stormy evening, the wary rustle of the waves, the feeling of imminent danger and the consciousness of its inevitability, the vague anguish of the heart. Where was it? On the Ebro? No. And not in Madrid. He remembered: it was in the Argelos concentration camp, on the very shore mediterranean sea, in France, when he was preparing to escape and he was helped by ... a thunderstorm. And now, in the scope, Ruben saw the gray-green overcoats of the Nazis.

They climbed tirelessly.

“Too far,” Ruben thought, and shouted loudly:

- Calm down, guys! Do not shoot without a command!

The dust raised by motorcycles made it impossible to determine the strength of the enemy, and the unknown is the most unpleasant thing. Ruben examined the line of his defense: the positions were dug out soundly, the people and materiel were covered and well camouflaged, the two right machine guns made it possible to conduct concentrated flanking fire.

A gust of wind drove away the dust, and Ruben managed to notice four motorcycles and three cars with the Nazis. These were advanced intelligence units.

Three or four kilometers behind them was a stronger enemy column. The enemy was heading for the bridge across the Berezina.

"Don't rush, let me get closer," Ruben whispered to himself, "closer, closer... even closer..."

The first motorcycle is already clearly visible. The driver, wearing a large, square helmet with horns, gazed intently ahead. Arms wide apart and bent at the elbows confidently hold the steering wheel. This little guy feels like he's conquering the world. Even more self-confident and impudent look at the second German, sitting in a carriage. Without a helmet, with the jacket sleeves rolled up to the elbow, the op, lounging on the seat, lazily looks around, puffing on a cigarette. His red hair shines brightly in the sun. Here he was thrown up on a pothole, he said something to the driver, and they laughed.

The words from a fascist song, which he had heard back in Spain, were intrusively woven into Ruben’s thoughts: “We are walking, clearly beating the step, half of Europe is under our feet ...”

“Even closer... even more... now we will show you "Europe under your feet."

A red rocket soared towards the enemy column.

- Fire! Ruben shouted. In this team, he put all his hatred for the invaders.

The fire of machine guns and rifles merged. A cannon fired from the left. And the first thing Reuben saw was an overturned motorcycle with its wheels spinning wildly. The Nazis scattered, looking for shelter, fell and many did not rise. One of the cars was on fire.

The enemy soldiers were stunned. More than thirty corpses were lying along the road, and the surviving "conquerors", firing randomly, ran back. But it was not there! You can't get far from machine gun fire. Well-aimed lines overtook the fugitives. "Drang nah Osten" for this unit did not take place.

But Reuben knew that this was only the beginning. It was already clear how suitable units were deploying in battle formations on the move. Mines slammed into our positions.

From the side of the enemy there was a bass scream of a large-caliber machine gun. And here are the new chains of attackers. They approached without firing.

- Fire! - Ruben gave the command again, and the "maxims" spoke again.

Ruben got up. A swarm of sparks darted close by, and he had time to think: a machine gun. Such a line could not have been accidental.

However, the turn did not bring much harm. Ruben's tunic was torn off and his shoulder was burned. He threw out his hand; there was no pain, which means it was a scratch, the main thing is that it does not hurt the bone ...

Sergeant Astavsky next swore and said offendedly:

“Your ear was pierced, rogues!” Well, I'll blow my brains out by the ear!

And then they saw the approaching tanks: one, two ... ten ... thirty ...

The first tank seemed huge to Ruben, probably because the sun had already set below the horizon. It was the last thing he saw on the Berezina...
................

- The wounded did not regain consciousness?

The elderly sister got up, staggered and sat down: it was crowded, and the car swayed sharply at the joints.

“He was delirious,” said the sister. - All the time I remembered some girl.

The doctor smiled.

- Not new ... In the next compartment, the soldier remembers Varenka, in the other - Natasha. Pulse filling has improved. So, he sees his beloved for good. You need another blood transfusion.

Ruben came to his senses.

“Girl,” he repeated. - What a Girl. It was my friend. Why is he silent? He left?

Reuben felt the nurse in the white coat slowly begin to blur, and soon her outlines disappeared. Instead, he saw blue-blue sky and the parent's house, old, dilapidated.

It was early morning when he went out the gate. Neighbors at first spoke loudly in the alley, and then fell silent. Reuben realized they were silent because he went out and they noticed him.

“Look, here comes Ruben Ruiz,” said grandmother Josefina, the one who constantly knitted a stocking on the porch and smoked.

- He is still quite a baby and does not know what a prison is.
...........

Reuben now remembered that someone had been crying in the room the night before. He asked his mother: who is this? And she said the wind...

And he introduced himself to his father. He saw his father as he was every day at home when he returned from work. Face, hands, leather cap, canvas jacket - everything is covered with coal dust. He looked at his son attentively, with a barely perceptible smile that died away at the corners of his lips.

Did they beat you, dad? He bowed his head and remained silent.

Why didn't you take me to jail? They wouldn't touch you. Father chuckled and beckoned Reuben with his finger.

He did not notice how he got out from under the table. Why did his father call? And, of course, he did not want his mother to see. He always spoke to his son softly and sternly: "We are men, Ruben." How many times did he remind him of this! “Are you hurt, Reuben? Men do not cry". "Did a boy hit you? Men don't fight back." Yes, he does not want his mother to see this, and his son could see it, because Ruben is a man, he will not cry, he will not scream.

And the boy did not cry. Blood trickled down his father's trimmed mustache, down the corners of his lips, and Ruben watched it splash onto his canvas jacket and couldn't tear his eyes away...

Soon my mother was arrested, and they were left alone in the house.

When mother returned from prison after the first arrest, everything in the house was as before, as always happens when a mother returns after a long separation.

A week passed, did not pass - flashed, they were sitting at dinner, there were no guests that evening. Amaya chattered merrily about her little affairs, and her mother listened to her, smiling with her eyes. She looked at her son, and her eyes became serious:

- I want to ask you, Ruben ... Here's what, let's go with me to Madrid.

.................

“When are we going, in the summer?”

Mother answered simply, as they say: tomorrow we will go to the market.

“Tomorrow,” she said.

There was reason to dance and spin like a top! When Ruben got to Madrid the next day, the first thing he noticed was a group of boys with newspapers in their hands and went to them.

A minute later they surrounded him with a noisy flock, lively, cocky, daredevils, and began to consider him a curiosity.

Someone pulled a cap over his forehead, and a red-haired, swirling bully cautiously extended his hand and pinched.

Reuben turned around and slapped him. The kid flew off onto a pile of garbage and sat down, amazed at this turn of events.

- Well, the village, now there will be a fight! ...

- Not a village, but a mine, - said Ruben, - Let's go one on one, the rest to the side.

The redhead stood up, his freckled face trembling with anger, spitting through his teeth, asked:

— Mine. What is a mine? Okay, before I beat the arrogance out of you, let's figure it out. Where did this come from - lay it out.

- I came with my mother. From Biscay. She is a communist. That's all.

The guys looked at each other, someone laughed: “Well, you flew in, Ryzhik!” But Ryzhik was not at all offended, his rage seemed to have been lifted by a hand: he touched his cheekbone, looked at his fingers and shouted menacingly at the guys:

- Well, what are you staring at. Maybe they wanted us to start kissing right away. Eh, burdocks. He put his hand on his shoulder, turned slightly, was pleased.

I respect miners. You will work with us.

- What to do?

- "Mundo Obrero" to distribute. Notice I don't say sell newspapers. Merchants, they sell, and we distribute.

“Of course I will,” Ruben was delighted.

Ruben woke up when the train stopped at some half-station. He remembered the last battle at the Berezina.

Here, at the bridge, Ruben was seriously wounded. One of the tanks that came to the rescue picked him up and took him out.

For this feat in September 1941, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin presented the Order of the Red Banner to the young lieutenant Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri.

He, a Spaniard, received his first award on Russian soil, defending the bridge over the Berezina River. I, a Russian, was awarded the first such order in Spain, defending the bridge on the Manzanares River from the enemy!

A severe wound received near Borisov required long-term treatment, and Ruben suffered greatly from forced inactivity.

“What worries me the most is that I had to leave the front,” he writes to his mother from the hospital on July 8, 1941, “because I have an insane desire to destroy these robbers.

Once again I tell you, mother, that I consider it my happiness and pride to have the opportunity to fight in the ranks of the great and invincible Red Army against the gendarme of mankind. I am sure that here he will break his teeth ... "

At such moments, his mother was always his best adviser. Ruben changed his mind. The world, life, he saw differently now. The mother was looking forward to another letter from her son. And it came.

«. .. I am glad,” he wrote in another letter to his mother, “that from our division you have been informed of my new address. For several days now I have been going to write you a letter, but at first I decided to make sure of my health, and now, when I am convinced that I am healthy and will be able to fight again, I am writing to you in complete peace of mind.

It so happened, mother, that I left Moscow for the West, for the glorious Berezina River, but you will receive this letter from the East, from the ancient Ural city of Ufa, where there is so much greenery and sun!

I am surrounded by good people, attentive and kind, and in the ward with me is my front-line comrade, a Belarusian teacher, a deep, simple and frank person.

I see that a lot of time was wasted. You always tried to interest me in books, but I was drawn to the guys, to the mines, to the mountains. However, you yourself know that books other than the Bible were rare in our mining families and we did not boast of learning. Now it’s a completely different matter: as soon as I win back, I’ll start studying. I have a secret, good dream: I will become a mechanic. I know that it is not easy, but I have enough perseverance, I will study dozens of cars, re-read a mountain of textbooks, and I will achieve my goal.

Can you imagine what a fascinating thing it is to operate a very complex machine, even a series of machines, to listen to the beating of their iron pulse, to know what is happening in every knot and knot, and, most importantly, to remember, to be aware all the time, what an enormous work with it , with a car, you perform for hundreds, for thousands of people.

Ruben could no longer remain in the rear. With a wound that has not yet healed, he leaves Ufa for Moscow for an appointment.

And again the front, fierce battles, exhausting campaigns along difficult roads.

===================

Meeting near Stalingrad

It was 1942. German fascist troops, having superiority in technology and weapons, rapidly rushed to the Volga. 13th Guards Order of Lenin rifle division, which I commanded at that time, along with other formations of the 62nd Army, were ordered to stop the enemy. There were fierce battles. A few days before crossing the Volga, I, the adjutant, and the chief of artillery, Colonel Barbin, went to the Stalingrad region to study the area along the western bank of the river.

It's hard to get on the front roads. Continuously, column after column, trucks with food, ammunition, tank trucks with fuel moved. There were tanks, artillery, infantry. Overtaking the columns, our car at one of the sidings near the Kotluban station slid into a ditch at high speed. We jumped out and began to help the driver. But no matter how hard they tried, the results were deplorable. I went out onto the road, stopped one of the units and asked the sergeant to help.

Yes, Comrade General! We will carry your beauty in our arms. And he gave the order. Tall guys, leaving the machine gun, quickly pulled out the car.

- Ege-ge ... Where is it, brother, your "emka" was made with a colander? one of the soldiers asked the driver, shaking off the clay.

“Eighty-five holes, as it is,” our driver replied. - It Business Cards Fritz.

— Ombre, ke kieres tu? (Spanish - Man, what do you want?) - I suddenly heard behind my back and turned around: some lieutenant was talking about something in Spanish with a sergeant.

Seeing me, he clearly threw his hand to the visor of his cap and ... his pitch-black eyebrows crawled up.

“Ombre, Comrade General, is that you?”

We hugged tightly and kissed each other. The fighters of the machine-gun company surrounded us and looked at me and their commander with great surprise. Many thought that the general was simply thanking the commander for pulling his holed "emka" onto the road.

I congratulated Ruben on a high government award and invited him to join the 13th Guards.

“Thank you,” Reuben replied. - I'm used to my fighters, and there it's a matter of command.

This was no longer the young Reuben I had known before. Noticeably grown up, matured. His face was haggard and pale.

- Did you walk a lot? I asked him.

- Yes, it will be almost a day, as we go. Not much left - fifteen, twenty kilometers.

- How is your wound?

“The wound is healing,” he smiled with a cheerful and so familiar smile. “However, Comrade General, the pain of the loss of fighting friends will not heal. A lot of good guys were buried. Here and in the company, which I was instructed to command, the oldest twenty. But they go into battle with full determination, with knowledge of the matter, and if the situation requires it, they will not spare their lives.

- I want to go to battle soon, my hands itch. So I would have grabbed these robbers.

- You have a good desire, but do not rush. The war is not the same as it was in Spain. Hitler has now concentrated the economy, equipment and armaments of all of Europe against us. He wants to establish a "new European order" in the world.

I thanked Reuben for his help, shook hands and got into the car. We parted .... for a long time.

..................

The fourth meeting with Ruben Ibarruri took place in the spring of 1965. I came to him in peaceful days, after a rally dedicated to the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad. A photograph was fixed on the marble slab of the majestic monument. Below is the signature: "Hero of the Soviet Union Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, died a heroic death near the Kotluban station."
.....

Last summer I had interesting meeting. An unfamiliar woman called on the phone.

“Maria Tuzikova,” she introduced herself. - I worked as a nurse in a hospital near Stalingrad. Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri died in my arms.

A few days later she sat at my house and talked about last hours Ruben.

He was brought to a small hospital, which was located in Akhtuba. Ruben was unconscious. They put him in a separate room. She knew from experience that his wound was fatal. The lieutenant thrashed about. Black hair matted. With parched lips, he kept repeating: "Mom ... mom ... life, I'm thirsty."

These were his last words. Without regaining consciousness, he died.

The fate of the legendary Spanish revolutionary who gave all her strength to the fight against fascism is closely connected with the USSR. Here she was forced to live in immigration for many years, here, defending our land, her son died Ruben.

People of the older generation well remember Flaming Dolores, a passionate denunciator of fascism, her famous aphorism: "Better to die standing than to live on your knees". The statement was based on the words from a speech by Dolores Ibarruri, delivered in Paris back in 1936: “If the fascists are allowed to continue the crimes they commit in Spain, aggressive fascism will fall on other peoples of Europe. We need help, we need planes and guns for our struggle... The Spanish people prefer to die on their feet than to live on their knees." The warnings were not heeded. The brown plague engulfed Europe, and the carpet bombing of the peaceful Basque town of Guernica in April 1937 was the prologue to a monstrous tragedy that touched everyone.

Dolores Ibarruri Gomez Born December 9, 1895 in the town of Gagliarta (province of Biscay) in the family of a miner of Basque origin. Since 1917, Dolores began to appear in the working press under the name Passionaria (Flaming), and a few years later she joined the Communist Party of Spain. The communist was arrested and imprisoned six times, but these trials did not break her, only confirming the correctness of her chosen path. During World War II, Ibarruri actively fought for the unification of the Spaniards in a united national front in order to prevent the Spanish dictator Franco from dragging the Spanish people into the war on the side of Nazi Germany. Participated in the international anti-fascist movement.

A page from the diary of General Alexander Rodimtsev. In the 1930s he was a Soviet military adviser during the Spanish Civil War.

"I happened to meet many fighters of the Republican military formations. As a rule, they were young people. I especially remember one of them. We met. The young man's name was Ruben. It turned out that this was the son of the famous Spanish anti-fascist Dolores Ibarruri. I told Ruben that I admired him military affairs: being a corporal at the age of seventeen and having a rich experience of fighting and commanding is not given to everyone.He was embarrassed only for a minute, and with the same ease that slipped through in any of his actions, he answered:

You talked about my youth. Obviously, you think it's too early for me to fight? How could I not be among the freedom fighters? My blood, my life belongs to my people, my Spain.

As a boy, in 1935, when the police threw Dolores Ibarruri into prison and left the children alone, Rubén came to our country with his sister and other Spanish children. Cheerful and sociable, Ruben quickly became related to new people for him. He made especially many friends among the workers of the Moscow Automobile Plant, where he entered as an apprentice.

The spirit of camaraderie, mutual assistance, love for one's profession, the craving for knowledge that reigned in the workshops of the plant - everything resonated in Ruben's soul. He tries to be like his new comrades in everything. He reads a lot, participates in public life. The fascist rebellion interrupted Ruben's studies and work. Hiding his name and age, he returned to Spain and joined the Republican army. The command sent him as a private in a mountain company. A brave warrior, Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, for courage, resourcefulness and skill shown in battles with the rebels, is promoted to corporal, and then to sergeant - a great rank at that time. Three years of war - and now Ibarruri is back in the Soviet Union."

We continue to flip through the pages of Alexander Rodimtsev's diary.

“Of course, I didn’t think then that soon Ruben and I would have to wage an even more cruel and difficult struggle against fascism. And then came the formidable 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. Intoxicated by success in the West, the enemy is rushing to Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv. Many of my friends went to the front. Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri also left.

In early July, in Belarus, near the city of Borisov, on the Berezina River, where in 1812 Napoleon ended his inglorious campaign against Russia, Soviet lieutenant Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri, with a small group of brave men, was assigned to cover the forced withdrawal of the regiment's units.

An unequal battle thundered for six hours in a row, and for six hours the brave machine gunners of Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri held the bridge, preventing the enemy from crossing the Berezina. During this time, the units of the regiment retreated to the indicated line, prepared to meet the Nazis. When the Nazis destroyed the last machine gun, Ruben with a group of surviving machine gunners, armed with grenades, rushed to the Nazi tanks.

The first tank seemed huge to Ruben, probably because the sun had already set below the horizon. It was the last thing he saw on the Berezina ...

He, a Spaniard, received his first award - the Order of the Red Banner - on Russian soil, defending the bridge over the Berezina River. I, a Russian, was awarded the first such order in Spain, defending the bridge on the Manzanares River from the enemy!

A severe wound received near Borisov required long-term treatment, and Ruben suffered greatly from forced inactivity.

“What depresses me the most is that I had to leave the front,” he writes to his mother from the hospital on July 8, 1941, “because I have an insane desire to destroy these robbers. Once again, I tell you, mother, that I consider it my happiness and pride to have the opportunity fight in the ranks of the great and invincible Red Army against the gendarme of humanity. I am sure that here he will break his teeth ... "

And again the front, fierce battles, exhausting campaigns along difficult roads, continues Alexander Rodimtsev.

It was 1942. The fascist German troops, having superiority in equipment and weapons, were rapidly rushing to the Volga. The 13th Guards Rifle Division, which I commanded at the time, was ordered to stop the enemy. There were fierce battles. A few days before the crossing of the Volga, I, the adjutant and the chief of artillery of the division went to the Stalingrad region to study the terrain on west bank rivers.

Comrade General, is that you?

I congratulated Ruben on a high government award and invited him to join the 13th Guards Division.

Thanks, Reuben replied. - I'm used to my fighters, and there it's a matter of command.

It was no longer the young Reuben he had known before. Noticeably grown up, matured. His face was haggard and pale.

Walked a lot? I asked him.

Yes, it's almost a day, as we go. There is not much left - fifteen, twenty kilometers.

How is your wound?

The wound is healing, - he smiled a cheerful and so familiar smile. “However, Comrade General, the pain from the loss of fighting friends will not heal. A lot of good guys were buried. Here and in the company, which I was instructed to command, the oldest twenty. But they go into battle with full determination, with knowledge of the matter, and if the situation requires it, they will not spare their lives. And he spoke about the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis.

I want to fight soon, my hands itch. So I would have grabbed these robbers.

Your desire is good, but take your time. The war is not the same as it was in Spain. Hitler has now concentrated the economy, equipment and armaments of all of Europe against us. He wants to establish a "new European order" in the world.

"The New Order," he chuckled. - The shooting of women, old people, children is " new order"? Burnt cities, villages - this is a" new order "? No! This is barbarism, deliberate, pre-planned and therefore more terrible. And we must put an end to the Nazis forever. incredible.

This was the last meeting between General Rodimtsev and Ruben Ibarruri. Here are the lines from the front-line report, compiled soon after.

At the end of August 1942, a difficult situation developed in the area of the Kotluban station. The German tanks that broke through threatened to cut off Stalingrad from our main troops. To eliminate this threat, on August 23, 1942, an advance detachment was sent to the area, which included a machine gun company under the command of Ruben Ibarruri. The brave actions of the detachment and the powerful fire of the machine-gun company stopped the advance of the enemy. In this battle, the commander of the forward detachment died a heroic death. Rubén Ibarruri took command. The Nazis, with superior forces, continued continuous attacks. In one night alone, the advance detachment under the command of Ibarruri repelled six enemy attacks. The enemy was dealt big damage. On the battlefield, the Nazis left over a hundred dead soldiers and officers, and large trophies were captured. In this battle, Ruben Ibarruri was mortally wounded.

For heroism shown in the fight against fascist german invaders glorious son of the Spanish people Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

09.01.1920 - 03.09.1942
The hero of the USSR

Decree dates

22.08.1956

monuments

And barruri Ruben Ruiz - commander of the machine-gun company of the training battalion of the 35th Guards Rifle Division of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, guard senior lieutenant.
Born on January 9, 1920 in the village of Somorrostro, the family of the famous revolutionary, Chairman Communist Party Spain Dolores Ibarruri. Hispanic. FROM early age participated in political struggle.
In 1935 he came to the Soviet Union. He worked at a factory, then studied at a military aviation school. In 1936 he returned to Spain, where he participated in revolutionary war against fascists and interventionists.
In 1939 he again came to the Soviet Union. Graduated military school named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He served in the 1st Moscow Proletarian Division.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War at the front. Baptism of fire received in early July 1941 in the battles on the Berezina River, where he was wounded. For courage and courage shown in these battles, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
He showed exceptional courage in battles in the summer of 1942 near Stalingrad, commanding a machine-gun company. At the end of August 1942, a difficult situation developed in the area of the Kotluban station. The German tanks that broke through threatened to cut off Stalingrad from our main troops. To eliminate this threat, on August 23, 1942, an advance detachment of the 35th Guards Rifle Division, which included a machine gun company under the command of Ibarruri, was sent to the Kotluban station area. The advance of the enemy was stopped by the courageous actions of the forward detachment and the powerful fire of the machine-gun company. In this battle, the commander of the vanguard was killed. Rubén Ibarruri took command. The Nazis, with superior forces, continued continuous attacks. In just one night, the forward detachment under the command of Ibarruri repelled 6 enemy attacks. The enemy was heavily damaged. On the battlefield, the Nazis left over a hundred dead soldiers and officers, and large trophies were captured. In this battle, Ruben Ibarruri was mortally wounded and died on September 3, 1942.
He was buried on the Square of the Fallen Fighters in the hero city of Volgograd.
W and the heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the glorious son of the Spanish people, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 22, 1956, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The name of the Hero is engraved on the memorial sign "They were Artekites", installed on the territory of the International Children's Center "Artek" (Crimea). In Moscow, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the school where he studied.

On January 9, 1920, in the village of Somorrostro, which is located in the Basque country in northern Spain, a son was born in the family of a communist miner - Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri. At the age of 10, he was already guarding underground gatherings, distributing leaflets, the newspaper "Working World". At the age of 14, at the head of a pioneer detachment, he participated in the uprising of the Asturian miners.
But the uprising was brutally crushed. The proletarian leaders, and above all the Ruben family, were persecuted. For months, Ibarruri waited to get out of his parents' arrest, he himself went to prison as a hostage. I went to school barefoot, wrote on old newspapers. And once it was even necessary to organize a strike of students in defense of the teacher.
In 1935, Ruben, along with his sister Amaya, was sent to the Soviet Union, to the country visited by his mother, Dolores Ibarruri, a guest at the 17th Congress of the Communist Party.
He lived in the family of the old Bolsheviks Panteleimon Nikolaevich and Olga Borisovna Lepeshinsky, was friends with the son of the legendary revolutionary Fyodor Andreevich Sergeev, known in the underground under the name of Artyom. He learned turning from Soviet workers in the tool shop of a car factory. He also discussed the events in Spain with them. In the fall of 1935, Ibarruri entered the aviation school in Stalingrad.
However, Ruben failed to become a pilot. In Spain, the flames of civil war flared up. Sixteen-year-old Ruben was eager to fight for his beloved homeland. Under a false name, he returned to Spain and for a long time sought permission to participate in hostilities. He addressed a letter personally to the Republican General Juan Modesto Guillotto, and was finally sent as an ordinary fighter to a mountain company.
The young Republican fought heroically in Catalonia and on the borders of the Ebro River. For his exploits, he was promoted to corporal, and then to sergeant, and was appointed commander of a reconnaissance unit.
Ibarruri did not lose heart even when he had to leave his homeland torn apart by the Nazis, to leave the brutalized Falangists through the Pyrenees to France. He retained his courage in the Argeres camp, where the Republicans were interned. Not knowing the language, he managed to escape and go through all of France in order to declare at the Soviet embassy his desire to go to the Soviet Union again.
Here Ibarruri most seriously took up the study of military affairs. Having successfully graduated from the military school named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR), junior lieutenant Ibarruri took command of a machine-gun platoon of the 175th rifle regiment of the 1st Moscow Proletarian Division. Here he met June 1941 ...
In July 1941, the machine gunners of Lieutenant Ruben Ibarruri held the crossing over the Berezina near the city of Borisov for half a day. 4 wrecked enemy tanks froze in front of their position: 2 were blown up by mines, 2 were knocked out by artillerymen. Several motorcyclists, more than a hundred soldiers destroyed our fighters. Ruben himself lay down behind a machine gun more than once, replacing wounded gunners. The Nazis did not manage to break the resistance of a handful of fighters. In the battle, Ibarruri was wounded and taken to the rear by tankers.
The Soviet country highly appreciated the courage of the Spaniard. In September, when Ruben left the hospital, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin presented him with the Order of the Red Banner. Accepting the award, Ruben, who had not yet recovered from a serious wound, asked M.I. Kalinin to send him back to the front. But Mikhail Ivanovich said that doctors know better if Ruben can fight. Ruben had to go to the city of Kuibyshev to rest. Repeatedly he filed reports with a request to send him to the front.
Once, a general familiar from battles in Spain promised Ruben to take him to his division, which was sent to Stalingrad. And now the commander of the training battalion of the 100th guards regiment Captain Lustin of the 35th Guards Rifle Division introduced the new commander, Senior Lieutenant Ruben Ibarruri, to the machine gun company.
On August 23, 1942, the Nazis resumed their offensive, trying to reach the Volga north of Stalingrad. The 35th Guards Division was at that time in the area of Samofalovka and Kotluban. She was ordered to strike at Bolshaya Rossoshka to stop the advance of the enemy.
To ensure the deployment of the regiments of the division, the vanguard was thrown out on vehicles as part of a rifle battalion and a machine-gun company of senior lieutenant Ibarruri. By evening, the detachment was already at the turn and immediately entered the battle.
Only later did it become known that the main forces of the 6th Hitler's army- 14th Army Corps! The soldiers courageously met the avalanche of enemy infantry and tanks. A flurry of fire was brought down on the Nazis by machine gunners. The enemy hesitated. One tank caught fire, then another. Meanwhile, the main forces of the division successfully deployed into battle formation and entered into a night battle with the enemy.
August 24, 1942 the vanguard received new task- to cover the right flank of our units at the Vlasovka farm, which is near the "junction 564". And at this critical moment, when the Nazis could bypass the division, hit it from the rear, the battalion commander was killed. The commander of the machine gun company, Ruben Ibarruri, took command. He could be seen now on the left, now on the right flank, on the NP and in the thick of the battle. He corrected the fire of the machine gunner Nikolai Strukov, at the position of the Red Army soldier Glushchenko, setting an example, threw a bunch of grenades right under the caterpillar of the tank, ready to crush the trench. The tank was covered in smoke.
In the heat of battle, Ruben did not notice that left hand in blood. He continued to command and did not know that now more than a regiment of enemy infantry had fallen on his thinned battalion! The Nazis broke into the trenches. A hand-to-hand fight began. Ruben drew his dagger and rushed at one of the invaders. Soldiers followed suit. In the midst of the fight, the tall Nazi shot at point-blank range at the hero. The bullet hit the stomach...
Behind the backs of the guards, the engines of our tanks were already humming. The Vlasovka farm was recaptured. Ruben was taken to the hospital. For another ten days he fought steadfastly against death. Friends visited him, and he found the strength to cheer them up, to assure them of an imminent victory over the Nazis ...
Ruben Ibarruri died on September 3, 1942. He is buried in the center of Stalingrad, legends and songs are composed about him.
Biography supplemented by Valery Vorobyov

January 9, 1920 in the small mining village of Somorrostro in Spain, the son of a Spanish communist worker, Hero of the Soviet Union, was born Ruben Ruiz Ibarruri.

His native village nestled in the mountains of Biscay. The sea was not far away. From time immemorial, open mining of iron ore has been carried out here. Under the rain (and it pours in those places about two hundred days a year), under the snow, under the hail, the miners worked in the quarries, earning miserable pesetas, which sometimes were not enough even for bread ...

Ruben Ibarruri - commander of the Red Army

Ruben's father, Julián Ruiz Ibarruri, also worked at the mine. And his family was also poor.
The degree of poverty and hopelessness can be judged by such tragic fact: Of the six children of the Ibarruri spouses, only son Ruben and daughter Amaya survived. Their sisters Esther, Ausena, Eva and Amanoia died in infancy from constant malnutrition and childhood illnesses. Even coffins for babies had to be bought on credit. Is it any wonder that the miners did not want to put up with such a cruel fate and regularly rose up to fight against the oppressors. And Dolores and Julián Ibarruri have always been at the forefront of the fighting.

Reuben saw it all. He witnessed how the police searched their house at night, shaking the miserable family belongings in search of communist literature and weapons. Before his eyes, the mines "Gora", "Pose", "Concha" froze more than once, and the streets of Somorrostro boiled with strikes. He knew many of his father's and mother's wrestling comrades-in-arms. At the age of ten, the boy already performed the duties of a liaison and messenger for a miners' party cell. Many years later, Dolores Ibarruri recalled: “When Ruben was thirteen years old, he came with me to Madrid, where he immediately contacted the local pioneers. In a difficult time for the Communist Party, Ruben sold the party newspaper on the streets of the city and in the workers' quarters, deceiving the vigilance of the police, who were hunting for this newspaper. Senior comrades persistently advised me to ban Ruben from participating in demonstrations. "He will be killed," they warned. During the preparation of one of these demonstrations by the party, when everyone was sure that it would not be possible to avoid a collision with the police, I wanted to hide the fact of the upcoming demonstration from my son. However, he found out about it. And when I was about to go to the demonstration, Ruben said: “And I am with you” - “You are still a boy, and only adults go to this demonstration, the police want to shoot at us ...”. Ruben replied indignantly: “You are a revolutionary. This is how you want to raise your children!”

Yes, Dolores, although they called her Passionaria (Spanish, passionate, fiery), was like all the mothers of the world. She was constantly worried about her children, worried about them. But what distinguished this woman from many others was that she always tried to understand her children. And further. Everything personal, even the most expensive, always turned out to be in the background for her. The life and struggle of a mother decisively influenced Ruben, brought up the best in him human qualities: decency, fidelity to duty. After all, no stronger than an example for children than the example of their parents. And so Ruben was equal to his mother all his life, he tried to be worthy of her in everything.

Dolores Ibarruri

May 1935 was a turning point for Reuben and his younger sister in their lives. Then for the first time they set foot on the land of the Soviet Union, which became both of them a second homeland. Baby Amaya was immediately sent to an orphanage in the city of Ivanovo, where the children of foreign communists lived. Ruben went to work at the Moscow Automobile Plant in a tool shop. He lived in a family of friends of Ibarruri - the old Bolshevik revolutionaries Panteleimon Nikolaevich and Olga Borisovna Lepeshinsky, called them grandfather and grandmother. Cheerful and sociable, Ruben quickly made many friends in Moscow. His life was turning out for the best. And only constant disturbing news from Spain overshadowed her. In July 1936, a fascist rebellion broke out there. Ruben eagerly read newspapers, listened to messages on the radio, eagerly awaited letters from his mother.

In one of them, Dolores Ibarruri wrote: “I hope that despite all the obstacles, in particular the lack of weapons, we will still win. We may all die in this struggle, but you, my son, be strong. Remember our ideal, be ready to fight without weakening, be ready to sacrifice yourself to the end for our cause. Learn to work and be able to understand political issues. You must also be physically strong. Study the theory that will enable you to understand everything that happens from a Marxist point of view. Be kind to your comrades. Never doubt that communism is the only ideal to which one should devote one's whole life."

A little unassembled, like most Spaniards, Ruben never kept letters from relatives, friends and acquaintances. In general, the young man did not differ in pedantry and accuracy. And this letter to his mother was found in his wallet after his death, along with photographs of his parents, sister and girlfriend. Another question is that in the 21st century we see such epistles as exclusively ideological propaganda. But this is exactly what the ardent Passionaria, fanatically believing in communist ideals, wrote to her son. That is how a young man, who grew up early and embarked on a difficult revolutionary path, perceived them with all his heart and soul.

Returning to his homeland and taking his place among the Spanish Republicans fighting against the Francoists becomes Ruben's main desire. He several times officially appeals to the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League with a request to send him to Spain. Perseverance had an effect: he was summoned to the Central Committee for a conversation by the first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee N.A. Mikhailov. He said that Ruben's desire to join the ranks of fighters for republican ideals is certainly noble and worthy of every encouragement. However, it will be much more useful for the republic if Ruben first masters at least some military specialty. They offered several schools to choose from. Ruben, without hesitation, chose aviation. Moreover, it was in this school that pilots were trained at an accelerated rate. In letters to his sister, Ruben described in enthusiastic tones the beauty of the city of Kamyshin, admired mighty Volga, wider and more beautiful than which, according to him, he had not yet seen rivers, reported that he began to study the complex and fascinating program with pleasure. And then all of a sudden, without even studying for three months, he nevertheless left for Spain ... I was lucky to meet with retired colonel Vasily Vasilyevich Starostin, who is in Kamyshinsky flight school was Ruben Ibarruri's instructor:

He studied very diligently - this is a fact, - recalled a war veteran, instructor pilot Vasily Vasilyevich Starostin. - Despite the intense program - we worked on an accelerated course - the guy found an opportunity for extra classes. Stayed up late in the room every night flight training. One of the first Ruben mastered the theoretical course, although in Russian colloquial speech not everything worked out for him as it should - he distorted words, got confused in terms. However, among fellow students, it was Ruben who was the first to be entrusted with conducting air battle by plane. And then it turned out that he was colorblind! Here's the thing: if Ruben was not the son of Dolores Ibarruri, then this defect would have been discovered even in the military registration and enlistment office. But he came to us on the direct orders of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League.

Having left for his homeland, where the civil war was blazing, the seventeen-year-old youth became an ordinary shooter in the unit commanded by Captain Pavlito - the future twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev. And he fought heroically. Decently mastered the machine gun, often went to reconnaissance. During the difficult Catalan retreat, first corporal, and then sergeant Ibarruri, with his advanced reconnaissance detachment, covered the retreat of his comrades. Why did he first fall into the environment, then into concentration camp Argeles.

Upon learning that her son had been taken prisoner, Dolores Ibarruri made an appointment with Stalin. They remember that she fell on her knees before the leader and begged with tears to help free her son from captivity. It is known that Joseph Vissarionovich frankly sympathized with the decisive and courageous Spaniard. Stalin heeded Pasionaria's request, giving the Chekists the order to release her son at all costs. An attempt was made by armed means to carry out the order of the leader. However, it ended tragically: the entire sabotage group perished. Then Ruben was simply bought out for money through the Red Cross.

Recalling how Ruben appeared at their Moscow apartment, Amaya said: “He came to us late in the evening. Skinny, exhausted. Only eyes glittered in an emaciated face. It seemed to me that he seemed to be embarrassed even of his joy from meeting with us. Of course, my mother and I began vying to ask Ruben about the experience. He answered in monosyllables, as if reluctantly. And then he suddenly declared: “I never asked you, mother, for anything. He took care of his own affairs. Now I'm breaking this rule. Help me get into the military school as soon as possible. As long as fascism exists, war cannot be avoided. This I know for sure!” In his incomplete nineteen years, the young man did not understand everything in the politics that was being carried out on the eve of the most terrible world cataclysm in the history of mankind. But the instinct of a soldier who had already managed to meet face to face with fascism, even if only of the Spanish spill, told him that great trials were coming in the world. And you have to be ready for them. So Ruben became a cadet of the Moscow Infantry School named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Here the son of Passionaria seemed to have surpassed himself. Completed the required course with excellent marks. This was little feat hot Spaniard, given the fact that Ruben still spoke Russian rather mediocrely. He rarely went on layoffs, although, if desired, he could generally live in his mother’s Moscow apartment. Only occasionally, on Sundays, did he visit his relatives. From the threshold he started an old gramophone or took a guitar - he loved to sing, dance very much ... But at times, it happened, he fell asleep without even listening to the end of a new record. By his tired appearance it was felt that the training of cadets was carried out very intensively.

This is also evidenced by Ruben's letters, which he wrote from the summer camp: “06/12/40 Dear mother! Glad for your letter. For a long time there was no news from you - I thought: something happened. I don't have much news. We spent the whole week in training. To be honest, I'm a little tired, although I think I'm used to such things. What then to say about those guys who study with me. And none of them complain. Everyone conscientiously fulfills his duty. The weather does not spoil us. Amaya is probably very pleased that she is moving into the seventh grade. This is great. She needs to study. I constantly feel the lack of knowledge. On your advice, mother, I read a lot, especially newspapers. By all appearances, things are going badly in France. The Germans are already surrounding Paris. Knowing the French, I would never have thought that they would part with their native land with such ease. Yes, and you yourself remember how bravely they fought with us.

Nothing, at the front the situation usually changes quickly. So let's hope for the best. And Spain demands the return of Gibraltar. No, that's not how it's supposed to be. It is a pity that this year I will not be able to get to the agricultural exhibition. It has always been a joy to visit her. Only there you really understand what a strong and stubborn people they are - Russians. Sorry for the rambling presentation. This is probably due to the fact that I am very sleepy: I'm tired after long classes. I'm done writing for today. I hug you tightly. Your Ruben.

“June 24, 1940. Sorry, my relatives, that I could not call on you. I speak frankly, and I left time for this, but the guys from my factory who invited me to the meeting literally bombarded me with questions. They wanted to know everything about our difficult war. There was so much lively interest in their questions that I had no choice but to answer and answer. So it took all the time, I could not call on you. Don't be offended. And I can’t resort to your help, mom, to get an extra dismissal. And how will I then look into the eyes of my comrades, who, from the moment they entered the school, did not see their relatives at all. To be frank, these frequent absences to speak to various audiences do not particularly please me either. All this interferes with work. But on the other hand, one must also understand people who want to know who the Nazis are. Now it is very important: to reveal the bestial appearance of these scum of humanity.”

“July 28, 1940 My dears! Finally got around to writing to you. I couldn't do it before, I was very busy. We even have classes on Sundays. And it is right. It is necessary to prepare for the war against fascism, as the Russians say, without fools. Our weather is still disgusting. On July 14, a real catastrophe happened here. On the lake, not far from us, people were swimming. And suddenly a hurricane of terrible strength rose with a downpour. Several people drowned. How many events have happened in the world. What a pity that our Spain is so far away. It is difficult for a person without a homeland. I don't know if I can break out to you next Sunday. And you, Amaya, if you can, come with your friends to us. My comrades, believe me, will be very pleased with your visit. I know that you will fall for air parade, and I envy you terribly. Your Ruben.

After graduating from college, Lieutenant Ibarruri was sent for further service in the Moscow Proletarian Division. He commanded first a platoon, then a company. On the third day of the Great Patriotic War, Ruben and his company were sent to the Western Special Military District, where they fought the enemy. For six hours in a row, his company held the bridge on the Berezina River. There he was wounded.

Komsomol ticket of Ruben Ibarruri

“07/08/41 Orel. Hospital. My dears! I hope you have received my first letter. Now I am writing to you from the hospital in Orel. I was wounded by a fragment of a shell in my hand - do not be afraid - I am not dying, and my fingers are already working. I feel good. The most offensive thing is that I had to leave the front, and my main desire is to strangle these reptiles as soon as possible. It is a great pride for me that I can fight in the ranks of the great and invincible Soviet army. I am deeply convinced that the fascists will break their teeth here, because (I wrote to you about this before) each soviet man Bolshevik at heart. I know, mother, that you work very hard there, because our task is the destruction of fascism at the front, and yours is to raise the peoples of the whole world to defend the USSR. Give my regards to all the comrades who work with you. I kiss you all. Ruben."

For that battle on the Berezina River, Senior Lieutenant Ibarruri was already awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Presenting the high award to the Spaniard, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, said: “We always believed you, and you fought as befits an anti-fascist warrior. Soviet people will always remember the exploits of our brothers in the class. Ruben then spent almost a year in the rear. The executive committee of the Comintern, where he then served, was evacuated to Kuibyshev. And then Ruben again went to the front ...

"12. 08.42 Dear mother! I don't know if you received my letter. I am writing again. Getting ready for battles. We do a lot. I eat melons and watermelons every day. Mom, when you write to Amaya, tell her friends over orphanage(my sister was again at the Ivanovo orphanage at that time, and Dolores returned to Moscow) hello and my address. Your Ruben.

O last fight Captain Ruben Ibarruri has many testimonies of participants in the Battle of Stalingrad, his fellow soldiers in the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 35th Guards Rifle Division.

Here is how the feat of the Spaniard N.I. Afanasiev: “To ensure the deployment of parts of the division, General V.A. Glazkov ordered the commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment to move forward a detachment consisting of a rifle battalion, reinforced by a machine-gun company. The first battalion of the guard of captain N.S. Lustin, reinforced by the machine-gun company of the guards of Captain Ruben Ibarruri, son Secretary General The Communist Party of Spain, Dolores Ibarruri, on the evening of August 22, 1942, moved towards the enemy with a forced march. A few hours of travel, and already on the horizon the first buildings, sheds, vegetable gardens of the railway siding that covered the Kotluban station. Fulfilling the plan previously outlined by the company commander, the machine gunners of the guard, senior lieutenant M. V. Leonenko, closed the enemy’s exit to the steppe. A fight ensued. Machine gunners of the guard lieutenant A.T. Nemenko destroyed the enemy's combat cover taken by surprise. Two soldiers captured by scouts gave valuable information: at that time, 16 tanks, an infantry battalion and a sapper company were supposed to move towards the Kotluban station. “Excellent work, comrade of the guard captain,” remarked the commander of the battalion N.S., who approached Ruben. Lustin. - Your next task, - the battalion commander continued, - is to knock out the Nazis from the warehouse and other outbuildings of the railway siding. step along railway and try to cover the junction from the north, and we will hit them from the south.

Having sent forward a group of scouts, the company commander Ruben Ibarruri deployed the unit in battle formation. The machine gunners quickly took up their starting position for the attack. The data received from the prisoners was confirmed. After evaluating them, Ruben Ibarruri ordered Nikitin's scout group to disable at least some of the tanks, and also to try to destroy the crews if they left the vehicles.

By two o'clock in the morning on August 23, the guards were in the hands of the guards. In this battle, Captain R. Ibarruri was again wounded in the arm. Having cut the sleeve of his tunic with a knife, he bandaged himself, abandoning the medical battalion. Fortunately, the wound was light, and Ruben Ibarruri continued to lead the fight. At three o'clock in the morning on August 23, the main forces of the regiment approached and replaced the machine-gun company of R. Ibarruri. Tired, exhausted by the night battle, the machine gunners advanced in a forced march to the area of the Vlasovka farm and took up defense there. The group showed up an hour later. German tanks and a dozen motorcyclists.

Prepare grenades and Molotov cocktails! Pass along the chain: machine gunners cut off the infantry from the tanks! Don't shoot without my command! ordered Captain Ibarruri.

... In this battle, Ruben was seriously wounded in the stomach. The bleeding company commander was found at the machine gun of the guard by senior sergeant I.S. Timoshenko and carried him off the battlefield. For which he was awarded the medal "For Courage".

From the memoirs of a nurse in the military hospital of the Middle Akhtuba G.P. Panshina: “The head of the hospital instructed me to stay near Ruben Ibarruri all the time. His condition was extremely grave. The face is pale, breathing is irregular, rapid and shallow: hypovolemia from loss of blood. The doctor said: "If he does not immediately receive blood, he will die."

Then I offered to take how much blood I need for Ruben - the group is suitable. The doctor thanked me and gave me a direct transfusion. Reuben's health improved a little. He smiled and whispered, “Thank you very much, little sister. Now I have two sisters - Amaya and Galya ... ". And on the night of September 3-4, he died - peritonitis "...

In the first two photos, none other than the "fiery Dolores" Ibarruri or, as she was also called, Passionaria, during a visit to Stalingrad. The mother of the hero Ruben Ibarruri repeatedly came to the city to visit her son's grave. Dolores is known as a figure in the Spanish and international communist movement. In 1939 she was forced to emigrate from Spain to the USSR.

She owns the famous phrase";No pasar;n!" - "They will not pass!". Dolores made active efforts to prevent the Spanish dictator Franco from dragging the Spanish people into the war on the side of Nazi Germany. She urged people to join anti-fascist movement"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
Her son, Ruben Ibarruri, joined the Red Army from the first days of the war in 1941. During Battle of Stalingrad he showed great courage and heroism. The machine-gun company under the command of Ruben in August 1942 stopped the advance German troops and held them back until reinforcements arrived.

The fascist tank group tried to cut off Stalingrad from the main parts Soviet troops, but the Ibarruri company did not allow this to be done. During the night alone, the machine gunners repulsed 6 attacks, and then Ruben raised his fighters to counterattack.
The German units were driven back, the enemy suffered heavy losses in killed and wounded, and a lot of large captured weapons (guns, mortars, etc.) remained on the battlefield.
This fight was the last for Ruben Ibarruri, he was mortally wounded and soon died in the hospital. At the time of his death, he was only 22 years old.

In 1956, Ruben Ibarruri was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. His remains were reburied on the Square of the Fallen Fighters, next to the Eternal Flame, along with two other heroes - pilot Kamenshchikov V.G. and artilleryman Khattyakhutdinov Kh.F.

On the monument there is an inscription: "Here are buried those who died in battles with the Nazi invaders in the defense of Stalingrad:
glorious son of the Spanish people, Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the machine-gun company of the Guards Captain Ibarruri Ruben Ruiz, Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot, Major Kamenshchiko V.G. and posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, artilleryman Khattyakhutdinov Kh.F."

The poetess Olga Berggolts dedicated the lines of her poem "Brothers" (1952) to the hero:
... to where on the Square of the Fallen Fighters
the Spaniard lies - Lieutenant Ibarruri.
Pasionaria son and soldier,
he defended Stalingrad in forty-second,
he sang as he died
for these edges:
"Russia, Russia,
My Russia...

Asteroid 2324 named after Ruben Ibarruri solar system. The names of Ruben and Dolores Ibarruri are on several streets in Russian cities.
On the last picture mother and son Ibarruri are pictured together.