Monument «Shoulder to shoulder»
in memory of the militia of the Rostokinsky district
The monument is dedicated to the feat of soldiers from the 13th Moscow Rifle Division of the Rostokinsky district People’s Militia and depicts two militia members: a young fighter supports a wounded senior comrade. The monument is made of bronze, mounted on a pedestal made of Gabbro stone, designed by sculptors and specialists of the Moscow Stone Processing Plant. The authors of the sculpture were Honored Artists of Russia and Armenia Vahe and Mikael Soghoyan. The 13th Moscow Rifle Division of the People’s Militia of Rostokinsky district was formed from July 3 to July 6, 1941. The division commander was Colonel P.E. Morozov, head of the department at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy. The military commissar was P. G. Tarasov. Rostokinsky Division began to be formed from Rostokinsky volunteers. It included employees of the Moscow factory «Kalibr»; workers of the tram depot named after Bauman, the Spring plant, the mekhkombinat, the Goznak printing house of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, teachers and students of schools № 270 and № 284, students and teachers of VGIK. The head of the technical bureau of the Kalibr plant, A.V. Orsa, who became the first volunteer of the division, recalls how on July 3 comrades from the Komsomol organization came to him and offered, as a very authoritative person, to enroll in the division first: “… on a blank sheet, my last name, first name, patronymic number 1 were written on a blank sheet by the secretary of the party committee”. By the evening of July 3, more than 1,000 volunteers had signed up, and on July 4– more than 10,000 people had signed up. Cadre officers from active units and institutions were appointed as commanders. On July 7, the Rostokinsky division was ordered to relocate to the front line near the villages of Snegiri and Сozino for the construction of the Mozhaisk line of defense. Along the way, volunteers from the Sickle and Hammer factory and the Moscow suburbs joined the division. The Rostokinsky division was part of the second echelon of the 32nd Army. On July 17, an order was received to move to the area of the defense line (Volokolamsk – Ostashevo) along the bank of the Ruza River for its equipment. From October 1, units of the division held off the enemy near Vyazma for 13 days, during which 95% of the fighters were lost. On December 27, it was disbanded.
Address: Moscow, Rostokinsky Aqueduct
