Near the building of the Museum of Fine Arts in Kaliningrad, employees of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University set up an information booth about the feat of the 1st Moscow-Minsk Guards Division during the assault on Königsberg in 1945, the service of university press April 9 on the official Internet portal.
On April 9, Kaliningrad celebrated the 79th anniversary of Soviet troops’ successful assault on the fortified city of Königsberg in 1945. The city was assaulted by the 11th Guards, 43rd, and 50th Combined Arms Armies. The 14th Guards Army included the 1st Guards Moscow-Minsk Division under the command of Pavel Tolstikov, which played an important role in the assault on the city.
To take one of the main fortifications of the city, the Royal Castle, it was necessary to cross the Pregel River, which was impossible without taking the building of the old commercial exchange, which today houses the Museum of Fine Arts. The building was equipped with an assembly workshop for the production of grenades and projectiles, it was adapted for defense, the windows were bricked up with embrasures for machine guns. Tolstikov’s guards took possession of the building late in the afternoon of April 8, 1945 and began preparing for the crossing.
The crossing of the Pregel River was carried out in two stages. At four in the morning on April 9, the fighters, under enemy hurricane fire, crossed the south branch of the river and secured a foothold on the island. For the crossing, everything that could float on water was used: logs, barrels, air cylinders. The cannons were transported on rafts. At one in the afternoon the guards crossed the North Arm and began the assault on the Royal Castle.
It was after the fall of the Royal Castle that the Königsberg commander Otto Lyash entered into negotiations with the Soviet command, accepted an ultimatum of unconditional surrender, issued a ceasefire order and surrendered together with the German headquarters to captivity. One day after the defeat of the Königsberg group, the 1st Guards Moscow-Minsk Division, as part of the 11th Guards Army, began an attack on Pillau (now Baltiysk).
On May 5, 1945, Guards Major General Pavel Fedorovich Tolstikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal, and on May 28, 1945, the 1 Moscow-Minsk Guards Double Red Banner Division. from the Order of Lenin he received the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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