By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 150 thousand border guards in the armed forces of the USSR. They had to restrain the first onslaught of the German army. In 1939-1940, the personnel of the border troops had been increased by 50 percent.
The Soviet command paid great attention to strengthening outposts on the western borders: Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania. In 1940, the staff of each border outpost consisted of 42 people, and by the end of the year, it increased to 50 Red Army soldiers. At the beginning of 1941, 63 people were already serving at most outposts. However, the border guards were only armed with light small arms, and their most powerful weapon was an easel machine gun.
At the beginning of the war, there were forty seven land, six sea border detachments, nine separate border commandant’s offices, and eleven regiments of NKVD operational troops with a total number of about 100 thousand people in the area of the western border.
The first strike of the German troops was taken by the garrison of the Brest fortress. Among its defenders were natives of the Kirov region. One of these heroes-border guards was M. N. Kasyanov (his name is unknown). The exhibition ‘Remembered Today and Always’ keeps his cap.
Veteran from Kirov V. P. Klopov recalled:
The Soviet command paid great attention to strengthening outposts on the western borders: Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania. In 1940, the staff of each border outpost consisted of 42 people, and by the end of the year, it increased to 50 Red Army soldiers. At the beginning of 1941, 63 people were already serving at most outposts. However, the border guards were only armed with light small arms, and their most powerful weapon was an easel machine gun.
At the beginning of the war, there were forty seven land, six sea border detachments, nine separate border commandant’s offices, and eleven regiments of NKVD operational troops with a total number of about 100 thousand people in the area of the western border.
The first strike of the German troops was taken by the garrison of the Brest fortress. Among its defenders were natives of the Kirov region. One of these heroes-border guards was M. N. Kasyanov (his name is unknown). The exhibition ‘Remembered Today and Always’ keeps his cap.
Veteran from Kirov V. P. Klopov recalled:
