The Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War is closely associated with the beginning of collecting a collection of unique homemade weapons. Once upon a time, the museum staff had to work hard to find and preserve the rarities of the Belarusian partisans, to ensure that their collection - 62 units of original weapons - received the status of historical and cultural value of category "1". Now we can easily get acquainted with the exhibits in the museum. And today - with one of the “fighters” of that time, the TM-44 submachine gun.
Galina SKORINKO: “We are proud that we have such an exhibit.”
Top class
A guide to the history of forest weapons workshops will be the deputy chief curator of the collections of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, Galina Skorinko
, who since 1974 has been opening important pages of the past to visitors. Even before we arrived, on the table at the entrance to the storage room, she placed documents, the book “Partisan Weapons” and, most importantly, a submachine gun. It was made by fighters of the partisan detachment named after G.I. Kotovsky, brigade named after S.M. Budyonny Pinsk partisan unit: Yankel Menkin and Yakov Temyakov. She met the latter at the museum.
- This homemade weapon is unique. It surprised then, it stuns now,
Galina Vasilievna flips through the “Partisan Weapons” catalog to the desired page and points to the TM-44 submachine gun.
— When defensive battles took place in Belarus at the beginning of the war, resistance was organized.
The population then began to collect weapons, often broken, they knew that everything could be useful.
And it’s true: the partisan detachments were growing, but there was no supply of weapons. That’s why they singled out people who worked with equipment: they could repair weapons.
— Guerrilla gunsmiths, based on the model of the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh), the simplest stamped weapon, began to make their own machine guns — that’s what they called all submachine guns, —
Galina Vasilievna tells with inspiration.
— And you know what’s most interesting? Many master gunsmiths of detachments in different parts of the country simultaneously had the thought: “What if we make our own weapons?” It was truly top class to create your own submachine gun.
Complex models
For serious crafts, you will need sheets of A4 cardboard, glue and a rope 20 centimeters long. You can use laces. Follow these steps and you will create your own weapon.
- Using sheets of cardboard, bend two cylinders
- The seams are fixed with glue, tape or tape
- The lower part of the cylinder is covered with cardboard; you will need to weigh down the future weapon, use any material. (rags, newspapers)
- We fasten both ends of the rope into each workpiece. Do you already understand what kind of weapon we have created?
Firearms
Anyone can create a gun out of paper, without searching for diagrams. And by developing and studying the experience of talented masters. You can build a weapon that can shoot small paper bullets. This way, children and even adults will be able to play war games without the danger of damaging their skin.
We recommend assembling weapons from modules. Machines made from different colors of paper will look especially interesting. Even grown men will be interested in doing this business. At home, you can organize competitions for the most beautiful and functional weapons.
Making a gun
It is important to strictly follow the instructions provided and you will succeed. In the process of assembling weapons, knowledge and hand motor skills are honed; these qualities are very important for a boy. It will be especially interesting to make weapons with your father, and we assure you that both will be interested. As a result, when mom returns to the room, she will notice a huge arsenal of weapons from which she will be attacked.
- Take a sheet of A4 and shape it into a square.
- Fold it in half and cut along the fold.
- We fold one of the parts in half lengthwise.
- Fold the same part in half again.
- We bend it in the middle and put it aside.
- We bend the edge of the second part.
- You need to fold the strip in half so that both edges match.
- Repeat the previous step and also fold in half.
- Using the figure we fold the letter P.
- We connect both parts and get a gun.
Yakov and Yankel
Before us are several yellowed sheets of letter.
Date: October 13, 1959. They bear the signature of Yakov Temyakov, a master who mastered metalworking and turning, and knew small arms thoroughly: “My personal memories from the past as a participant in the partisan movement in Belarus.” He was born in 1916 in Saratov. In 1937 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, and already in 1940, after graduating from the Kyiv Military Tank School with the rank of military technician of the second rank, he was sent to Grodno: “That’s where the war captured me.” The Nazis threw all their forces into the area where the tank battalion in which Yakov Temyakov served took up defense. In just one day, June 22, the battalion had to repel 16 attacks! In August, Yakov was shell-shocked near Minsk, captured and thrown into the Slutsk prisoner of war camp. In November he escaped and later ended up in the partisan detachment of Vasily Zakharovich Korzh (then he bore the pseudonym Komarov). Over time, Korzh’s detachment became one of the largest partisan formations operating in the Pinsk region. But all the partisans had to be supplied with weapons, and where to get them? Yakov Iosifovich writes: “I made a proposal not to be content with only captured weapons, but to organize their production on the spot, on our own.” And the command gave the go-ahead. Yakov’s partner was Yankel Menkin, a native of Starobin, who before the war worked in the film service, ended up in the Slutsk ghetto and managed to escape from there to a partisan detachment. There, at the age of 23, he created his own workshop: he worked on faulty weapons, and bought tools for work from a shoe shop. Together they made one homemade PPSh-type machine gun. But to establish mass production, a large weapons workshop and the help of soldiers versed in small arms were needed.
And so, at the beginning of 1943, they equipped a dugout in the forest as a workshop, assembled a group of 8 people, acquired metalworking tools, a forge, a vice, drilling and other machines, and set up charcoal firing themselves. More than a hundred PPSh-41 and PPD-40 submachine guns were made here, and many weapons were repaired. Then the idea was born to design a new machine gun that would surpass the combat characteristics of PPSh and PPD.
The 1944 TEMYAKOV-MENKIN system submachine gun is an automatic hand-held firearm.
Yakov Iosifovich writes: “I soon reached my goal. The machine gun I designed and manufactured was 25 percent lighter than the PPSh. The intervals between shots were increased by 1.5 times against PPSh. Due to the special design of the bolt and recoil spring, the machine gun was reliable in operation and operated without a single instance of failure.” This is how the Temyakov-Menkin submachine gun of the 1944 model was born. Of course, much of him was from his “ancestors.” Researchers note that the weapon was created after studying various systems, including the captured MP-38/40 submachine gun of the Volmer system. However, the most important component - the bolt - was developed under the influence of the domestic PPSh-41.
Galina Vasilievna shows a saved description of the list of parts from which some of the . The last part is the handle plates; they were made from cow horn. When you look at this rarity, you can’t believe that it was made in a handicraft way. Maybe the carved lining on the handle with the image of a five-pointed star gives it away a little. By the way, who fought with these weapons?
Ideas
Create a set of weapons with which you will fight in the future. Decide on the type of weapon. It will be gunshot or hand-held. Let's say you decide to fight in the Middle Ages theme. Make a bow and arrows, ten arrows will be enough for you. Next, you will need a melee weapon; in case of a miss on the enemy, a sword is used. But archers do not carry heavy weapons with them. Therefore, a dagger is enough. This does not mean that your great and huge ax will sit idle.
Build a flag for the blue and red teams and place it at equal distances from each other. The main task is to capture the flag and get to your base. Teams of boys will fight and shoot with arrows, hitting their opponents. In this case, the main thing is to ensure eye protection, so do not let the knight onto the battlefield without protective glasses.
If there is a weapon, then there must be armor. Using sheets of cardboard, build a helmet for each warrior. Be sure that everyone from the class or kindergarten will take part in the battle. And after the end of the battle, the children. Adults can enter the field with their weapons and also go after the enemy flag.
In case of celebration on May 9, you should assemble a paper machine for your child. How powerful and healthy it is is up to you. Products made from paper look much better than those made from cheap plastic that you buy in a toy store. And a child will understand from childhood that something made with their own hands is much more beautiful and interesting than something purchased.
Making weapons out of paper perfectly develops imagination and hand motor skills. Any assembled white paper weapon can be painted and given an unusual look. You can create an engraving effect using a black pen. The paint is perfect for swords and axes.
This way you can decorate an entire wall with a set of weapons from your favorite movie or computer game. Grappling hook, hidden daggers from assassin, grenade launchers from movies. And if you try really hard, you can assemble a weapon that looks like the real thing from afar.
To do this, you will need several modular assembly schemes. A lot of time and patience. Patience is very important in this matter. It definitely won’t work at first, but over time it will get better and better. Fortunately, in the modern world people do not experience problems with paper shortages. You can even start making weapons from notebook sheets. And once you adapt to this difficult task, feel free to buy cardboard and create unique weapons invented only by you.
Paper crafts have always been interesting for children. But this case is also interesting for adults. After all, paper provides an opportunity for creativity on an interesting topic for every man. Remember to supervise children while playing so that it does not develop into something more.
Korzh and Voitsekhovich, Voroshilov and Ponomarenko
The TM-44 that I am holding in my hands is submachine gun No. 1. It was manufactured on May 1, 1944.
On the right side of the trigger mechanism box there is an inscription: “In memory of our Major General V.Z. Komarov. from a team of craftsmen named after Kotovsky. 1.5.44”, on the left - “Death to the German invaders”. That is, the first to receive a unique partisan machine gun was Vasily Zakharovich Korzh, the commander of a partisan detachment, major general, Hero of the Soviet Union, who played a significant role in the liberation of Belarus, like his Pinsk partisan unit. He donated his TM-44 to the museum in 1949. It can be seen in the weapons workshop in the museum hall. There is another TM-44 in the storage room, donated to the secretary of the Pinsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Grigorievich Voitsekhovich, which he gave to the museum in 1946. Interesting fact: Temyakov and Menkin also sent submachine guns as a gift to Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Chief of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement Panteleimon Kondratievich Ponomarenko.
“Panteleimon Kondratievich Ponomarenko thought the weapon was so successful that in a reply telegram dated June 21, 1944, he offered to donate it to the Museum of the Patriotic War,
” Galina Vasilievna reads out the telegram.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know where these machines are now.
What is the fate of the masters? This is what is known about Yankel Menkin: he and his wife Lyubov Rabinovich, who was also with him in the partisan detachment, lived in Mikashevichi after the war. In 1991, the Menkin family left for Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. Yakov Temyakov returned to Saratov after the war. In a 1959 letter to our museum, he reported that he worked as a foreman at a Saratov toy factory: “If during the war I had to make “toys” from which the Nazis died in the fields of Belarus, now I am also busy making toys, but only real ones - for our Soviet children.”
