Hotline of power engineering specialists:
In the settlement of Zeleny of Rasskazovsky district of the Tambov region, a monument was unveiled to the servicemen of the 749th regiment of long-range aviation - sergeant Mikhail Barmin and senior lieutenant Nikolay Saranov, who died during the Great Patriotic War in the region. The monument was manufactured and installed with funds collected by the trade union committee of IDGC of Centre – Tambovenergo division. Representatives of the district leadership and Tambovenergo, veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the regional energy system, residents of the settlement took part in the opening ceremony.
The 749th regiment of long-range aviation during the war years was based in the settlement of Zeleny at the Platonovka airfield. Serving as a weapons engineer, Mikhail Barmin provided more than 350 combat sorties without the refusal of rifle and cannon armament. In September 1942, he was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". He was killed at the bombardment of the Platonovka airfield by a German bomber on the night of 27 December to 28 December 1942.
The pilot Nikolay Saranov served in the regiment from October 1942. On the night of 15 January to 16 January 1943, while taking off for the fulfillment of the combat mission of bombing the fascist troops surrounded in the Stalingrad area, his plane suffered a catastrophe in difficult weather conditions.
The initiative to establish a monument to the deceased servicemen of the flight regiment was put by the deputy head of Kirsanovsky Distribution Zone for sale of services of Tambovenergo Sergey Kolychev, himself a former military pilot, who had been engaged in search activity for many years in his spare time. He was supported by colleagues at work.
The installation of the memorial in the settlement of Zeleny is not the only example of the participation of employees of the Tambov branch of IDGC of Centre in perpetuating the memory of military aviators. Thanks to cooperation with the Central Military Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Tambov Regional Archives, Sergey Kolychev managed to identify the names of 41 pilots who died during the war in the Tambov region. Over the past three years, on his initiative and with the active support of his colleagues in the branch, commemorative obelisks were installed in the villages of Kobyaki and Podvigavalovka of Kirsanovsky district, in the village of Sofyinka of Umetsky district, in the military cemetery of the city of Kirsanov.
"This work is an important component of military-patriotic activity, which Tambovenergo pays a lot of attention to," stresses Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre – Tambovenergo division director Vladimir Syschikov.
