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RuThe feat of the Don Cossack Kozma Kryuchkov
Kozma Kryuchkov (1890-1919) was a Don Cossack from the village of Nizhne-Kalmykovsky, Ust-Khoperskaya stanitsa, Don Army Region. By the beginning of World War I, he was the commander of the Ataman Ermak Timofeev 3rd Don Cossack Regiment.
On July 30 (August 12), 1914, as part of a patrol of four Cossacks, Kozma and his team encountered a German cavalry patrol consisting of 20 horsemen (according to some sources, 15). The Germans attacked the village of Lyubovo, located on the border with East Prussia, during a skirmish with the Cossacks. Despite being outnumbered, the Cossacks managed to inflict multiple superficial wounds on the enemy. Kozma himself received 16 stab wounds to his body.
During the battle, the Germans lost one of their officers, while the number of their casualties later increased to 14 in newspaper reports and propaganda materials. For his courage and bravery, K. Kryuchkov was awarded the St. George Cross of the IV degree. The award was personally presented to him by the commander of the 1st Army, General of Cavalry P.K. von Rennenkampf, in the infirmary. His comrades also received St. George medals. As a result, Cossack Kryuchkov became the first recipient of the St. George award of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. The news of this was widely reported by the press, making K. Kryuchkov a national hero and a Russian hero. Portraits of K. Kryuchkov were decorated with boxes of sweets, matches, and cigarettes. Poems and songs were also dedicated to him.
For more information, please see the article in the On this day section.
Foreign hero of the Don Cossack Kuzma Crochekov and his glorious victories over enemies, how he killed eleven Germans
The bravest hero of the Great Patriotic War, the first St. George's Cavalier, the glorious Cossack of the Pacific, Dina Kuzma Kryuchkov, and the 12-year-old boy, the hero of the St. George cavalier, Andryusha Mironenko
