The fate of this man for more than 80 years is connected with military service. For a rural boy from the Moscow region, as at birth, he prepared not only a life path, but also a long military biography. In many ways, the life of Utkin is not only the fate of several generations of our people, but also of the country itself. And the main page in it, perhaps, was the war with its bitterness of losses and the joy of victories. Suffice it to say that Boris Pavlovich takes part in the legendary parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.
Utkin began his military biography in July 1941 as a cadet of the Red Banner Artillery School named after LB Krasin. He fought in Voronezh, Steppe, 2nd Ukrainian Front. He participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, in the battles on the Kursk Bulge and on the Dnieper, in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Uman-Botoshansky, Yassko-Chisinau, Carpathian, Debrecen operations. Hungary and Austria liberated.
For courage in battles and long impeccable post-war service, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War I degree, the Red Banner of Labor, three times the Red Star, “For Service to the Fatherland “. in the Armed Forces of the USSR” III degree. On the chest of the general are the medals “For military merit”, “For the defense of Moscow”, “For the defense of Stalingrad”, “For the capture of Budapest”, ” For the capture of Vienna”.
Boris Pavlovich has a very long life behind him. But even in his withdrawal, he continues to take an active military offensive position.
This is what, for example, Colonel General Utkin wrote on March 6, 2022 on the website of the Club of Military Leaders of the Russian Federation in his address to the participants in the special military operation of the Russian Federation. A few days after the start of the NWO, Boris Pavlovich noted: “Our generation knows firsthand what fascism is. We saw with our own eyes what pain the enemy brought to our country. You bravely fight against modern fascism, against those who they forbid speak their native language and call to kill the Russians, wherever they are. You are one of those who came out in defense of the bloody Donbass. You and your comrades-in-arms entered the battle against world evil so that Nazism, the Modern barbarians do not come to our land. You, like our generation in the distant 1940s, defending the country, showed courage and heroism.
The courage of General Utkin himself is evidenced not only by his military awards. But also the tenacity with which the front-line soldier defends his convictions. For example, when in the 90s, together with our army, its military-political structures were crumbling, Boris Pavlovich began an uncompromising struggle to preserve the institute of political workers and military institutes for training such officers in the Armed Forces.
I must say that the artilleryman Utkin, starting from the post-war period, served in the political agencies of the army. He, like no one else, understood that “one word can kill, one word can save, one word can lead regiments behind it.” More precisely, the word and the action are a personal example of a political worker.
Boris Pavlovich spent more than a decade fighting for the actual, and not formal, restoration of the institute of “political deputies to the commissar” in the Russian Armed Forces. For several years he himself was the director of the Sverdlovsk Higher Military-Political Tank Artillery School. And therefore he perfectly understood the importance of such universities for the training of professional officer-educators.
At the end of March 2017, the author of these lines had the opportunity to participate in a scientific and practical conference dedicated to improving moral and psychological work in the Russian Armed Forces. The discussion was timed to coincide with an important date: 50 years have passed since the decision to form a whole network of political-military schools in the country.
Strictly speaking, the Ministry of Defense had such educational institutions before. For example, since 1939, lieutenants, political officials, were released in Bryansk. After the Great Patriotic War, the school settled in Lvov and already specialized in the training of cultural and educational workers and military journalists for the Armed Forces. Why 1967 became the starting point for the history of political schools?
A participant in the conference, retired Colonel General Boris Utkin, explained everything accurately and unambiguously. Then I wrote these words of his: “It was decided to create qualitatively new military educational institutions – higher schools. They began to train political officers for service in specific types and branches of the armed forces.”
In fact, combined arms political officers were trained in Novosibirsk. In the Kurgan – aviation, in kyiv – naval, in Simferopol – construction, etc. The network of such universities was also expanding; when the USSR collapsed, there were almost a dozen of them. In total, they provided the army and navy with more than 100,000 political officers, of whom 30 received the title of Hero.
And then the institute of political officers of the Armed Forces was liquidated. Along with it, the system of education of military personnel was destroyed. The process of his “resuscitation” is still going on. To ensure that this process is accompanied by as few difficulties as possible, including of an organizational nature, people wise in knowledge and experience are working, such as Boris Pavlovich Utkin.
Happy anniversary, dear comrade colonel general! Stay in line longer.
