Bereznyak biography

Evgeny Stepanovich Bereznyak was born on February 25 in Dnepropetrovsk. After graduating from the pedagogical technical school and the pedagogical institute before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he managed to work as a teacher, head teacher, director of the school, inspector and head of the district. In the summer of the year, Bereznyak was elected deputy of the Lviv City Council, and soon became the head of the Lviv city department of public education.

Before the war, Lviv was a Polish city - the Polish language dominated everywhere. Only in three out of eighty schools were learning in Ukrainian. The city department of education headed for the Ukrainianization of schools and met the resistance of the Polish population of the city, whose representatives accused Bereznyak of curvatures of the national policy of Soviet power in Western Ukraine.

Therefore, it is not known how the fate of the future intelligence officer would have developed if the war in the very first hours of the war Evgeny Bereznyak agreed to become an underground in the occupied territory. Since August, he has been on underground work, performing special tasks.

The Voice reconnaissance group acted in the rear of the enemy of days, starting in August. During this time, it was transmitted from above the radiograms. The group managed to scout the Krakow fortified area in detail and all the fortifications built by the Nazis hung south of Krakow. The group received a plan for mining the city, completely “deciphered” the actions of the garrison of enemy troops in Krakow.

For four and a half months, the scouts collected and transferred data on the deployment of fascist divisions, armies and corps, air squadrons, on transportation by rail and highway of troops and equipment. The most important operation of the group was the disclosure of the composition of weapons, as well as the deployment of the headquarters of the Nazi army and all its divisions.

In combat operations carried out by the Voice group, 17 Nazi soldiers and officers were destroyed from above and captured, several military echelons were launched under the slope, 4 bridges were undermined. The scouts even penetrated the enemy training center, preparing saboteurs to throw our rear, so that Soviet counterintelligence officers immediately took each scout.

The most important operation of the Major Watchman group was the disclosure of the Krakow mining plan. This plan could not be obtained even through Abwehr. Therefore, the scouts had to take the German garrison in the middle of broad day before the eyes of the German garrison. For two weeks he lived in the dugout of his kidnappers and painted schemes and plans. The Germans intended to miss Soviet troops into Krakow and blow him up with them.

Therefore, the “voice” saved not only this city, but also the lives of thousands of Soviet soldiers. Using the information received from their scouts, the advanced units of the Soviet troops broke into the fort, in which there were a control center and a “switch”, with the help of which the city was supposed to fly into the air. All the information obtained and transferred to their command by the scouts of the Voice group was fully confirmed during combat operations.

The password of the Underground group “Voice” was the expression of the ancient Roman poet of Ovid: Dum Spiro Spero “While I Breathe - I hope”, which Captain Bereznyak read on the wall of the Krakow prison “Montelpis”, where he got to the Polish territory in August, in August. Upon completion of the task, the personnel of the Voice group was awarded high government awards.

The numerous checks conducted there confirmed the innocence of Bereznyak. Finally, Evgenia Bereznyak was rehabilitated only in the year. After the end of the war, he again headed the city department of education of Lviv. In the year, the leadership of the Lviv underground wire of the UPA threatened him with the death penalty, but the attempt to realize it was unsuccessful. The Polish government honored his Order of Virti Militari, the Golden Cross of Partisan Glory, several medals, including “For Saving Monuments of Culture and Art”, “For Salvation of Krakow”.

Evgeny Bereznyak - Hero of Ukraine, retired colonel. For listeners and cadets of higher military educational institutions, a scholarship named after Yevgeny Bereznyak was established. Books of the author:.