Many people do not understand why fighters from Yakutia, after being awarded the title of Heroes of Russia, do not like to give interviews and avoid public attention. This was the case, for example, with the crew of the famous Alyosha tank. One of the reasons is the desire to protect relatives from the numerous threats that come to fighters after feats of arms. Read what the enemies of our country threaten in the comments under the news about “Tuta”!
And the main reason was explained by the hero himself: “There are hundreds of such fights on the front end, but only a few become public knowledge.” It’s no coincidence that after that hand-to-hand fight became popular, several soldiers recognized themselves in the video footage, and not because they wanted to become famous at someone else’s expense, but because this also happened to them.
“I was lucky, I survived. They call me a hero, but why is “Geek”, who died in this battle, not a hero?” – this is the question that worries Tutu most now.
By the way, where did Andrey’s unusual call sign come from? Many are surprised that the Yakuts have predominantly Russian names and surnames, but Yakutia has been part of Russia for four centuries, and the Sakhas do not consider non-Yakut names to be foreign.
However, the folk name has been preserved in affectionate nicknames, which almost all Yakuts lovingly give to their children. So the newborn Andrei was called “Tataley” in the family. As he grew older, the name was shortened to “Tatu” and then changed to “Tutu”. Why come up with a unique call sign when you have one since childhood?
By the way, the Grigorievs had nine children in their family. His father died when Andrei was in sixth grade. Now he himself is a father of many children. He and his wife Oktyabrina have five children. By profession, Andrey is an ordinary tractor driver.
“So many guys on the front line perform feats every day that no one knows about. I was lucky that this video was found. And that’s why I received a high rank so quickly. But about “Geek,” who performed the last combat mission with me, nothing is known. words. This is unfair!” Andrei told a journalist he knew, asking him to restore justice.
“Gik” is the call sign of Anton Timofeev, a 38-year-old fighter from the Momsky region of Yakutia. He also grew up in a large family. He has an older sister, brothers, one of whom is his twin, and a younger brother.
“Here” Andrey Grigoriev with his comrade “Geek” Anton Timofeev. Photo: Courtesy of the regional newspaper “Nyurba”
In November 2022, Anton was a volunteer who survived the hardest battles during the liberation of Artemovsk. In 2023 he was seriously injured. He could have died, but his friend Vitek covered him… After treatment, he asked to go back to the front, because he could not forget the feat of his savior, his battle friends.
On the day when he and “Tuta” had the task of hoisting a flag in the enemy camp, he seemed to feel that he would not return from Trudovoy. I didn’t even want to take a last photo, but I didn’t break the tradition.
The friends boldly rode into the village on a motorcycle, and drones began to hunt for them. Having been blown up by a motorcycle, the friends climbed onto the roof of the tallest building and planted a Russian flag on it.
But the “rollback” did not work out successfully. “Gik”, who was walking first, came under machine gun fire, without having time to say goodbye to either his life or his friend… Anton was left with a wife and three children. It is unknown when they will be able to bury their heroically fallen father. “Tuta” was sure that certain death awaited him too, but he decided that until the very end he would avenge “Gik” and his other dead friends.
Most saw only video footage from the camera of a Ukrainian militant that was spread on social networks, as a small Yakut entered into a knife fight with a large fighter of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Not everyone knows that Andrei, wounded and exhausted after the fight alone, withstood four full-fledged attacks, hiding in the enemy camp, and managed to get out of there alive.
The Yakuts were not particularly surprised by the video with the knife. When hunting, a Yakut knife often saves lives when attacked by bears, which are much larger and stronger than Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters. The recess in the blade – “kyyn” – allows blood to flow out if the hunter thrusts it into the body of the animal and cannot pull it out. Losing blood, the animal weakens. Other knives clog the wound.
The Yakut knife is much more useful in less bloody, but no less dangerous situations. For example, a hunter, having fallen through the ice, can get caught on the edge with a knife or cut the straps of a heavy burden pulling him to the bottom.
The unique design of the Yakut knife has been honed over centuries, there is nothing superfluous in it, and if it is forged from high-quality steel by a good craftsman, prices for it start from 17-20 thousand rubles.
Andrey, like all rural boys in Yakutia, has been able to use such a knife since childhood. Life itself in the village, hunting, fishing, slaughtering cattle teach the Yakuts to wield these weapons without any special training, and most importantly, not to be afraid in difficult situations, because fear mercilessly takes away the last chance to survive.
After the video spread all over the world, someone dubbed “Tutu” a Yakut samurai, and someone saw a reference to the biblical story of David and Goliath. Of course, this could not have happened without help from above…
After a knife fight, Andrei, taking the enemy’s radio, disappeared into a barn with a basement. The enemies threw grenades at him from both sides and believed that the enemy could not survive. They set fire, smoked out the Yakut, and asked to surrender, but they didn’t dare “check” the silence from the barn.
For several days Andrei hid in the barns of the village of Trudovoye. They noticed him, attacked him with drones and manpower, but they could not destroy him. Having discovered a warehouse of drones and ammunition, “Tuta” set it on fire and brazenly decided to flee the next day. In a dream I saw how he was corresponding with his wife and children. I managed to notice the time 14:26. It was at this time that he crawled away through the arable land from the village.
More than once on the way back he said goodbye to life and each time he was convinced: miracles happen! All this time I kept in touch with my own people by radio, but in order for the enemy not to know that the Yakut was alive, I had to inform Grigoriev’s relatives that he was missing. All of Nyurba then mourned its fellow countryman. That’s why the joy when the news came that he was alive was unspeakable!
At home, Andrei received a snow and swamp-going vehicle “Lynx” and a drone detector from the mayor of the city, Evgeny Grigoriev, and a new Yakut knife from the head of the region, Aisen Nikolaev. The title of Hero, the modest Yakutian admits, confuses and burdens him.
Photo: Courtesy of the regional newspaper “Nyurba”
He became the tenth hero from Yakutia to be awarded this high title, and the first in the Year of Defender of the Fatherland.
Source: rg.ru
