Pavel Georgievich Skorokhod was born in 1922 in Kryukov-on-Dnepr. He studied at the factory training school at the Kryukov Carriage Works. People’s militia of the Kryukovsky regiment. Underground signalman. Worked as a locksmith. When the war began and the invaders broke into Kryukov, he did not stop work at the plant, but changed its essence, began to help an underground group that operated among prisoners of war.
The fact is that the Nazis set up a camp of prisoners of war on the territory of the car building plant, who were forced to repair various types of weapons in a short time. There was an underground group that organized sabotage, the workers spoiled the newly repaired weapons, organized the escapes of prisoners of war. Komsomol member Pavel Skorokhod was their signalman and carried out various assignments.
…. This operation was prepared for a long time and carefully, and it was a success.
The underground workers cut the telephone cable, prepared civilian clothes for changing clothes of prisoners of war, prepared “paperzi” (forged passes) for them. All this was done in advance and secretly.
Once – it was in the morning – a large group of prisoners of war successfully escaped from the camp. They came to the partisans who were in the Black Forest.
The next day, Pavel Skorokhod did not come to work. I thought the Nazis from their watchtower saw how he helped prisoners of war escape. Then he said that he overslept. For which he was punished. I received 30 kanchuks from the policemen. Lost consciousness. It was cast with water. Then he was on sick leave for three days.
In 1943 he went to the front as a machine gunner. After the destruction of the enemy firing point, he sang his favorite song “Oh, my fogs are clouded …” and did not know that in the next battle he would be seriously wounded. He was treated in the hospital for a long time. He became an invalid of the II group. Before that, he was also shell-shocked. The concussion made itself felt until the end of his days.
He was demobilized at the end of 1945, and again arrived at his native Kryukov Carriage Works. Bored without work. He refused the II group of disability, switched to III, in order to be allowed to work at the plant. From there he went into retirement.
“Pavel was a jack of all trades,” recalls the younger sister Lyuda, “he milked a goat, cooked borscht, dug a well, and repaired a car; he will gather an oven, bake bread, build a house. Built a big house. Loved animals. He played the button accordion, had a very good voice, liked to joke. But his life was cut short.”
Pavel Georgievich died on May 24, 1991.