Hero of the Soviet Union statistics.

Today I would like to talk about another Hero of the Soviet Union with a tragic fate. This is a pilot, Ivan Kopec. He served in the Red Army since 1927. In 1936 - 1937, he fought in Spain, then was promoted to colonel and Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Finnish War he was commander of the Eighth Air Force Army.
In June 1941 he was commander of the Air Force of the Western Special Military District (where General Pavlov was also commander of the district).
He met June 22 at his workplace. And then - the mystery and suspense.
The official version is as follows.
After the German invasion, Ivan Kopec tried to run air district, but failed. In the evening he was on an airplane flew over the border airfields. Seeing what happened, he realized that the crash occurred. He returned to headquarters, closed in his office and shot himself.
This version has several drawbacks. Firstly, such an action does not match his character. Secondly, it was impossible to estimate the scale of the disaster on the first day of hostilities. Third, according to some sources, Ivan had the war wounds, could not fly.
Another version of his death did not be published, but is supported by most modern Russian historians. The fact is that on the eve of the war was a wave of arrests among the chiefs of the Air Forces of the USSR. Likely for Ivan arrived NKVD and he died in the delivery of the resistance.
There is another version, the exotic. According to some historians, Stalin was preparing a provocation on June 22. On this day the Russian pilots under the leadership of Ivan were to stage a bombing of Russian cities. After that, Stalin was going to give the order to attack German troops. Coincidentally, Hitler's June 22 attack itself. Therefore, Ivan had been killed as a witness failed unnecessary provocation.
Unfortunately, this version looks incredible, but it explains so many strange events that happened at the border on the eve of June 22.

 

Glad to do so. Same here though, I always had thought it was strictly for military actions. Learn something new every day and wrinkled a new one on my brain ;-))

 

Hi IRu, that is a sad story and thank you for it. If you have more info on other Heroes-please post it here so all of us can learn more.

Take care--Carl.

 

Thanks, C.Evans
A youngest Hero of the Soviet Union during the WW II was Leonid Golikov. He was 15 years old when Hitler invaded Russia. Leonid lived in the small village of Novgorod region. German troops occupied this area in August - September 1941, and in early 1942 in the North-West Russia already acted in 4 brigades guerrillas. Several thousand people. Leonid was a scout in one of the teams.
By August 1942, Leonid already had the award for combat operations.
August 13, 1942 while in exploration in the area of Highway Lyga – Pskov, Leonid and his companion noticed the German car.
There were 2 officers. Leonid grenade blew the car and shot one officer. It appeared to be general engineering corps Richard von Wirtz.
The general had important documents with him (including drawings and descriptions of the new German min). These documents were delivered to Moscow. I think these documents are saved many lives in the future.
And Leonid was presented the award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
But he did not have time getting it in his lifetime. Leonid died Jan. 24, 1943 during a counter-insurgency operation near a small village in the Pskov region. He was not quite 17 years old. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously in April 1944.
You can see his photo here (only one exist):
http://gov.spb.ru/gov/admin/terr/reg_kirovsk/kultura/geroi_street

 

Hi IRu, quite welcome. These stories are great to hear and if I can ever get a translation done on all the WWII Recipients names, and if you dodnt mind? these things would make for one hell of a great continuing thread.

 

Hi C.Evans,
Now I have an electronic version of the book "Heroes of the Soviet Union - a brief guide". This book was published in the Soviet Union in 1988, in Russian language. It consists of 3 parts. In this first part contains errors. It lists all of the HotSU, except for foreigners and deprived of the title.
Information in the book looks like this (I used a direct translation via Google translation – copied/pasted):

LYUDVICHENKO
Alexander
genus. 18/08/1924 in with. Yurivka Makarov district of Kiev. reg. family farmers ¬ on. Ukrainian. Graduated from the beginning. school. Pa ¬ worked at the farm. In Sov. Army and at the front since 1943.
The scout platoon reconnaissance 993rd page Regiment (263rd page div., 43 Army, the 3rd Belorussian. Front) Komsomolets series LA 6-9.4.45 in battles in the district of the city of Königsberg (Kaliningrad ) saved the lives of two wounded tankers, destroyed in 1912 the Nazis suppressed the 4 machine guns. point. Their action ¬ initial conditions to ensure the promotion podraz ¬ division. 09/04/1945 was injured, but the battlefield is gone. The title of Hero Sov. Union set to 19/04/1945.
After the war, Sergeant L. demobilization ¬ van. Lived and worked in White Church Kiev. reg. Heating. hordes. Lenin, Red Banner, Red Star, the Glory 3 tbsp., Medals. Died 16.6.1972.

In addition, there is a website (the link was there in this thread): http://www.warheroes.ru/
This site contains the names and biographies of 9745 HotSU and 42 deprived of this title.
There is an opportunity to translate this site in the mode of the English language and use a filter to select relevant information:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?lp=ru_en&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.warheroes.ru%2Fmain.asp%3Fmode%3D%26flt_vis%3D1%26birth_date%3D%26death_date%3D%26start_date%3D%26end_date%3D%26war%3D0%26award%3D1%26l%3D0%26sort%3D1%26all%3D150

I'll try to get a list of the English language from the administration of this site.
Unfortunately, I have not found other resources with a complete list of Heroes of the Soviet Union even in Russian, not to mention the English. There are a lot of information, but they are scattered in various books and websites.

 

Thank you for this IRu, it could be of great help. I need to see if i can also find time to learn Russian letters as i would love to get started on translating their names into English if possible?

 

PSH! There will be no "BOB's"!

 

Above I spoke about the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. Interesting fact that most elderly HotSU also lived in the region. It was a peasant - Matvey Kuzmin. Matvey was born in 1858 in the village Kurakino Pskov region. There he lived until 1941, farming. In February 1942 his village was placed one battalion of 1th German Mountain Division. The front line passed directly. February 13, 1942, the battalion was tasked to go to the area of the village Pershin, in the rear of the Soviet troops. Peasant Kuzmin was ordered to be conductor of the German troops. Matvey managed to send his grandson, to warn the Soviet troops. He warned that the Germans will be lead through the village Malkino.Then he specifically took the Germans a long way and led them directly to the position of Russian troops. As a result, German battalion was ambushed, suffered heavy losses. Unfortunately, Matvey was died in a shootout. He was 83 years old....
Here is the photo of the monument of Kuzmin at the metro station "Partizanskaya" in Moscow
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/650846

 

I say to thee my slave, nay. It'll be easier once I get YOU to do all the work ;-)) :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Hi IRu, this is some absolutely great stuff. I wish I had something more to add to this but dont have--yet ;-))

 

Hi C.Evans
I think I will able to send you the list of HotSU on English by the end of the week

 

That would be fantastic and I would be greatful if you would allow me to show my gratitude by sending you something before or by Christmas.

Take care-_Carl.

 

More about the history of awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the late summer of 1943 major operation of the Red Army to force the Dnieper River began. It lasted from August to December 1943.
During this period, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union received 2,438 people!!!! This is about a quarter of all recipients of the WWII.
Such a massive award in a single operation was the only one in the history of this war.
On the one hand, such a massive award was a result of truly mass cases of heroism and the scale of the operation. On the other hand, after this, among the soldiers, appeared degrading nickname - "Dneprovski geroi" - The Hero of the Dnieper.

 

hi iru, ill get back with reading your great stuff here soon as i get out of the hospital, but please continue to add what you want to-its all good.

 

Hi Carl,
I sent the lists by e-mail. Did you get them?

 

Hi IRu, I recieved an email but nothing in it ;-)) Ill be able to check again Saturday when I get back to the computer. What I want to do once I get names done, is to see what units they opposed and get likewise info on their opponets who got the CCCiG, DKiG/S and also the RK ;-))

Ill let you know soon as I get back if anything appeared since today.

Take care--Carl.

 

Today I would like to talk about another person who received the title Hero of the Soviet Union for no ordinary feat.
This is Dmitriy Ovcharenko, a soldier of machine-gun company, 389 th Infantry Regiment, 176 th Infantry Division, 9 Army, the Southern Front. Order of his award was on Nov. 9, 1941. This is unusual in itself, because the beginning of the war was a bad one for the Red Army and then were the few rewarded and more shoted.
Another unusual fact - Ovcharenko was not a commander, not a pilot, and not even the shooter. He was "ezdovoi". Ezdovoi - is the one who controls the horse and cart.

So, at age 20 in 1939, Dmitri was drafted into the Red Army.
In the same year the Soviet Government decided to extend the period of military service for soldiers and sergeants from 1 year to 2 years old. I am writing this for those who still can not believe that Stalin was preparing for a very long war, which he believed was due to begin in 1941.
Thus, in 1941, Dmitry has been a soldier who had served in the army for 2 years. 13 July 1941 he was on his cart with a horse carrying ammunition in his company from the rear to the front. Suddenly, near the village Pesets (Ukraine), he met a group of German soldiers and 3 officers on the truck.
Bearing in mind that while some front line did not exist and the situation is changing very rapidly - in principle, it is not unusual.
German soldiers stopped Dmitri, seized a rifle, and examined cart.
The officer began to interrogate him. And then something happened that remember me plot of the film by Tarantino "Inglourious Basterds."
Next, I'm translating the text from the document, on which he was awarded:
«In the cart of Ovcharenko lay an ax. Taking this ax, Ovcharenko cut off the head of officer and threw three grenades in the direction facing the machine. 21 persons of German soldiers were killed, others began to scatter in different directions in panic. Ovcharenko rushed to catch up with the second officer who was wounded, caught up with him and also cut off his head. A third officer managed to escape.»

After that, Ovcharenko drove same ammunition to his company and told him what had happened. Nobody believe him. But when the patrol returned to the place indicated by Ovcharenko, they actually found there dead soldiers and two headless figures of the officers.
I know it's hard to believe such a story. But I am inclined to think that this is not propaganda.
First, this case was not known until the searchers are not dug into the archives of premium paper.
Secondly, his father was a woodworker. And before the army, Dmitri worked as a woodworker too. So he really knew how good deal with ax.
Here you can find a scan of premium paper: Файл:Geroy ovcharenko.jpg — Википедия

 

Hi Iru, I have not had proper time to check my email accts today but will have time tomorrow and also more time to read your latest here.

Take care--Carl.

 

OK, Carl
I sent you the same message through this web site, where wrote my email address for check. If you have not received the list of HotSU, send me any message from your email to my email address.