Lyubushkin, Ivan Timofeevich

Born on July 20, 1918 in the village of Sadovaya, Borisoglebsky district, Tambov province ^[2] in a peasant family. He graduated from junior high school. Father - Timofey Fedorovich. Lyubushkin had two brothers (Andrei, who died during the Great Patriotic War, and Vasily) and two sisters (Natalya and Antonina). Sister Antonina Timofeevna Vasilina about I. T. Lyubushkin ^[3] :

As a child, Vanya was a modest, shy, but at the same time very mobile child. He loved to play war and at the same time wanted to be a commander . He studied until the fourth grade in his native village, and then in the village of Sergievka, where he graduated from the seven-year plan. Life did not spoil us. Mother died early, and father married a second time. The family was large, seven children. Often there was nothing to go to school. But still, Vanya tried not to miss classes and studied well. After school, he left for Tambov , where he worked at a brick factory. Worked in good faith. Then he went to Tbilisi with a friend, worked there in a fire department. From Tbilisi he was taken into the army , served in a tank unit , graduated from the school of junior commanders, and then the war began.

In the Red Army since 1938 .

During the Great Patriotic War

Member of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941.

Gunner of the T-34-76 tank gun of the 4th Panzer Brigade ( 16th Army , Western Front ) Komsomol member senior sergeant I.T. Lyubushkin distinguished himself on October 6, 1941 in battle at an altitude of 217.8 (near the village of Pervy Voin, Mtsensky District, Oryol region , Military rural settlement ), when Soviet troops met with the main forces of the powerful tank group of G. Guderian ( Fights near Mtsensk ).

Enemy fire "thirty-four" Lieutenant Kukarin was hit. Gunner I.T. Lyubushkin was wounded (clothes lit up on Lieutenant Kukarin, the mechanic-driver of the tank Fedorov was also wounded and stunned, radio operator gunner Duvanov was wounded in the leg), but the crew continued the battle and set fire to five enemy tanks. In total, nine enemy tanks were destroyed in this battle by the crew of the combat vehicle .

The front-line leaflet “Tank Duel” ^[4] spoke about the exploit of a tanker:

The tank of senior sergeant I.T. Lyubushkin from the first minutes of the battle was hit by an enemy shell and could not move. But he accepted the battle and began shelling enemy tanks. An unusual tank duel broke out on a wide field. At a distance of 1300 meters, a courageous commander shot five enemy vehicles one after another. But the German heavy tank arrived in time and pierced the side of Lyubushkin’s car. The crew wounded and interrupted the speed enable mechanism, the tank driver immediately set about repair. After some time, the car was able to reverse, and the tank Lyubushkina managed to connect with his convoy .

In the memoirs of the commander of the 2nd Tank Army of the Wehrmacht, General G. Guderian, the day of October 6, 1941 says ^[5] : “The 4th Panzer Division was stopped by Russian tanks. And she had to endure a difficult moment. For the first time, significant superiority of Russian T-34 tanks was manifested. The division suffered significant losses. The planned rapid attack on Tula had to be postponed. ”

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 10, 1941 “for exemplary performance of command missions on the front of the struggle against Nazi invaders and courage and heroism shown at the same time”, senior sergeant Ivan Timofeevich Lyubushkin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union .

In the battle of Moscow he participated in a number of battles near the villages of Gusenevo and Dubosekovo, counterattacking the superior forces of the Germans at Istra and Kryukovo , while destroying 6 enemy tanks. He participated in battles on the Kalinin and Bryansk fronts .

At the age of 24, the tank commander Ivan Timofeevich Lyubushkin died the death of the brave in a battle on June 30, 1942 in the village of Muravsky Shlyakh (near the city of Livny ) on the Bryansk Front ^[6] . A participant in that battle, the commander of the battalion A. A. Raftopullo , wrote in his book:

Guardsmen were especially cruel and difficult on June 30 in the area of ​​the Experimental Field - there was a sudden oncoming battle . He was received by the battalion of Alexander Burda . To deploy their marching column in battle formation had to under fire. From above, guards-tankers were attacked by aircraft, fascist tanks were going head-on, from the side, due to the railway along which the battalion was advancing, German guns were beating. In this clash, one of the best tankers, Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Lyubushkin, died. As soon as he dealt with the Nazi cannon, as the direct hit of a bomb the tower of his "thirty-four" was smashed. Lyubushkin and his tower gunner Litvinenko were killed on the spot, gunner Yegorov was seriously injured and only the driver Safonov was unharmed. He managed to jump out of the car in flames. Tank Lyubushkina burned in front of his comrades before sunset, and what they experienced while looking at him is impossible to describe ...

In total, on the combat account of I.T. Lyubushkin, 20 destroyed tanks and self-propelled guns of the enemy ^[1] .

He was buried in mass grave No. 46 in the village of Rosstani, Livensky District, Oryol Region . There is a sculpture of a warrior with a naked head, as well as a memorial plate with the names of the dead.

• The Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union (October 10, 1941);
• Order of Lenin (October 10, 1941);
• medals

• Streets in the cities of Oryol and Livny and Sergievskaya secondary school of the Muchkap district of the Tambov region are named after I.T. Lyubushkin. A museum has been created at the school, where materials about the pupil of the school are collected.
• By order of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade No. 073 of May 7, 1943, he was forever enlisted in the lists of personnel of the brigade .
• In 2011, a postal block was issued in the Republic of Chad dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the battle for Moscow, which depicts I.T. Lyubushkin ^[7] .

• Baryatinsky M. B. Ivan Lyubushkin // Soviet tank aces. - M .: Eksmo , 2008 .-- S. 145-148. - (Tanks in battle). - 5000 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-25290-9 .
• Zhilin V.A. Hero-tankers 1941-1942 - M .: Eksmo, Yauza, 2008 .-- S. 129-139. - 576 p. - (Hero of the Soviet Union). - 5000 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-29153-3 .
• Shishkov A.M. From Moscow to Berlin - The combat route of the 1st Guards Chortkovskaya twice Order of Lenin of the Red Banner Order of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan of the Khmelnitsky Tank Brigade . - M .: Committee on Telecommunications and Media of the City of Moscow, 2005.
• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. College I. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Lyubov - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100 000 copies - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .
• Dyachkov L.G. Our pride and glory. - Voronezh, 1968.
• Fiery years. - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - M., 1971.
• Battlefield tested. - M., 1981.
• Davydov V.A., Yaroshenko V.V. Lyubushkin Ivan Timofeevich // Book of memory of the first guards tankers of 1941-45 . - 2nd ed., Corr. - Kaluga, 2007.

• Lyubushkin, Ivan Timofeevich (Russian) . The site " Heroes of the country ."
• Lyubushkin Ivan Timofeevich on the website www.rkka.ru.