Petrov, Alexey Ivanovich (Hero of the Soviet Union, 1925)

Alexey Ivanovich Petrov was born in 1925 in the city of Ostrov (now the Pskov region).

He was drafted into the army in 1942, at the front of World War II - from 1943.

During the Battle of the Guards of Kursk , Junior Sergeant A. I. Petrov commanded the calculation of the guns as part of the gunner of the Red Army guard P. P. Volkov , loading the guards of the Red Army M. M. Cheprasov , numbers of the calculation of the Red Army guardsA.K. Chicherin and Makarov. The calculation was part of the battery of the captain M.I. Pakhomov's guard of the 84th Guards Separate Anti-Tank Division. In this battle, the division held positions in the front line of defense of the 241st Guards Rifle Regiment of the 75th Guards Rifle Division .

At dawn on July 6, 1943, German troops, having launched fresh large tank forces into battle, continued their offensive in the vicinity of Ponyri station. In the award sheet on the guard of Junior Sergeant A.I. Petrov, the commander of the 84th Guards Special Operations Control Division of the Guard Captain M. I. Pakhomov wrote ^[2] :

The gun crew of Petrov, being in the battle formations of the infantry and supporting it with the fire of his gun, repelled a series of attacks of tanks and infantry of the enemy.

Seeing that the Nazis did not bring their T-6 tanks to our front line, but were firing at battle formations from distant positions, Petrov made a daring decision - to extend the gun far beyond the front line. Under the hurricane fire of the enemy’s tanks, the calculation on the hands rolled the cannon forward.

Stunned by the boldness of Petrov’s calculation, the Nazis fired at him frantically, but a handful of daredevils confidently continued to roll out the cannon to approach enemy tanks.

Approaching a distance of 100 meters, Petrov opened fire on enemy tanks. The Nazis launched five medium tanks on the brave gun. With the first shots, Petrov, personally firing a cannon, set fire to 2 tanks, forcing the rest to turn back.

A few minutes later, more than a company of infantry tried to surround and captivate the calculation of the gun. Conducting a circular bombardment, Petrov’s calculation repelled infantry attacks, destroying more than 100 fascists with buckshot and machine gun fire.

Enraged by the unprecedented heroism and tenacity of five Soviet soldiers, the Nazis launched three T-6 tanks at Petrov’s reckoning. Two more enemy T-6 tanks were shot down one after the other with submunitions. With the third tank, the calculation with the gun was crushed, heroically dying, not leaving their positions and not missing the enemy tanks.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 7, 1943, for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the guard, Junior Sergeant Petrov Alexei Ivanovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union ^[3] .

A.I. Petrov was buried in a mass grave in the village of Olkhovatka ( Ponyrovsky District , Kursk Region ).

For this battle P.P. Volkov and M.M. Cheprasov were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumous), A.K. Chicherin was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" ^[4] .

• Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union ( August 7, 1943 );
• Order of Lenin .

• At the mass grave in the village of Olkhovatka, Ponyrovsky District, Kursk Region, where A. I. Petrov was buried, a memorial was created to the heroes of the northern face of the Kursk Bulge ^[5] .
• In the village of Ponyri, Kursk Region , a street was named after the Hero, and a stele with the name and portrait of A. I. Petrov was installed in the memorial complex ^[6] .
• In the homeland of the Hero in the city of Ostrov of the Pskov Region there is Petrov Street, his name is immortalized on the monument to the heroes of the islets. On the facade of school number 2, in which A. I. Petrov studied, a memorial plaque was installed.

• Monuments
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  In Olkhovatka

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  In the island

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Love - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .
• About the war and comrades. Collection of memories. - Krasnograd: JSC "KMP", 1996. - 208 p. with ill. - 950 copies.
• Kapitonov E. G. The Fall of the Citadel. - Kingisepp: Kingisepp Printing House, 1996.- 116 p. with ill. - 500 copies.

• Petrov Alexey Ivanovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment January 8, 2015.
• Memory of the land of Oryol .
• Petrov Alexey Ivanovich .
• Ponyrovsky Museum of the Battle of Kursk .
• Heroes of the Soviet Union are natives of the Pskov region .