Vilkhovsky, Semyon Mikhailovich

Semen Mikhailovich Vilkhovsky was born on April 16, 1905 in the village of Melnikovo, Valkovsky district, Kharkiv region, in a peasant family.

He worked in agriculture. I did not study at school.

Pre-war time

October 5, 1926 was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army .

In 1929, Vilhovsky graduated from Kharkov School of Chervonny foremen, after which Vilkhovsky was appointed commander of a rifle platoon.

In 1931 he joined the ranks of the CPSU (b) .

From October 1931 to October 1940, Vilkhovsky served as commander of a rifle platoon and company, one-man battalion commander, assistant and chief of staff of the 121st rifle regiment of the 41st rifle division in Krivoy Rog , in North Ossetia and Dagestan .

In 1937 he passed the exams for seven classes in the order of the commander's study at the House of the Red Army in Dagestan.

Great Patriotic War

Until August 1941, Vilkhovsky served as an assistant to the head of the training department of the Buinaksk military infantry school . From August 1941, he served in Maikop of the North Caucasus Military District as the commander of the 129th reserve rifle regiment of the 26th rifle brigade, from February 1942 he temporarily served as commander of the 197th rifle division , and in May 1942 he was appointed commander of the 862nd rifle regiment of the same division, which in August was sent to the South-Western Front , transformed into the Stalingrad .

Vilkhovsky received baptism of fire during the defense of the mouth of the Khoper River at the place of its confluence with the Don . The enemy repeatedly attempted to force the river in this area, but all of them were repulsed. In October 1942, a regiment under the command of Vilkhovsky took part in forcing the Don and seizing a bridgehead in the area of ​​the village of Zatonsky . This bridgehead was soon connected with the bridgehead of other armies of the front south of the city of Serafimovich and the village of Kletskaya . For the difference in these battles, Major Vilkhovsky was awarded the Order of the Red Star .

At the end of October 1942, Major S. M. Vilkhovsky was appointed commander of the 196th reserve rifle regiment ( 3rd Guards Army , Don Front ). Before the beginning of the counter-offensive near Stalingrad, the 196th reserve rifle regiment was included in the personnel of the 855th rifle regiment ( 278th rifle division (2nd formation) , 3rd Guards Army , South-Western Front ). Major Vilkhovsky was appointed to the post of deputy commander of this regiment, who was redeployed to the village of Vyoshenskaya , where on November 22, 1942, he launched an offensive under the name of “Little Saturn” . Already by November 28, the regiment reached the village of Bokovskaya , where the enemy resisted. The fighting was delayed until December 19 . On December 25, the village of Selivanovskaya was taken, and on January 1, 1943, the village of Skosyrskaya .

On January 3, 1943, the 278th Infantry Division was transformed into the 60th Guards Infantry Division , and the 855th Infantry Regiment - into the 185th Guards Infantry Regiment , commander of which Major Vilkhovsky was appointed guard on February 11, 1943. By this time, the regiment went to the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky on the river Seversky Donets .

In the spring and summer of 1943, the 60th Guards Rifle Division operated as part of the 1st Guards Army , and the 185th Guards Rifle Regiment under the command of Vilkhovsky participated in the battles for the village of Novoidar , and soon went to the town of Krasny Liman , where he held defenses on River Seversky Donets .

By the beginning of the offensive for the liberation of Left-Bank Ukraine in August 1943, the division was part of the 12th Army . In September 1943, during the assault on the city of Pavlograd ( Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ), the Vilkhovsky regiment was in the first echelon. For the liberation of the city, the 60th Guards Rifle Division received the honorary title Pavlogradskaya , and Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Mikhailovich Vilkhovsky received the honorary title for the skilful leadership of the regiment during the liberation of Pavlograd and was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky .

By the end of September 1943, a regiment under the command of Vilkhovsky went to the Dnieper south of Dnepropetrovsk , from where along the river began an offensive on the city of Zaporozhye , liberated on October 13, 1943.

On October 25, 1943, a regiment under the command of Vilkhovsky began to force the Dnieper opposite the island of Khortytsya , but the regiment had to leave the island and return to the left bank.

On the night of November 26, 1943, the assault groups of the 185th Guards Rifle Regiment under the command of the Guard lieutenant colonel Vilkhovsky forced the Dnieper and captured a small bridgehead near the village of Razumovka ( Zaporizhia district , Zaporizhia region ). With the second assault group, Vilkhovsky crossed the bridgehead, and under his command the regiment broke through the enemy defenses, which allowed the rest of the 60th Guards Rifle Division to cross.

Fighting for Nikopol went until February 1944 , when he was released. The regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Vilkhovsky participated in street battles.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 22, 1944, for exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the German fascist invaders and the courage and heroism of the guard displayed at the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Mikhailovich Vilhovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal " (No. 3360) ^[1] .

With the transfer of the 60th Guards Rifle Division to the 5th Shock Army, the regiment took part in the Bereznegovato-Snigiryovskoy operation . The offensive in the steppes between Nikopol and the Ingulets River took place in difficult weather conditions, but on March 8, 1944, a regiment under the command of Vilkhovsky approached the Ingulets River near the village of Davydov Brod . During the crossing of the water barrier, the enemy opened fire from all types of weapons on the river and the opposite bank. One of the shells hit the observation post of the commander of the 185th Guards Rifle Regiment Vilkhovsky, from which 3 officers were killed and several were injured. Semyon Mikhailovich Vilhovsky was seriously injured, after which he was urgently sent to the rear hospital.

After treatment in the army hospital Vilkhovsky was sent for treatment to Kislovodsk , and then to Moscow .

Post War Career

In August 1944, after healing, Vilkhovsky became a student of the Military Academy named after M. Frunze , graduated in July 1945 , and then served: until February 1946, as commander of the 589th rifle regiment ( 216th rifle division , Kiev Military District ) , from February to July 1946 - the 182nd Mountain Regiment ( 68th Rifle Division , Tabriz , Iran , Baku Military District ), from July 1946 to April 1947 - the 158th and 165th individual rifle battalions 7 and the 13th infantry brigades ( Tavrichesky military district ), and from April to July 1953 he worked on falsity of a senior inspector of the department of military schools of the Office of Combat and Physical Training of the Transcaucasian Military District in Tbilisi .

On July 8, 1953, Colonel Semyon Mikhailovich Vilhovsky went to the reserve, after which he lived and worked in Tbilisi , Mozdok , and Dnepropetrovsk , where he died on August 23, 1984 . Buried in Dnepropetrovsk.

• Captain ( 1938 );
• Major ( 1940 );
• Lieutenant Colonel (June 1943 );
• Colonel

• Gold Star Medal ^[2] ;
• Order of Lenin ^[3] (02.22.1944);
• Order of Lenin (11/19/1951);
• Order of the Red Banner (11/05/1946);
• Order of Alexander Nevsky ^[4] (02.10.1943);
• Order of the Red Star ^[5] (10/27/1942);
• Order of the Red Star (04/30/1945);
• Medal "To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (04/06/1970);
• Medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (May 9, 1945 ^[6] );
• The commemorative medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (May 7, 1965 ^[7] );
• The commemorative medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" ^[8] ;
• Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" ^[9] ;
• Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR" ;
• Medal "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy" ^[10] ;
• Commemorative medal "40 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" ^[11] ;
• Commemorative medal "50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (December 26, 1967 ^[12] );
• The commemorative medal "60 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (January 28, 1978 ^[13] );
• Sign " Guard ".

• The name of the Hero is carved in gold letters in the Hall of Fame of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow’s Victory Park .
• A gravestone is installed on the grave .

• A group of authors. Forcing the 185th Guards Rifle Regiment p. The Dnieper and the battles for the Masonovsky bridgehead from November 26 to November 29, 1943 // Fighting operations of the rifle regiment: Collection of combat examples . - M .: Military Publishing, 1958. - 280 p. - (Collection of combat examples).

• Vilkhovsky, Semyon Mikhailovich (Russian) . The site " Heroes of the country ."
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• Vilkhovsky Semen Mikhailovich.