Zharikov, Ivan Alekseevich

Ivan Zharikov was born on January 30 ^[1] 1907 in the city of Korocha (now the Belgorod Region ). Russian. Member of the CPSU since 1931. He graduated from the parish school, and in 1928, the labor faculty . He worked as a miner in the mine.

In May 1929, Ivan Zharikov was called up for service in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army . In 1932, he graduated from the Odessa Infantry School. At the end, he was sent by the commander of a rifle platoon to one of the rifle divisions of the Moscow military district , but a month later, in April 1932, he was transferred to the 1st mechanized brigade named after Kalinovsky , thereby entering the number of the first Soviet tankmen (this is the first armored formation in the world was created less than 2 years before). In the brigade, he served as commander of a platoon of armored vehicles , from April 1933 - the commander of a training platoon of a chemical company , from January 1934 - the head of the ammunition brigade, and from June 1936 - the commander of a separate chemical company. In 1934 he graduated from advanced training courses for command personnel. In August 1936 he was transferred to the Trans-Baikal Military District and was appointed commander of a separate chemical company of the 32nd Mechanized Brigade . Since February 1938, he served as the commander of the combat support company of the 8th motorized armored brigade , which was located on the territory of the Mongolian People’s Republic , and since May 1938, he served as the head of the chemical service of the tank battalion of the special motorized armored brigade also on the territory of Mongolia.

As part of his battalion, he participated in battles on Khalkhin-Gol in the summer of 1939. In July, in one of the battles he was seriously wounded, was evacuated to a hospital in Novosibirsk , where he was treated for about six months.

Only in January 1940 he returned to duty, having been appointed assistant commander of a company of cadets at the Kiev Tank Technical School . From June 1940, he commanded a separate automobile battalion in the Kiev Special Military District (KOVO), from August 1940 - a tank battalion in the 30th tank regiment of the 15th Panzer Division of KOVO, from December 1940 - in the 38th tank regiment of the 19th Panzer divisions of the 22nd mechanized corps of KOVO.

At the head of the battalion participated in the battles of World War II from its first days. Member of the tank battle for Dubno - Lutsk - Brody on the South-Western Front . After the death of the division, he was appointed commander of the 31st separate tank battalion in the 49th army on the Reserve and Western fronts, and participated in the battle for Moscow . Then, from January 1942, he served as an assistant to the head of the department in the combat training department of the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army . From June 1942 he was deputy commander of the 246th tank brigade (formed in Gorky ), from the end of July - commander of the 224th tank brigade (also formed in Gorky). Since September, he again served in his former position in the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army.

In February 1943 he returned to the front - the commander of the 36th Panzer Brigade of the 11th Panzer Corps . He led the brigade until the end of the war. He fought on the Kalinin Front from February to April 1943, then from July 1943 on the Bryansk , from August to October 1943 on the South , from February 1944 until the end of the war on the 1st Belorussian Front. He participated in the Battle of Kursk , in the Oryol , Donbass , Nizhnedneprovskaya , Belorussian , Vistula-Oder , and Berlin offensive operations. In July 1944 he was seriously wounded, but in September he returned to duty. The brigade under his command acted successfully, for military distinctions she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (08/09/1944), Suvorov 2nd degree (12.08.1944) and Kutuzov 2nd degree (02.19.1945). ^[2]

In April 1945, Colonel Ivan Zharikov , commander of the 36th Panzer Brigade of the 11th Panzer Corps of the 1st Belorussian Front, distinguished himself in the Berlin operation ^[3] . From April 16 to April 30, 1945, Zharikov’s brigade marched from Oder to Berlin , knocking out and destroying 50 tanks and assault guns , 164 artillery guns , 176 mortars , 371 machine guns , 5 armored personnel carriers , 288 vehicles and tractors, and also captured 5600 enemy soldiers and officers ^[3] .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 31, 1945, Colonel Ivan Zharikov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal ^[3] .

After the war, I. A. Zharikov continued to serve in the Soviet Army . From November 1945 to April 1947 he served as deputy commander of the 16th Mechanized Division in the Group of Soviet Occupation Troops in Germany . In 1947, he graduated from the academic advanced training courses for officers at the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces named after I.V. Stalin . From January 1948, he was an adviser to the head of the department of armored and mechanized troops of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia , from May 1948 he was the commander of the 9th separate tank training regiment, and from February 1949 he was deputy commander of the 9th Guards Mechanized Division . From March 1949 to July 1951 he was on a long foreign trip on the line of foreign affairs directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces . Since July 1951, he was the commander of the 34th Guards Mechanized Division , and since February 1956 he served as an assistant commander of the 10th Guards Rifle Corps for armored vehicles. In May 1956, Major General of the Tank Forces I.A. Zharikov was transferred to the reserve.

He lived in Odessa . He died on May 29, 1969 ^[3] . He was buried in the 2nd Christian cemetery , section 128.

• lieutenant (01.24.1936)
• senior lieutenant (02.17.1938)
• captain (09/06/1940)
• major (november 1942)
• lieutenant colonel (04/01/1942)
• colonel (12/15/1943)
• Major General of the Tank Forces (05/31/1954)

• Hero of the Soviet Union (05/31/1945)
• two orders of Lenin (05/31/1945)
• three orders of the Red Banner
• Order of Suvorov 2nd degree
• Order of Alexander Nevsky
• two orders of the Red Star
• medals ^[3] .
• Order of the Red Banner ( Mongolia )

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1987.- T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN comp., Reg. RCP No. 87-95382.
• Belgorod Heroes. - 2nd ed., Ext. - Voronezh, 1972.- S. 81-82.
• Kalashnikov K.A., Dodonov I.Yu. High command staff of the USSR Armed Forces in the post-war period. References (1945-1975). Volume 3. The command staff of the tank troops. Ust-Kamenogorsk: Media Alliance, 2017. - ISBN: 978-601-7887-15-5. - S. 186-189.

• Leonid Sheinman. Zharikov, Ivan Alekseevich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment March 13, 2015.
• I. A. Zharikov in the electronic encyclopedia of the Belgorod region
• 110 years since the birth of Hero of the Soviet Union I.A. Zharikova. // OGKU "State archive of the latest history of the Belgorod region"