Berbeko, Alexander Tikhonovich

Alexander Berbeko was born in 1896 at the Razdelnaya station in Tiraspol district , Kherson province (now Odessa region of Ukraine ). Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he was called up for service in the tsarist army. In 1916, Berbeko graduated from the Odessa school of pilots and was sent to the front. He fought in the air squad. He participated in the Odessa armed uprising in January 1918 , from his plane bombed the Odessa artillery school, occupied by the Haidamak formations ^[1] .

Later he participated in the battles in Bessarabia , scattered campaign leaflets over enemy positions. May 19, 1919 near Tiraspol Berbeko personally shot down a Romanian plane. When General Denikin's Volunteer Army advanced towards Moscow in the fall of 1919 , Berbeko organized a partisan detachment of his comrades in the 1st Soviet Aviation Unit. In one of the battles, he was captured by the Petliurites and was sentenced to death by them, but thanks to the help of the Odessa underground, Berbeko managed to escape from prison. Returning to the squadron, he supported the operations of the 1st Cavalry Army during battles with the troops of Generals K. Mamontov and A. Shkuro . He also participated in the battles of the Soviet-Polish war and the liquidation of the peasant uprising in the Tambov region ^[1] .

By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic No. 202 of December 31, 1923, Alexander Berbeko was awarded the first Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR ^[2] . He was also awarded the Golden Badge of the Red Guard.

By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic No. 736 in 1925, Alexander Berbeko was again awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR ^[2] .

After the Civil War, Berbeko lived in Odessa , worked as a pilot, was engaged in testing old aircraft after repair, made campaign flights and flights for cultivating agricultural land. He was actively involved in social activities, was one of the organizers of the voluntary society Aerohim, and headed the Odessa branch of the Society for Aviation and Aeronautics of Ukraine and Crimea. He worked as an assistant director of the Odessa Canning Institute . He was a candidate member of the CPSU (b) ^[3] . He was elected a member of the CEC of the Moldavian ASSR . On February 7, 1937, Berbeko was arrested by the organs of the UNKVD in Odessa region as “a member of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist terrorist organization” (Articles 54-8, 54-10 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR) and on September 26, 1937 was sentenced by the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to execution . The sentence was carried out on September 27, 1937 ^[3] .

May 14, 1957 rehabilitated by the definition of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR ^[3] .

Hero of Labor . He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Ukrainian SSR (became the first holder of this order) and two valuable gifts ^[4] .

• "A collection of persons awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Honorable Revolutionary Arms." Military Publishing House, 1926.