Maksimov, Vladimir Konstantinovich

Vladimir Maximov was born on December 3, 1899 in Rybinsk . He graduated from the Krasnokholmsk Higher Primary School in 1914 (such a school gave seven-year education), then worked on the railway. Since November 1914 he served in the Russian Imperial Army , voluntarily determined. He participated in the battles of the First World War as part of the 172nd Galich Infantry Regiment, in 1915 was wounded in battle. For courage, promoted to non-commissioned officer, and then graduated from the 2nd Zhytomyr Ensign School (according to other sources, the school of volunteers).

In March 1918, he volunteered to serve in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army . From May 1918, he served as an assistant platoon commander and platoon company platoon commander at the Krasnokholmsky district military registration and enlistment office , from August 1918 he was the clerk of this military registration and enlistment office, from October 1919 he again commanded a platoon of the Krasnokholmsky punitive company. Since December 1920, he was the company commander of the 53rd Infantry Regiment of the Republic's Internal Guard Troops . He participated in the battles of the Civil War , as well as in the fight against armed banditry and in the suppression of anti-Soviet actions. For example, he participated in battles during the suppression of the Yaroslavl uprising in July 1918 ^[2] .

The interwar period After the end of the Civil War, he continued his military service. From October 13, 1921, he served in the 155th Rifle Regiment as commander of a rifle company, and from February 1922, as battalion commander. In December 1922 he was fired on indefinite leave, but after returning to Red Hill, in January 1923 he again entered the service in the Red Army as a general education instructor at the local military registration and enlistment office. From March 1924 he served in the 10th Infantry Division of the Leningrad Military District : commander of a rifle platoon of the 28th Infantry Regiment, from October 1924 - the head of the economic team of the regiment, from September 1926 - the commander of the household of the regiment, from November 1928 - the commander of the rifle company, with June 1931 was for assignments under the assistant commander of the regiment for the economic part, and in March 1933 he was appointed assistant for the economic part of the commander of the 29th rifle regiment of this division.

In 1924 he graduated from the divisional school of the 10th Infantry Division, in 1927 - advanced training courses for command personnel. In 1926 he joined the CPSU (b) .

In July 1938 he was appointed professor of tactics at the Tbilisi Military Infantry School. However, not having time to arrive at the new duty station, he was arrested on August 15, 1938 by the NKVD. He was charged with committing counter-revolutionary crimes. ^[3] After some time (presumably in 1939), the case against V. K. Maksimov was dismissed, he was released and reinstated in the Red Army. According to some reports, he participated in the Polish campaign of the Red Army in September 1939. In August 1940 he was appointed assistant commander for material supplies of the 164th Infantry Regiment of the 33rd Infantry Division of the Baltic Special Military District .

Since June 1941 - on the fronts of World War II. He fought on the North-Western Front , where he commanded the 533th Infantry Regiment of the 128th Infantry Division ^[4] . In the Baltic strategic defensive operation, together with the division, he was surrounded, and broke out of it with battle. On July 9, 1941, the regiment under his command carried out a successful counterattack, knocked out German troops from the village of Pushkinskiye Gory , and then held it for a long time. He was wounded, after the hospital in August 1941 he was appointed commander of the 2nd reserve regiment. Since October 1941, he commanded the 942th Infantry Regiment of the 268th Infantry Division of the 55th Army of the Leningrad Front . Participated in the defense of Leningrad , in the battle on December 22, 1941 was seriously wounded.

After being cured at the hospital in February 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the 56th Infantry Division of the Leningrad Front. In April 1942 he was appointed commander of the 18th motorized rifle brigade (a few months later renamed the mechanized brigade). He formed this brigade in the Urals Military District, in July 1942 he led it into battle on the Voronezh Front , where he participated in the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad defensive operation . In October 1942, the brigade was transferred to the 2nd Mechanized Corps, and in its composition fought in the Velikoluksky offensive operation on the Kalinin Front. In the spring of 1943, the corps and brigade were transferred to the Steppe Military District , and in the summer, as part of the Central Front, they participated in the Battle of Kursk - in the Oryol offensive operation ^[5] . He commanded the brigade very successfully, was distinguished by courage and skillful actions. In July 1943, for the differences in the performance of command tasks and the heroism of the personnel, the brigade received the guards banner and became known as the 24th Guards Mechanized Brigade . The brigade under his command fought on the Voronezh and Central fronts. He was wounded twice in battles.

In September-October 1943, the commander of the 24th Guards Mechanized Brigade of the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps , the 60th Army , and the Central Front of the Guard, Colonel Vladimir Maximov distinguished himself in the battle for the Dnieper . During the Chernihiv-Pripyat offensive operation, the 24th Guards Mechanized Brigade advanced ahead of the main forces of the front and on September 15, 1943 liberated the city of Nizhyn with a swift strike. Then she was one of the first to enter the Dnieper . On September 25, 1943, Maximov successfully organized the crossing of his brigade across the Dnieper in the vicinity of the village of Gubin in the Chernobyl district of the Kiev region of the Ukrainian SSR and the capture of an important stronghold of German defense, causing heavy losses to the enemy. In those battles, Maximov was at the forefront. His actions contributed to the successful actions of the entire corps ^[4] .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 17, 1943, for successfully crossing the Dnieper River north of Kiev, firmly securing the bridgehead on the western bank of the Dnieper River and showing courage and heroism of the guard, Colonel Vladimir Maximov was awarded the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and a medal The Golden Star, numbered 1224 ^[4] . For this operation, the team was awarded the honorary name "Nezhinskaya".

In 1944 V.K. Maksimov was sent to study, graduated from advanced training courses for command personnel at the I.V. Stalin Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces , after which he returned to the front with the rank of Major General and was appointed deputy in the same year commander of the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps . In this post, he fought in the Wisla Oder , Lower Silesian and Berlin offensive operations.

Already in the victorious spring of 1945, the life of a military general and a Hero was tragically cut short. In the Berlin offensive, the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps operated on the southern flank of the 1st Ukrainian Front , providing from the south the flanks of the main front forces advancing on Berlin. The corps conducted active hostilities, and General V.K. Maksimov was appointed commander of his forward detachment, which broke deep into the German rear. However, trying at all costs to prevent the Soviet troops from reaching Berlin, on April 20 and 23, 1945, German troops (three tank divisions: German Goering , 20th and 21st ) launched two strong counterattacks in this direction from south to north on advancing units of the Soviet 52nd Army and the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps , as well as the 2nd Army of the Polish Army . In these battles, known as the Bautzen-Weissenberg operation , the detachment of General Maximov was far ahead of the main forces of the corps and was surrounded by superior enemy forces in the area of ​​the city of Weissenberg . For three days, under his command, the tankers and units of the rifle divisions fought in complete encirclement, their heroic actions largely contributed to the collapse of the German counterattack (the maximum advance of the German tank divisions was only about 25 kilometers). But the detachment suffered significant losses, and an attempt to release it was reflected. On the night of April 24, General Maximov led his thinned units to a breakthrough. About 30% of the squad number made their way to their next day. ^[6] General Maximov himself was seriously injured and was considered missing on April 24. ^[7]

However, it was subsequently established that he was captured, in one of the German hospitals both legs were amputated. The circumstances of the death of V.M. Maksimov were not reliably established: according to some sources, on May 8, 1945, he was released in the hospital in the city of Zittau by advancing Soviet troops and died of wounds on May 10, according to other sources, he died on May 17, and according to the third, he was discovered in a German hospital already dead (or killed) and identified on May 12. ^[8] Some documents are listed as dead on April 24, 1945 ^[9] , which is not true: on the morning of this day he was alive and led his detachment to break out of the encirclement, and after the war a protocol was found in the documents of the headquarters of the 4th German Panzer Army interrogation ^[10] , that is, V. Maksimov was held captive taking into account his severe wound and medical operation for at least several days.

In Soviet times, it was officially believed that V. K. Maximov "died near Berlin on April 19, 1945." ^{[11] [12]}

He was buried at the Kutuzov Memorial in the Polish village of Boleslawiec ^[4] .

• major (January 1936)
• lieutenant colonel (02.15.1941)
• Colonel (02/10/1942)
• Major General of Tank Forces (02/18/1944)

• Hero of the Soviet Union (10.17.1943)
• Two Orders of Lenin (10.17.1943)
• Three Orders of the Red Banner (02/06/1942, 08/04/1943) ^[4]
• Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1943)
• Anniversary medal "XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army" (1938)

• 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 .
• Heroes of the fiery years. Yaroslavl: Upper Volga Prince ed., 1985.
• Arno Lehnert: Bautzen 1945.110 Dokumentarbilder von den Zerstörungen in der Stadt Bautzen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Bautzen 1995.
• Rolf Hinze: Hitze, Frost und Pulverdampf. Der Schicksalsweg der 20. Panzer-Division. Meerbusch 6. Aufl. 1996

• Maximov, Vladimir Konstantinovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• V.K. Maksimov on the site "Tank Front"