Vetoshkin, Victor Dmitrievich

Born in the village of Novaya Milcha, now Gomel district, Gomel region of Belarus, in the family of a railway worker. Russian. He graduated from the 9th grade when the Great Patriotic War began . In the early days he worked on the construction of defensive structures, digging anti-tank ditches. Remained in the occupied territory.

At the end of 1943, Gomel was released. Victor entered to study at the Gomel Railway College. When young men born in 1925 began to be drafted into the army, he, as having “armor,” was not subject to mobilization. At the beginning of 1944 he came to the draft board and volunteered for the Red Army .

After a month of training in a reserve regiment near the city of Starodub in the Bryansk region , in March 1944 he was sent to the 601th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Infantry Division. The young fighter happened to change several specialties: he was a simple shooter, then he entered the machine gun crew, then the second number in the calculation of the anti-tank gun. Then he became a mortar gunner. As part of the regiment with battles, he went to Victory. He participated in the battles for the liberation of Belarus, Poland , defeated the enemy in Germany .

The mortar gunner of the 601th Rifle Regiment, the Red Army soldier Viktor Vetoshkin, on January 14, 1945, when breaking through the enemy’s defense on the left bank of the Vistula River in the vicinity of the Polish city of Warka, suppressed two machine gun points and shot down up to ten enemy soldiers. For courage and bravery shown in battles, on February 14, 1945, Red Army soldier Viktor Vetoshkin was awarded the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree.

For two and a half months, the 601th rifle regiment with battles marched across Poland and reached the Oder River. On March 27, 1945, during the liquidation of the enemy's bridgehead on the right bank of the Oder River in the area of ​​the Altkustrhenhen settlement, now Stary Kostshynek, the mortar calculation commander of the 601st infantry regiment V.D. Vetoshkin destroyed two enemy firing points and eleven enemy soldiers. For courage and bravery shown in the battles, on April 26, 1945, Junior Sergeant Vetoshkin Viktor Dmitrievich was awarded the Order of Glory of the 2nd degree.

On May 5-7, 1945, Sergeant Viktor Vetoshkin in a battle near the city of Vritsen put down five enemy fire points and exterminated up to a dozen soldiers. Being then in infantry battle formations, he adjusted the mortar fire, and several enemy soldiers were hit from personal weapons.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 15, 1946, Sergeant Vetoshkin Viktor Dmitrievich was awarded the Order of Glory of the 1st degree, becoming a full knight of the Order of Glory for exemplary execution of command assignments in battles against Nazi invaders.

But the Order of Glory of the 1st degree found the awarded only in 1970, thanks to the writer from Moscow, E. A. Vertlib, who, working in the military archives, found information that the mortar man from Belarus for the battles in Nazi Germany was presented to this high reward, but never received it.

In March 1950, V.D. Vetoshkin was demobilized. In 1958, he graduated from the school of working youth. Member of the CPSU since 1962. Until 1983, he worked as a photo-galcograph at the Polzabotat factory. In 1977, he was awarded the Order of Lenin for the successful implementation of offset printing technology, and in 1975, VD Vetoshkin was awarded the title “Honorary Worker of Industry of the Belarusian SSR” for the perfect delivery of finished products. He lived in the regional center of the Gomel region of Belarus - the city of Gomel.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin , the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Orders of Glory of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees, medals, the Order "For Service to the Homeland" 3rd degree.

In May 2006, V. D. Vetoshkin “for his great personal contribution to the civic-patriotic education of youth” was awarded the Honorary Diploma of the Gomel City Executive Committee. “Honorary Citizen of the Gomel Region”.

• A memorial plaque ^{[1] was} installed on the building of the Polshabat factory in memory of VD Vetoshkin.

• Dolgotovich B. D. Cavaliers of the Order of Glory. Minsk, 2006
• Cavaliers of the Order of Glory of three degrees: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium D. S. Sukhorukov . - M .: Military Publishing House , 2000 .-- 703 p. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-01883-9 .
• Forever in the heart of the people. 3rd ed., Ext. and rev. Minsk, 1984

Victor Dmitrievich Vetoshkin (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment June 8, 2014.

• The full holder of the Order of Glory died, the honorary citizen of Gomel Viktor Vetoshkin