Magpie, Vasily Illarionovich

Born in 1902 in the village of Pasiceli (now the Balti district of Odessa region of Ukraine ). Ukrainian. From the age of fifteen he worked at the creamery, then as a loader at the Kotovsk railway station, since 1936 - at the Dzerzhinsky steel rolling plant in Odessa.

In 1941, drafted into the Red Army . He fought on the Southwestern Front . In October 1941, he was wounded and captured. He was held in the Buzau concentration camp. In 1944, as the front approached, he fled from the concentration camp. In August of that year he was again drafted into the Red Army . In the army since October 1944. As part of the 107th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 34th Guards Rifle Division of the 4th Guards Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, he participated in the liberation of Hungary , forced the Danube.

At the end of December 1944, a large enemy group was surrounded by Soviet troops in Budapest. Several enemy tank divisions were thrown to help her from Lake Balaton. The task of the 4th Guards Army was to fight the attacking forces of the opponents in battles and prevent them from breaking through to the Budapest group.

On December 30, 1944, the 3rd battalion of the 107th Guards Rifle Regiment, fighting to improve their positions, burst into Banhida station and was attacked from both sides by superior enemy infantry and tank forces. The battalion was forced to leave the station, and a group of 28 men, led by guard Lieutenant Panin, was cut off from its unit and entrenched in a two-story house. In the very first hour of the battle Panin was killed, and Senior Sergeant M. Starikov took over command of the guard. Under his leadership, the soldiers fought for five days with the enemy attacking from all sides. During this time, the group repelled 40 enemy counterattacks, knocked out one tank, burned three armored personnel carriers and exterminated more than 70 enemy soldiers and officers. Guards Red Soroka, at the head of his squad, made up of fighters who returned from captivity, defended the northern side of the building, which the enemy almost destroyed by artillery fire. Thanks to the strict discipline established in the squad by V.I. Sorokoy, and his skillful leadership, all the attacks of the opponents were successfully repulsed.

On January 3, using the fog, the enemy brought an armored personnel carrier to the house with an automatic gun and machine gun mounted on it. Under his cover, the German infantry attacked. Guards Red Soroka crawled towards an armored personnel carrier and, getting close, threw one grenade into the body, and the second into the caterpillar. The machine gunners opened fire on him and began to chase. Shooting from the Germans, Soroka killed several foot soldiers, and when he took refuge around the corner of the building, he destroyed three more with a grenade. As a result of the sortie, the cannon was disabled, an armored personnel carrier was shot down and seven fascists were killed.

On the night of January 4, the enemy launched a massive offensive at the detachment position. Combining artillery and rifle fire, the opponents approached the house and threw rooms in which the Magpie’s compartment was located, with smoke bombs and tanks with a combustible mixture, after which they rushed ahead to the door. Despite severe burns, V.I. Soroka, together with the machine gunner Mogilevich with fire and in hand-to-hand combat, forced the Germans to retreat and held their position. On the night of January 5, 1945, by order of the command, the group withdrew all the wounded and withdrew.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 29, 1943, for the courage, bravery and heroism of the guard, Red Army soldier Soroka Vasily Illarionovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal .

Later V.I. Soroka continued to participate in the battles. On April 13, 1945, in a battle near Vienna, he was seriously wounded and sent to a hospital. After the cure, he returned to his regiment.

After the war, demobilized. He lived in Odessa. He worked at a steel mill.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin , medals.

He died on November 15, 1967. He was buried in Odessa.

• 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 .
• A feat in the name of life. Odessa, 1984.

Vasily Illarionovich Soroka (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment July 9, 2014.