Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Galaktionovich Shelest was born
Photo: IA EAOMEDIA
July 3, 1923
On this day, Vasily Galaktionovich Shelest, Hero of the Soviet Union, was born
Shelest Vasily Galaktionovich was born in the village. Orlovka of the Konstantinovsky district of the Amur Region, in the family of a peasant. His childhood passed at Art. Volochaevka-2 of the Smidovichsky district.
Since 1930, he lived with his family in Khabarovsk, where, having graduated from 7 classes and the FZU, he worked at the Daldiesel factory.
In 1942 he was drafted into the Soviet army. He graduated in 1943 by the Khabarovsk machine gun and minimal school.
Since August 1943, Vasily Shelest in the army. He is the commander of the machine gun platoon of the motorized rifle battalion of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade (6th Guards Tank Corps, 3rd Guards Tank Army, Voronezh Front).
Vasily Shelest was a member of the Battle of Stalingrad, fighting on the Don, near Kursk, in Ukraine.
The forcing of the Dnieper, in which the commander of the machine gun platoon of the motorized rifle battalion of the 53rd Guards Fast Pan Brigade, Vasily Galaktionovich Shelest, participated, occupies one of the most significant places in his front-line biography.
The 6th Guards Tank Corps was eager for the left bank of the Dnieper. The commander of the motorized rifle battalion of the Guard, Senior Lieutenant Timirkaev, received the task of mastering the villages of Krasny Kut and bars, knock the Germans out of the trenches of the coastal strip and, fixed on the left bank, prepare for the forcing of the Dnieper.
The enemy stubbornly resisted. Vasily Shelest’s platoon suppressed two machine -gun points, destroyed dozens of German machine gunners and ensured the advance of our infantry. With a cry of “Hurray”, the guards occupied Red Kut and on September 23, 1943 literally on the shoulders of the enemy broke to the shore of the Dnieper.
In the battles for the liberation of the villages of Krasny Kut and the lattice of the Kyiv region, he destroyed 2 machine -gun points of the enemy and to the platoon of machine gunners.
On October 3, in a battle for the village of Grigorovka, Kyiv region, up to 30 enemy soldiers and officers of the enemy destroyed a well -aimed machine -gun bursts. The platoon ensured the crossing of the battalion, reflecting the fierce counterattacks of the enemy. The commander himself destroyed 30 fascists in this battle, fled the rest, but his life cut off the fragment of Mina on October 3 in the village of Grigorovka, Kyiv region.
In the evening, when the battalion threw the Nazis far beyond the village of Grigorovka, military comrades gathered near the body of the murdered Vasily Shelest. They exposed their heads.
The commander of the 3rd Guards Tank Army Hero of the Soviet Union, General Rybalko and Member of the Military Council Hero of the Soviet Union, General Melnikov, on November 27, 1943, represented Vasily Galaktionovich Shelest to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The stingy words of the award sheet testify to:
“The opponent with the fire of his machine guns, with the support of aviation, artillery and mortars daily 3-4 times rushed into fierce counterattacks with the aim of knocking the guards at the Dnieper, but comrade Shelest repulsed them each time, discarding the enemy into previous lines.”
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on June 3, 1944 posthumously. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal “For Courage”.
Shelest V. G. was buried in a mass grave in the village. Grigorovka.
In the exposition of the Smidovich Museum, among other documents, there is a letter from the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. M. Shvernik to the parents of a brave warrior. Here are the lines from this document: “… According to the military command, your son, the guard Junior Lieutenant Shelest Vasily Galaktionovich, died the death of the brave in battles for the Soviet homeland.
For the heroic feat committed by your son, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appropriated him the highest degree of distinction – the title of Hero of the Soviet Union … “
The name of the hero named the Khabarovsk Professorchychinch No. 4, the best Komsomol-young brigade of the Daldiesel plant, a street in Khabarovsk. In the instrumental workshop “Daldisel” a memorial plaque is installed.
In Birobidzhan, in memory of the combat merits of V. G. Shelest in 2005, a pylon with his name was installed in the Victory Square.
In the village. Volochaevka Smidovichi district one of the streets is named after Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Galaktionovich Shelest.
