EAO in persons: Hero of the Soviet Union Iosif Bumagin was born

October 17, 1907

On this day, Joseph Romanovich (Ruvimovich) Bumagin was born in the town of Gorodok, Vitebsk region, into a working-class family.

In 1937 he moved to Birobidzhan, began working at the convoy plant (later the Dalselmash plant), first as a worker in the forge shop, then as a foreman and party organizer. He graduated from the military infantry school in Vladivostok.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, he was eager to go to the front. But he ended up in the active army on the 1st Ukrainian Front only in the fall of 1944. During the assault on the city of Breslau (Wroclaw, Poland), he repeated the feat of Alexander Matrosov, covering the bunker embrasure with his body.

In the Birobidzhan Regional Museum of Local Lore, in the personal collection of I.R. Bumagin, among newspaper articles, clippings and photographs, there is an award sheet, in the upper right corner of which the word “Posthumous” is printed. And then – “… lieutenant, commander of a machine gun platoon of the 396th Katowice Infantry Regiment of the 135th Krakow Infantry Division is nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He has no wounds. Killed on April 24, 1945”.

Brief summary of the combat feat: “During the assault on the city of Breslau on April 24, 1945, Lieutenant Bumagin performed a heroic feat. In fierce street battles for block No. 142, under strong hurricane fire from the enemy, he bravely pushed his machine gun forward and personally destroyed up to twenty Nazi soldiers with well-aimed fire. As we advanced further, our advancing infantry was stopped by strong machine gun fire fire from two enemy heavy machine guns, skillfully hidden in a destroyed house. Moving forward became impossible. Lieutenant Bumagin crawled forward under enemy fire, discovered the first firing point and threw grenades at it. The second enemy machine gun continued to operate. Having found an embrasure in the basement, Lieutenant Bumagin rushed at it and covered it with his body. The enemy machine gun fell silent. Our infantry quickly rushed forward, captured the house and destroyed the entire garrison of 17 soldiers and one officer. Lieutenant Bumagin died a hero's death for our Socialist Motherland. His death ensured the completion of an extremely important combat mission. He is worthy posthumously of the highest government award – the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. April 26, 1945.” He was awarded the title on June 27, 1946.

Joseph Bumagin accomplished his feat on April 24, 1945 and, according to one version, he did not die instantly, but was seriously wounded and died the next day in the hospital from severe wounds. Therefore, some sources indicate that Joseph Bumagin died on April 24, and in others – on April 25.

He was buried in Wroclaw. In 1950, the widow of I.R. Bumagin, signed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was sent a letter and a letter conferring “on her husband the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to be kept as a memory of her heroic husband, whose feat will never be forgotten by our people.”

The hero’s feat has not been forgotten; streets in Vitebsk, Birobidzhan and Nalchik are named after him. In a settlement called Gorodok, School No. 1 until 1977 bore the name Bumagin. Then, at the school, the pioneer squad of the public association “Belarusian Republican Pioneer Organization” began to be called after I.R. Bumagin. In Gorodok, on the street of Marshal of the Soviet Union Bagramyan, next to his bust, the Walk of Fame of Heroes was opened, among those who are immortalized there is Joseph Bumagin.

Grand opening of the monument to Hero of the Soviet Union I.R. Paper in Birobidzhan. 1975 Photo: State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region

Monument to Hero of the Soviet Union I.R. Paper in Birobidzhan. 1978 Photo: State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region

A monument to the hero was erected in the park near the Dalselmash plant in Birobidzhan; memorial plaques were installed on the building of the factory workshop and one of the houses in Birobidzhan in honor of our fellow countryman.

Monument to I.R. Paper in the park near the Dalselmash plant. Photo: Photo: EAOMedia news agency archive

The regional art museum houses a painting by Khabarovsk artist V. Ovchinnikov “The Last Grenade” (6+). It depicts Joseph Bumagin with a grenade in his hand, ready to throw it at the embrasure.

V. Ovchinnikov “The Last Grenade”. Photo: Photo: Newspaper “Birobidzhan Star”

In Birobidzhan Victory Square on the Alley of Heroes, his name is immortalized on one of the pylons.

The Jewish Soviet poet Aron Vergelis dedicated a poem in Yiddish “Dos gezang vegn Yosef Bumaginen” (“The Song of Joseph Bumagin” (6+)) to Joseph Romanovich. In 1948, Chaim Maltinsky, another Jewish poet, published the Yiddish poem “Yosef Bumagin” (6+).