Aleksandr Andreyevich Butko

Aleksandr Andreyevich Butko was born on 25 August 1905 in Sumy, Ukraine, into a worker's family; he was Ukrainian. He attended a parish school and three classes of a non-classical secondary school. He entered the Red Army in 1920. In 1924 he completed the Shchors infantry courses in Sumy and was posted to the 15th Sivash Rifle Division; in 1928 he graduated from the Kyiv artillery school, and in 1935 from the Leningrad armoured advanced courses for officers. He took part in the march into Western Ukraine in 1939. He fought in the Great Patriotic War from June 1941 on the South-Western, Southern, Don, Stalingrad, Central, Voronezh and 1st Ukrainian Fronts, was twice wounded, and joined the party in 1942. For the fighting at Kursk in 1943, as commander of the 167th Guards Light Artillery Regiment, he received the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class. On 3 October 1943 Guards Lieutenant Colonel Butko, commanding the 167th Guards Light Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Guards Light Artillery Brigade, 1st Guards Breakthrough Artillery Division, 60th Army, Central Front, was among the first to cross the Dnieper and organised the crossing of his units to the bridgehead near the village of Gubin, then in Chernobyl district and now in Ivankiv district of Kyiv region. In the fighting for the bridgehead the regiment destroyed, by the account of the sources, more than two infantry battalions, a mortar, a battery and other equipment. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 17 October 1943, for exemplary performance of combat tasks and skilful command of the regiment in crossing the Dnieper and holding the bridgehead on its right bank, Guards Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Andreyevich Butko was made a Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal no. 1902. He remained in the army after the war and went into the reserve as a colonel in 1948. He lived in Kyiv and took part in military-patriotic work. He died on 22 June 1973 and is buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv. His awards included two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class. School No. 10 in Sumy bears his name, and his portrait stands on the Alley of Glory in the city.