Aleksey Petrovich Bushmakin

Aleksey Petrovich Bushmakin was born on 23 February 1913 (10 February Old Style) in the village of Sergeyevka in Osa uyezd of Perm governorate, now in Chernushinsky district of Perm krai, into a peasant family. After school he graduated from a technical school and worked in his trade. He was called up in 1932 and at his own request was sent to the NKVD border troops; he completed the border troops' military school. As a platoon commander in the 82nd Motorised Rifle Division he saw his first action at Khalkhin Gol in 1939. In October 1941 the division was brought from Mongolia to the Western Front near Moscow; it later became the 3rd Guards Motorised Rifle Division and in 1943 was used to form the 6th Guards Mechanised Corps. As a battalion commander in the 16th Guards Mechanised Brigade he fought at Kursk in 1943, where near Bolkhov his battalion was among the first across the river Ors; in spring 1944 it outflanked Kamenets-Podolsky from the east; in the Lvov–Sandomierz operation it fought on the Sandomierz bridgehead; in January 1945 it fought near Kielce and Łódź. On the night of 26 January 1945 his motorised rifle battalion, under heavy fire, was the first to cross the Oder near Köben (now Chobienia, Poland), breaking through the ice and fighting hand to hand on the far bank. It beat off two counter-attacks, killed up to 100 enemy soldiers, captured three pillboxes and held a line that secured the crossing of the brigade's main force. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 10 April 1945 Guards Major Bushmakin was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal no. 6021. His battalion went on to the encirclement of Berlin, the capture of Brandenburg and, in May 1945, the Prague operation. He was seriously wounded three times. In 1949 he graduated from the Leningrad Higher Officers' Armoured School and in 1953 left the army as a lieutenant colonel. He worked at a timber enterprise and in Perm, and in his last years headed the Perm DOSAAF. He died on 1 May 1964 and is buried at the Kislotnye Dachi cemetery in Perm. Streets in Perm and Chernushka bear his name. He also held two Orders of the Red Banner, the Orders of Suvorov 3rd class and of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and two Orders of the Red Star.