Alexander Matveyevich Matrosov

Red Army soldier of the 2nd Separate Rifle Battalion, 91st Separate Siberian Volunteer Brigade, Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously, 19 June 1943). His official biography gives his birth as 5 February 1924 in Yekaterinoslav; he was raised in children's homes and a labour colony in Ufa. Since the 1990s research literature has discussed a Bashkir origin — that his real name was Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov, born in the village of Kunakbayevo. The case rests on testimony from fellow villagers and children's home records; the official data has not been revised. Both versions are set out here without choosing between them. He reached the front in February 1943 on the Kalinin Front. In fighting near the village of Chernushki, Loknya district, Pskov region, he covered the embrasure of a German bunker with his body, allowing his company to advance. The date of the act is also disputed: the award documents and later tradition give 23 February 1943, the Red Army anniversary, while archival research places the action on 27 February 1943. The discrepancy is generally held to be a later alignment of the date with the holiday. His name was given to the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment and he was enrolled in perpetuity on its roll — one of the first such decisions in the Red Army.