Ivan Yefimovich Buslayev

Ivan Yefimovich Buslayev was born on 22 December 1903 in the village of Vsevolodchino in Saratov province, now in Baltaysky district of Saratov region. His schooling was incomplete secondary — five years. He was conscripted into the Red Army in 1925. He completed the military infantry school, the Vystrel course for commanders and the General Staff Academy, and commanded a platoon, a machine-gun company and a battalion. In 1937-38 he served in the war in Spain, and from 1938 commanded a rifle regiment. He served through the Great Patriotic War from its first summer to Czechoslovakia, fighting at Stalingrad and Kursk and in the liberation of Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In the summer of 1941 he was among the first to receive the Order of Lenin for service in the war, and his regiment was made a Guards regiment; he was severely wounded in the same period. After hospital, in February 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the 7th Estonian Rifle Division, three months later commander of the 6th Destroyer Artillery Brigade, and from 22 June 1943 commander of the 213th Rifle Division. With Mikhail Shumilov's 7th Guards Army the division fought at Kursk: in the defensive battle on the southern face it met the supporting attack of Army Group Kempf and lost 2,468 men in a few days. That figure is given here because the source records it and because it belongs to the substance of the matter: the result was achieved at that price. His Hero of the Soviet Union was conferred for the battle of the Dnieper. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 26 October 1943, Colonel Ivan Yefimovich Buslayev was made a Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star no. 1479, for courage and skilful command of the division's units in the crossing of the Dnieper and in seizing and holding a bridgehead on the river's right bank. Unlike many, this decree names the action. The day before, on 25 October 1943, he had been promoted major general. He retired in 1956 and died on 30 May 1967 in Bila Tserkva in Kyiv region. A memorial sign stands in his honour in the village of Zapolichki in Verkhnedniprovsk district of Dnipropetrovsk region — by the bank of the Dnieper for which he received the title.