Nikolay Ivanovich Biryukov

Nikolay Ivanovich Biryukov was born on 6 December 1901 in the village of Knyazhaya Baygora in Lipetsk uyezd of Tambov province, now Gryazi district of Lipetsk region, into a peasant family. He had an incomplete secondary education and worked at a publishing house in Petrograd. He was called into the Red Army in March 1920. In December 1920 he was sent to the 27th Oryol infantry and machine-gun courses, with which, in 1921, he took part in suppressing the peasant uprising in Tambov province led by Alexander Antonov. From September 1922 he served in the 56th Rifle Regiment as a section commander, company sergeant major, platoon commander, battalion adjutant and company commander, and from October 1925 in the 165th Rifle Regiment as a company and then battalion commander. He completed the refresher course at the Moscow infantry school in 1927 and the Vystrel course in 1931, after which he served in the command directorate of the Red Army's main administration, and from February 1935 commanded the 219th Rifle Regiment. Soon afterwards he served in the Spanish Civil War. From February 1939 he commanded the 186th Rifle Division in the Ural Military District. The first months of the war were a sequence of defeats for his division, and this record does not smooth that over. The 186th Rifle Division was moved to the Polotsk area with the 22nd Army, took up positions in the Sebezh fortified region in early July 1941 and was then shifted urgently to the north bank of the Western Dvina east of Polotsk as the 3rd Panzer Group drove on Vitebsk. On 8 July the German 39th Motorised Corps crossed the Dvina, broke through the division's defences and pushed on to Vitebsk and Gorodok; the division was encircled, broke out, fell back on Yezerishche and held south of Velikiye Luki. In the battle of Velikiye Luki at the end of August 1941 the division was defeated, and on 12 September its commander, Major General Biryukov, was wounded and spent more than two months in hospital at Kalinin. From December 1941 he formed the 214th Rifle Division, which was moved to Stalingrad in July 1942, fought on the approaches to the city and went over to the offensive on 22 November after the enemy defences were broken. On 23 June 1943 Biryukov took over the 20th Guards Rifle Corps, and from 3 to 30 July acted as commander of the 80th Guards Rifle Division. The corps distinguished itself in the Belgorod-Kharkov operation in repelling a strong German counter-attack near Akhtyrka, and went on to fight in the battle of the Dnieper and in the Kirovograd, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Uman-Botosani, Iasi-Chisinau and Budapest offensives, the Lake Balaton defensive operation and the Vienna offensive. For the liberation of Budapest the corps was given the honorific "Budapest". By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 28 April 1945, Guards Major General Nikolay Ivanovich Biryukov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star no. 4970. Nine days earlier, on 19 April 1945, he had been promoted lieutenant general. At the Victory Parade of 24 June 1945 he commanded the composite regiment of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. After the war he continued to command the corps, studied on the higher academic course in 1946-47, and then headed the inspection branch and the combined-arms personnel directorate of the armed forces' main personnel administration. He retired in July 1953. He died on 30 June 1980 in Moscow and is buried at Kuntsevo cemetery. His elder son Vladilen also served in the Great Patriotic War.