Photo of the Hero of the Soviet Union P.K. Rangev.

A rather rare picture in excellent collector's condition. Size 40*53 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

Pavel Konstantinovich Rangev (1918-1977) was a Soviet soldier. Participant of the Great Patriotic War. Hero of the Soviet Union (1945). Guard senior lieutenant.

Pavel Konstantinovich Rangev was born on June 26, 1918 in the county town of Kovrov, Vladimir province of the RSFSR (now the city, the administrative center of the Kovrovsky district of the Vladimir region of the Russian Federation) in a worker's family. Russian. He graduated from seven grades of junior high school No. 5 in Kovrov in 1932. Before conscription, he worked as a handyman at various enterprises of the city. P. K. Rangev was drafted into the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army by the Kovrov district Military Enlistment Office in 1939. He served in the Far East in the 239th Infantry Division. There he was caught by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In the autumn of 1941, the telephone operator-radio operator of the division headquarters, P. K. Rangev, was transferred to the Western Front. Pavel Konstantinovich has been fighting with the Nazi invaders since November 1941: near Uzlovaya, Donskoy and Stalinogorsk, Tula region. He was surrounded, but his unit managed to break through the ring and enter the area of the city of Pronsk.

Since January 1943, P. K. Rangev fought on the Volkhov Front. He took part in Operation Iskra, during which the siege of Leningrad was broken. In April 1943, among the signalmen who distinguished themselves in the battles, Pavel Konstantinovich was sent to study at the Oryol Armored School named after M. V. Frunze.

In June 1944, Lieutenant P. K. Rangev was assigned to the 1st Ukrainian Front, where he assumed the position of commander of the heavy tank of the 47th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment of the breakthrough of the 9th Mechanized Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army. Participated in the liberation of Western Ukraine and southeastern Poland as part of the Lviv-Sandomierz operation. In September 1944, the regiment in which Lieutenant Rangev served as a guard was reorganized into the 383rd Guards Heavy self-propelled artillery Regiment, and Pavel Konstantinovich became the commander of the ISU-122 self-propelled artillery installation. His crew participated in the Sandomierz-Silesian operation. Units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, having broken through the enemy's deeply echeloned and heavily fortified defenses on the Sandomierz bridgehead, were among the first to reach the approaches to the Oder River, and on January 23, immediately forcing a water barrier, captured a bridgehead on the west bank of the river in the Oppeln area.

In early February 1945, by the decision of Marshal I. S. Konev, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, the 3rd Guards Tank Army was reassigned to the south-eastern direction. Army units with a swift strike along the eastern bank of the Oder reached the rear of the enemy's Silesian grouping. In an effort to stop the rapid advance of Soviet troops, the enemy counterattacked the vanguard of the 3rd Guards Tank Army on January 28, throwing up to 45 tanks into battle with the support of infantry and artillery. The crew of Lieutenant Rangev's guard, skillfully maneuvering on the battlefield and using the surrounding terrain, destroyed 1 enemy heavy tank, 2 artillery pieces and 11 vehicles with infantry and cargo, which ensured the advance of the advancing units forward. After the capture of the Silesian industrial area, the army of Colonel-General P. S. Rybalko was withdrawn to the second echelon and began preparations for a decisive attack on Berlin. Guard Lieutenant P. K. Rangev especially distinguished himself in the Berlin operation during the storming of the capital of the German Empire.

On April 16, 1945, units of the first echelon of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse River and by the end of the day broke through the main defensive line of the Germans. On the morning of April 17, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank armies were thrown into the corridor pierced by parts of the front. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, by the morning of April 22 they reached the southern approaches to Berlin, and breaking through the enemy's outer defensive perimeter, they reached the shore of the Teltovkanal. On the opposite bank of the canal, the enemy had a powerful and heavily fortified defensive line, which delayed the further advance of the Soviet troops. Throughout the day on April 24, the crew of Lieutenant P. K. Rangev's Guards, as part of their regiment, together with other artillery units of the army, destroyed enemy firepower with their 122-millimeter cannon, enabling motorized rifle and tank units to force the channel and seize a bridgehead on its northern shore. Having crossed the Teltovanal after the advanced units of the army, the ACS of the 383rd Guards Heavy self-propelled Artillery Regiment began storming the southern quarters of Berlin. The Guards crew of P. K. Rangev on April 30 provided artillery support to tanks and infantry advancing along the Kaiserallee. The enemy turned every house into an impregnable fortress, but the ISU-122 of Lieutenant Rangev's guards, rolling out into an open position, effectively destroyed the pockets of German resistance with cannon fire. During the battle, the enemy managed to knock out and set fire to the self-propelled gun. Pavel Konstantinovich, being wounded in the head, got out of the ACS and shot down the flames under enemy fire, after which the crew repaired the car and led it into battle again. In total, during the fighting on the streets of Berlin, the crew of P. K. Rangev destroyed 26 enemy strongholds, destroyed 1 tank and 3 anti-tank guns, and destroyed 12 Faustnikov. On May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison surrendered. On the same day, the commander of the Guards regiment, Lieutenant Colonel I. N. Veremey, introduced Lieutenant P. K. to the Guards. Ranzheva to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was signed on June 27, 1945. At the final stage of the war, Pavel Konstantinovich took part in the Prague operation. He completed his military career in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, P. K. Rangev continued his service in the army. In 1951, he graduated from the Higher Officer School of Self-propelled Artillery of Armored and Mechanized Troops. However, due to the cuts that began in the army in March 1954, Senior Lieutenant P. K. Rangev of the Guards was dismissed to the reserve. Pavel Konstantinovich returned to Kovrov, worked at the Degtyarev arms factory as a locksmith, tester, foreman and controller of the technical control department. On November 14, 1977, Pavel Konstantinovich died. He was buried at the cemetery near the Kovrov-2 station in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir region.

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