Lot of photos of the Hero of the Soviet Union

The lot consists of three photos of different sizes, which depict the same person. In one of the pictures, he is already with a girl, with the star of the Hero of the USSR on his chest. One of the photos is signed with the name "Vadim" (probably his name). The price per lot. Guarantee of authenticity.

Ivan Stepanovich Mirenkov (June 5, 1924 — September 28, 2010) was a Soviet officer, participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born on June 5, 1924 in the village of Nikolaevka (now Krasninsky district of the Smolensk region) in a peasant family. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the village of Preobrazhensk, Mozhaisk district, Moscow region. Here Ivan Stepanovich graduated from a seven-year school, and then worked at a local collective farm. In March 1942, Soviet troops liberated the western suburbs. Ivan Stepanovich, who had less than 3 months left before coming of age, joins the army ahead of schedule. On July 6, 1942, Mirenkov served at the front as part of the 612th Infantry Regiment of the 144th Infantry Division of the 33rd Army. Soon, a young soldier writes a report on his transfer to intelligence. Given Mirenkov's experience in interacting with a partisan detachment behind enemy lines, the authorities meet the young man halfway and transfer him to a regimental reconnaissance platoon. For a year and a half, Mirenkov was a scout: first a regimental, then a divisional. He participated in the operation to capture an echelon and free prisoners of war transported on it to a concentration camp, for which he was awarded the first medal "For Bravery". Subsequently, for his participation in other reconnaissance and sabotage operations, he was awarded another medal "For Courage" and the Order of the Red Star. In early 1944, Mirenkov was in the hospital after being wounded in the arm. On February 7, 1944, I. S. Mirenkov was enrolled in the Pushkin Tank School, which was then located in the city of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl region. After a year of training, Mirenkov was released as a second lieutenant and was sent to a factory in Nizhny Tagil to receive his first tank. By chance, the T-34 tank, which the junior lieutenant inherited, had the tail number "200". However, Mirenkov was lucky in another way: he was allowed to personally recruit a crew from a variety of recruit candidates who had never been in combat before. Ivan Stepanovich took Izyaslav Babushkin as a gunner, Vasily Kudryashov as a driver, Alexey Levin as a loader, and Mikhail Marchenko as a radio operator. Since March 1945, Mirenkov has been the commander of a tank platoon (and at the same time a tank) of the 240th tank Regiment of the 16th mechanized Brigade of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

In April 1945, the 16th Brigade participated in battles in Czechoslovakia. Offensive actions unfolded in the direction of the settlements of Velke-Pavlovice — Gustopeche — Brno. There were heavily fortified enemy positions ahead of them. On April 15, after crossing the Trkmanka River and almost immediately taking Velke Pavlovice, the regiment straddled the Brzeclav —Brno highway. At 17.At 00 o'clock on the same day, Mirenkov was ordered to advance towards the town of Gustopeche, operating with a platoon of three tanks in the main marching outpost. At one of the intersections, the unit ran into three enemy "panthers". However, the Nazis did not accept the battle and quickly retreated to the nearby village of Starovichki. Mirenkov, suspecting that the enemy was luring him into a trap, decided to disperse the thirty-four and continue the attack on the village. He ordered his driver to move along the road, and assigned the tank commander, Junior Lieutenant Krasnov, the task of bypassing the settlement on the right. Second Lieutenant Pestrikov's tank was supposed to cover the attack from the left. Mirenkov's assumption turned out to be correct. A "meeting" had already been prepared for them in the village. At the entrance to the village, the Germans rolled out two anti-tank guns and opened fire. The first shot of the German cannon missed: The shell missed the tank by several meters. The cannon was not allowed to fire a second shot — it was destroyed by return fire. The crew of the second gun then retreated to the village, abandoning the cannon on the road, but before that managed to knock out the tank of junior Lieutenant Konstantin Pestrikov. As a result of the shell hitting the thirty-four, the turret jammed, but no one was injured or killed. When the main forces of the regiment pulled up to Starovichi, the commander of the unit, Colonel Tatur, ordered the further offensive to be postponed until dawn.

On the morning of April 16, 1945, the unit continued its advance. Mirenkov's platoon, now consisting of only two tanks, once again being in the vanguard, advanced towards hill 237. At this height, located a few kilometers behind Starovichki, in complete fog, two Mirenkov tanks engaged in an unequal battle with nine enemy tanks. The Germans were the first to notice the enemy. With their very first shot, they knocked out Nikolai Krasnov's tank. Mirenkov noticed the approximate location of the tank from which the shot was fired and transmitted the coordinates to the gunner Babushkin. The calculation turned out to be accurate — the Panther was hit, and the crew immediately began to leave it. Mirenkov's tank managed to climb to a height. The fog wasn't as thick here as it was down in the hollow. Mirenkov's crew discovered that they were literally surrounded by enemy tanks, and the Panthers literally covered the height. However, Mirenkov had the advantage — because of the fog, the enemy could not aim at him. The next two shots destroyed another panther-type tank and, judging by the surviving photograph and not by the text of the award presentation, the Marder III Ausf.M. Mirenkov's crew managed to destroy another enemy tank before their own vehicle was hit and caught fire. Ivan managed to open the hatch of the burning tank and pull the seriously injured Levin out of it. Babushkin and Kudryashov died (Marchenko was not in the crew that day, as he had seriously injured his arm the day before). Of Lieutenant Krasnov's crew, only the driver, Eduard Mazur, survived. During the time that Mirenkov's tankers were actually fighting single-handedly against superior enemy forces, the main forces of the 16th brigade managed to pull up to the battlefield. The Germans retreated. This saved the wounded tankers. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 15, 1946, Junior Lieutenant Ivan Stepanovich Mirenkov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal (No. 8296) for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and his courage and heroism.

.