Medal for Bravery #30758, awarded to a Stalingrad sniper!

[Bjorn S]

The title is slightly misleading, because this medal was not awarded for actions in Stalingrad. But it was most probably worn there…
Medal for Bravery #30758 was awarded in December 1941 to Lieutenant Aleksei Semyonovich IZOTOV. IZOTOV worked as an aide to the Head of Staff of the 16th Rifle Regiment, 87th Rifle Division. He was 19 years old at this time and served in the Red Army from 1939.

Background information 87th Rifle Division
On July 11th, the 5th Parachute Brigade (part of the 3rd Parachute Corps and the 40th Army) was sent to Borispol and took defensive positions near Ivankov, but it did not have to fight; it was quickly send to Kiev, as the capital of Ukraine was under attack. The Germans siege the city and the parachutists were encircled, but they managed to escape.
After continuing its withdrawal from the zone, the 3rd Parachute Corps was converted in the 87th Rifle Division and Alexander Rodimtsev was named its commander. The 87th was only a division in theory, as it did not have the material nor the manpower to fight properly. The commander asked for the material and the reinforcements, but before their arrivals, the newly converted division was sent to retake a town named Tim, in Kursk Oblast, as part of Yelnya Offensive. It was an extremely hard fight, but the Red Army was finally able to retake it. Due to their effort, four Soviet divisions that took part in the offensive (including the 87th) were honoured with the Guards title. The 87th Rifle Division was renamed to 13th Guards Rifle Division on January 19, 1942.

Award citation
The citation is as follows: Comrade IZOTOV worked as an aide to the battalion Head of Staff from 20 November 1941. In the engagements near town Tim, he assumed the command of the battalion and lead it to an assault on town Tim. In the battle against the German bandits, the battalion destroyed up to 60 vehicles, 2 armoured personnel carriers, one tank, and up to a company of enemy troops. Comrade IZOTOV inspired his men by personal example. He deserves the state order of the Red Star.
The Red Star was downgraded to the Medal for Bravery, which IZOTOV received in February 1942. The citation was signed by the later famous Alexander Rodimtsev, commander of the 87th Rifle Division.

Stalingrad
This early award and the circumstaces in which it was earned are in itself interesting, but the later career of Lt. IZOTOV is even more interesting. In December 1942 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner #41718 for fightings in Stalingrad (unfortenately not in my collection…).
At that time he was the commander of a blocking detachment of the famous 13th Guards Division. The citation for the Red Banner mentions that from 15 September 1942 IZOTOV’s battalion repelled several attacks from the Germans. On 22 September the Germans breaked trought the defenses to the banks of the Wolga river, IZOTOV at the head of the battalion counterattacked the enemy with hand-to-hand combat. The Germans retreated, leaving about 200 soldiers and officers killed and wounded, and several dozens rifles and machineguns on the battlefield.
A similar attack in the night of 30 to 1.10.1942 was fended off by IZOTOV, where IZOTOV himself personally killed 18 Germans with a sniper rifle.

What happened with IZOTOV after Stalingrad is unkown, but he survived the war. He would receive no other awards. In December 1950, at age 28, he was a podpolkovnik (lieutenant colonel).
I need to do more research about IZOTOV, but wanted to share this story with you already.