Russia – Soviet: A Berlin street-fighting Medal for Bravery to Guards Senior Sergeant N.P. Nikitin, 21st Guards Mechanised ‘Yaroslavl’ Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Brigade for killing 8 Germans and taking 4 prisoners in the fighting between 17th April and 2nd May 1945 in Berlin.
Medal for Bravery , type 2, reverse numbered 3200327
Condition: Enamelling still present, toned, Nearly extremely fine
Nikolai Pavlovich Nikitin was born in the village of Mustishche, Sokolsy selsovet, Poddorsky District, Leningrad Oblast on 5th May 1917, and served in the Red army from June 1941 until August 1945, being decorated with four awards during the Patriotic War.
The first of Nikitin’s awards was a Medal for Combat Merits issued to him by Decree of the 10th Mechanised Brigade on 16th July 1943, this unit was part of the Voronezh Front at this time, which would indicate that this is quite possibly an award for the Battle of Kursk.
Serving with the then named 21st Guards Mechanised ‘Yaroslavl’ Red Banner, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Brigade, he would have seen action throughout the heavy fighting in the Western Ukraine, including at Zhitomir and during the encirclement battle at Korsun. Later in the year, the unit would cross the Vistula and be involved in the fighting on the western bank in the area around Sandomierz, for which he was decorated with his first Medal for Bravery.
In early 1945 the unit was involved in the Vistula-Oder offensive, and in the fighting in the area around Poznan, his award of the Order of the Red Star on 19th February 1945 is most likely for actions in this offensive.
Nikitin’s final decoration of the war was this Medal for Bravery, his second, issued to him by Decree of the 21st Guard Mechanised ‘Yaroslavl’ Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Brigade on 31st May 1945, whilst serving as a Guards Senior Sergeant and Deputy Squad Commander of the Sub-Machine Gun Company of the Brigade for:
‘During offensive battles from 17th April to 2nd May 1945, Guards Senior Sergeant Nikitin displayed courage and bravery. In battles on the streets of Berlin from 20th April to 2nd May 1945, acting boldly and decisively, he destroyed 8 Hitlerites and took 4 prisoner. Comrade Nikitin deserves the Government award of the Medal for Bravery.’
After the war he was a drivers’ school student at ‘Latavtokadry’ School, he was living in apartment 5, Liksnas 14, in the city of Riga.
