Russia – Soviet: A Company Party Organiser’s East Prussia Offensive Order of Glory 3rd Class awarded to Senior Sergeant Aleksei Ivanovich Krivenko, Clerk and Company Party Organiser in the 801st Rifle Regiment, 235th Rifle Division, 2nd Belarussian Front. for his role in killing 3 Germans with his submachine gun and taking 6 prisoner together with a comrade near the settlement of Abnau, East Prussia on 23rd January 1945.
Order of Glory 3rd Class, type 2, the reverse numbered 208891
Condition: Good Very Fine
Aleksei Ivanovich Krivenko was born in the village of Mukhino, Gorkovsky selsovet, Mekhovsky District, Vitebsk Oblast, Belarus in 1901. A Belorussian national he would attain an elementary education and join the Red Army in November 1943 having previously fought in the Civil War and later in the Partisan War during 1942-1943, he would likely have been ‘picked up’ during the Red Army’s advance.
He would be awarded a Medal for Bravery by decree of the 801st Rifle Regiment on 20th October 1944, before being awarded this Order of Glory 3rd Class by decree of the Commander of the 235th Rifle Division on 7th February 1945.
Awarded to him as a Senior Sergeant and Clerk (Company Party Organiser), 801st Rifle Regiment, 235th ‘Vitebsk’ Red Banner Rifle Division the citation reads:
‘In battle on 23rd January 1945 near the settlement of Abnau, East Prussia, he killed 3 Germans with his submachine gun and took 6 Fritzes prisoner, together with a comrade. Situated on the combat lines, Comrade Krivenko, as Party Organiser, by his personal example, inspired the troops to fight fearlessly against the German invaders.’
The fighting in East Prussia was part of the wider Vistula-Oder offensive which began on 12th January 1945 and eventually led the Red Army to the River Oder and the gates of Berlin.
Krivenko would go on to be awarded the Order of the Red Star by decree of the commander of the 235th Rifle Division, as well as a Medal for the Victory over Germany.
By February 1946 he was living in the village of Studenka, Ezerishchensky selsovet, Mekhovsky District, Vitebsk Oblast where he was working as the Direct of the Mekhovsky District Wood Treatment Enterprise.
