Russia – Soviet: A fine Cavalry NCO’s Order of Glory 3rd Class awarded to Guards Sergeant Makar Maksimovich Sirotin, 54th Guards Cavalry Regiment, 14th Guards Cavalry Division, 8th Guards Cavalry Division for facilitating the crossing of the River Prudok by the Regiment’s rear units, and in the battle for the hamlet of Mirobeli personally destroying up to 7 ‘Fritzes’.
Order of Glory 3rd Class, type 2, numbered 55089
Condition: Toned, Good very fine
Guards Sergeant Makar Maksimovich Sirotin was born in the village of Lower-Vyazovsky, Tasinsky District, Rostov Oblast in 1912. Having attained an elementary education, he joined the Red Army on 12th July 1941 and saw frontline service from August 1941, initially with the Bryansk Front, before it was redesignated the Voronezh Front in July 1942.
Sirotin was to be awarded a Medal for Bravery on 18th October 1942 by Order of the Voronezh Front, and a second Medal for Bravery by Order of the 54th Guards Cavalry Regiment on 12th October 1943.
Sirotin’s next award was this Order of Glory 3rd Class issued to him as a Guards Starshina, 54th Guards Cavalry Regiment, 14th Guards Cavalry Division, 8th Guards Cavalry Corps, 1st Belarussian Front, by Order of the 14th Guards Cavalry Division on 22nd January 1944 as a result of the following recommendation:
‘Comrade Sirotin, during battles with the German invaders outside the hamlet of Kozinka and the military post, when the enemy amassed large forces of tanks and infantry for counterattacks of our combat formations.
Comrade Sirotin managed to organise the sappers at his disposal, the sappers in the rear of the sapper-demolition platoon, and other sub-units of the regiment, making a bridge across the boggy spots in the rear and the swamps and the river Prudok in the time allotted, and having set up a guard in which he personally took part. He facilitated the rapid crossing of the regiment’s rear services without a single loss. Being directly on the combat lines in battle for the hamlet of Mirobeli, he personally destroyed up to 7 ‘Fritzes’. He deserves the government award of the Order of Glory 3rd Class.’
Kozenki is a village in Belarus to the west of Gomel, an area the Red Army was advancing through during several offensives in late 1943 until the spring of 1944, using Cavalry units to advance through the marshland in the area.
Sirotin would be awarded an Order of Glory 2nd Class by Order of the 69th Army on 10th July 1944, for fighting in the Western Ukraine and Poland border area. He would also be awarded two Orders of the Red Star, the first on 8th February 1945 and the second on 30th May 1945 both by Order of the 14th Guards Cavalry Division, which fought in East Pomerania in the early months of 1945 and finally in the Berlin operation, as well as a Medal for the Victory over Germany.
Post war, Sirotin worked as a carpenter in the Zhirovsky Mining Administration in Tasinsky District, Rostov Oblast, as well as living in the village of Marinovka.
