Russia – Soviet: An East Pomeranian Offensive Order of Glory 3rd Class awarded to Red Army Soldier Ely Aleksandrovich Smirnov, Rifleman, 674th Rifle Regiment, 150th ‘Idritsa’ Rifle Division who during the fighting for the village of Tsebin in the area of the Dievenow channel would kill 3 German soldiers and knocked out a machine gun while wounded by mortar fragments having crawled along a ditch.
Order of Glory 3rd Class, type 2, the reverse numbered 259998
Condition: dark toned, Good Very Fine
Ely Aleksandrovich Smirnov was born in the village of Borovinkovo, Kharovsky District, Vologda Oblast in 1921, and having completed an elementary education joined the Red Army for the first time on 1st February 1942 and for the second time on 22nd November 1944, seeing frontline service from 2nd January 1945.
This Order of Glory 3rd Class appears to be his sole wartime award being issued to him by decree of the 150th Rifle Division on 13th March 1945. At the time of the award he was serving as a Red Army Soldier and Rifleman, 674th Rifle Regiment, 150th ‘Idritsa’ Rifle Division. The citation reads as follows:
‘In battle on 08.03.1945 for the village of Tsebin, in the area of the Dievenow channel, the platoon’s advance was delayed by an enemy machine gun. Carrying out orders of the platoon commander, Comrade Smirnov crawled along a ditch toward the machine gun. While advancing, he was wounded by mortar fragments, but in spite of his wound, the commander’s orders were carried out. With grenade fire, 3 German soldiers were killed and the machine gun knocked out of action.
Deserves the government award the Order of Glory 3rd Class.’
By 30th August 1946 Smirnov was working as a storekeeper at the ‘Projector’ Kolkhoz in Kharovsky Selsovet and was living in the village of Borovikovo.
The 150th ‘Idritsa’ Rifle Division would go one of the two division to capture the Reichstag building in central Berlin, with two of it’s members being those photographed in raising the Soviet flag on top of the building.
