Russia – Soviet: An interesting Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class to Reserve Senior Technical Lieutenant Fyodor Petrovich Seryozhnikov, the Assistant Chief of the Technical Section of the 4th Independent Trophy Battalion, 12th Independent Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Army for the gathering and hauling away of arms, equipment and scrap metal from the battlefields in the Rostov area.
Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class numbered 769405
Condition: Good very fine
Fyodor Petrovich Seryozhnikov was born in the village of V. Kundrachevskaya, Drozdovsky Raion, Rostov Oblast in 1905, he had spent two brief periods in the Red Army, the first between October 1929 to October 1930, and the second from December 1939 until May 1940. Having been drafted by the Military Commissariat of the Stalin Raion near the city of Saratov, he served in the Great Patriotic War from August 1942 onwards. He was involved in action on the Don Front at Stalingrad from September 1942 until April 1943.
It was not until 3rd November 1944 that Seryozhnikov was to receive his first award, a Medal for Combat Merit however.
Continuing to serve through the remainder of the war, Seryozhnikov was awarded his second and final decoration on 10th August 1945, this Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class, awarded to him as the Assistant Chief of the Technical Section of the 4th Independent Trophy Battalion, 12th Independent Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Army, the citation for this award was as follows:
‘The commander of the 3rd Platoon, comrade Senior Technical Lieutenant F.P. Seryozhnikov, properly organised his platoon’s duties and ensured the 1944 objectives for gathering and hauling away captured arms, equipment and scrap metal were accomplished. The 3rd Platoon reached the targets set for 1944. Over the course of 1944 the 3rd Platoon cleared and turned over 6 raions in Rostov Oblast, 1 Provincial city (Rostov), and 10 train stations. Additionally, while subordinated to the former Don Front, he cleared and turned over 2 raions.
32 tanks were hauled away and 22 artillery pieces were hauled away and shipped off. 415 other weapons were hauled away and shipped off. 29 trucks were hauled away and shipped off.
80,400 projectiles, mines and aerial bombs and 90,000 rifle cartridges were removed from areas where they posed a deadly risk to the local population and railroad traffic and were subsequently detonated.
1,347 tons of scrap metal were collected on the former battlefields and shipped off.
Comrade Seryozhnikov turned over 2 raions ahead of schedule after clearing them of ordnance.
For carrying out his assignments in an exemplary manner and for the initiative he displayed in clearing his sectors and turning them over ahead of schedule, he deserves a decoration.’
Signed by Guards Captain Kovalyov, 20th December 1944.’
In November 1946 Seryozhnikov left the Red Army and was then unemployed, he was residing at 15-17 Rubinstein Street, apartment 157, Leningrad.
An interesting award to an unusual unit
