Russia – Soviet: An Operation Bagration Order of the Red Star awarded to Junior Lieutenant and T-34 Tank Commander Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sasikov, 63rdTank Battalion, 108thTank Brigade, 9thTank Corps for destroying 2 anti-tank guns, 3 wooden bunkers, 7 machine-gun nests and killing as many as 50 enemy soldiers and officers during the breakthrough of the enemy’s multi-layered defences in the Verichev area.
Order of the Red Star, type 6, numbered 2932399
Condition: Good very fine
Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sasikov was born in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan in 1919, and joined the Red Army in November 1939, serving until he was wounded on 24th June 1944 during the initial stages of Operation Bagration, the Red Army’s 1944 summer offensive in Belarus.
This Order of the Red Star appears to be Sasikov’s sole award, won as a Junior Lieutenant, and as a Commander of a T-34 Tank of the 63rd Tank Battalion, 108th Tank Brigade, 9th Tank Corps, and was issued by Order of the 108th Tank Brigade on 18th July 1944, as a result of the following citation:
‘On June 24 and 25, 1944 comrade Sasikov took part in the breakthrough of the heavily fortified and multi-layered enemy defences near Verichev. In battle he acted boldly and decisively.
With his tank he destroyed 2 antitank guns, 3 wooden bunkers, and 7 machine-gun nests and killed as many as 50 enemy soldiers and officers.
Comrade Sasikov deserves the Order of the Red Star.’
Signed by Lieutenant Colonel Baranyuk, the Commander of the 108th Tank Brigade.
The recommendation notes him as ‘In a hospital’ and the authorities clearly had some difficulty in locating him to give him this award as it was not bestowed upon him until 25th May 1951. After the war he went on to work as Chief of Loading and Unloading at Grain Storage Warehouse nr.1, city of Samarkand, while living at 23 Sudovtsovskaya Street, city of Samarkand.
