Hero of the Soviet Union

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Hero of the Soviet Union (Russian: Герой Советского Союза, Geroy Sovetskogo Soyuza) was the highest honorary title and the superior degree of distinction of the Soviet Union.

Contents

[edit] Overview

It included the Order of Lenin (the highest Soviet award) and, as the sign of excellence, the Gold Star medal with the certificate of the heroic deed (gramota) from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. If a person was a recipient of several Hero awards, the Lenin Order was given only once, with some exceptions in later times.

[edit] History

The award was established on April 16, 1934.

The total number of persons who were awarded this title is 12,745. The great majority of them received it during the World War II (11,635 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 101 twice Heroes, 2 thrice Heroes, and 2 four-time Heroes). A famous war hero was for instance Alexander Matrosov who received the distinction posthumously after he died blocking an enemy machine-gun with his own body. Sixty-five people were awarded with the title for actions related to the Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted from 1979 until 1989. [1]

The first recipients of the award were the pilots Anatoly Liapidevsky (certificate number one), Sigizmund Levanevsky, Vasili Molokov, Mavrikiy Slepnev, Nikolai Kamanin, Ivan Doronin and Mikhail Vodopianov, who participated in the successful aerial search and rescue of the crew of the steamship Cheliuskin, which sunk in Arctic waters, crushed by ice fields, on February 13, 1934.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisan, was the first woman to become Hero of the Soviet Union (February 16, 1942). Lydia Litvyak, the world’s leading female fighter ace, was posthumously awarded the honour.

101 people were to receive the award twice. A second award entitled the recipient to have a bronze bust of his likeness with a commemorative inscription erected in his home town.

The famous Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev is one of the better known recipients of the award, his achievements are featured in the film Enemy at the Gates.

Two famous Soviet fighter pilots, Aleksandr Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub were thrice Heroes of the Soviet Union. A third award entitled the same to be erected on a columnar pedestal in Moscow, near the Palace of Soviets, but the Palace was never built.

The only individuals to receive the title four times were Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Leonid Brezhnev. However it must be mentioned that the original statute of the Hero of the Soviet Union written by Stalin himself did not provide for a fourth title. The title of the Hero of the Soviet Union could only be awarded thrice regardless of later deeds. Both Zhukov and Brezhnev received their fourth titles in controversial circumstances contrary to its original statute, which remained unchanged until the award was abolished in 1991.

By the 1970s, the award had been somewhat devaluated. Important political and military persons have been awarded on the occasions of their anniversaries, without immediate heroic activity in its direct sense. However, the first breach of the tradition (and the statute of the award) was made by Zhukov, when he was awarded for the fourth time "for his large accomplishments" on the occasion of his 60th anniversary as early as on December 1, 1956. There is some speculation that Zhukov's fourth Hero medal was for his participation in the arrest of Beria in 1953, however, this was not entered in the records.

In 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR abolished the practice of granting this award more than once to any individual.

Apart from individuals, the title was also awarded to twelve cities (Hero City) as well as the fortress of Brest (Hero-Fortress) for collective heroism during the War.

The last recipient of the title Hero of the Soviet Union was a Soviet diver, Captain of the 3rd rank Leonid Mikhailovich Solodkov on December 24, 1991 for fulfillment of the special diving task. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this title was succeeded in Russia by the title Hero of the Russian Federation, in Ukraine by Hero of Ukraine and in Belarus by Hero of Belarus.

[edit] Heraldry

The medal appears as a charge in the arms of Sevastopol.

[edit] Notable recipients

[edit] Once

[edit] Twice

[edit] Thrice

[edit] Four times

  • Georgy Zhukov - military commander and politician responsible for the most significant Soviet victories of WWII
  • Leonid Brezhnev - leader of the U.S.S.R. from 1964-1982; this feat was the subject of numerous Russian jokes.

[edit] Foreign recipients

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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