Andrei Getman

Andrei Lavrentyevich Getman (; , Andriy Lavretiyovych Hetman; 5 October (22 September OS) 1903 – 8 April 1987) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (13 April 1964) and Hero of the Soviet Union (May 7, 1965).

After joining the Red Army in 1924, Getman graduated from the Red Commanders School in 1927 and the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army in 1937. Sent to postings in the Transbaikal Military District, he fought at the Battle of Lake Khasan and the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. After Operation Barbarossa, Getman was sent west to command the 112th Tank Division in the defense of Moscow. In April 1942, he became the commander of the 6th Tank Corps, which was converted into the 11th Guards Tank Corps for its actions in the Battle of Kursk. Getman became the deputy commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army in August 1944.

After the war, he was commander of armored tank and mechanized troops of the Transcaucasian Military District and was chief of staff and deputy chief of armored tank and mechanized troops. From 1958 to 1964 he was commander of the troops of the Carpathian Military District. Beginning in June 1964 he was chairman of the Central Committee of the All-Union Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force, and Navy. He was deputy to the fifth through seventh convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1961. He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, six Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Bodgan Khmel’nitskii Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and several foreign orders.

Early life Andrei Getman was born on 5 October 1903 in village of Kursk Governorate to a peasant family. After graduating from a rural school, he worked as a laborer in a sugar factory and at the Vorozhba railway station.

Military service

Prewar In October 1924, Getman was drafted into the Red Army.

World War II In September, Getman was appointed commander of the 112th Tank Division, which had arrived from the Transbaikal to fight in defense of Moscow. The division distinguished itself during the battle of Moscow and the defeat of German troops near Tula. Elements of the division were active in the area of Serpukhov with the 49th Army and were then assigned to Pavel Belov's group and fought in the defense of Kashira. The division was sent to Kashira, where they fought in conjunction with Belov's 1st Guards Rifle Corps during the counterattack against Heinz Guderian's units. The division was then transferred to support the 50th Army, where German troops had almost surrounded Tula. The division counterattacked the German tank units and linked up with the 999th Rifle Regiment of the 258th Rifle Division, opening up the Tula-Moscow highway. Getman pushed his division forward and defeated German units at the Revyakino station on 7 December, opening the Moscow-Tula railway. On 8 December, the division was officially transferred to the 50th Army and helped capture Yasnaya Polyana. The division became part of 50th Army's mobile group under the command of Vasily Popov. The 112th fought in the raid on Kaluga and helped capture the city on 30 December.

Getman became the commander of the 6th Tank Corps in April 1942. On 30 May, he was promoted to the rank of major general. During the summer, the corps fought in the Battle of Rzhev. He led the corps during the Battle of Kursk in July 1943. Getman was promoted to lieutenant general on 21 August. For its actions at Kursk, the corps became the 11th Guards Tank Corps in October 1943. Getman led the guards brigade during the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive, the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky Offensive, the Proskurov-Chernivtsi Offensive and the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive. In August 1944, he was promoted to deputy commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army. In the position, Getman participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, the East Pomeranian Offensive and the Berlin Offensive. He lived in Moscow and died on 8 April 1987. Getman was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.