Kuzma Grebennik

Kuzma Yevdokimovich Grebennik (Russian: Кузьма Евдокимович Гребенник; 18 February 1900 – 22 September 1974) was a Red Army lieutenant general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Grebennik served in the Soviet Border Troops both before and after World War II. During World War II, he commanded the 15th and 37th Guards Rifle Divisions.

Early life Kuzma Grebennik was born on 18 February 1900 in the village of Bryansk in Slavyanoserbsk Uyezd in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate in a working-class family of Russian ethnicity. His father worked as a miner in the coal mines of the Donbas. Grebennik graduated from elementary school and became a sorter at the coal mine at the age of 10. In 1914, his family moved to the village of Kremen in Kharkov Governorate, where Grebennik graduated from a two-year college in 1915. In 1916, he became a worker at the Donets-Rubezhnyi Factory. Grebennik returned to the Donbas and became a worker at a coal mine in 1918. of the NKVD Border Troops in the Primorsky Krai near Posyet in November 1937. In August 1938, he led the border detachment in repelling the first Japanese attacks during the Battle of Lake Khasan.

World War II Grebennik continued to command the border detachment until November 1942, when he was appointed deputy commander of the Far Eastern NKVD Rifle Division in the Urals Military District. In February 1943, the division was renamed the 102nd Rifle Division and was sent to the Central Front as part of the 70th Army. He served with the division during the Sevsk offensive in Operation Kutuzov. In August, Grebennik became the commander of the 15th Rifle Division. The division advanced during the Chernigov-Pripyat Offensive during August and September. During the fall, it fought in the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive. In January 1944, the division fought in the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr Offensive. In June, Operation Bagration was launched and the division advanced through Belorussia. On 30 March, Grebennik took over command of the 37th Guards Rifle Division from acting commander Colonel Nikolai Onoprienko after Major General Sobir Rakhimov was killed during the assault on Danzig. Grebennik led the division through the rest of the East Pomeranian Offensive. He organized the division's crossing of the Oder on 20 April and established a bridgehead over the river during the Berlin Offensive. The division captured Kołbaskowo, southwest of Szczecin. By 2 May, the division had advanced 150 kilometers and was on the Baltic Sea northeast of Rostock. Grebennik was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 29 May for his actions during the Berlin Offensive. In 1946, he served as a witness at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. From April 1957, he was the chief of staff and first deputy chief of the KGB Border Troops. In July, he was promoted to lieutenant general and became the head of the KGB Border Troops in the Southwestern Frontier District. From January 1960, Grebennik was the head of the operational group of the KGB Border Troops in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Awards and honors USSR

Honorary State Security Officer (8 April 1934)

Foreign