Stepan Polyanskiy

Stepan Ivanovich Polyansky (; ; 1913 – 1943) was a Soviet officer, participant in the Soviet-Finnish war. Regiment and division commander in the Great Patriotic War. Hero of the Soviet Union (04/07/1940). Lieutenant colonel.

Biography Gravestone of Polyansky on the Alley of Heroes of the city cemetery No. 2 in Kharkov Polyansky was born on April 5 (18), 1913 in the village of Maistrov, Novograd-Volynsky Uyezd, Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Zvyagelsky district, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine) into a peasant family. Pole or Ukrainian by nationality.

In 1925 he graduated from the 4th grade of elementary school, in 1932 - courses for foremen. He worked as a foreman of the field-growing brigade of the collective farm "For a New Life" in his native village (Maistrovsky village council.

Participant of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 from February 1940, when the division arrived at the front on the Karelian Isthmus. Then Lieutenant S.I. Polyansky commanded the 1st Infantry Battalion of the 233rd Infantry Regiment. On February 11, 1940, when the company's advance was stopped by withering machine-gun fire from a Finnish reinforced concrete pillbox, under the cover of a blizzard that had begun, he led the bypass movement of the assault group. The fighters broke into the trench, in hand-to-hand combat they destroyed several Finnish soldiers, then they approached the pillbox along the trench and installed explosive charges on it. The pillbox was destroyed by the explosion, the offensive continued.

Then the division and the regiment were transferred to the Voronezh Front, transferred to the 3rd Tank Army and participated in the Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh and Kharkov offensive operations, and then in the Kharkov defensive operation (the division was withdrawn from the battle and sent to the reserve for replenishment on March 14, 1943) . From March 30 to June 28, 1943, Lieutenant Colonel S.I. Polyansky temporarily served as division commander (at that time the division was engaged in combat training in the reserve near the city of Novy Oskol). In early July, the division was transferred to the 7th Guards Army on the Steppe Front. At the head of the regiment, he skillfully acted in the Battle of Kursk and in the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation. At the beginning of the Soviet offensive in early August, his regiment broke through the German defenses near Belgorod, and on August 23, 1943, the regiment was one of the first to break into Kharkov. In June-July 1943, the regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Polyansky destroyed and captured 43 artillery pieces, 96 machine guns, 8 mortar batteries, 2 tanks, 2 self-propelled guns, 24 vehicles and many other military equipment and weapons.

On September 3, 1943, Polyansky was seriously wounded in the battle near Kharkov. On September 10, 1943, he died from his wounds. He was buried in a mass grave of Soviet soldiers on the Alley of Heroes of the city cemetery No. 2 in Kharkov (Pushkin Street, 54).

Awards Hero of the Soviet Union (04/07/1940) Order of Lenin (7.04.1940) Two orders of the Red Banner (01/11/1943 and 10/10/1943 - posthumously ).

Memory Honorary citizen of the city of Novograd-Volynsky. In the city of Merefa, Kharkiv region, a memorial plaque was erected. Streets in the cities of Novograd-Volynsky and Kharkov are named after Polyansky. Footnotes