Draft:Dmitry Balakhanov

Dmitry Aleksandrovich Balakhanov (November 7, 1904 - December 12, 1939) was Hero of the Soviet Union, participant in the Polish campaign of the Red Army and a participant in the Soviet-Finnish War as commissar of the 609th Infantry Regiment of the 139th Infantry Division of the 8th Army.

Born on November 7, 1904 in Nova Praha (modern-day Ukraine) in a working-class family. He graduated from the railway school and technical school in Yekaterinoslav.

Balakhanov joined the Red Army in 1924. He graduated from advanced training courses in physical education for the command staff of the Red Army and the Navy named after Vladimir Lenin in 1932. After completing the courses, he remained a full-time gymnastics teacher, and from 1933 an adjunct. In 1933 he was transferred to Leningrad to the position of military commissar of the military faculty at the State Institute of Physical Culture named after. P.F. Lesgaft. He was a participant in the Polish campaign of Soviet troops in Western Belarus in 1939. Participant in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.

Balakhanov, in the Winter War, as a military commissar of the 609th Infantry Regiment (139th Infantry Division, 8th Army) in the battles of December 11-12, 1939 in Tolvoyarvi, inspired the soldiers of the regiment by personal example and encouraged them to attack. He was killed in action on December 12, 1939.

Balakhanov was posthumously awarded as the Hero of the Soviet Union on January 26, 1940.

Category:1904 births Category:1939 deaths Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union Category:People from Kirovohrad Oblast