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Yakov BatyrevParticipant of the Great Patriotic War, full Cavalier of the Order of Glory
Date of Birth: 21.03.1910
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Content:
Early Life and Education
Yakov Batyrev was born into a peasant family and received only a basic education. He completed a course for tractor drivers at the Presnovskaya MTS and worked as a tractor driver in a collective farm.
Military Service and the Great Patriotic War
In July 1941, Batyrev was drafted into the Red Army and joined the 1074th Rifle Regiment of the 314th Rifle Division. He fought on the Leningrad Front from August 1941 and was seriously wounded during the breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad in early 1943.
After recovering in a hospital, Batyrev was transferred to a different division. He was wounded twice more and each time assigned to different units near Leningrad. From June 1944, he served as a sapper in the 40th Independent Sapper Battalion of the 46th Rifle Division, with which he fought for the remainder of the war.
In the battles on the Karelian Isthmus from June 10-14, 1944, Batyrev defused approximately 150 mines. His battalion commander wrote in his recommendation for a medal: "Comrade Batyrev is a brave, decisive, and disciplined soldier who knows his business."
As part of his division, Batyrev participated in battles in Estonia, Latvia, and East Prussia. He crossed the Narew River, became a squad leader, and rose to the rank of senior sergeant.
In January 1945, near the town of Gumbinnen (now Gusev in the Kaliningrad Oblast), Batyrev and his squad defused 318 mines and cleared paths in the enemy's wire obstacles. During the offensive from the Narew River to the mouth of the Vistula, Batyrev personally defused about a thousand anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.
On April 28, 1945, during the 2nd Shock Army's offensive from the bridgehead on the western bank of the Oder, Batyrev distinguished himself in the battles for the town of Anklam. The enemy had blown up one span of the bridge across the Pene River, halting the advance. Senior Sergeant Batyrev and Private Yarchevsky crawled to the river under enemy fire and defused the charges that the enemy intended to use to destroy the entire bridge.
Post-War Life
After the war ended in 1945, Batyrev was demobilized and returned home, where he worked for the "Zagotzhivsryo" agency. In 1949, he became a member of the Communist Party.
He later moved to Tolyatti, where he worked as a motor vehicle repairman for the motor transport department of the "Kuibyshevhydrostroy" trust. He died in 1989 and was buried at the Banykinskoye Cemetery in Tolyatti.
