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Yuriy DvuzhilnuyBattalion commander, captain, Hero of the Soviet Union
Date of Birth: 25.08.1919
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
Biography of Yuri Dvuzhilny
Yuri Mikhailovich Dvuzhilny was born in the village of Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region. He was a Russian national. He completed his secondary education at School No. 12 in Kemerovo, where he studied in the same class as Vera Voloshina, who was a close friend of his. After graduating from school, he enrolled in the Leningrad Civil Air Fleet Institute.
In 1940, Dvuzhilny was drafted into the Red Army and participated in the Soviet-Finnish War. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his courage and heroism. After completing the Leningrad Military Aviation Academy and the "Shot" courses in 1942, he was assigned to a reserve aviation regiment. In February 1943, he was sent to the front as part of the disciplinary unit of the 49th Army.
Dvuzhilny took part in the liberation of the Smolensk and Kaluga regions, as well as the cities of Roslavl and Spas-Demensk. In the autumn of 1943, he was wounded in battle. After recovering, he was appointed as the commander of the 3rd battalion of the 878th Rifle Regiment in the 290th Rifle Division of the 49th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front.
Captain Dvuzhilny distinguished himself during the liberation of the Mogilev region. On June 23 and 24, 1944, Dvuzhilny's battalion crossed the Pronya and Basya rivers north of the town of Chausy, engaged in combat, and captured enemy positions, liberating the villages of Suslovka and Popovka. On June 25, the battalion repelled six enemy counterattacks.
On June 26, 1944, in cooperation with a reconnaissance platoon led by Senior Lieutenant Alexey Mayakin, Dvuzhilny's battalion entered the battle for the village of Khoroshki. The village was defended by several bunkers, and the enemy was determined not to surrender it without a fight, as it covered the road from Mogilev where the German troops were retreating. The reconnaissance team infiltrated behind enemy lines and launched an attack, capturing several enemy positions. The enemy responded by deploying self-propelled guns and tanks, forcing the reconnaissance team to retreat after diverting the enemy's main forces. This allowed Dvuzhilny's battalion to launch an attack on the village and drive out the German troops. In a critical moment of the battle, Captain Dvuzhilny led the battalion in the attack. While pursuing the retreating enemy, he was hit by machine gun fire and died on the banks of the Dnieper River. He was buried in a mass grave together with 36 soldiers from his battalion.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 24, 1945, Captain Dvuzhilny was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin and two Orders of the Red Banner. He was buried in a mass grave in the village of Khoroshki in the Mogilev region, where a memorial obelisk was erected.
Several places and institutions bear the name of the Hero:
- A street in Kemerovo
- School No. 2 in Donetsk
- Sukharevskaya School in the Mogilev district
By the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Yuri M. Dvuzhilny was forever enrolled in the lists of the A.F. Mozhaysky Military Engineering Institute.
