ZAIKA ALEKSANDR MIXAYLOVICH
guard sergeant, a participant in World War II Full cavalier of the Order of Glory (05.15.1946)
Born on June 10, 1917 in the village of Kostryakovka of the Kustanai district of the Turgai region, now the Fedorovsky district of the Kostanay region of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in a peasant family. Ukrainian.
In 1930, he moved with his family to the village of Muynak, Karakalpakstan, on the shores of the Aral Sea. He graduated from 7 classes. He worked as an accountant of the State Insurance Board. In 1942, he was drafted into the Red Army by the Muynaksky military commissariat.
At the front of World War II since August 1942. As part of the machine gun battalion of the 140th separate rifle brigade, he participated in the defense of Leningrad, and was wounded in the Sinyavinsky offensive operation of the Leningrad Front. In November, he returned to the front. By the fall of 1943, he fought as the 82-mm mortar calculation commander of the 28th Guards Cavalry Regiment of the 6th Guards Cavalry Division. As part of this regiment passed until the end of the war. In September 1943, the division as part of the Western Front conducted offensive battles in the Smolensk region, then took part in the liberation of the eastern regions of Belarus.
In December, cavalrymen cut the railway Vitebsk – Polotsk. In these battles, the calculation under the command of the sergeant Zaika’s guard destroyed more than 10 Nazis, for which the commander received the first military award – the medal “For Courage”. The division was especially successful in the Belarussian offensive operation of 1944 as part of a horse-mechanized group under the command of Lieutenant General N. S. Oslikovsky. On July 18, 1944, in the battle for the city of Lipsk (Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland), he destroyed the enemy’s easel machine gun with mortar fire. On July 28, in the battle for the place of Charny Brood, he suppressed the fire of an armored personnel carrier and destroyed up to 10 enemy soldiers.
He was presented for awarding the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree, but the division commander lowered the status of the award to the medal “For Courage”. In January 1945, the division’s soldiers as part of the 2nd Belorussian Front participated in the East Prussian operation. On January 27, 1945, in the battle for the city of Wartenburg (now Barczewo, Poland), when a counterattack was fought off, the enemy machine gun and 8 enemy soldiers were disabled. For these fights he was presented for awarding the Order of the Red Star. Since there was a note in the award sheet on awarding the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree (erroneously, apparently according to the idea for the battles in July 1944), the division commander changed the status of the award.
By order of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front of March 6, 1945, Sergeant Zaika Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded the Order of Glory of the 2nd degree (in violation of the statute of the order).
Since mid-April 1945, the division conducted military operations in Germany, participated in the Berlin offensive. In the offensive battles on April 27-30, 1945, in the battle near the cities of Grabov (10 km southwest of the city of Wittstock, Germany) and Rainsberg (Germany), the calculation of the guard sergeant Zaika suppressed 5 enemy machine-gun points with mortar fire, providing advance for our infantry.
By order of the units of the 6th Guards Cavalry Division dated May 20, 1945, the Guard Sergeant Zaika Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree.
On May 1, 1945, in the battle for the village of Willitz (northwest of the city of Rainsberg, Germany), the guard sergeant Zaika commanding the fighters, put down 3 machine guns with mortar fire, smashed 2 carts with ammunition, and exterminated over 10 Nazis. He was presented for awarding the Order of Glory of the 1st degree. She completed her military career on the Elba River, where on May 2, in the area northwest of the city of Wittenberg, units of the division met with units of allied American forces.
In July 1945 he was demobilized.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 15, 1946, Sergeant Zaika Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded the Order of Glory of the 1st degree (there is no information on delivery).
He lived in the village of Muynak, then in the city of Fergana.
He died on August 11, 1967. He was buried in the cemetery of the city of Ferghana.
ORDER OF GLORY OF THE 1-2-3 DEGREE
