Dmitry Lavrinenko was born on October 14, 1914 in the Kuban village Fearless in a Cossack family. After completing teacher courses in Armavir, he returned home and worked as a teacher for two years at a local school, where he created a drama club and sports sections.

In 1934, without waiting for draft age, he volunteered for the army. At first he was taken to serve in the cavalry, but soon they were sent to the Ulyanovsk armored school, which Lavrinenko graduated in 1938, receiving the rank of junior lieutenant. Classmates recalled that learning was easy for him, Lavrinenko shot perfectly with all types of weapons.

Before the start of World War II, he was appointed platoon commander in the 15th Tank Division, stationed in the city of Stanislav (modern Ivano-Frankivsk). There he met his future wife Nina. They got married already during the war - in the summer of 1941.

  • Cadet of the tank school Dmitry Lavrinenko (1938)
  • © Wikimedia Commons

In the first months of fighting, Lavrinenko did not succeed in military affairs: his tank was out of order. He was offered to leave the car during the retreat, but he refused and made sure that he was allowed to deliver the tank to the repair base. The division at that time suffered heavy losses in the battles for Ukraine and in August 1941 was disbanded.

From Stalingrad to Mtsensk

At the end of the summer of 1941, the 4th Tank Brigade was created, in which Lavrinenko became the platoon commander. The brigade was led by Colonel Mikhail Katukov, the future marshal of armored forces.

At the end of September 1941, part of Lavrinenko was transferred to the Moscow region, and his wife Nina, together with family members of other servicemen, was evacuated to Central Asia, where she entered nursing courses.

In early October, Lavrinenko already took part in the battles in the area of ​​Mtsensk: there, Soviet troops held back the superior enemy forces. Near the Mtsensk-Orel highway, German tanks broke into the position of the Soviet motorized rifle battalion and anti-tank division.

“To help the infantrymen I sent a group of four tanks under the command of senior lieutenant Lavrinenko. "Thirty-four" jumped out of the forest across the enemy tanks and opened hurricane fire. The Nazis did not expect the appearance of tanks. They counted on impunity, ”Katukov recalled these events in his book, At the Cutting Edge of a Main Impact.

According to the marshal, as a result of several attacks of the Lavrinenko detachment, 15 Hitler tanks were shot down.

  • Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Katukov
  • © Wikimedia Commons

Three days later, a platoon of Lavrinenko repelled an attack by a German anti-tank unit near the village of Sheino and stopped an attempt to break through the Soviet defense line of Hitler’s armored vehicles by shooting German tanks from an ambush.

Battle for Moscow

From Mtsensk the 4th Tank Brigade was transferred to the Moscow Region. Tank Lavrinenko Katukov briefly left to guard the headquarters of the 50th Army.

On the way to their unit, the tank brigade decided to call in Serpukhov, where it turned out that an erupted Nazi column was moving in the direction of the city, in which at that moment there were no troops.

The commandant of Serpukhov brigade commander Pavel Firsov asked Lavrinenko to cover the city. The tanker, who had become a senior lieutenant by this time, hid his car in an ambush by the road.

“Letting the Nazis 150 meters away, Lavrinenko shot the convoy point blank. Two guns were immediately shot down, the third enemy artillerymen tried to deploy, but the tank jumped onto the highway and crashed into trucks with infantry, and then crushed the gun. The surviving Nazis fled, but soon our unit came and finished off the enemy. The crew of Lavrinenko handed over to the commandant of Serpukhov 13 machine guns, 6 mortars, 10 motorcycles with wheelchairs and an anti-tank gun with full ammunition. Firsov allowed the staff car to be taken to the brigade, ”Mikhail Katukov described further events in his book.

German cards and documents found in the car were immediately sent to Moscow.

In November 1941, the 4th Tank Brigade held positions north of the Volokolamsk-Moscow highway, together with the famous 316th Infantry Division under the command of Major General Ivan Panfilov. On November 11, it was renamed the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.

  • Shot from the film “28 Panfilovites” (2016)

On November 13-14, Lavrinenko participated in the liquidation of the ledge of Hitler’s positions near the village of Skirmanovo. And on November 16-17 - in the legendary Panfilov battles, during which the attempt of superior Nazi forces to break through to Moscow was thwarted. Lavrinenko fought with German tanks as part of the group, and then, saving the Soviet units from encirclement, he decided to attack a convoy of German armored vehicles alone in the area of ​​the village of Shishkino on his tank.

“In this battle, the Lavrinenko crew destroyed six enemy vehicles, making good use of the terrain. At the same time, the tank was prudently painted with whitewash and completely invisible in fresh snow, ”said Andrey Kuparev, an employee of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.

On November 18, during a battle near the village of Gusenevo, Major General Panfilov was killed by a mine fragment. Lavrinenko, who was nearby, was shocked by this event; he was eager to take revenge on the enemy. In a battle with eight enemy tanks, he destroyed seven. Subsequently, having been attacked by another ten Hitler tanks, Lavrinenko’s car was hit. In this battle, he lost two of his crew.

In early December, Lavrinenko, at the head of a tank company, participated in breaking through Hitler's defense in the Volokolamsk direction. His unit broke into the village of Pokrovskoye and destroyed the Nazi garrison in it, and then moved to the village of Goryuny. In this battle, Lavrinenko knocked out his 52nd tank. When he went to report to the command about the course of the battle, he was killed by a fragment of an exploding mortar shell. It happened on December 18, 1941.

Nina Lavrinenko briefly outlived her husband. In the summer of 1942 she was sent to the front. Along the way, she wanted to visit her mother-in-law, but died during the bombing of the station in Armavir.

  • Tank crew of Dmitry Lavrinenko
  • © Wikimedia Commons

"Tanker from God"

While still alive, on December 5, 1941, Dmitry Lavrinenko was introduced to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but he was never awarded a golden star. Instead, already posthumously, on December 22, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, which was the highest state award of the USSR.

“The situation in the country at the end of 1941 was very difficult, so many people did not immediately receive their awards and honor. And Dmitry Lavrinenko in this sense, alas, is no exception, ”said military historian Yury Knutov in an interview with RT.

According to the expert, the feats of warriors described on the pages of central newspapers most often became known.

“It so happened that there were no correspondents near Lavrinenko at that time. But on his example, it was possible to educate entire generations of tankers. His name could sound along with Matrosov, Gastello and other famous heroes, ”the historian continued.

In the combat leaflets published in December 1941, according to Andrei Kuparev, "he was called the bravest of the brave."

After the war, Katukov and other Soviet military leaders repeatedly raised the issue of awarding Lavrinenko the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but for some reason the leadership of the Ministry of Defense doubted the appropriateness of the award.

In 1967, search engines discovered the place of his burial near the village of Pokrovskoye and transferred the remains to a mass grave near the village of Denkovo. With the filing of the military and historians, several monuments were erected to him, streets and schools in various cities of the USSR were named after him, as well as a pass in the Dzungarian Alatau. But only in 1990 Dmitry Lavrinenko was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

“He gained popular fame earlier. Stories about how a Soviet tankman from an ambush shot entire enemy columns fell into books and the press. And nowadays they are widely known thanks to social networks, although, unfortunately, they often forget his name, ”Knutov shared.

  • Tombstone of Dmitry Lavrinenko. Installed on a mass grave near the village of Denkovo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region
  • © Wikimedia Commons

Military historian Mikhail Baryatinsky considers Lavrinenko’s high award absolutely deserved.

“Dmitry Lavrinenko is a talented tactician, a tanker from God,” he emphasized.

According to the historian, Lavrinenko received good training at the school and useful experience while hiking in Western Ukraine and Bessarabia in 1939 and 1940.

“Lavrinenko was a creative person. He developed his own tactics: he saw the battlefield, carefully thought over his steps, and then realized the planned scenario, ”the expert noted.

According to Knutov, 52 wrecked tanks made Dmitry Lavrinenko officially the most productive tank ace of the Red Army, but in fact he deserves even higher recognition.

“Firstly, due to the very inaccurate calculation system and fantasies of Hitler’s propagandists, the achievements of German tank aces that are formally ahead of Lavrinenko should be divided into two, or even three. Secondly, if we take not the entire period of hostilities, but specific two and a half months, then Lavrinenko will be the absolute record holder, the result of which not a single tanker in any of the countries participating in World War II could even get closer to, ”the historian concluded .