Hero of the Soviet Union


The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both to civilian and military persons.

Overview

The award was established on 16 April 1934, by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union. The first recipients of the title originally received only the Order of Lenin, the highest Soviet award, along with a certificate describing the heroic deed from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Because the Order of Lenin could be awarded for deeds not qualifying for the title of hero, and to distinguish heroes from other Order of Lenin holders, the Gold Star medal was introduced on 1 August 1939. Earlier heroes were retroactively eligible for these items.
A hero could be awarded the title again for a subsequent heroic feat with an additional Gold Star medal and certificate. The practice of awarding additional Orders of Lenin when the title was awarded multiple times was abolished by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1988 during perestroika.
Forty-four foreign citizens were awarded the title.
The title was also awarded posthumously, though often without the actual Gold Star medal presented.
The title could be revoked only by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
Most Soviet-bloc countries followed the Soviet example and instituted their own "Hero" awards. The Soviet-style "Hero" title is still used both in surviving current Communist states such as Cuba and in some non-Communist post-Soviet countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and others.

Privileges

Individuals who received the award were entitled to special privileges, including:
  • A pension with survivor benefits in the event of the death of the title holder.
  • Priority on the housing list with 50% rent reduction, tax exempt and an additional in living space.
  • Annual round-trip first class airline ticket
  • Free local public transportation
  • Free annual visit to sanatorium or rest home
  • Medical benefits
  • Entertainment benefits

    History

In total, during the existence of the USSR, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to 12,777 people, including 154 people who received the award twice, three who received it three times, and two who received it four times. Ninety-five women were awarded the title. Among the Heroes of the Soviet Union, 44 people are citizens of foreign states. The great majority of them received it during World War II. Eighty-five people were awarded the title for actions related to the Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted from 1979 until 1989.
The first recipients of the award were the pilots Anatoly Liapidevsky, Sigizmund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov, Mavriky Slepnyov, Nikolai Kamanin, Ivan Doronin, and Mikhail Vodopianov, who participated in the successful aerial search and rescue of the crew of the steamship Cheliuskin, which sank in Arctic waters, crushed by ice fields, on 13 February 1934. Valery Chkalov, who made the first-ever Trans-polar flight, was awarded the title on 24 July 1936. Valentina Grizodubova, a female pilot, was the first woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union for her international women's record for a straight-line distance flight. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisan, was the first woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II, posthumously.
According to Soviet war interpreter Elena Rzhevskaya, reports of several dead Hitler lookalikes in the days following his death stemmed from Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin's pledge to nominate the discoverer of Hitler's corpse for the award.
Over 100 people received the award twice. A second Hero title, either Hero of the Soviet Union or Hero of Socialist Labour, entitled the recipient to have a bronze bust of their likeness with a commemorative inscription erected in their hometown.
Fighter pilots Aleksandr Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub were three times Heroes of the Soviet Union. A third award entitled the recipient to have their bronze bust erected on a columnar pedestal in Moscow, near the Palace of the Soviets, but the palace was never completed.
After his release from serving a 20-year sentence in a Mexican prison for the assassination of Leon Trotsky, Ramón Mercader moved to the Soviet Union in 1961 and as Ramon Lopez was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Hero of the Soviet Union medal "for the special deed" by KGB head Alexander Shelepin.
The only individuals to receive the title four times were Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Leonid Brezhnev. The original statute of the Hero of the Soviet Union, however, did not provide for a fourth title; its provisions allowed for a maximum of three awards regardless of later deeds. Both Zhukov and Brezhnev received their fourth titles under controversial circumstances. Namely, Zhukov was awarded a fourth title in direct violation of the statute. He was awarded the fourth time "for his large accomplishments" on the occasion of his 60th birthday on December 1, 1956. There is some speculation that Zhukov's fourth Hero medal was for his participation in the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria in 1953, but this was not entered in the records. Brezhnev's four awards further eroded the prestige of the award because they were all birthday gifts, on the occasions of his 60th, 70th, 72nd and 75th birthdays. Such practices halted in 1988 due to a decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which formally ended it. By the 1970s, the award had been somewhat devalued. Important political and military persons had been awarded it on the occasions of their birthdays rather than for any immediate heroic activity. All Soviet cosmonauts, starting from Yuri Gagarin, as well as foreign citizens from non-capitalist countries who participated in the Soviet space program as cosmonauts, received a Hero award for each flight, but no more than twice.
Apart from individuals, the title was also awarded to twelve cities as well as the fortress of Brest for collective heroism during the War.

Later recipients

The last recipient of the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" was a Soviet diver, Captain of the 3rd rank Leonid Mikhailovich Solodkov on 24 December 1991 for his leadership and participation in a series of unprecedented extreme depth diving experiments. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this title was succeeded in Russia by the title "Hero of the Russian Federation", in Ukraine by "Hero of Ukraine" and in Belarus by "Hero of Belarus". Azerbaijan's successor order is that of National Hero of Azerbaijan and Armenia's own hero medal is that of National Hero of Armenia, both modeled on the Soviet one.

Heraldry

Philately

Notable recipients

Single award

  • Hamazasp Babadzhanian – future Chief Marshal of the Tank and Armored Troops, for actions near Stanislav
  • Oleg Babak – last posthumous recipient to die in the line of duty.
  • Mikhail Devyataev – escaped from a forced-labor camp at Peenemünde with crucial intelligence on German rocket programs.
  • Andrei Durnovtsev – pilot who dropped the Tsar Bomba
  • Yuri Gagarin – first human to fly in space.
  • Pavel Grachev – division commander in Afghanistan.
  • Ivan Kharchenko – neutralized more than 50,000 explosive items during and after World War II.
  • Viktor Kibenok – First responding firefighter to the Chernobyl Disaster. Later died of radiation sickness.
  • Valentin Kotyk – Youngest recipient. Posthumously awarded after being killed in combat during the Great Patriotic War
  • Vladimir Konovalov – submarine commander; sank the German ship Goya.
  • Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya – the first woman awarded the title during World War II.
  • Alexander Krivets – participant in the Soviet partisan movement during World War II, commander of the Shchors partisan detachment.
  • Matvey Kuzmin – oldest recipient; led a Nazi division to an ambush in Malkino.
  • Nikolai Kuznetsov – intelligence officer responsible for the kidnappings and assassinations of several high-ranking Nazis.
  • Lydia Litvyak – World War II fighter pilot and the world's top female ace.
  • Alexander Marinesko – the most successful Soviet submarine commander in terms of gross register tonnage sunk.
  • Alexander Matrosov – posthumously awarded for blocking an enemy machine-gun with his own body.
  • Nikolai Melnik – Soviet pilot known for placing radiation sensors at the Chernobyl's Nuclear Power Plant, Reactor 4, during the 1986 explosion.
  • Aliya Moldagulova – sniper who led her brigade after suffering high casualties
  • Pore Mosulishvili – Soviet Soldier and member of the Italian resistance.
  • Ivan Panfilov – Soviet general. Killed in action during the Battle of Moscow. The 8th Guards Rifle Division of the Red Army was named in his honor.
  • Lyudmila Pavlichenko – highest scoring female sniper.
  • Vasily Pavlov – test pilot and Air Forces colonel.
  • Yakov Pavlov – commanded the defenders of the building named after him in Stalingrad.
  • Vladimir Pravik – Firefighter that responded to the Chernobyl Disaster, and later died of radiation sickness.
  • Nikolay Pukhov – Colonel General in World War II and the first commander of the 8th Tank Army.
  • Endel Puusepp – Soviet World War II bomber pilot.
  • Otto Schmidt – scientist and explorer of the Arctic.
  • Ivan Sidorenko – One of the top snipers of World War II, with over 500 kills.
  • Richard Sorge – Soviet spy, reported from Japanese information the exact date that Operation Barbarossa would begin.
  • Joseph Stalin – General Secretary of the Communist Party and Head of Government as Prime Minister of the USSR.
  • Leonid Telyatnikov – Head of the fire department at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
  • Valentina Tereshkova – first woman to fly in space.
  • Michael Tsiselsky – Soviet naval pilot during World War II.
  • Zhambyl Tulaev – Soviet sniper, killed 313 German soldiers.
  • Dmitriy Ustinov – Marshal of the Soviet Union and Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1976 until his death in 1984.
  • Vasily Zaytsev – sniper who killed 225 at the Battle of Stalingrad; his achievements are dramatized in the film Enemy at the Gates.
  • Viktor Zholudev – posthumously awarded for leadership during Operation Bagration
  • Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov, and Ilya Krichevsky – Posthumously awarded for being killed while attempting to block IFVs from reaching the White House during the August Coup
  • Leonid Solodkov – Last recipient of the award before it was succeeded by the Hero of the Russian Federation award
  • Natalya Meklin