Shabsa Mashkautsan


Shabsa Mendelevich Mashkautsan was a Soviet soldier and a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Biography

Shabsa Mashkautsan was born in Orhei, Bessarabia to Bessarabian Jewish parents, house painter Mendel and Rakhel. In his Russian documents his name was written as Shabsa or Shapsa. In June 1940, Bessarabia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Shabsa was evacuated to Shpakovsky District, Ordzhonikidze Krai. He volunteered to a rifle battalion in reserve, which attached to the 50th Reserve Infantry Regiment. In February 1942, he was drafted to the 530th Tank-Destroyer Artillery Regiment, 28th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front, where he served to the end of the war.
Mashkautsan was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union on June 27, 1945. His award list says:

"On April 29, 1945, near in a Berlin suburb, a young sergeant with
the 530th Tank Destroyer Regiment carried on a battle with 200 Germans and
two self-propelled guns... Twice he changed positions under enemy fire, set
fire to one self-propelled gun, then the second, which had come right up to his
position. After putting the guns out of commission, Sergeant Mashkautsan
began firing at the infantry. As a result he killed 50 soldiers and officers by
gunfire and 4 by pistol fire.
The enemy hurled its tanks and armored carriers with infantry against this
section. Again he opened fire; with two shells Mashkautsan hit a tank and
right after that one of the armored carriers.
The second armored carrier rolled toward the gun, and when it was 2 meters
from it, Mashkautsan hurled a grenade and then, in spite of a contusion, again
opened fire on the enemy. More than 200 dead Germans were left in the field."

After the war he continued army service and discharged to reserve in 1953 in the rank of guards lieutenant. In 1961, he graduated from a technical school and worked as senior foreman at a tractor plant, later as director of the plant's technical school. He lived in Kishinev. In June 1989, he emigrated to the United States, at first to New Jersey, later he moved to New Haven, Connecticut.
Mashkautsan died on September 19, 2022, at the age of 98.

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