Gomel City Executive Committee

1912 – 1995

Hero of the Soviet Union

Pavel Buinevich was born on October 15, 1912 in the village of Novye Gromyki (Vetkovsky district of Gomel region of Belarus now), in a peasant family. He graduated from four classes of school and tractor drivers’ courses, after which he worked as a mechanic at Zakruzhskaya machine and tractor station. In 1934 Buinevich was recruited to serve in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, where he became a squad leader in a cavalry regiment. He took part in the Polish campaign of the Red Army and the Soviet-Finnish war. After the end of that war Buinevich was transfered to the reserve and returned to his homeland, where he worked as a tractor driver.

On the first day of the war, Buinevich voluntarily joined the military commissariat and was sent to a separate anti-aircraft air defense division, where he first became a computing specialist and then a gun commander. He participated in the defense of Gomel. During the period from June 22 to August 10, 1941, Buinevich's division shot down 42 enemy aircraft and detained 20 spies abandoned with parachutes. On August 11, the division was loaded onto railway platforms to cover military echelons travelling to Orel. During this combat mission, the division shot down another 30 enemy aircraft. In early October 1941, Buinevich with his unit was surrounded in the Vyazma pocket of the Western Front. By the order of the command, the guns were destroyed, and the personnel of the division broke into the forests in Bryansk region. Buinevich joined a partisan group of 42 who broke out of the encirclement. When the group merged with another partisan detachment, Buinevich was appointed commander of the department. Buinevich took part in the defeat of German punitive expeditions, garrisons in populated areas.

On September 27, 1943, in the area of the village of Ochesa-Rudnya, Bryansk region, the partisans of Buinevich’s detachment united with the Red Army. Buinevich participated in the liberation of the Belarusian SSR, including his native places, the liberation of Rogachev, Korosten, Sarnov, Stolin, Pinsk, Warsaw, the capture of Berlin. He was repeatedly sent to intelligence, delivered valuable "prisoners". By January 1945, Sergeant Pavel Buinevich commanded a gun of the 447th Rifle Regiment of the 397th Rifle Division of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. He distinguished himself during the Vistula-Oder operation.

On January 14, 1945, in the south of Warsaw, when the advancing Soviet units came under massive enemy fire, Buinevich's crew rolled out a gun on direct fire and destroyed five enemy firing points. When the infantry rose to the attack and went on the offensive, the gunners rolled the gun, shooting at point-blank firing points. On January 16, during the breakthrough of the enemy's defense, Buinevich destroyed 8 firing points, 10 machine guns and 45 enemy soldiers and officers.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 27, 1945, Sergeant Pavel Buinevich was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal number 7206 for "exemplary performance of combat tasks of the command at the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time".

During the war, Buinevich was wounded four times. After the end of the war in 1945, Buinevich was demobilized and returned to his homeland. In 1948, he was drafted into the army for the third time, where he served until 1967. He was dismissed to the reserve with the rank of petty officer. Since 1967, he worked as the chairman of his native collective farm, then lived in Gomel, worked in the Central Department of non-departmental security. He died on March 14, 1995, and was buried in the town of Vetka, Gomel region.

He was also awarded two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and one of the 2nd degree, the Red Star, Glory of the 3rd degree, as well as fifteen medals. He was the Honorary citizen of Vetka. On the house in Gomel, where Buinevich lived, there is a memorial plaque in memory of him.