GEORGY MIKHAILOVICH SKLEZNEV
1911-1937
The hero of the USSR
Georgy Mikhailovich became the first native of the Gomel region to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Born in the city of Gomel, in the family of an employee. He worked at the Gomel forestry plant. In September 1931, on a Komsomol ticket, Georgy entered the Bauman Higher Technical School in Moscow, but studied only one course. In May 1932 he was drafted into the Red Army and, after a special selection, was sent to a military school. In December 1934 he graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Tank School. Was a platoon leader in a training battalion. Member of the Spanish Civil War. Fighting in the ranks of the tank brigade D.G. Pavlova, distinguished himself in battles near Madrid and on the Jarama River. From 1936 to 1937 he fought against the Nazis during the Spanish Civil War, was the commander of a tank platoon, chief of staff of a tank battalion.
At the beginning of February 1937, the tankers were ordered to knock out the Nazis from the fortified line. A shell hit Skleznev's car. The crew jumped out of the flaming tank and, on the armor of two other vehicles, returned to the unit's location. And then an almost miracle happened: Georgy Skleznev, unnoticed by the enemy, crawling and dashing back to his burning tank and took the car under the very nose of the Nazis. And when his comrades shot down the flames from the tank with earth and sand, George, embarrassed and happy, said: "I thought: if the ammunition did not immediately explode from a direct hit, then until the fire reaches the fuel, it is quite possible to have time to remove the tank from the battlefield for repair." ... In one of the decisive battles, "T-26" Skleznev went ahead and fired at the enemy. The Nazis knocked out the lieutenant's car. The flames engulfed the tank, which continued to hit the enemy with shells. The fascist offensive was drowned out. The crew of Georgy Skleznev fought to the end with superior enemy forces at the Pindok Bridge over the Harama and on February 12, 1937, died a hero's death. By the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of June 27, 1937, Lieutenant G.M.Skleznev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A street in Gomel was named after Georgy Mikhailovich Skleznev, his name was given to the Gomel secondary school No. 2, where he studied. Memorial plaques are installed on the buildings of the woodworking plant and the school in which he studied.