Alexander Krivets

Oleksandr Yeliseiovych Kryvets (Ukrainian: Олександр Єлісейович Кривець; September 12, 1919 – January 27, 1992) was a Soviet partisan leader in the German-occupied Ukraine during the World War II. For his participation in the combat operations, he was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944. His hero title was revoked in 1980 due to political controversy, but was reinstated in 1991.

Biography Kryvets was born on September 12, 1919, in the village of Pisky, in what today is Nizhyn Raion of the Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine. He was enrolled in the local elementary and middle school in 1927. In 1934, following the completion of his studies, he enrolled in the year-long preparatory courses at the Ministry of Food Industry's Bila Tserkva Agricultural Institute of Sugar Production, where from 1935 to 1940 he would attend classes in the school's agronomy department. In 1936, he became a trade-union member and a member of the Komsomol. Finishing his studies at the institute in 1940, he then followed the call of the Komsomol's central committee and volunteered to study at the Moscow Red Star Military College of Aviation Technology (Russian: Московское Военное Краснозвёздное авиационное техническое училище). There, his focus was on the use of air-navigation equipment in military planes, and he graduated with distinction in 1941, qualifying as an aircraft technician and receiving the title of Sergeant.

Warld War II Being a top student, he was given the right of choosing where to serve, and was sent to the 254th aviation regiment of the 36th aviation division, where he was to be a squadron technician and to work with the planes' air-navigation equipment. In August 1941, the regiment's commander, P. M. Petrov, officially granted Krivets the military title of Technician-Lieutenant (техник-лейтенант) – he would later be granted the title of Captain in 1944. The division was based in Kiev, but the regiment was soon deployed to the airfield by the village of Vil’shanka, in Vasylkiv Raion. It was deployed many times thereafter, and with the front's approach was rebased close to the city of Yahotyn, in the Kiev Oblast. It was there that, as part of the Southwestern Front, the regiment found itself caught in the great encirclement of Kiev, with the regiment headquarters and its archives destroyed as a result. Attempts to escape the encirclement were unsuccessful. In November 1941, Kryvets was able to make it out and reach Pisky, where in the December of the same year there was created an anti-fascist underground organization to prepare for open, armed partisan warfare in the Nova Basan’…Citește mai mult

Post-War On August 21, 1943, the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's (CPSU) Central Committee issued a resolution “with regard to certain measures related to the restoration of the national economy in regions liberated from the German occupation”. As a result, in the beginning of 1944, Kryvets – under the orders of the CPU central committee – was sent to assist with the restoration of a Smila sugar refinery, where he was appointed as the director. Later, he would serve as the director of the sugar refineries in Horodyshche-Pustovarivs’ke and Talne. He would also, from 1950 on, serve as the deputy head of the Ukrainian SSR’s Main Directorate of Sugar Production and, after the directorate’s reform, would serve continuously from 1953 to 1980 as the deputy manager of the Kiev beet sugar trust – serving as the trust’s chief agronomist, manager, and, following the reorganization of the trust into an association, the general director of the Kiev Sahprom association. From 1982, he would work as a senior researcher at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Sugar Beet. In 1945, Kryvets was a delegate to the first World Federation of Democratic Youth, held in…Citește mai mult

Legacy In the memorial complex “National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War" in Kiev, there is an exhibition with a stand dedicated to “Alexander Yeliseyevich Krivets, Hero of the Soviet Union”.

Awards Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (1944)

Order of Lenin (1944) Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, First Class (1945) Order of the Badge of Honour (thrice – 1958, 1966, 1973) Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (Russian: Почётная грамота Президиума Верховного Совета УССР) (1969)

Order of the October Revolution (1971) Medal "To a Partisan of the Patriotic War" (Russian: Медаль «Партизану Отечественной войны»), First Class (1944) Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (Russian: Медаль «За победу над Германией») (1945) “Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War” Medal (Russian: Медаль «За доблестный труд в Великой Отечественной войне») (1946) Medal "For the Defence of Kiev" (Russian: Медаль «За оборону Киева») (1964) “Twenty Year Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War” Medal (Russian: Медаль «20 лет Победы в Великой Отечественной войне») (1965) Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (Russian: Медаль «50 лет Вооружённых Сил СССР») (1968) Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Russian: Медаль «В ознаменование 100-летия со дня рождения Владимира Ильича Ленина») (1970) “Twenty-Five Year Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War” Medal (Russian: Медаль «25 лет Победы в Великой Отечественной войне») (1970) “Thirty Year Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” Medal (Russian: Медаль «30 лет Победы в Великой Отечественной войне 1941—1945 гг.») (1975) USSR VDNH Silver Medal (twice – 1967, 1970)

USSR VDNH Gold Medal (1974) “Top Performer in the USSR Ministry of Food Production’s Socialist emulation” Badge (Russian: Знак «Отличник Социалистического соревнования МПП СССР») (twice – 1973, 1975) “Udarnik of the Ninth Five-Year Plan” Badge (Russian: Знак «Ударник 9-й пятилетки») (1975) Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1977)