Birth of Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev, Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union

Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev was born on January 22, 1918 in the village of Istoshino of Ishimsky Uezd of Tobolsk Governorate, currently Berdyuzhinsky District of Tyumen Region, in a peasant family. He became an orphan at the age of three, and was taken into his aunt’s family. In 1937, he graduated from high school. He then worked as a history teacher at his school, and entered the Pedagogical College in the town of Ishim in absentia.

In October 1938, Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev was drafted into the Red Army. In 1940, he graduated from the school of air gunners-radio operators. In February 1940, he was sent to the 128th Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 241st Bomber Aviation Division of the 3rd Bomber Aviation Corps of the 16th Air Army, stationed in Belarus (the village of Ulla, Vitebsk Region). He was recruited as a radio operator in the crew of Junior Lieutenant N. V. Pivnyuk. The crew he served in was the youngest in the regiment.

Grigory Alekseev participated in the Great Patriotic War from the very first days. On June 26, 1941, while performing a combat mission, the crew was suddenly attacked by three enemy Me-109 fighters. Junior Sergeant Alekseev shot down one plane with well-aimed fire and set the second one ablaze. The crew flew daily to bomb enemy tank and motorized columns in the area of Grodno, Vilnius, Molodechno, Rzhev. On the instructions of the command, 6 successful sorties were carried out to collect information about the location and movement of German troops in the Kholmsko-Loknyansky direction. During the raids, the aircraft was attacked by German fighters and often emerged victorious from battles only thanks to the skillful and selfless actions of the gunner Grigory Alekseev. In 1942, he shot down and disabled German Heinkel-126 and Messerschmitt in the battles of January 12, March 22 and 31, and April 6.

On February 22, 1942, Senior Sergeant Grigory Alekseev was awarded the Order of the Red Star for 22 successful sorties and downed enemy aircraft. On June 3, 1942, he received the Order of the Red Banner for 102 successful sorties and 3 downed aircraft, as part of a group and 2 personally. On September 30, 1943, he was presented for the award of the 1st Class Order of the Patriotic War for completing 117 sorties. Grigory Alekseev repeatedly received personal thanks from the commander of the Kalinin Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev, Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army Air Forces, Chief Marshal of Aviation A. A. Novikov, and the commanders of the 3rd, 15th and 16th Air Armies.

On October 6, 1943, Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev took off for reconnaissance as part of the crew of Captain A. A. Sviridov. While performing the task, the aircraft came under fire from anti-aircraft guns. The shell hit the cabin. Captain Sviridov was seriously wounded, but continued to fly the plane. Starshina Grigory Alekseev shot back accurately and managed to repel all the attacks of fighters and even shot down one Messerschmitt-109F. Despite difficult conditions, the crew was still able to bomb out and destroy 50 railway cars, entrance and exit railway tracks, an ammunition depot and a warehouse.

The plane crossed the front line, tried to reach its airfield, but the commander lost consciousness, and the plane crashed into a house on the outskirts of the village. Pilot A. A. Sviridov and navigator M. N. Pavlov were killed; Starshina Grigory Alekseev was thrown out of the cockpit. With numerous wounds and severe concussion, he was taken to the hospital and then declared unfit for military service. In total, during his service at the front, Grigory Alekseev made 217 sorties for reconnaissance and bombing of railway junctions, airfields, strongholds and concentrations of enemy troops, destroyed 7 enemy aircraft in aerial battles and 15 – on the ground.

In July 1944, he returned home. After the end of the war in June 1945, the regiment's command issued a submission for awarding Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 15, 1946, for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the reception of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

After the war, Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev worked as a teacher, then as a school director. He graduated from the Ishim Pedagogical College in absentia. His characteristic features were humanity, modesty, high demands on subordinates and on himself. According to the recollections of his former students, he told about his heroic deeds as if they were ordinary military episodes.

Grigory Fedotovich Alekseev died on May 2, 1957, and was buried in the cemetery of the village of Berdyuzhye, Tyumen Region. A memorial sign was erected in his honour in his homeland, the village of Istoshino.

Lit.: Адреса Победы: 65-летию Великой Победы посвящается. Тюмень, 2010. С. 31–32; Алексеев Григорий Федотович // Тюменцы – герои Советского Союза. Тюмень, 2004. С. 12–13; Герои Тюменского края / сост. А. И. Бажин. Ишим, 2015. С. 7–8; Ольков Н. М. Синеокая сторона : очерки истории Бердюжского района Тюменской области. Шадринск, 2008. С. 158–159; Шестаков А. Е. Летающий пулеметчик // Жизнь, что реченька бурлива... Тюмень, 2012. С. 10–13.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Алексеев Григорий Федотович // Герои Советского Союза : краткий биографический словарь : [В 2 т.]. [Т.] 1 : Абаев–Любичев. М., 1987. С. 42. (Доступно в ЭЧЗ);

Memory of the Great Victory: [digital collection].

Based on the article of the Tyumen Region Branch of the Presidential Library