Sign up
You have successfully registered, a confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided.
Pavel Mikhailovich Smirnov
About museum
Pavel Mikhailovich Smirnov – a Soviet tanker, participant in the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1943, posthumously). He was born in Astrakhan into a fisherman's family. After reaching adulthood he worked as a physical education instructor. In 1929 he married and was conscripted into the army; he served in the tank forces in Saratov.
In 1933 he had a son, Vadim. Three years later his wife died of blood poisoning. Smirnov took a job teaching physical education, singing and drawing at the school in the settlement of Kirovsky in the Astrakhan region.
In 1941 Smirnov volunteered for the front. From 1942 he took part in the battles for Stalingrad as a member of the crew of a KV heavy tank of the 344th Tank Battalion of the 91st Separate Tank Brigade. On 21 January 1943, in the battle for the German airfield "Pitomnik", Smirnov's tank was hit and ran out of ammunition. The Germans set the tank on fire; the entire crew was killed. After the hamlet was liberated, the crew was buried at the place of death and was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Date of birth
15 December 1908
Date of death
21 January 1943
Occupation
Military