Mikhail Ivanovich
Krotov
1916-2006
Mikhail Ivanovich Krotov was a Guard foreman of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, participant of the Great Patriotic War, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Krotov was born on September 18, 1916 in the village of Pochezerye of the Pinezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk province (now the Pinezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk region). After finishing elementary school, he worked as a coupler first, then as a tractor driver in a forestry enterprise. In January 1942, Krotov was called up to serve in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. After completing the courses of tank drivers, he was sent to the front of the Great Patriotic War. He was wounded. By July 1944, Guard Sergeant Mikhail Krotov had been a tank mechanic of the 68th Guards Tank Regiment of the 20th Guards Mechanized Brigade of the 8th Guards Mechanized Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. He distinguished himself during the liberation of Poland. On July 17, 1944, Krotov, bursting into the village of Perespa in the Lublin Voivodeship on his tank, crushed an artillery piece and two mortars with his tracks, which caused a stampede of the enemy, who abandoned 2 tanks, 2 self-propelled artillery guns. In total, during the offensive, Krotov’s crew destroyed 3 tanks, 2 Ferdinand self-propelled guns, 4 large-caliber guns, 4 railway echelons with ammunition and fuel, and also captured 27 enemy soldiers and officers. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 23, 1944, for “exemplary performance of command tasks and courage and heroism in battles with the German invaders”, Guard sergeant Mikhail Krotov was awarded the high title of the Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal number 4586. He participated in the storming of Berlin, left his signature on the Reichstag. After the end of the war, Krotov was demobilized. He was educated at Arkhangelsk Forestry and Mechanical College. He lived in Moscow.
Address: Moscow, Yunykh Lenintsev str., 43/33
