Moisei Shvartsman

Moisei Shvartsman was born in 1911 in a village in Vinnitsa Province, Ukraine. From an early age he engaged in Soviet public activity. In the early 1930s he studied at a teachers' seminary in Vinnitsa. After graduation, in 1936 he worked as head of education for the regional executive committee in the town of Tyvrov. He was drafted into the Red Army on June 25, 1941, four days after the outbreak of war. He fought in an intelligence company, operating in the enemy rear, first on the South-West Front and then on the Kalinin Front. In 1943, with the rank of captain, he was commissar of a machine-gun battalion and was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class. In June 1944 in combat near Vitebsk Major Shvartsman personally led his soldiers in an attack on enemy trenches. When his men had to retreat, he prevented them from being surrounded. On June 25, 1944, in a crossing of the Western Dvina River, his unit facilitated the successful crossing of other units. Moisei Svartsman was killed during this battle. On July 22, 1944 he was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union.