The museum’s collection contains a photograph of the Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Poskonkin. It was first published in the Pravda newspaper on April 22, 1940, featured alongside the story about the heroic deed of the Red Navy sailor and poems dedicated to him by a Soviet writer and songwriter Vasily Lebedev-Kumach. Along with the portrait, the museum houses the original of the Certificate of Honor, which reads,

Alexander Poskonkin was born on January 7, 1919, in the Koptevo village of the Rasskazovsky district. He studied at a local village school for five years and then was accepted into the school at the Tambov Gunpowder Factory, where he became a locksmith to later work in machinery repair shops.

Apart from working at the factory, Poskonkin also engaged in skiing and shooting. He successfully reached a qualifying standard for the Voroshilov Sharpshooter badge and more than once became the winner of the shop and factory 5,000 meters skiing competitions. When Poskonkin was 20 years old, he received the Komsomol direction to serve in the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt. From December 1939 to March 1940, as part of the ski reconnaissance group of the shore party, he fought against the Whites in the Soviet-Finnish War.

In 1940, the ski special operations force, where Poskonkin served, encountered a group of Whites near the Murilo settlement — a defensive complex located between the Gulf of Finland and Ladoga. The opponent’s forces were many times superior to the Soviet ones, which put the latter at a great disadvantage. Poskonkin threw a few grenades, killing some enemy soldiers, and started a bayonet fight, eventually killing an enemy officer. He put the seriously wounded group commander on his shoulder and managed to carry him to the battalion. For this deed, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

After the Soviet-Finnish war, Poskonkin entered the Leningrad Naval Political Academy named after Andrey Zhdanov and graduated in 1942. During the Siege of Leningrad, he was the battery commander of the 13th artillery battalion and later participated in lifting the siege. Poskonkin was awarded two Red Star Orders, the Second-Class Order of the Patriotic War, as well as medals ‘For the Defense of Leningrad’, ‘For Battle Merit’, and ‘For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945’ for his distinguished service.