Ivan Timofeyevich Lyubushkin was born into a peasant family in the village of Sadovaya, Tambov Governorate, on July 20, 1918. Ivan was one of five children. He completed a seven-year secondary school program.
Antonina Timofeyevna,
Ivan’s sister, shared her memories of her brother,
As a child, Vanya was modest, shy, but at the same time very active. He loved to play war and wanted to become a military commander. He studied until the fourth grade in his native village, and then in the village of Sergiyevka, where he graduated from the seven-year school. Life was not very kind to us. Our mother died early, and our father remarried. Our family was large, seven children. Often, we didn’t even have clothes to go to school in.
She also described the pre-war years. According to her, after graduation, Ivan worked at a brick factory in Tambov. After that, he left with a friend for the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, and came to Tbilisi. There he got a job as a firefighter.
Ivan Lyubushkin joined the Red Army in 1938. He served in a tank unit and graduated from a junior commanders’ school. When the Great Patriotic War began, the officer went to the front.
Senior Sergeant Lyubushkin fought on the Western Front. He was a gunner of a T-34-76 tank in the 4th Tank Brigade, which was formed from the remnants of the 15th and 20th Tank Divisions in August 1941. Mikhail Yefimovich Katukov was appointed commander of the brigade. In September, the unit was relocated to the village of Akulovo near Moscow.
On October 6, 1941, a battle took place on Hill 217.8 near the village of Pervy Voin in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol region. The Red Army troops clashed with the main forces of Heinz Guderian’s tank group.
Ivan Lyubushkin was wounded: enemy troops managed to hit his tank. The crew of the combat vehicle continued the battle, setting fire to five enemy tanks. On October 10, 1941, Lyubushkin was declared a Hero of the Soviet Union and presented with the Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin.
On the Bryansk Front, on
June 30, 1942, the Battle for the Muravsky Trail took place. Ivan Lyubushkin
was killed in action. He was buried in mass grave No. 46 in the village of
Rosstani in the Livensky district of the Oryol region.
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