Memory. Efim Bukotkin

On April 26, 1909, Efim Bukotkin, the hero of the Great Patriotic War, was born.

Personal business

Efim Egorovich Bukotkin (1909-1945) was born in the village of Polukhino of the Saratov province in a peasant family. Graduated from a veterinary college. In 1935, he left the village and went to the city - he moved to the Rtishchevo district center, where before the war he worked as a veterinary paramedic at the point of flushing of wagons of the local railway junction.

After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he moved under the Rzhev of the Tver (then - Kalinin) region, from where he was called up to the front six months later. From February 1942 until April 1945 he fought with the Nazi invaders on the Bryansk, Voronezh, first and second Ukrainian fronts.

In February 1943, in the battles for the village of 2nd Zavorkoi and the city of Tim, the senior sergeant Bukotkin, being the gunner of the anti-tank fighter battery consisting of 240 rifle divisions, destroyed the gun and more than 20 soldiers and officers of the enemy. For this he was awarded the medal "For Courage".

Bukotkin participated in the Ostrogozh-Rossoshanskaya and Voronezh-Kastornenskaya offensive operations, the Battle of Kursk, the liberation of Ukraine, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

After the liberation of the Czechoslovak city of Trenchin, our units with battles continued to advance west. On April 26, 1945, two enemy machine guns stopped near the village of Koritna. It was not possible to suppress them with infantry. The arrows lay under the fire for several hours, unable to take the attack.

Efim Bukotkin, at that time already former the commander of a 45-mm gun, on his own initiative, under machine-gun shelling, rolled out the gun directly and destroyed the fire points and 18 enemy soldiers. Thanks to this, the infantry was able to continue the offensive and took possession of the village.

Suddenly, enemy machine gunners hiding before in the forest, with the support of two tanks, entered the battle. Quickly turning the gun towards the enemy, Bukotkin hit the tanks point blank. The first shell, he set the head car and immediately transferred the fire to the next. The duel ensued. An enemy shell, which had exploded near the gun, easily wounded Bukotkin in the leg.

The attack of the Nazis was repulsed, but the gunners were left without the support of the infantry, which raised to the outskirts of the village of Sukha Loz. Seeing this, the Nazis in the amount of about forty people attacked Bukotkin's gun. The calculation took an unequal battle. Bukotkin with the gunner Efremov fired from the gun, the rest fired from machine guns. They managed to recapture this attack. Leaving two machine guns on the battlefield and more than a dozen killed, the Nazis retreated. However, Bukotkin’s calculation also suffered heavy losses - only he and Efremov remained in the ranks, the rest were seriously injured or killed, the gun was damaged.

Soon the Nazis took a new attack, surrounding the gun on three sides. In an unequal battle, the gunner Efremov died. Left alone, Bukotkin fought off the enemies to the last - at first with fire from the machine gun, then with manual grenades. During the battle, he was seriously wounded in his stomach and eventually lost consciousness. The fascists who captured the gun, furious with the huge losses that were suffered in this battle, doused the warrior with gasoline and set fire to.

Having come to his senses from terrible pain, Efim Bukotkin, covered by fire, rose to his feet and threw a grenade into enemies. He was struck by an automatic burst. The Nazis threw straw and brushwood on the burning body of a fallen gunner until he burned in the formed stake.

With military honors, Efim Bukotkin was buried in the Czech city of Ugerski-Brod.

Hero of the Soviet Union Efim Egorovich Bukotkin wikirtishchevo.shoutwiki.com

What is famous

The foreman Efim Bukotkin, the gun commander of the Fighter-Put-tank battery of the 931st Red Banner Order of the Suvorov regiment of the 240th Infantry Division, heroically died in an unequal battle with the Nazis, shooting to the last. After the Germans set fire to him, who lost consciousness, woke up and continued the battle, throwing a grenade at enemies. Friends and fellow soldiers called him "Volzhsky Danko."

3a combat differences Efim Bukotkin was awarded the orders of the Red Banner (1943), the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree (1944), glory of the 3rd degree (1945) and the medal "For Courage" (1943).

For the stamina and courage shown in the reflection of the enemy’s counterattack in the area of ​​the Czechoslovak city of Ugersky Brod, Efim Bukotkin was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

What you need to know about

The story of the feat of Efim Bukotkina was published in the book of N. M. Rumyantsev “The people of the legendary feat. Brief biographies and descriptions of the exploits of the heroes of the Soviet Union - those who were born, lived and live in the Saratov region, ”published in 1968.

However, three years before in the Rtishchevskaya newspaper Lenin's Way, the article “The Commander of the gun Calculation” by S. Kuznetsov, his friend Efim Bukotkina and his wife, in which he described the last battle and death of Bukotkin, was perfectly from what he wrote three years later in his book N. M. Rumyantsev.

According to Kuznetsov, the gun calculation commanded by foreman Bukotkin received a special task. The 76-million gun was installed in a small hollow, near the road itself. The fighters had to be secret and without an order not to open fire, so as not to give out their location. A few hours later the enemy tank attack began. Under the cover of tanks were cars with soldiers. Bukotkin’s calculation took an unequal battle that lasted about an hour. The attack of the Nazis was repelled.

The command of the 2nd Ukrainian Front highly appreciated the combat feat of the foreman Bukotkin, providing him to the highest award of the country. But to get her Efim was not destined. On April 25, 1945, the foreman fell into the hands of the traitors and was tortured.

4 facts about Efima Bukotkina

• In the dictionary “Heroes of the Soviet Union”, the village of Efim Bukotkin was mistakenly indicated by the village of Olgino.
• In the award sheet, when awarding the medal “For Courage”, Bukotkin was recorded as Efim Grigoryevich, and not Egorovich. The award document was declassified in accordance with the Order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation of May 8, 2007 N181 "On the declassification of archival documents of the Red Army and the Navy during the period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945".
• The award sheet about the presentation of Bukotkin to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, in addition to the commander of his regiment, was signed by four generals.
• The name of Efima Bukotkin was named Street in the city of Arkadak - the center of the Arkadak district in which he was born.

Materials about Efima Bukotkina

Biography Efima Bukotkina on the site "Heroes of the country"

The feat of the foreman Efima Bukotkina

Memory of the people. Award document: Bukotkin Efim Grigoryevich

Article about Efim Bukotkina on Wikipedia