Ivan Lemeshev went to the front at the age of 17 as a volunteer and fought until the Victory. In 1945, he took part in two Victory Parades, in Vienna and Moscow!
Ivan Lemeshev, the son of a
blacksmith, was born in the village of Zaguzie, Ushachi District, Vitebsk Oblast.
Before the war, he finished school. He helped his father working as an
apprentice and doing very hard work. Sometimes the teenager had to operate forge
fans all day long. That was not how he imagined his life, so as soon as he had
the opportunity, he went to study at the vocational school in the town of
Lepel. When the war broke out, he was only 17 years old. Ivan Lemeshev and his comrades were evacuated to Penza. In August 1941, he volunteered for the army. After a brief training, he was sent to the 214th Airborne Brigade of the 4th Airborne Corps of the Western Front.
The young paratrooper began fighting shortly after arriving at the battlefield: he took part in the defense of Moscow at the end of September 1941. Ivan Lemeshev’s unit was sent to Znamenka District near Vyazma, where he distinguished himself in the battle for the village of Tarakanchiki when a group of only 11 people, including our hero, were desperately trying to hold back the enemy. For this battle, Ivan Lemeshev was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
The war veteran also took part in the Vyazma airborne operation which began on 18 January 1942. Many comrades of Ivan Adamovich died in those battles. He himself was often on the brink of death, greatly weakened after illness. He said that if not for the locals, he would not have survived. A little later in the same year, Ivan Lemeshev took part in crossing the Don near the village of Grigorevka, holding a bridgehead for a long time. He was awarded the medal “For Courage” for the participation in those battles.
Later, the command sent Ivan Lemeshev to courses at officer candidate school near Moscow. He became commander of the platoon of foot reconnaissance of the 332nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 104th Guards Rifle Division. He took part in battles at Lake Balaton and in the capture of Hungary and Austria. On 14 April 1945, during a battle near the village of Puttenbrug, Ivan Lemeshev destroyed a machine gun along with its crew. The scouts were the first to storm the enemy trenches and eliminate 15 German soldiers. For this, he was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd Class.
Ivan Lemeshev witnessed two Victory Parades. At the first, held in Vienna on 11 May 1945, he was a standard-bearer. Later, he traveled directly from the Austrian capital to Moscow, where he marched in formation across Red Square on 24 June.
The project "Victory Parade: Stories and Faces" is published in the 7 Days newspaper and on the website of the Belarusian news agency BelTA twice a month. During the year we will be narrating the stories of the Belarusians who took part in the legendary Victory Parade. These men fought at Rzhev and Odessa, won the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, liberated Belarus, and took Berlin. On 24 June 1945 they marched triumphantly through Red Square in Moscow. They are the faces of our great Victory!
