Roman Mashkov

Roman Mashkov
Native name	Template:Lang-ru
Born	(1922-09-24)September 24, 1922 Bolshiye Goly in Irkutsk Oblast, USSR
Died	July 22, 1971(1971-07-22) (aged 48) Novokhopyorsk in Voronezh Oblast, USSR
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service / branch	Military intelligence of Red Army in World War II
Years of service	1942–45
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	Commander of the  intelligence platoon of 5th motorized infantry brigade of 5th Tank Corps, 2nd Baltic Front
Battles / wars	Attack to railway station Ērgļi
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin Order of the Red Star
Other work	Was engaged in country work in collective farm

Roman Spiridonovich Mashkov (Template:Lang-ru) (September 24, 1922 – July 22, 1971) was the commander of an intelligence platoon in World War II and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Biography

Roman Mashkov was born on September 24, 1922, to a Russian peasant family in Bolshiye Goly, a village in the Kachugsky Municipal District of the Irkutsk region of Russia. After completing seven years of school he went to work on a collective farm. In October 1941 he joined the Red Army, serving in its airborne troops, and in April 1942 he arrived in I operate army.

He served as the commander of an intelligence platoon in the 2nd Baltic Front, a major formation of the Red Army, where he caused a stir in fights on Latvia's clearing. On August 21 1944, under the command of Major Dityuk, Mashkov was deployed in a mechanized infantry battalion that attacked the railway station Ērgļi in the Madona Municipality of Latvia, now the Ērgļi municipality. On August 22, the battalion appeared to be cut off from the brigade's main forces.

As the platoon fought to hold its defences, Lieutenant Mashkov commanded eight soldiers to hold off enemy attacks killing ten German soldiers. During the attack, Mashkov fired from a mounted machine gun. After that, the group was successfully forwarded through the lake on which another coast has incorporated into the armies. Mashkov supplied information on the deployment and location of German soldiers and artillery.

Later on, Mashkov was in charge of several prospecting sorties. In one of them, Mashkov found out a staff of a German division. Having collected a group of scouts, it had made a touch on a team. As a result, Moshkov seized enemy documents and killed the commander of an enemy division.

Moshkov played an essential role in preparing an exit strategy for the battalion and accepting the correct decision on the enemy defence break. He delivered the prospecting data about weapon emplacements of the opponent to the commander of a battalion.

For these accomplishments, Moshkov was awarded the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was wounded four times throughout the war; however, he returned to the front lines after every treatment. Roman Mashkov was present on Russian Victory Day in Berlin.

After World War II, Moshkov was transferred to the reserve. He worked on his native collective farm, the "Second Pyatiletka." After retirement, Moshkov moved to Novokhopyorsk in Voronezh Oblast, where he died on July 22 1971.

By Lenin's order, Moshkov was awarded the Gold Star medal (№ 8936) and other medals. Leonid Sandalov's 1965 book, The Difficult Boundaries (Russian: Трудные рубежи) identifies Roman Mashkov as a hero. The memorial bust of the Novel of Moshkov can be found in the central memorial devoted to a victory in World War II in the city of Novokhopyorsk.