The 44 Non-Soviet Heroes Of The Soviet Union.

[Taz]

Colonel Jacques Andre, France, Pilot/ Normandie-Niemen, 4/6/1945, #6656
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He was born on 19th Febuary 1919 in Paris.
Joined the Air Force in 1939.
In 1940 he joins Fighter Squadron GC 2/3.
In June and July 1941 he fought with the Vichy Forces in Syria against the British. In the Autum he returns to France and leaves the Air Force, but afraid of being trapped in enemy occupied France he rejoins his old Squadron in 1942.
He volunteers for "Normandie" and after a long flight, at the end of 1943 reaches Toula in Russia where they are stationed.
He returns to France with the other surviving members in their Yak-3 planes by request of Stalin.

He retired in 1968.
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Short History of the Free French Escadrille "Normandie-Niemen"

Soviet awards were given to 83 Free French Pilots.
Four of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

De Gaulle gave the Squadron the first part of its name, Normandie, in English Normandy. The second, Niemen, was added by Stalin after the Frenchmen fought in the battle to retake the Neman River in August 1944.

The pilots of Normandie-Niemen made 5,240 sorties, took part in 869 battles, gunned down 273 enemy planes and damaged 80 more planes, their itinerary stretching from Moscow to Elbing, East Prussia. They helped liberate Oryol, Bryansk, Smolensk, Belarus and Lithuania.
Overall, 45 out of the regiment's 97 pilots who fought in the Soviet force either died or went missing.
They were trained to fly Yakovlev planes, beginning with the Yak-1B and finishing the war with the Yak-3, what was then a modern light fighter. At the end of the war, they were given 40 of these planes to fly home. Of the first group of pilots, only three are alive today.

[Taz]

Lt. Marcel Lefèvre, France, Pilot/ Normandie-Niemen, 4/6/1945, #10206
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Marcel Lefèvre was born on the 17th March 1918 in Andelys (the Eure).
He was the sixth child of a modest family. A studious pupil, he was first of the canton in his Exams.
A keen Sportsman and also liked the theatre.
Thanks to his interest in aviation he obtains his pilot's licence in Etrepagny in 1937
In 1938 he enters the Air Force and obtains his military pilot's licence the same year at the school of Angers.
He is sent to Istres as a sergeant under the command of Captain Fleurquin. He becomes a very fine pilot and an excellent instructor and is attached to the Fighter Squadron G.C. II/3 "Dauphiné".
At the end of 1939, he is instructor in Bergerac on "Curtiss H 75" planes.
A flying fanatic, he notches up 785 hours of flight by the armistice of June 1940, in Bordeaux, he was dissatisfied and humiliated not to have been able to enter the brawl.
He was demobilized on 1st January 1941. preferring to leave the army rather than to fight in Syria against the English.
On his return to France he realises very soon that he will not be able to support the occupation, one month afterwards he cancels his leave passes the line of demarcation clandestinely, and is attached to G.C. 1/3 "Corsica"
Fighter Squadron in Blida (Algeria), with Oran on April 1, 1941.
He binds particularly well with his comrades Marcel Albert and Albert Durand.
To remain inactive, to live an insufficient life becomes impossible for these three burning patriots.
Marcel Lefèvre and his friends make the descision to leave for Gibraltar as soon as the opportunity arises.
October 14, 1941, in the company of Durand and Albert they benefit from an exercise to defect and fly with their "Dewoitine 520"s in the direction of Gibraltar .
By pure bad luck, Marcel Lefèvre is seen on the racecourse airfield of Linéa. In a reflex. He realizes of his error circles round and flies away leaving the amazed police officers standing watching the rear of his "Dewoitine".
On his arrival within British territory, he asks to sign up in the F.A.F.L.
He arrives in London in December 1941 and is then attached to a English Fighter Squadron responsible for the defense of London.
He takes part in many missions over the English Channel and even in occupied France
When he learns that a French fighter squadron is being formed in Russia , he goes volunteers straight away.
He had said to General de Gaulle on his arrival in London without hesitating "If you think one day of sending pilots to Russia, I will volunteer!".
Thus Marcel Lefèvre, after a long flight, lands on the 29th November 1942 in Ivanovo.
In March 1943, he is launched into his first engagements and very quickly shows the brilliance of his Pilot abilites.
May 5th, 1943. he shoots down his first German plane, a "Henschel 126". Up to October 15th, 1943, Marcel Lefèvre scores 14 air victories including 11 approved.
His recognized talent, makes him the admiration of all.

On the 28th May 1944, Lieutenant Marcel Lefèvre Commander of the 3rd;escadrille "Cherbourg". crashes to the ground in flames in Doubrovka. He is pulled out of his burning cockpit with serious burns to his face, hands and legs, however he still has the strength to reassure his comrades of his state.
He is transported to Moscow hospital and in spite of heroic efforts to save him, young Lieutenant Lefèvre succumbs to his wounds on June 5th, 1944.

With immense sorrow, and in the the presence of his comrades, his mortal remains were handed over to the the French military authorities with extraordinary honors.
He was buried in Moscow.
Marcel Lefèvre was made "Hero of the Soviet Union" posthum, by decree of the Prasidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.. May 4th, 1945.

Lieutenant Marcel Lefèvre also recived the Titular Cross, Military Cross, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Order of the Red Banner and Order of the Patriotic War.
With only 26 years of age he had totaled 1300 hours of flight and 128 combat missions.
On February 18th, 1953, the Russians gave the bodies of Marcel Lefèvre and several of his comrades of " Normandy-Niemen ", to the French military authorities of West Berlin so that they can be repatriated.
Marcel Lefèvre now lays in rest in the Large Andelys meadows of his parents.

[Taz]

Capt. (PM),Tank Commander, Štěpán Vajda, Czechoslovakia, 10/8/1945, #?
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Štěpán Vajda (17.1.1922-6.4.1945)
Was awarded on the 10th August 1945 in memoriam for the bravery during the fight for Polish town Tworków.
Stepan was Bursiks Gunner and Radio Operator on "ZISKA" (T-34/76 version) in the earlier days before he got his own Command.

Vajda was promoted to captain (post mortem ).
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The 1st Armored Brigade of the 1st Czech Army Corps under the command of Vladimir Janko.

As the war wound down, the tank brigade took on the cipher "1st Separate" and was detached from Svoboda's command to reinforce the Russian 38th Combined Arms Army in the First Ukrainian Front.
One tank commander, battalion commander S. Vajda was elevated to Hero of the Soviet Union status during this detached service. Under Russian command and control this brigade seems to have done the lion's share of Czechoslovak fighting in 1945.
Stefan Vajda had just destroyed his 21st enemy tank as shortly before 7pm on the 6.04.1945 he was killed.
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Info from Al-Muell

=podporuchik (= soviet mlodshiy lieitienant) died on 6.04.1945 before 7pm at the defence of ? (area before bridge??) near town of Tworków. The bullet (?) hit him in the head, when he moved his head over baricade(?) (...) (I don't understand the rest, as I don't speak Czech).
That's probably not a barricade, but rather a tank hatch, as the text is about Czech tankists in RKKA.

[Taz]

Captain of the Guards Ruben Ruis Ibarruri, Spain, 23/8/1956, #?
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Commander, machine-gun company, educational batallion, 35th Guards Rifle Division
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Since the first days of WWII he had protected his new Native land.
His Baptism of fire was in the beginning of July, 1941, in fights on the river Berezina. For courage and the courage shown in these fights, he was awarded with an award of the Red Banner.

Spanish Stalingrad HSU. Captain of the Guards Ruben Ruis Ibarruri

At the end of August, 1942 there was heavy fighting in the area of Kotluban station.
German tanks had broken through and threatened to cut off Stalingrad.
On August 23 1942 the advance party of the 35th Guards Rifle division was sent to the Kotluban station area to eliminate this threat.
One of the machine-gun groups was led by Capitain Ruben Ruis Ibarruri, the son of a Spanish heroine and anti-fascist activist Dolores Ibarryri.
At dawn on the 24th August the Germans launched an offensive. When the commander of the battalion was killed in the fighting Ruben Ibarruri took command.
The German advance was stopped by the heavy fire of the machine- guns of the Rifle Company and they started to retreat.
Ruben Ordered the battalion to attack and he himself led the fighters.
More than a hundred German soldiers and officers died , cannons, machine guns and shells were left behind on the battlefield as they retreated in panic.
In just one night the advance party under command Ibarruri repeled six German attacks.
Ruben was seriously injured in the fighting and was taken to a hospital on the left bank where he died on 3rd December 1942.

He was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

"For heroism shown by him in a struggle against the fascist aggressors, the worthy son of the Spanish nation was posthumously made the Hero of the Soviet Union".


Ruben Ruis Ibarruri pictured with his Red Banner on the left and with his Mother anti-fascist activist and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain Dolores Ibarryri.
Dolores Ibarryri received the Lenin Peace Prize (1964) and the Order of Lenin (1965).

[Taz]

NKVD Agent Ramon Lopez (Merkander,Ramon), Spain, 31/5/1960, #11089
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Frank Jacson alias Jaques Monard alias Ramon Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the highest sentence given in Mexico. He was relesed in 1960.
His real identity had been known since 1950.
Mercader flew to Mocow via Havanna. Where he was renamed Ramon and awarded the "Hero of the soviet Union".
He was only allowed to have contact with two famillies and worked with comrades and the children of the soldiers from the Spanish Civil War on the History of this conflict.
In 1974 he asked Fidel Castro if he could return home to Cuba. There he died in 1976 of Bone Cancer.
He is buried in Moscow under the name Lopez Ramon Iwanowitsch.

Timeline.

7 Feb 1914 - Ramon Mercader born to Eustacia Maria Caridad del Rio Hernandez and Don Pablo Mercader Marina, Barcelona Spain.
12 Jun 1935 - Arrested as a member of an underground Communist group he founded, the Cervantes Artistic Recreational Circle.
1937 - Travels to Moscow for assassination training.
1938 - The dismembered body of Rudolf Klement, Trotsky's former secretary, found floating in the Seine, Paris.
1938 - Leon Trotsky's son, Lev Sedov, murdered.
Sep 1939 - Arrives in New York City under a false Canadian passport of "Frank Jacson" (sic.)
Oct 1939 - Arrives in Mexico City, again as "Frank Jacson."
24 May 1940 - An attempt is made to assassinate Leon Trotsky. Over 300 rounds are fired at Trotsky's residence, though the target and his wife survive unscathed.
28 May 1940 - Leon Trotsky introduces himself to Ramon Mercader.
12 Jun 1940 - Mercader lends Trotsky his Buick, while the former travels to New York City.
10 Aug 1940 - Mercader and associate Ageloff have tea with Trotsky.
Aug 1940 Mercader meets privately with Trotsky to show him a magazine article he is writing.
20 Aug 1940 - At 5:20 pm, Mercader attempts to assassinate Leon Trotsky with an ice pick to the back of the head. Trotsky survives, telling his guards as they began to beat the would-be assassin, "Do not kill him. This man has a story to tell." Mercader is arrested as "Jacques Mornard", a Belgian "diplomat."
21 Aug 1940 - Leon Trotsky dies from his injuries.
Aug 1953 - Mercader's identity is revealed by Barcelona authorities as Jaime Ramon Mercader del Rio Hernandez, after a fingerprint comparison.
6 May 1960 - Freed from Lecumberri Prison. Czech diplomats give him a diplomatic passport under the name Jacques Vendendreschd. Vendendreschd then travels to Havana, Cuba, and from there, Eastern Europe.
1978 - Dies in Cuba. Given a hero's burial in Kuntsevo Cemetery, Moscow.

[Taz]

President Fidel Castro, Cuba, 23/5/1963, #11124

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Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926. He attended Catholic schools before graduating from the University of Havana with a degree in law.
Castro was a member of the Ortodoxo Party, a social-democrat party, and strongly criticized the government of Fulgencio Batista.
On the 26th of July in 1953, Fidel Castro launched an attack on the Moncada army barracks. It failed, and most involved were killed or captured.
Fidel was captured and given a trial, which he used to make his famous speech, "History Will Absolve Me". Sentenced to 15 years, he was pardoned after just two.
He then went into exile in Mexico, where he trained and assembled the 26th of July Movement. He gained support from Che Guevara and others before leaving aboard the Granma to invade Cuba in 1956.
Returning to Cuba, the revolutionaries hid in the Sierra Maestra mountains, gaining support among the peasants. Eventually, Batista was forced to flee in 1959 and Castro took over.
Many Cubans left when it became clear that the Revolution was a Marxist one. Economic antagonism from the United States caused Castro to nationalize all American property.
The United States Government tried various schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro and continues to economically isolate Cuba. The CIA even tried to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to remove Fidel Castro from power, but the Cubans successfully fought it off.
As a result, Castro became closely aligned with the Soviet Union. The Soviets bought large amounts of sugar and supplied Cuba with economic and military assistance. This money fueled many of Castro's social programs, such as his war on illiteracy and free universal health care. Unfortunately, aligning Cuba with the USSR only led to more friction between Cuba and the United States.
Castro has also successfully assisted foreign revolutions in Angola and Ethiopia. He was elected the head of Nonaligned Nations Movement and has been a strong critic of US imperialism. The destruction of the Soviet Union has left Cuba in a poor economic state and Castro less of an international figure, though he remains President of Cuba.

[Taz]

Chancellor Walter Ulbricht, Germany (GDR), 29/6/1963, #11184
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On the13. August 1961 with the concent of the Warsaw Pact nations the DDR under Walter Ulbricht built the Berlin wall.

German communist leader and head of East Germany (1960–73).

He joined the German Communist Party after World War I and was elected to its central committee in 1923. He led the party in Berlin (1929–33), then fled abroad after the Nazi takeover. As an agent for the Comintern, he persecuted Trotskyites and other deviationists. In 1945 he returned to the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, helped form the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in East Germany, and served as its general secretary (1950–71). He served as deputy premier of East Germany (1949–60) and as chairman of its council of state (1960–73). A constant foe of West Germany, he built the Berlin Wall in 1961. He exercised rigid control over East Germany while developing its industrial strength. He was forced to retire as first secretary of the SED in 1971 when the Soviet Union opened new relations with West Germany, but he retained his position as head of state until his death.

[Taz]

Janos Kadar, Hungary, Head of State, 3/4/1964, #11218
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Janos Kadar was born in in Fiume (now called Rijeka, Croatia) in 1912.
He worked in a factory and as a result of trade union activities became a member of the Hungarian Communist Party in 1935.
During the Second World War Kadar was a member of the Czech Resistance movement. The Red Army invaded Hungary in September 1944. It set up an alternative government in Debrecen on 21st December 1944 but did not capture Budapest until 18th January 1945.

[Taz]

President Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria, 30/4/1964, #11221
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Bella was born in Maghnia, Algeria, in 1916. He served in the French Army during the Second World War. After the war he became involved in the independence movement and in 1949 became leader of Organisation Speciale, the paramilitary wing of the Party of the Algerian People.
Ben Bella was captured in 1952 but he escaped to Egypt where he founded the National Liberation Front (FLN). Under the leadership of Ben Bella the FLN fought a long war of independence from France.

[Taz]

President Gamal Abdul Nasser, Egypt, 13/5/1964, #11224
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Alexandria 1918- Cairo 1970)
Egyptian president 1954-1970. Nasser came from a modest background as a son of a postman.
He got his education from the Military Academy 1938- 39. He participated in the war against Israel in 1948 as a major.
In 1949 he joined the Free Officers, who plotted against the non-constitutional British all- pervasive presence, the landowning elite and the weak and morally corrupt king. The Free Officers were responsible for the coup that deposed King Faruk from the throne in 1952, and it was Nasser who was the real leader, yet he still remained in the background. After a long fight over power with president Naguib he ousted him in the second attempt, on November 14.