Red Star,0643542,Machinegun Company Commander,130th Guards Red Banner Rifle Regiment

[desantnik]

Award Sheet
1. Last name, name, and patrionymic: Saidutfinov, Iskhak Mukhutdinovich
2. Rank: Guards Senior Lieutenant
3. Duty position: Machinegun Company Commander – 130 Guards Red Banner Rifle Regiment, 44 Guards Red Banner Rifle Division
Recommendation for the Order of the Red Star
4. Born: 1912
5. Nationality: Tatar
6. Party membership: yes, since 1940 #3754304
7. Previous combat: since April 1942
8. Wounds or shell-shock: wounded twice – 14.9.42, 5.12.42 and shell-shocked 26.5.43
9. Time in Red Army: since 8 September 1941
10. Inducted by: Fergana Municipal Military Commissariat, Fergana, Uzbek SSR
11. Previous awards: n/a
12. Home of record: Tashkent Oblast, Kaufman Station, working village, Worker Street #8, wife – Saifutdinova, Mariya
Short description of personal combat feat or accomplishment
He was wounded on 14 September 1942 in fighting for the village of Zhaleznitsa (Tula Oblast) while commanding a rifle company in the 568 Rifle Regiment, 149 Rifle Division. In this battle, the company repelled three enemy attacks and destroyed as much as a platoon of enemy soldiers. On 5 December 1942 while accomplishing the command’s order to occupy an enemy, heavily fortified village of Goskovo (Orel Oblast) at all costs, Comrade Suifutdinov led his painstakingly prepared company to assault the fortified area. Subjected to heavy enemy supported by artillery and mortar fire, minefields, and obstacles, the soldiers surged forward and in one instant had reached the enemy trenches. The Hitlerites, threatened by such a forceful, bold blow, dropped their weapons and fled the trenches in panic, at which time they were destroyed by our warriors with submachinegun fire, grenades, bayonets, and rifle butts. In an hour’s time the village was cleared. The enemy fled, leaving on the battlefield much equipment and many dead soldiers and officers. In this engagement Comrade Saifutdinov personally killed two enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and was wounded.
On 26 May 1943 at the village of Bryantsevo (Belgorod-Kursk Axis) while repelling an enemy counterattack, he was seriously shell-shocked.
Comrade Saifutdinov is deserving of the Order of the Red Star.
Signed Commander, 130 Guards Rifle Regiment, Guards Lieutenant Colonel Abilov on 7 June 1944
Endorsed Division Commander, Guards Colonel Petrov on 8 June 1944
Awarded the Order of the Red Star by Order #0113/N of the 44 Guards Rifle Division dated 8.6.44

[Koopyetz]

Paul:

12. Home of record: Tashkent Oblast, Kaufman Station, working village, Worker Street #8, wife – Saifutdinova, Mariya

Kaufman station..........

Hmmmm?

What is this station?

Rick

[desantnik]

Rick, I don't know to whom the Kaufman alludes; it was more than likely named after a famous, international Communist - maybe someone on the forum knows.

[Auke]

That station must have been named after Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman (1818 - 1882) who was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan. After his death in 1882 in Tashkent, he was buried on the main square of the city, which was subsequently renamed Kaufman Square (Сквером им. Кауфмана). Several streets were also named after him, and in 1878 he also became honorary citizen of Tashkent.

Also see: Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His father, Pyotr Fyodorovich (1784 - 1849), fought as a General in the Napoleonic War, and his brother, Mikhail Petrovich (1822 - 1902), was also a General, fighting in the Crimean War.

[Kirchgoens]

I'm pretty sure Kaufman Station doesn't exist under that name anymore in Tashkent. I've never heard of it, and I've got plenty of time there. But... streets and squares and other public places get renamed sometimes three and four times a decade in Tashkent. Who knows what Kaufman Station is today. I'll ask around and see what I can find out. Maybe it was literally a city train station. As for the square, I'm almost positive that's the same location as today's "Amur Timur" Square, and has been occupied by statues of Kaufman, Lenin, Marx, and now Tamerlane upon his noble equine.

Actually, now that I read this translation more closely, Kaufman Station was probably in Tashkent Region, but not in Tashkent city. It's probably a village along the main rail line, maybe between Tashkent and Samarkand. If so, it was almost certainly renamed to something in Uzbek. Many, many of the old Russian and Soviet names of places in Uzbekistan have been disappearing since '91. Most of the city districts had names like "Frunze", but those names are long gone. Maybe I can find an old map with those historical names on them.

I'd also guess our veteran was maybe a Kazan Tatar, and had been there before the war instead of a Crimean Tatar who's family would have been deported in '44 to Central Asia.

General Kaufman was a very, very famous dude once upon a time in Russian Turkestan... Read up in Hopkirk's "Great Game", and you'll find some info on our man in Tashkent.

[Kirchgoens]

A bit of creative googling tells me that this is probably today's town of Yangiyo‘l along the road from Tashkent to Samarkand, so it probably also served as a station along rail line between these two cities. If someone has Hopkirk's "Setting the East Ablaze" handy, they might check the maps and text there. I I think I loaned mine out - I can't find it anywhere in the house.

[CtahhR]

Here is the original citation. Also awarded a Suvorov III and OPW1'85.