Senior Lieutenant Józef Niedźwiedzki, 1st Infantry Regiment, Battle Of Lenino

[Al-muell]

A small all-paper group, but interesting in that the person was:
1.Officer in the very first Polish unit formed in the USSR (after Anders's army left the USSR) - 1st Infantry Regiment;
2.He took part in the battle of Lenino (For the whole PRP period The anniversary of the battle was a Polish Army Day)
3.He was awarded a Soviet Award (Bravery Medal) for his actions during the battle. After Lenino, Soviet awards were mostly (but not inclusively) given only to the soldiers who were delegated from the Soviet Army, making such awardings very rarely encountered.

So let's start with what most of the people here are most interested in. The first document says:
"1st Praga Infantry Regiment 2.03.1946
Certification
It is certified, that por. Niedźwiedzki Józef son of Antoni, according to the awarding records of our unit, was awarded by a decree of the Highest Council of the USSR of 11.11.1943 with the medal "For Courage"

Assistant Cief of Staff of the 1st Praga Infantry Regiment for officer records
/-/ Karaszewski - lt."

The date suggested already that it was a lenino battle award, the only problem was the name.
The first name shouldn't have been problematic - it would normally be translated as "Иосиф", also patronimic should have been easy - simply "Антонович". But nothing was simple.
To make things harder, the surname is one of the hardest possible to find.
First, the surname's core - "Niedźwiedź" (bear) is "медвед" in Russian, so a common practice was to "ruthenize" such names. Also in Russian adjective surnames end with "ий", and it happens with all transcribed Polish surnames of this type, that they get this "j" at the end in Russian. But that's not the worst. The surname has "dź" dyphtong. Theoretically, Russian equivalent would be "дь" (doesn't sound exactly the same, but historically it is an equivalent), however, it can also be written by someone less-educated as "дзь" (almost the same sound) or "дз" (simplified, but contains "z"). Another problem "-dzki" ending. In Russian "dz" here could be "дз" or more ortographicly correct "дс" or more phonetical "ц" (even in Polish documents the surname is once misspelled "Nieźwiecki").
You would be surprised how many Nedvedskiys and MEdvedskiys there are on podvignaroda with with numerous spelling variants. Adding name and patronimic didn't help, until I realised, that the name could have been written phoneticaly "Юзеф". Bingo... It was a looong search.

Not all graphs filled, so only those that are are given below:
"1. Surname, Name and Patronimic: Niedzviedskiy Yuzef
3.Function, unit: Deputy Platoon commander of the 76mm battery of the 1st Infantry Regiment 1st Polish Kościuszko Infantry Division
5.Nationality: Polish
8.HAs wounds or contussions in the patriotic war: Doesn't have wounds and contusions
9.Since when in the (Crossed out: Red, added: Polish) Army: from June 1943
11.With what awarded earlier: Was not awarded
___________
Private [probably mistake, both function and all other documents suggest other rank] Niedzwiedskiy Yuzef, during the fights of 13 October 1943 in the region of the town of Lenino, in extraordinarily hard conditions - in the open field, under heavy enemy fire personally provided first aid to the wounded on the battlefield and evacuated them to the hiding place.
During this very fight a commander of a cannon was killed, the cannon was endangered. Niedzviedskiy replaced the gun commander and skillfully continued fire on the enemy and moved the cannon to the new firing position in working condition.
Worthy of being awarded with "For courage" medal

28th October 1943
Commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division captain Berkovich (Berkowicz)

----
Deserves "For Courage" medal
28th Octobra 1943
Commander of the 1st Polish Infantry Division major-general (generał dywizji) Z. Berling
___
Worthy to be awarded.
Commander of the 33 Army colonel-general V. Gordov
Chief of Staff major-general Bab?????
___ November 1943"