Alexei Arapov

Drafted into the Red Army in 1928, Arapov became an officer and graduated from the Frunze Military Academy soon after the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.

Killed in a German air raid during the Battle of the Dnieper, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions.

Alexei Arapov was born on 14 March 1906 in Verkh-Neyvinsky in the Yekaterinburgsky Uyezd of the Perm Governorate of the Russian Empire in the family of a miner and graduated from eighth grade.

In October Arapov moved to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where he successively worked as a laborer, a stonecutter, and a clerk in the trust "Uralkhleboprodukt" (Ural Bakeries).

During the battle for Tula, as the representative of the army staff, Arapov "skillfully combined his personal courage with the ability to manage the troops, ensuing the fulfillment of orders."

[2][3] During the summer of 1942, when the German advance approached his family's home in Alexeyevka, Nadezhda and the couple's two children became refugees and eventually made their way to Buy, Kostroma Oblast, where her parents lived.

[3] In February 1943, after completing its training, the division was transferred to the Northwestern Front to fight in the Battle of Demyansk, an attempt to destroy a German salient.

[2] As the chief of staff of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division, Arapov fought in the Battle of Kursk and the subsequent pursuit from Maloarkhangelsk to the Desna River.