Iosif Iraklievich Gusakovsky (Russian: Иосиф Ираклиевич Гусаковский, Belarusian: Іосіф Іракліевіч Гусакоўскі; 25 December [O.S.

Gusakovsky was born to a large peasant family of Belarusian ethnicity in the agricultural village of Vorodkovo in the Cherikovsky Uyezd of Mogilev Governorate (now Krychaw District in Belarus) over a decade before the formation of the Soviet Union.

[2][3] During the Great Purge, allegations were made that he came from a kulak family; he was kicked out of Communist Party in May 1937 and in June he was dismissed from the Army on charges of withholding his origin.

However, because he was not immediately arrested after his dismissal, he was able to survive the purge by fleeing to Donbass where he worked as an inspector at a local consumer union and later at a coal mine.

[3] Upon the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the 103rd Motorized Division was quickly deployed to the Western front.

Having been officially made the brigade's commander in September, he led the unit in the offensive for the Western Bug in July 1944.