Kuzma Grebennik

Kuzma Yevdokimovich Grebennik (Russian: Кузьма Евдокимович Гребенник; 18 February 1900 – 22 September 1974) was a Red Army lieutenant general and Hero of the Soviet Union.

Grebennik served in the Soviet Border Troops both before and after World War II.

Kuzma Grebennik was born on 18 February 1900 in the village of Bryansk in Slavyanoserbsk Uyezd in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate in a working-class family of Russian ethnicity.

His father worked as a miner in the coal mines of the Donbas.

Grebennik graduated from elementary school and became a sorter at the coal mine at the age of 10.

In 1914, his family moved to the village of Kremen in Kharkov Governorate, where Grebennik graduated from a two-year college in 1915.

In 1916, he became a worker at the Donets-Rubezhnyi Factory.

Grebennik returned to the Donbas and became a worker at a coal mine in 1918.

In May 1919, Grebennik was drafted into the Red Army and served with the 42nd Rifle Division.

He caught typhus and after recovery in January 1920 became a clerk at the Ekaterinoslav Governorate recruiting office.

Grebennik joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in September.

In October, he transferred to the Cheka and served in the Krasny Kommunistychesky Battalion of the Cheka Donetsk Division's 1st Regiment.

With the regiment, Grebennik fought against the White Army commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel.

In April 1922, Grebennik became an instructor with the 455th Rogozhsko-Simonovsky Regiment of the 51st Rifle Division.

He transferred to the border troops of the OGPU in October 1922 as a commissar of the Ochakovo Border battalion.

Grebennik graduated from the Graduate School of the USSR Border Troops in 1924.

In September, he became a platoon commander of the Odessa School of border troops regiment.

He became the head of border troops at the Polish border and the motorized group of the Moldovan border detachment.

In November 1929, he became the assistant chief of the drill for the 21st Yampolsky Border Detachment.

On 30 March, Grebennik took over command of the 37th Guards Rifle Division from acting commander Colonel Nikolai Onoprienko after Major General Sobir Rakhimov was killed during the assault on Danzig.

Grebennik led the division through the rest of the East Pomeranian Offensive.

He organized the division's crossing of the Oder on 20 April and established a bridgehead over the river during the Berlin Offensive.

The division captured Kołbaskowo, southwest of Szczecin.

Grebennik was appointed commander of the 5th Mechanized Regiment of the Order of Lenin Separate Mechanized Division of special purpose troops in December 1931.

In July 1935, he graduated from the courses at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army.

Grebennik was promoted to colonel in April 1936.

Grebennik became the commander of the 59th Border Detachment of the NKVD Border Troops in the Primorsky Krai near Posyet in November 1937.

In August 1938, he led the border detachment in repelling the first Japanese attacks during the Battle of Lake Khasan.

For his leadership in the battle, Grebennik was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Grebennik continued to command the border detachment until November 1942, when he was appointed deputy commander of the Far Eastern NKVD Rifle Division in the Urals Military District.

In February 1943, the division was renamed the 102nd Rifle Division and was sent to the Central Front as part of the 70th Army.

He served with the division during the Sevsk offensive in Operation Kutuzov.

In January 1944, the division fought in the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr Offensive.

In June, Operation Bagration was launched and the division advanced through Belorussia.

During the East Prussian Offensive in early 1945, the division fought as part of 65th Army's 18th Rifle Corps.

Around this time, Grebennik's son Vladimir joined the division as a lieutenant in the medical battalion.

During World War II, he commanded the 15th and 37th Guards Rifle Divisions.

In August, Grebennik became the commander of the 15th Rifle Division.

The division advanced during the Chernigov-Pripyat Offensive during August and September.

During the fall, it fought in the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive.