Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov (; 1907–1941) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

border guard commander, one of the leaders of the

Defense of Brest Fortress The defense of Brest Fortress was the first battle of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union launched on 22 June 1941. The German Army attacked without warning, expecting to take Brest on the first day, using only infantry ...

during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

, head of the 9th frontier post of the 17th Brest border detachment of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD).

Biography

Andrej Kizhevatov was born on 31 August 1907 in the village of Seliksa, Penza Governorate. He served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

since 1929. After graduating from the school of junior commanders of the 7th separate artillery battalion, in 1930 he became the commander of a gun detachment in a separate equestrian division of the Belarusian border district. From November 1932, he was on long service, served at the Kulikovskaya outpost of the Timkovich frontier detachment, rising to the post of assistant chief of the border post by May 1938. In 1939, Kizhevatov was promoted to junior lieutenant, and in September that same year he was appointed acting chief of the frontier post at Brest. On 17 July 1940 he was appointed head of the 9th frontier post of the 17th Brest frontier detachment located in the Brest Fortress. On 25 February 1941 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. On June 22, 1941, Lieutenant Kizhevatov led the defense of the outpost and was wounded for the first time. On June 23, when only ruins remained from the outpost building, he and his fighters moved to the basements of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, located near the barracks, where a group of fighters under the command of Senior Lieutenant Potapov fought. In the following days, he continued, along with Potapov, to lead the defense of the barracks of the 333rd Regiment and the Terespol Gate. On June 29, when the ammunition was almost spent, it was decided to make the last desperate attempt to break through. Potapov led the breakthrough group, while 17 wounded soldiers led by the already seriously wounded Kizhevatov remained to be covered in the fortress. Lieutenant Kizhevatov perished in the ensuing battle. The breakthrough also ended in failure - most of its participants died or were captured. In the autumn of 1942, the whole Kizhevatov family was shot by the Nazis in the village of Velikorit of Malorita District: his mother, wife and children — 15-year-old Nyura, 11-year-old Vanya, and two-year-old Galya.(source?)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kizhevatov, Andrey 1907 births 1941 deaths Soviet military personnel killed in World War II Heroes of the Soviet Union Soviet border guards