Dmitry Fyodorovich Lavrinenko was a successful Soviet tanker and a Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of the Soviet Union

The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

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Lavrinenko finished the education at Ulyanovsk

Ulyanovsk

Ulyanovsk The city is the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin , for whom it is named.-History:Simbirsk was founded in 1648 by the boyar Bogdan Khitrovo. The fort of "Simbirsk" was strategically placed on a hill on the Western bank of the Volga River...

 Tank Academy in May, 1938. He took part in Soviet campaigns in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 1939 and Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

 1940.

In 1941, he commanded the new T-34

T-34

The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...

/76 tank, which was superior to all German types of the time. With 58 tanks and self-propelled gun

Self-propelled gun

A self-propelled gun is form of self-propelled artillery, and in modern use is usually used to refer to artillery pieces such as howitzers....

s eliminated in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

 on the Eastern Front of World War II, he is considered to be the top Soviet tank ace despite early death in 1941. Unlike many other Soviet tank commanders in that year, he managed to take advantage of the abilities of the T-34 and the inferiority of contemporary German tanks and anti-tank guns, while surviving for half a year against the otherwise superior German tactics or Stuka dive bombers.

On May 5, 1990 Lavrinenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.