Not wanting to fail the day’s tasks, Nikolai ordered his battalion to strike across the Valkeasaari-Terijoki railway and catch retreating Finnish forces being pushed from Valkeasaari by the rest of the Regiment. According to the plan, his battalion was meant to receive reinforcements and supplies but this never arrived. In face of no resistance, Captain Ugryumov ordered the rest of his battalion across the river to secure the bridgehead. The 4th and 6th companies led the way across the Rajajoki river, rushing to their first objective, a wooded hillock, they were greeted by empty trenches. As the green flares from regimental and divisional HQ’s shot up, 2nd Battalion’s machine guns opened fire to provide cover to the men. It was in these early hours that Captain Nikolai Ugryumov would perform the actions he would be awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.Īs the Soviet artillery blasted the Finnish side, Nikolai sent orders to his platoon commanders to prepare for the offensive.

The fighting was fierce, especially in the area around the train station, as the Finns attempted to delay the waves of Soviets. For the 70th Rifle Division, their first serious obstacle was the border resort town of Terijoki which was being held by elements of Task Force Uusikirkko. The Corps’ goal was to advance along the western Karelian Isthmus at a rate of 25km a day. When the Red Army launched its offensive on the morning of the 30th November 1939, the 70th Rifle Division was part of Kombrig Filipp Starikov’s 19th Rifle Corps. As the situation deteriorated between the Soviet Union and Finland, the 70th Rifle Division was reinforced with fresh conscripts and ordered to be ready to move from the garrison. In February 1939 Captain Ugryumov was made battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 252nd Rifle Regiment, 70th Rifle Division. In 1938 the 145th Rifle Regiment was transferred to the city of Staraya Russa and so fell under the auspices of the Leningrad Military District. His final posting in the Moscow Military District was as a company commander and then battalion chief of staff in the 145th Rifle Regiment, 49th Rifle Division in the city of Kostroma. This was followed by a posting to the military faculty of the State Central Institute of Physical Education for several years. In November of the following year, he was transferred to the 21st Rostov separate guard battalion and took up a position as ammunition chief and platoon commander. He would stay in this Military District until the just before the Winter War. In 1926 he graduated from the Leningrad Infantry School and made a platoon commander in the 54th Rifle Regiment, 18th Rifle Division of the Moscow Military District. Nikolai seemed to perform well in the military though as his career continued to progress throughout the years. The photo was published in the newspaper “Leningradskaya Pravda” on the 18th January 1940. In this position, he provided training for the hundreds of citizens who fell under the compulsory general military training (Vsevobuch) programme. However, not wanting to waste his experience, he was made an instructor for the Putyvl district’s recruitment area.

He was set for a promising military career, being sent to study at the Kursk military school but was demobilised due to severe illness. Sources vary but between 19 he served in the local Putyvl defence company where he saw his first taste of combat against bandits in the region. Graduating later in the year, he worked as a tool-maker in his hometown. It is not known if the Russian Civil War affected him in any way but in 1919 he enrolled in the Workers’ faculty of the newly founded Moscow Institute of Finance and Economics. With this background, it isn’t surprising that at age 13 he was a locksmith apprentice and worked from 1915 in this role. His father was a bricklayer and plasterer, whilst his mother was a labourer. (18th August 1902 N.S.), Nikolai was brought up in the city of Putyvl, Kursk Governorate (nowadays in the Sumy Oblast, Ukraine). Before the Winter Warīorn to a working-class family on the 5th August 1902 O.S. On that first day of fighting, Nikolai Stepanovich Ugryumov performed acts oh heroism that would see him become the first Hero of the Soviet Union for the Soviet-Finnish War. In the Red Army, the highest award given was the gold star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. As Soviet and Finnish troops clashed along the border on the first day of the war, many heroes were made.

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