Fyodor Akimov

Fyodor Filippovich Akimov was born on 21 May 1915 (8 May in the old style) in Aktyubinsk, today a regional centre of Kazakhstan, into the family of an office employee. He was ethnically Russian and had an incomplete secondary education. He later lived and worked in the Ordzhonikidze district (today Qibray district) of Tashkent Region.

He joined the Red Army in January 1941 and went to the front the same year. In 1943 he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). By the autumn of 1943 he was a senior sergeant commanding a heavy machine-gun squad in the 705th Rifle Regiment of the 121st Rylsk Rifle Division (60th Army, Central Front).

In September 1943, during the battle for the Dnieper, Akimov and his gun crew were among the first in the company to cross the river north of Kyiv, but enemy pressure forced them back to the left bank. He then crossed again and used his machine gun to cover a group of soldiers forcing the river near the Glebovka landing. This allowed the rifle units to get across and break into the village of Kozarovichi in the Vyshhorod district of Kyiv Region.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 17 October 1943, Akimov was named Hero of the Soviet Union for exemplary performance of combat missions, courage and heroism; he received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal no. 1880. He was also awarded the Order of the Red Star and medals.

After the war Akimov was demobilised and lived and worked in the settlement of Qibray in Tashkent Region, later moving to Tashkent. He died on 27 April 1965 and is buried in the Shortepa cemetery in Tashkent.