Poletaev, Fedor

(partisan pseudonym, Poetan). Born May 1 (14), 1909, in the village of Katino, now in Skopin Raion, Riazan’ Oblast; died Feb. 2, 1945, near Cantalupo, Italy; buried in Genoa. Soldier of the Soviet Army, active participant in the resistance movement in Italy in World War II (1939–45). Hero of the Soviet Union (Dec. 26, 1962, posthumously).

Poletaev was a private in the 28th Guards Artillery Regiment at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). In the summer of 1942, his unit was encircled by the enemy, and Poletaev was taken prisoner. He spent time in fascist German concentration camps in Viaz’ma and then in Poland, Yugoslavia, and Italy. In the summer of 1944, he escaped from a fascist camp near Genoa with the help of Italian Communists and joined the Nino Franchi Battalion of the Oreste Brigade. Poletaev died heroically in combat with the fascist Germans in the Scrivia River valley. He was posthumously awarded the highest military award of Italy, the Gold Medal for Military Valor.