Sliusarenko, Zakhar Karpovich

Born Sept. 3(16), 1907, in Zmiev, Kharkov Oblast. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Sept. 23, 1944, and May 31, 1945); lieutenant general of the armored forces (1963). Member of the CPSU since 1929.

Sliusarenko graduated from the Orel Armored Troop School in 1934 and completed advanced academic courses for officer’s training at the Military Academy for Armored and Mechanized Troops in 1949. He graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the K. E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy in 1957. In the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 he commanded a tank battalion on the Southwest and Briansk fronts in 1941–42 and the 168th Tank Brigade on the Stalingrad Front and a separate tank regiment on the Leningrad Front from 1942 to 1944. In February 1944 he was put in command of the 56th Guard Tank Brigade on the First Ukrainian Front. After the war he held various command posts in the army. In September 1960 he became deputy commander of a group of troops in charge of combat training. He retired in 1965.

Sliusarenko has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Patriotic War Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and medals, as well as two orders of socialist countries.