September 29, an envelope with a commemorative stamp “100th Birth Anniversary of D.F. Lavrinenko (1914–1941), Tank Ace, Hero of the Soviet Union”



Dmitry Fyodorovich Lavrinenko was a Soviet officer, tank commander, Hero of the Soviet Union (1990).

In 1934 he voluntarily joined the Red Army. A year later he entered Ulyanovsk Tank Training School and graduated as a junior lieutenant in 1938.

Dmitry Lavrinenko was a tank squad commander in the 15th Tank Division when the Great Patriotic War began. Within the period of two and a half months, D. Lavrinenko participated in 28 battles and destroyed 52 enemy tanks, thus becoming the highest scoring tank ace of the Red Army in World War II.

His last battle Dmitry Lavrinenko fought on December 18, 1941 near Volokolamsk. By attacking the enemy who had sliced through defense, he destroyed his 52nd tank, two antitank guns and about fifty Nazis. The same day after the battle senior lieutenant D. Lavrinenko was killed by a mortar shell.

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

The envelope with a commemorative stamp depicts D. Lavrinenko’s portrait, a Gold Star medal and a tank battle scene.

Design: S. Ulyanovsky.
Face value: letter “A”.
Circulation: 1 million.


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