Stalingrad was defended in 1942-1943 mainly by NKVD forces. The 10
th NKVD Rifle Division was the largest of them and included five rifle regiments. Kuzma Antonovich Kostyuchenko, the chief of the 8
th Police Station, was assigned commander of the 1st Destruction Battalion of volunteers who held back the enemy superior forces trying to capture the Tractor Works during several days till the arrival of the Red Army..
Kuzma Antonovich Kostyuchenko (1898−1972) was a police lieutenant colonel, recipient of the Order of Lenin and three Orders of the Red Banner.
He joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ police in 1919. In the 1930s after graduation of the Central Police School, Kuzma Kostyuchenko was one of the founding fathers of the Voluntary Society of Assistance to Police and Criminal Investigation in Stalingrad (now Volgograd).When the war broke out, the police senior lieutenant Kostyuchenko was in the Baltic states and soon returned to Stalingrad. By order of the City Defense Committee, he was assigned commander of the 1
st Destruction Battalion which performed the task of fighting the enemy assault forces, accomplices and saboteurs. At the beginning of the city defense, soldiers under his command held back the enemy superior forces during five days till the active armed forces arrived. After that battle Commander Kostyuchenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for that battle. After the war he continued to serve at the police rising to the rank of the deputy chief of the Stalingrad police. There is a street in Volgograd named after him.
The envelope with a commemorative stamp features Kuzma Kostyuchenko’s portrait against the ruins of Stalingrad and the emblem of the 75
th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945.
In addition to the envelope with a commemorative stamp, joint-stock company Marka has produced a special cancellation postmark for Volgograd.
Design: R. Komsa (illustration), А. Moskovets (emblem).
Circulation: 1 million.
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