Aleksandr Prygunov

The Dnieper River in a powerful stream passed through the fate of Aleksandr Prygunov (1907–1943), a graduate of the Leningrad Institute of Municipal Construction Engineers (now SPbGASU), Senior Lieutenant of the 6th Assault Engineer Brigade of the 40th Army of the Voronezh Front. Impressed by the scale of the all-Union construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station, he would study to be an engineer, and in September 1943 he would be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for crossing the Dnieper. Posthumously.

Aleksandr Vasilyevich Prygunov was fond of sports from his school years, led the Komsomol cell, and then worked as a physical education teacher. But, having learned from the newspapers about the construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station, which thundered throughout the Soviet Union, he firmly decided to become a builder. At the institute, Aleksandr Prygunov also graduated from the military department and received the rank of reserve junior lieutenant. In just a few years, largely thanks to his leadership qualities, sports training, engineering and military knowledge, he would carry out strategically important tasks to ensure the defense and counteroffensive of Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk.

By mid-September 1943, his engineering and sapper brigade approached the Dnieper. The commander of the third sapper group, Aleksandr Prygunov, was summoned to headquarters. “You will be the first to cross the Dnieper: you will go to explore by yourself, and you will organize a ferry crossing with the available crossing facilities,” the battalion commander told him.

In dense fog, the company commander with accompanying soldiers and a local resident determined the most convenient place for the crossing. Prygunov understood that there were very few means of transportation. In such a situation, there was only one way out: to use henchmen. When the first ferry was in the middle of the river, the Nazis opened artillery and mortar fire, damaging eight of the ten boats. But the commander with the fighters continued to work at the crossing, the ferry and the two survived boats, under enemy fire, eliminating the breakdowns of the crossing facilities.

On the right bank of the Dnieper, there were battles to hold the bridgehead, later called Bukrinsky. The outcome of the battles depended both on the dedication of the Soviet soldiers and on the quality of the supply of troops. On the night of 28 September, 1943, the sapper company, despite the losses incurred and the lack of crossing facilities, under enemy fire, uninterruptedly transferred reinforcements and weapons to the right bank. In two nights, Aleksandr Prygunov and his fighters transported 17 artillery pieces, 117 boxes of ammunition, 557 soldiers and officers, and many other military equipment across the Dnieper. On 29 September, 1943 during the crossing, Prygunov was seriously wounded by a shell fragment. The soldiers carried their commander to the left bank of the Dnieper, but the wound turned out to be fatal.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 10 January, 1944, "for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time," Senior Lieutenant Aleksandr Prygunov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

Other materials of the "Scientific Regiment" project:

Our Graduate Built the Road of Life

Front Line of the Architect Aleksandr Nikolsky

Researcher who Developed Science in Besieged Leningrad

Fights of Student Klinov

Engineer of the 3rd Belorussian Front

Nineteen-Year-Old Gunner Stormed Berlin

Path of a Volunteer: from Front-Line Roads to Space Development

Ivan Solomakhin: "The Most Memorable Battle was for this Devil's Hill!"