Pavel Syutkin

Pavel Pavlovich Syutkin was born on 19 June 1922 in the village of Zapolena in the Slobodskoy district of Vyatka Governorate, in what is now Kirov Oblast, Russia. He was brought up by a single mother who was raising two children, and spent his childhood in the nearby village of Bobino, where he began his schooling.

In 1932 the family moved to Tyumen in western Siberia, where he completed ten years of school. From 1939 to 1941 he worked as a sailor on the river tug Oryol of the Tyumen river port and on the Ob-Yenisei river expedition, and from 1941 to 1942 at Tyumen plant No. 762, known as Mekhanik, which later became the Tyumen Machine Tool Plant.

In September 1942 Syutkin volunteered for the Red Army. He fought from the Bryansk region to East Prussia, first as commander of an SU-152 heavy assault gun in the 1539th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, and later as commander of a battery of self-propelled guns in the 373rd Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Belorussian Front.

He was commended for the capture of Daugavpils and Rezekne in Latvia, for the breakthrough of the German defences and the advance into East Prussia, and for the capture of the city and fortress of Pillau. During the East Prussian offensive his battery was credited with destroying 9 tanks, 10 armoured personnel carriers, 12 artillery pieces, 8 six-barrelled mortars and 10 bunkers. His wartime decorations included the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Order of the Red Star. He was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1945 and again in 1946, but the award was never conferred because of an error in the documents.

After the war he continued to serve. He graduated from the Military Academy of Logistics and Transport in 1951 and held a series of posts, the last as deputy divisional commander for logistics. He retired as a colonel.

After leaving the army Syutkin settled in Estonia. In 1992 he decided to move to Russia, sold his Estonian apartment and put the money into a shared housing construction scheme. He was deceived and lost his home, and for three years he lived in a watchman's hut and was reduced to begging.

In 1995, at the invitation of relatives, he moved to Sochi on the Black Sea, where for the next 14 years he lived on the balcony of a rented apartment. Throughout this time he wrote to the Ministry of Defence, its personnel directorate, its central archive and other bodies asking for the Hero award he had been denied, without receiving an answer. A group of Great Patriotic War veterans finally wrote to the President of Russia on his behalf.

By presidential decree of 7 March 2008 he was made a Hero of the Russian Federation, and on 29 April 2008 Vladimir Putin presented him with the Gold Star medal at a Kremlin ceremony. In 2009 he received a new apartment from the state. In later life he took part in many commemorative and public events, and he turned 100 on 19 June 2022.

Pavel Syutkin died in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, on the morning of 10 August 2026. He was 104 years old and in his 105th year. His death was reported by the regional broadcaster Kuban 24. No cause of death was made public.

Syutkin's story became one of the best known examples of a Second World War veteran whose recognition was delayed by paperwork and whose old age was marked by hardship. The 63 years between his first nomination and his Gold Star, and the years he spent homeless before it, drew wide attention in Russia. He is listed among the Heroes of the Russian Federation from Kirov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, and was one of the last surviving front-line commanders of the war.