November 15, 2021 marked the 111th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding son of the Kalmyk people, a major military, statesman and public figure of the Russian Federation and Kalmykia Basan Gorodovikov.Having become the commander of the 184th Infantry Division (5th Army, 3rd Belorussian Front), Major General Gorodovikov organized the encircling enemy troops at Vitebsk (Belarus), as well as defeating the enemy garrison in Vilnius.
On July 12, 1944, the 184th Rifle Division, together with the soldiers of the 45th Rifle Corps, liberated the ancient Lithuanian city of Trakai.
On August 17, 1944, having successfully crossed the Neman River, the division of Major General Basan Gorodovikov, was the first of the Soviet formations to reach the State border of the USSR with East Prussia near the town of Naumiestis, which was freed on October 16, 1944.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1945, Basan Gorodovikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for the skilful command of the division and the courage and heroism.
After the war, he continued to serve in the army. Since 1961, Lieutenant General Basan Gorodovikov worked as the first secretary of the Kalmyk regional committee of the CPSU. Since 1978, he lived in Moscow, where he died on August 17, 1983. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
For more than half a century of serving the Fatherland, Basan Gorodovikov was awarded fourteen orders, including foreign ones, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general. The military achievements of B. Gorodovikov would have been enough to include him in the glorious galaxy of our fellow countrymen, Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia. However, it was his titanic work on the revival and development of Kalmykia that earned him the respect of the entire republic and made him the most beloved hero among the people.
