Boiko, Ivan

Boiko, Ivan Nikiforovich 

Bora Oct. 11 (24), 1910, in the village of Zhornishche, Vinnitsa Oblast. Colonel (1944); twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Boiko joined the Soviet Army in 1930. He graduated from armored tank school in 1935 and completed courses in armored tanks in 1939. He fought in the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 he went from deputy commander of a battalion to commander of a tank brigade. For his skillful direction of the operations of the 69th Tank Regiment in capturing and holding the town of Kazatin on Jan. 10,1944, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, and on Apr. 26, 1944, for successfully forcing the Dniester and Prut rivers and taking the town of Chernovtsy, he was awarded this title a second time. After the war he successfully completed academic courses at the Military Academy of Armored Tank Forces in 1948. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitsky Second Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals. Since 1956 he has been in the reserves.