Oleg Shcherbakov was born on October 17, 1925 in the family of teachers in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR. He is a Ukrainian.
In 1941, Oleg Shcherbakov was evacuated to the city of Balkhash, where he continued his studies at the school named after S. Pushkin. In 1941 Oleg Shcherbakov evacuated to the city of Balkhash where he continued his studies at the Gorky School. During the holidays, Oleg worked in the enrichment shop of the Balkhash copper plant as a locksmith.
Dreaming to take personal part in the fight against the Nazi invaders, Oleg repeatedly appealed to the Balkhash Gorky city committee with a request to send him as a volunteer to the front. Finally, his dream came true. In March 1943, before graduating from high school, Oleg Shcherbakov was drafted into the Red Army and sent to Tashkent to study at a branch of the Kharkov Tank School. After graduating from the school with honors in 1944, he was sent to the Leningrad front. As a member of the 152nd tank brigade he participated in the battles on the Karelian Isthmus, in the liberation of the Baltic States.
Junior sergeant Oleg Shcherbakov especially distinguished himself in the battles for the liberation of Estonia.
As the commander of the T-34 tank, he was in intelligence for the entire period of all hostilities in Estonia, leading the entire brigade. On September 19, 1944, after breaking through the fortifications, the enemy north of Tartu, Oleg Shcherbakov, with his scouts, broke into the village of Karivere and destroyed two guns, which interfered with the advancement of our tanks. At the crossroads of Reistvere, the tank crew of the junior lieutenant Oleg Shcherbakov, having found the self-propelled guns “Ferdinand”, entered with them and destroyed them. In the area of Rasiku station, knocking down his cover, his tank crashed into the departing enemy’s carts, and pressing them constantly moved towards the capital of Soviet Estonia – Tallinn. On the outskirts of Tallinn, Shcherbakov’s tank destroyed two anti-tank guns of the enemy and broke into the city first, then went out to the port of Tallinn and sunk two vehicles that were trying to escape. On 24 September 1944 in the battle for Risti station they destroyed two guns and a steam locomotive.
On his tank, Oleg was the first to break into the city and Haapsalu port.
In total, during the period of fighting in Estonia, the crew of the tank commanded by Shcherbakov destroyed 2 self-propelled guns “Ferdinand”, 2 armoured personnel carriers, 8 guns of different calibres, up to 150 soldiers and officers, sunk 2 vehicles with military cargoes, and personally captured 50 soldiers and officers of the enemy.
Oleg Shcherbakov, a junior lieutenant, was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the SSR of 24 March 1945 for his excellent combat actions, courage, initiative in the battle, bravery and heroism shown in the battles with the Nazi invaders in Estonia.
He was awarded with the Orders of Lenin and Red Star.
Oleg Shcherbakov did not live to see the Victory. Lieutenant Shcherbakov went missing on 19 February 1945 near the town of Strumen in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland.
In the towns of Tartu (Estonia) and Balkhash (Kazakhstan), memorial plaques were erected, and his name was carved on a memorial plate near the Balkhash Secondary School No. 1. In the same place one of the streets is named after him.
The material is published on the basis of the book published in the RIO Bolashak Baspa and on materials of the Internet.
Qaharman karagandylyktar = Heroes of Karaganda [Text]: a collection of biographical information / ed. Zh.S. Akylbaev, A. A. Abdakimov, N. O. Dulatbekov, R. K. Omarbekova. – Karagandy: Bolashak-Baspa, 2000. – – 146 p.
