Nikolai Mikhailovich Grigoriev was born in December 1925 in the village of Starovo, Yaroslavl region. He is a Russian. He has been in the Red Army since January 1943.
Seventeen-year-old Grigoriev came to the military committee with a request to send him to the front.
After finishing school of junior commanders in August 1943 he arrived at the front as a member of the 354th rifle division of the 65th Army.
He started his combat way as a machine-gunner, then was transferred to intelligence by the deputy platoon commander. By autumn 1944 our troops liberated the territory of Soviet Byelorussia and were fighting in Poland. There were still about 5000 kilometers to Berlin. But the enemy still put up resistance, using any natural obstacles, including water. Parts of the division, coming out to the Narew River, were stopped in order to prepare for the last and decisive offensive to destroy the Nazi troops in their own lair.
In late September, the regiment, in which Grigoriev served, was tasked with forcing the Narew River. A group of 15 men headed by Sergeant Grigoriev was to come out to the Narew River with the darkness, scout the ford, quietly forcing the river, determine the number of enemy manpower and equipment and if possible capture the bridgehead. Late in the evening scouts came out to the river. Having found the crossing, they silently forced the river, having overcome minefields and engineering barriers of the enemy, suddenly attacked it.
Not surviving the scouts’ attack, the enemy retreated in panic. The bridgehead was taken, but the enemy did not accept the loss of an important border. At dawn, they began a counterattack. For about two days, the daredevils held back the onslaught of the enemy, and all this time, the captured “patch” remained in the hands of heroes. More than three hundred Hitlerites remained lying on the battlefield. Soon the entire division took off from this bridgehead.
For the feat committed while holding the bridgehead, showed firmness and courage, Nikolai Mikhailovich Grigoriev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Until the victorious end he beat the fascist invaders by a brave scout. He took part in the defeat of militaristic Japan. In these battles he was awarded the Order of the Red Star and many medals.
In 1958, he graduated from the Odessa Military Infantry School as an externeman. In January 1961, he was dismissed from the reserve, lived in Dzhezkazgan, worked as a senior engineer of the civil defense headquarters of one of the local plants. After the collapse of the USSR he moved to the city of Zarechny, Sverdlovsk region. Repeatedly participated in parades on Red Square. He died at the age of 90 in 2016.
The material is published on the basis of a book published in the RIO Bolashak Baspa and on the Internet.
Heroes of Karaganda [Text]: a collection of biographical information / edited by Zh. S. Akylbaev, A. A. Abdakimov, N. O. Dulatbekov, R. K. Omarbekova. – Karaganda: Bolashak-Baspa, 2000. – – 146 p.
