Kharchenko Ivan Ustinovich

Ivan Ustinovich Kharchenko was a Soviet Army Military engineering Colonel and Hero of the Soviet Union. During World War II, he was a platoon commander. Kharchenko was promoted to the rank of Junior lieutenant in 1939, lieutenant in 1943 and senior lieutenant in 1944. He reportedly personally defused more than 50,000 explosives, including bombs, mines, and shells. For his actions in defusing explosives, Kharchenko was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Gold Star and Order of Lenin on 2 November 1944. In the citation for the Hero of the Soviet Union award, it was stated that Kharchenko personally defused more than 1500 bombs weighing more than 500 kilograms each and 25,000 other explosive objects. After World War II, Kharchenko continued his military service until retirement in 1964. Until 1956 he was personally engaged in rendering innocuous explosive items left over from World War II.