Please, meet Guards private first class NAZARENKO PETR EMELIANOVICH, who served as a horse carriage driver of 3 battalion, 7 Guards paratrooper rifle regiment, 2 Guards paratrooper "Proskurov" division.
Awarded OGIII #248777 for an action near settlements SYURTE and KISTEGLAS on 20 November 1944.

The veterans birth year is recorded as 1928 in the citation, but as 1930 in the awards register card signed after the war.

NAZARENKO’s status is described as "volunteer: pupil" in his 2 first award recommendations. Such was the designation used during the war time for what later became known as "regiments son/daughter". The name "regiments son" was popularised from 1945 by the novel "Regiments son" written by Valentin Kataev.
This means, that NAZARENKO added up 2 years to his age to get accepted to the regiment. I am quite sure, that he was infact born in 1930 and thus was barely 14 y.o. in 1944 (he joined the army in February 1944).
According to the official data, there were app. 3500 of such regiments sons and daughters.

The description of NAZARENKO’s feats will come in the next post.

Click to enlarge the picture