Rasim Baksikov: “I sat in the injured driver’s seat”
The commander of Alyosha’s crew is 34-year-old Rasim Baksikov. But paradoxically, for that legendary battle to take place, he had to give up command for a time. The fact is that a little earlier the tankers were attacked by artillery, as a result of which the driver was injured. The senior lieutenant helped him, evacuated the fighter and decided to take the levers. And the crew was headed by Alexander Levakov.
Rasim comes from the village of Bilyarsk, Alekseevsky district of Tatarstan. After school, he entered the Kazan Higher Order of Tank Command of the Zhukov Red Banner School. After graduating, he went to serve in the Far East. In November 2022 I decided to go to the Northern Military District area.
There they are like a friendly family, each one covers his friend.
Rasim’s mother, Razia Baksikova, did not immediately learn of her son’s feat. After her son went to the front, she watched all the news and programs about the Northern Military District. One day I came across a story about an unequal battle between a tank and a Ukrainian armored column.
The crew composition had not yet been announced. I thought, how reckless! And then a vague conjecture pricked her mother’s heart. And after a while she called Rasim. She asked, “Isn’t the tank yours by any chance?” He replied: “Ours.” Mom exhaled, “Well, that’s what I thought!”
Alexey Neustroyev: “Alyosha” is just a coincidence”
All media associate the call sign of the tank “Alyosha” with the name of the gunner, but Alexey himself dispelled this myth, saying that it was just a coincidence. They use call signs there.
And the heroes themselves call their tank “Grandfather”. The boys were given a tank for the New Year, so he first became “Father Frost” and then simply “Grandfather”.
And “Grandfather” is quite old in terms of equipment: it was built in 1985. The guys asked the president himself at a meeting in the Kremlin to make a monument to “grandfather”.
In Yakutsk the desire to hug and kiss the heroic tank crews did not stop. Photo: Andrey Sorokin / YSIA
Alexey graduated from school in the Ust-Aldan region of Yakutia. From here he joined the army. He served in tank forces in Primorye. They summoned him to the SVO while he was chopping firewood.
– My grandfather Mikhail Mikhailovich Neustroev is a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. I did not dishonor his honor and with the same feeling I defended my Fatherland,” Alexey noted.
At a meeting with the president in the Kremlin, Alexey called for paving the road to his hard-to-reach village. The authorities of Yakutia promise to build it until 2026. The road from the regional center to Tanda will have republican status. The compatriots greeted the hero with dignity and presented him with a herd of horses, land and a UAZ car.
Philip Evseev: “He was a shaman, he became a general”
When Philip Evseev left for the Northern Military District, his compatriots gave him a Yakut amulet, which he always carried with him. That’s why he was nicknamed the Shaman.
“We have a person who accurately creates the call signs,” Philip said. -Noticing that I often give instructions and advice to others, he nicknamed me General.
Philip previously served in tank forces in the Khabarovsk Territory and, of course, did not even think that the knowledge gained in the service would be useful in the future. I called home as soon as possible. I missed my wife and children very much.
Felipe admits that in that battle he did not see the opponents and did not know that there were so many of them. He shouldn’t have been in the tank that day. He had just been released from the hospital after being wounded by shrapnel when he was urgently called to the front.
The wish expressed in the meeting with the president in the Kremlin also came true for Felipe. His compatriots gave him a three-room apartment in Yakutsk and 5 million rubles to improve it. In addition, at his request, bank protection works will be carried out in the village of Elgyay, where he lived.
Alexander Levakov: “From miner to master”
Alexander Levakov is originally from the Sakhalin region. He was born in 1978 in the village of Boshnyakovo, Uglegorsk district. He completed military service from private to junior lieutenant.
Before mobilization, he worked in a mine for eight years and moved to Primorye, where he graduated from the history department of the Far Eastern University. She wanted to be a teacher. Last year she was called to the Northern Military District area as part of a partial mobilization.
As the hero’s mother, Elena Vasilievna, says, Alexander grew up as a normal, calm child.
– When I was a child I liked sports, first I did karate and then boxing. I told him: “Never go first, but return.” He graduated from college and served in the military. He received the profession of a car mechanic and said that it was very useful: it was necessary to repair the equipment. It’s hard to get along with people. But if they get along, then they are good friends. While on vacation, Sasha missed his colleagues. There they are like a friendly family, each one covers his comrade and this is very important.
