Order of Alexander Nevsky nr. 38723 was awarded by Order of the artillery commander of the 1st Belorussian Front of June 9, 1945 to 27-year-old Guards Lieutenant Aleksandr Vasilyevich Shapin, commander of the 9th Battery, 22nd Guards Mortar Brigade, 5th Guards Mortar Division, 4th Breakthrough Artillery Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front.

Aleksandr Vasilyevich Shapin was born on August 28, 1917 in the village of Zalesye in Ustyuzhna District, Leningrad Province to a family of middle-class farmers. After high school Shapin attended a one-year course at the Planned Economy Institute in Novosibirsk, graduating in 1938. He married and had a son in 1939.

Shapin joined the Red Army on May 26, 1942, enrolling at 2nd Omsk Guards Mortar and Artillery School. He graduated from the accelerated six-month course in late 1942. In November 1943 Shapin was sent to the 1st Belorussian Front as a Junior Lieutenant in command of a Katyusha platoon of the 22nd Guards Mortar Brigade.

When Shapin joined the brigade in November 1943, it was part of the 1st Belorussian Front reserve. After fighting at Oryol, Kursk, and Sevsk over the summer, the brigade occupied itself from late October 1943 to early January 1944 with repairing its vehicles. In early 1944 the brigade fought its way into Southeastern Byelorussia. After serving as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battery for a while, Shapin was designated as assistant battery commander.

From mid-May to mid-June 1944, the brigade underwent training in preparation for the 65th Army's upcoming offensive in the direction of Bobruisk in Byelorussia. During the offensive, the 22nd Brigade's 1st Battalion, including Shapin's battery, supported General Issa Pliyev's Cavalry-Mechanized Group in Southern Byelorussia. On June 30, 1944 Shapin was awarded the Order of the Red Star for actions in the Parichi area. Repeatedly subjected to enemy fire, Shapin's Katyusha launchers nevertheless kept firing at the enemy's positions. Time and again the electric wiring was severed by enemy fire, but each time Shapin supervised the electricians' efforts to repair the damaged cables. In the end the battery was able to keep firing, which enabled the infantry and tanks to push forward.

On July 29, 1944 Shapin was promoted to Lieutenant and around the same time he was given command of the 9th Battery in the same brigade. After advancing through Southern Byelorussia, the brigade entered Poland and helped liberate Lublin. In September it reached the outskirts of Warsaw. The brigade rapidly advanced through Poland and on April 6, 1945 the brigade was ordered to support the 3rd Shock Army's 79th Rifle Corps during in advance from the Oder. At 5 AM on April 16, the brigade started its preliminary bombardment, firing at German pockets of resistance at Solikante, on the western side of the Oder. The brigade then assisted the 79th Rifle Corps in its push toward Berlin. On April 22, 1945, the brigade's 1st Battalion was the first Katyusha unit to fire a salvo at Berlin.

Along with the 79th Rifle Corps, the 22nd Brigade entered Berlin from the northwest and gradually approached the city center with its famous government buildings. Shapin's battery was charged with supporting the 3rd Battalion of the 469th Rifle Regiment of the 150th Rifle Division - the division whose men would later hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag. Firing at point-blank range, the Katyushas destroyed house after house. On April 27, the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 469th Rifle Regiment had reached the Spree in the Beusselstrasse / Kirchstrasse area, protecting the 150th Rifle Division's right flank. Advancing roughly along Alt-Moabit in the direction of the city center, the corps and its supporting Katyushas reached the Invalidenstrasse the next day, April 28. A report of the 22nd Brigade's parent unit, the 5th Guards Mortar Division, mentions the 22nd Brigade as being the first to fire a two-battery salvo at the Reichstag, then just a kilometer away, at 13:10 PM on April 28.

In the early hours of April 29, the 79th Rifle Corps cleared the last apartment blocks adjoining the Spree and prepared itself to cross the Moltkebrücke. The 22nd Brigade again fired dozens of rockets at the Reichstag. The other two Katyusha brigades in the 5th Division, the 16th and 23rd, focused on targets north and south of the Reichstag (the Stettiner Train Station and the Tiergarten area, respectively). The next day, April 30, the 22nd Brigade again fired salvos at the Reichstag, with Red Army units closing in on the building and eventually fighting their way inside and capturing it. Berlin surrendered two days later, on May 2. After the fall of Berlin, the 22nd Brigade's again went into the 1st Belorussian Front reserve and took up positions in the woods east of Kremmen, north of Berlin. A week later the war was over.

For his service during the battle of Berlin, Shapin was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and in June he was promoted to Senior Lieutenant. He stayed in Germany after the war to serve in the occupation forces, serving as a battery commander in Marshal Rybalko's 3rd Guards Mechanized Army. In April 1947 Shapin was discharged from the army due to illness. After his military career, Shapin lived in the city of Biysk in Altai Province, southeast of Novosibirsk. Shapin worked at the Ministry of Military Trade as a senior auditor.

1. Last name, first name, and patronymic: Shapin, Aleksandr Vasilyevich
2. Rank: Guards Lieutenant
3. Position and unit: Commanding officer of the 9th Battery, 22nd Red Banner Guards Mortar Brigade

Nominated for: Order of the Red Banner

4. Year of birth: 1917
5. Nationality: Russian
6. Party membership and period: Member of the Communist Party since October 1944
7. Participation in the Civil War, the subsequent combat actions to defend the USSR, and the Patriotic War (where and when): Since December 1943 on the Belorussian and 1st Belorussian Fronts
8. Wounds and contusions received during the Patriotic War: No
9. Since when in the Red Army: Since May 1942
10. Drafted by which military commissariat: Military Commissariat of the Novosibirsk Raion, city of Novosibirsk
11. Previous awards (for which achievements): Order of the Red Star on June 30, 1944
12. Permanent home address of the prospective awardee and his family's address: _______________

Aleksandr Vasilyevich Shapin

Order of Alexander Nevsky nr. 38723, obverse and reverse