RP79ACH
Geroy Sovetskogo Soyuza Aleksandr Chekalin

Alexander was born on March 25 , 1925. At the age of 14, Alexander Chekalin joined the Komsomol. After the retreat of Soviet troops from the territory of the Tula region, Alexander, together with his father Pavel Nikolaevich, becomes a member of the partisan movement. He carries out communication between partisan detachments as a radio operator, takes part in sabotage actions against the Germans.

In the autumn of 1941, Sasha Chekalin gets a bad cold and decides to make his way to his home. The local headman Avdyukhin, who served the Germans, noticed smoke from the chimney of the Chekalin's house and reported it to the German commandant's office. A detachment of fascists surrounded the house at night, Alexander was offered to surrender. In response, the young hero opened fire, and when he ran out of ammunition, threw a grenade at them. But it misfired. Chekalin was arrested.

Over the next few days, the young man was subjected to terrible tortures in order to get information about the partisans from him. Alexander didn't give anyone away.

On November 6, 1941, the Germans staged a public execution. Alexander Chekalin was hanged on the square of the city of Likhvin. The corpse of a young partisan on the gallows with a sign "Such an end awaits all partisans", the Germans did not remove from the square for another three weeks after the execution.

Only after the liberation of the Tula region from the Fascist invaders, the body of Alexander Chekalin with military honors was interred in the park of the city of Likhvin.

On February 4, 1942, Alexander Pavlovich Chekalin was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin. And two years later, the city of Tikhvin, where the Komsomol hero was executed, was renamed in his honor – Chekalin.