Artillery and Bravery: Senior Lieutenant Gilel Mirlin on the Frontlines of 1941

June 30, 2025 - Reading time: 4 minutes

Rare WWII photo of Soviet battery commander Gilel Mirlin during the grim retreat of 1941. Geologist turned Red Army officer — a story of resilience and science at war.

In the chaos of autumn 1941, as Soviet forces reeled under the powerful thrust of Operation Barbarossa, one man stood fast amid the retreat — Senior Lieutenant Gilel Avseyevich Mirlin, commander of an artillery battery from the 644th Corps Artillery Regiment, 29th Army, Western Front.

Captured here during one of the most difficult periods of the war, Mirlin was no ordinary soldier. Before being called to arms, he was a respected geologist — a man of science, maps, and minerals — who suddenly found himself commanding guns on the front line of humanity’s deadliest conflict.

A citation from his commendation reads:

"Comrade Mirlin has repeatedly demonstrated personal courage and steadfastness. In August 1941, during battles along the Western Dvina River, he directed fire from a position just 400 meters from enemy trenches, enabling our infantry to seize a key height."

But his story doesn’t end at the front. After graduating from Kazan University’s Faculty of Geology in 1932, Mirlin led cartographic efforts for the entire USSR, pioneering the use of aerial photography and geophysical methods in geological exploration. Mobilized just after the Nazi invasion, he applied his razor-sharp analytical mind to battlefield calculations, helping artillery units fire with surgical precision.

After the war, Mirlin became a key figure in Soviet geological planning, serving in the Ministry of Geology, Gosplan, and Academy of Sciences, contributing to mineral resource strategy during the Cold War.

He later authored “Mineral Resources in the Second World War” — a comprehensive monograph linking natural resources to global conflict.

This photograph comes from his personal wartime album — a quiet moment in the maelstrom of war, showing a man who wielded both science and steel.

📷 Technical photo data:
📅 Date: Autumn 1941
📍 Location: Soviet Union (exact location unknown)
🧍 Subject: Senior Lieutenant Gilel Avseyevich Mirlin, commander of an artillery battery, 644th Corps Artillery Regiment, 29th Army
🖼️ Photographer: Unknown
📚 Source of information: Personal album of officer G. A. Mirlin, pamyat-naroda.ru