Pavel Syutkin, a Soviet World War II artillery officer who commanded self-propelled guns, died in Sochi on Aug. 10, 2026, at age 104, according to Kuban 24.
He volunteered for the Red Army in September 1942 and was sent to the 2nd Rostov Artillery School. He reached the front in 1943 and took command of an SU-152 self-propelled gun, a tracked artillery vehicle.
After the war, Syutkin graduated in 1951 from the Soviet military academy for logistics and stayed in the army. He later became a deputy division commander responsible for logistics and retired as a colonel.
In 2008, Russia awarded him its Hero of the Russian Federation title, a state honor for wartime courage, and President Vladimir Putin presented him with the Gold Star insignia at the Kremlin. Sochi added his name to its Golden Book of Honor, a civic honor roll, in 2018 and made him an honorary citizen in 2022.
