Please, meet Lt. SHICHKO Gennadij Andreevich (1922-1986), the commander of the 2nd combat station (gunnery) of the gunboat “USYSKIN” of the Volga Flotilla. Severely wounded during the artillery fire correction mission on 15/10/1942 defending the northern face of the Stalingrad city. 1,5 years in hospitals. After the war, he graduated as a psychologist and became known in the area of substance misuse prevention and treatment, developed his own sobriety method.
Red Star citation:
“Lieutenant SHICHKO Gennadij Andreevich has been the interim commander of the 2nd combat station (gunnery) of the gunboat “USYSKIN”. Being on the observation post under enemy fire, he excellently corrected the gunboats artillery fire and exhibited courage and bravery in the struggle for Stalingrad. With the gunboats firepower, he provided mighty fire support to the Colonel GOROKHOV’s land force.
During the combat period between 26/Sep/1942 and 15/Oct/1942, lieutenant SHICHKO inflicted the following losses to the enemy:
3 tanks set ablaze and 4 tanks were hit; 2 six barrel rocket launchers and one 105mm artillery battery suppressed; 11 loaded trucks destroyed; eliminated up to a company of the enemy troops.
On 15 October 1942, while manning the observation post in the settlement RYNOK, lieutenant SHICHKO corrected the gunboats artillery fire being subjected to constant enemy artillery and mortar fire. Utilising the gunboats firepower, he fended off an enemy attack directed at the settlement RYNOK and inflicted them sever losses. But, he himself sustained severe wounds in both of his legs in this combat engagement. At present, he is undergoing medical treatment in a hospital. Lieutenant SHICHKO deserves state award – order “RED STAR”.
SHICHKO’s both legs were severed and the danger of amputation was looming due to inflammation. The chief doctor insisted on amputation, SHICHKO denied. “No need to waist medicine on the doomed man” – replied the doctor. But the medics managed to save his both legs. After the recovery in 1944, SHICHKO began pedagogical work at the Naval Department of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics in Leningrad. In 1954, he graduated as a psychologist at the Leningrad University, and achieved Ph.D. title in 1956 with the work “On the question of the higher nervous activity of an adult“.
Some of the paper titles authored or collaborated by SHICHKO: “On dosage of air jet during the production of conditioned blinking reflexes” 1959, “On the mechanism of the formation of conditioned reflex” 1965, “Changes in the ultrastructure of the cerebral cortex in rats during learning and in disorders of higher nervous activity” 1975.
For 32 years, SHICHKO worked in the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Leningrad. He developed his own none-medicinal psychological method of substance misuse (drugs, alcohol, smoking) treatment and prevention.