Georgy Butaev — a relative of Renat Besolov on the Butaev line, Hero of the Soviet Union

The party organizer who led a battalion at the Dnieper

Georgy Danilovich Butaev was born on 25 December 1910 in the village named after Kosta Khetagurov, now Karachayevsky District, Karachay-Cherkessia, into a miner's family. He lost his father early, worked as a shepherd from the age of 15, graduated from the Karachay Pedagogical College and worked at a school.

In the autumn of 1941 he was called to the front. He completed political officers' courses at the Saratov Military-Political School and became the political instructor of a mortar company. He fought on the Voronezh and Central fronts, in the Battle of Kursk and the liberation of Ukraine.

By September 1943, Lieutenant Butaev was the party organizer of a battalion of the 712th Rifle Regiment. During the crossing of the Dnieper, on 24 September he took command of the battalion and led the soldiers in a counterattack.

On 5 October, near the village of Gornostay-Pole, he led four attacks, personally killed more than ten enemies in hand-to-hand combat, was wounded and concussed but did not leave the battlefield, and was killed by a burst of machine-gun fire.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 17 October 1943, for valour and heroism during the crossing of the Dnieper, Georgy Butaev was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He was decorated with the Order of Lenin and the medal "For Courage." Streets in Chernobyl, Cherkessk and Vladikavkaz are named after him.

The Butaev family — maternal line

Georgy Butaev was of the Ossetian Butaev family. Renat Besolov's great-great-grandmother, Varika Butaeva, came from the same family; through her Renat is connected to the Butaev name. Georgy Butaev's biography is confirmed; the degrees of kinship are given per family records.