1954–1991
✕ Killed by stray bullet
The 37-year-old economist killed by a stray bullet while coming to Komar's aid at the barricades
He ran to help Komar, who had jumped onto a BMP. The gunner fired warning shots, but Usov kept running, and a stray bullet struck him.
He was an agricultural economist by training who worked at the Moscow joint venture Ikom, an ordinary citizen until the August 1991 coup. In the early hours of 21 August, at the Tchaikovsky Tunnel, he ran to help Dmitry Komar, who had jumped onto a BMP armored vehicle to cover its observation slits, and was killed by a stray bullet; three days later, President Gorbachev awarded him and the two other victims the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the last ever conferred.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1972Graduated from Stolin Agricultural Technical School, moved to Moscow
- 1978–1980Military service in Navy coastal communications units (Sergeant)
- ~1990–1991Economist, joint venture 'Ikom,' Moscow
- 1991.08.21Killed in the Tchaikovsky Tunnel defending the White House during the August coup
Related historical events
The Last Night at the Tchaikovsky Tunnel
After the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) launched its coup on 19 August 1991, a curfew fell over Moscow and armoured units of the Taman division began patrolling the capital. Citizens backing President Yeltsin raised barricades around the White House (the RSFSR Supreme Soviet building) and along the Garden Ring.
In the early hours of 21 August, eight BMP armoured vehicles of the Taman division's 15th regiment were stopped at the barricades by the tunnel entrance where Tchaikovsky Street met Kalinin Prospekt. When Dmitry Komar jumped onto BMP No. 536 to cover its observation slits with a tarpaulin, Usov ran to help him, ignoring the gunner's warning shots. He was killed on the spot by a bullet that ricocheted off the vehicle's hatch.
The circumstances of his death later became contested. The official investigation held that a warning shot had struck the hatch and ricocheted into him, and in December 1991 the Moscow procurator's office closed the criminal case against the crew for lack of corpus delicti. A Kommersant journalist who witnessed the scene, and a defence lawyer for one of the coup plotters, offered a different account, in which Usov was pulled under the BMP's tracks.
On 24 August President Gorbachev posthumously conferred the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on Usov and the two other victims for courage and civic valour shown in defending democracy and the constitutional order of the USSR. He thus became one of the last people ever to receive the title, and the following year President Yeltsin awarded all three the Medal "Defender of a Free Russia," the first state award created by the new Russia. Usov was buried at Vagankovo Cemetery, and a memorial to the three stands at the tunnel entrance on New Arbat, where a commemoration is held each August.