Private Alexey Danilovich Makukha (Алексей Данилович Макуха) was a Russian telephone operator of the 148th Caspian Infantry Regiment.
On March 21, 1915, 108 years ago, the Austro-Hungarians began shelling the regiment's position in Bukovina on the Eastern Front with heavy guns, killing or wounding almost all Russian defenders.
In an attempt to cross the Dniester River the Austro-Hungarian Infantry attacked, capturing the Russian positions as well as Makukha and other Russian survivors.
Being a telephone operator, they then interrogated Mukukha, seeking vital information about the location of Russian troops in this sector of the front.
Makukha refused to give the Austro-Hungarians any information about the Russian positions, to the surprise and frustration of the Austrians. In outrage the Austrians then tortured Mukukha. Another Russian prisoner present later described the scene:
"The officers knocked him down on the ground and turned his hands behind his back. Then one of them sat on him, and the other, turning his head back, opened his mouth with a dagger-bayonet and, stretching out his tongue with his hand, cut him twice with this dagger. Blood gushed out of Makukha’s mouth and nose"
Makukha became effectively mute by this, but survived nevertheless.
The Austro-Hungarians had no use for him and left him to die in the trench. The Russians counter-attacked the position soon after and recaptured the positions, finding the mutilated Mukukha in a bad state.
Mukukha was rushed to the hospital in Ternopol where his tongue was stitched up. Upon hearing his story, Russian Commander-in-Chief Grand Duke Nikolay personally expressed his graditude to Makukha for his loyalty and courageous, selfless feats, promoting him to NCO, paying him 500 rubles, doubling his soldier pension and awarding him all 4 degrees of the Cross of St. George - the highest Russian military honor.
The further fate of Mukukha is sadly unknown.

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