Vasily Kazakov

Born to a peasant family at Filipovo in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, he was drafted into the Imperial Army in May 1915 and participated in the First World War. After being wounded in the area of Riga at early 1917, Kazakov was transferred to a reserve unit in St. Peterburg. There, he took part in the February Revolution. When the army was dissolved, following the October Revolution, he was demobilized. Kazakov soon volunteered to join the newly established Red Army, where he commanded an artillery battery throughout the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War.[2] In 1925, Kazakov graduated from the Artillery Academy of Moscow,[3] joining the All-Union Communist Party (B) at 1932. Two years later he finished his studies in the Frunze Academy. On 7 May 1940, he was promoted to the rank of Major General.[4]

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the 7th Mechanized Corps' artillery formations.[5] Kazakov took part in the battles for Smolensk and Moscow, and developed new methods for the use of anti-tank artillery,[6] which were adopted by the entire army.[7] In July 1942 he was made Rokossovsky's artillery commander at the Bryansk Front. In that capacity, he continued to work with the General at the Stalingrad, Don, Central and 1st Belorussian Fronts. On 17 November 1942, he became an Lieutenant General, and was made a Colonel-General on 18 September 1943. Kazakov was among the planners of the Kursk deep defense lines. He participated in the Lower Dnieper Offensive, in Operation Bagration and in the battles inside Germany.[8] For his contribution to the Vistula-Oder Offensive, Kazakov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (Medal no. 5871) on 6 April 1945.

After the war, he commanded the artillery formations of the GSFG, and beginning in March 1950 he was the first deputy commander of the Artillery Corps. In January 1952 he became their commander, but was demoted to deputy again in April 1953. Kazakov was promoted to the rank of Marshal on 11 March 1955,[9] commanding the Ground Forces' Air Defence from 1958 until 1965. After three more years as an inspector in the Ministry of Defense, he died in Moscow, aged 69, in May 1968.[10]