Ivan Ilyich Lyudnikov

Colonel General Ivan Lyudnikov

Ivan Ilyich Ljudnikow ( Russian Людников, Иван Ильич ; born September 25, ^jul. / 8. October  1902 ^greg. In the village Kriwaja Kosa, district Nowoasow in Donetsk Oblast ; † 22. April 1976 in Moscow ) was a Soviet colonel general and was in world war II as a hero of the Soviet Union awarded.

Life

Lyudnikow came from a working-class family in the Novoasow district and moved to Juzowka as a teenager. In 1913, at the age of eleven, he began working alongside his father in the Donetsk coal mines in Makeyevka . It was first used as a coal sorter and then worked on the drainage pump. In the training workshop attached to the mine, he was trained as a lathe operator in 1915/16 .

Early military career

On October 25, 1917, he joined the Red Guard in his home region as a volunteer. In the Russian Civil War he fought on the southern front from April 1918 as a machine gunner in the Abrosimov special department and from May in the Bondarenko group. In December 1918 he moved to the 42nd Rifle Division in the service of the 1st Cavalry Regiment, which was part of the 1st Cavalry Army under Semyon Budjonny . He fought against the White Army under Alexei Kaledin , Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel . In 1920 he fought in the Azov Red Flotilla on the gunboat "Znamja Sozialisma" under Captain Sergei Kolbasew on the coastal region near Mariupol . From August 8, 1922, he commanded the 94th rifle division in the Ukrainian military district and from January 1, 1923 the 13th "Odessa" rifle division. In 1925 he attended a course at the Vladikavka Infantry School in Odessa and in 1930 completed courses for commanders at the higher rifle training facility "Wystrel". Between April 1935 and August 1938 he attended the Frunze Military Academy .

In the German-Soviet War

On March 10, 1939 he took over the command of the 200th Rifle Division in the Kiev military district . During the German-Soviet War his unit was under the 31st Rifle Corps (General AI Lopatin) in the Sarny area . In September 1941 his division fought with the 5th Army in the Korosten area and took part in the Battle of Kiev against the German 6th Army . On September 12, Lyudnikov was seriously wounded in an air raid in the Chernigov area and was treated first in the Kharkov hospital and then in the military hospital No. 361 in Kazan . At the end of December 1941, Lyudnikov was given the command of the independent 16th officer trainee brigade in the 56th Army in the North Caucasian Defense District. At the end of November, his brigade took part in the liberation of Rostov-on-Don . In March 1942 he participated in the formation of various units in the North Caucasus military district and until April 18 took over command of the 390th Armenian Rifle Division in the 44th Army . From May 29, 1942 he led the 138th Rifle Division, which was deployed from October 1942 with the 62nd Army in the western bridgehead of the Volga in the Battle of Stalingrad and after the surrender of the German 6th Army on February 15 in 70. Guards Rifle Division was renamed.

On January 27, 1943 he was appointed major general and was awarded the Order of Lenin for the second time on February 22 . On June 1, 1943, Lyudnikov took over the leadership of the 15th Rifle Corps in the area of ​​the 13th Army under Lieutenant General Puchow. On September 22nd, his troops approached the section of the Dnieper and built a bridgehead on the right bank in the area east of Chernobyl . Lyudnikov was promoted to lieutenant general on September 25 and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the "Golden Star" medal by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on November 13, 1943 .

On May 27, 1944 he took over the command of the 39th Army in the Vitebsk area at the 3rd Belarusian Front (Army General Tschernachowski ) . The 39th Army went south of the Dvina front, freed on July 27, Daugavpils and pushed further to Siauliai by. Kaunas was liberated on August 1st, after which his troops approached the German border between Raseiniai and Suwałki north of the Nyemen between the Memel and the Scheschuppe . Lyudnikov's troops were successfully deployed on Tauroggen during the first break-in in East Prussia on October 10th, and then, coming from the Naumiestis area, they reinforced the advance on Pilkallen . On January 13, 1945 the battle for East Prussia began . Lyudnikow set all tanks and self-propelled guns south of Pilkallen to the breakthrough, which gained about 12-16 kilometers in depth by January 17 and then reached the Deime in the Gumbinnen - Insterburg operation by January 19 . He took part in the encirclement of Königsberg by cutting off the railway line between Königsberg and Pillau in Samland with his push to Metgethen . After the conquest of Königsberg , his troops forced the surrender of Fischhausen on April 16 . This ended the fighting in East Prussia for his troops, and on May 5, 1945 he was promoted to Colonel General. On May 12th, the 39th Army began to move to Far East Asia , where, as part of the Transbaikal Front, it was preparing the Soviet invasion of Manchuria . In August 1945 Lyudnikov's troops occupied the Liaodong peninsula . For his leadership he received the Suworow Order 1st Class and was honored with the medal “For Victory over Japan” .

post war period

After the end of the war he remained in command of the 39th Army on the Liaodong Peninsula until 1947 and was appointed in command of the port of Port Arthur . On November 29, 1947, he became the commander of the 10th Guard Army in the Leningrad Military District and on April 20, 1948, he was in command of the 13th Army in the Karpatia Military District. On December 13, 1949, he became deputy commander of the Soviet Forces Group in Germany . From November 1951 to January 1952 he attended higher courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff. On November 28, 1952 he became Deputy Commander of the Odessa Military District, and on September 6, 1954, the Tauris Military District was transferred to him. On June 10, 1956, he became a representative of the High Command of the Warsaw Pact Armies in the Ministry of National Defense of Bulgaria. On March 26, 1959, he became head of the higher rifle training institution "Wystrel" and on November 28, 1963 head of a faculty at the Academy of the General Staff. Lyudnikov was retired at the end of 1968 and died in Moscow in 1976. His ashes were buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

literature

• Людников, Иван Ильич. (Biography). warheroes.ru, accessed February 7, 2017 (Russian). 

Web links

• Людников Иван Ильич. Retrieved February 7, 2017 (Russian).