Meretskov K.A. (1897-1968), military commander, marshal

Categories / Army. Navy/Personalia
MERETSKOV Kirill Afanasievich (1897-1968), Soviet military commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (1940). Participated in the Civil War. Graduated from the Military Academy of the Revolutionary Committee of the Russian Army (1921), and post-graduate courses for High Ranking Command Staff (1928). Served in Moscow and Belorussia Military Districts, in the Special Red Banner Far-Eastern Army. In 1936-37 was appointed military advisor to Spain. In 1939-40 was commander of the Leningrad Military District, during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 was simultaneously in command of the 7th Army, operating in the Vyborg vector. In 1940-41 appointed Chief of the General Staff. From January 1941, Deputy People's Commissar for Defence of the USSR. In the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 was arrested on false charges, shortly after released. In 1941, served as Chairman of the Army Staff of the Military State Committee representative on the North-West and Karelian Fronts, commanded the 7th and the 4th Armies, forces of the Volkhov Front (December 1941 – April 1942; June 1942 - February. 1944), the 33rd Army (April - June 1942), and the Karelian Front (from February 1944). The troops of Meretskov together with the forces of the Leningrad Front conducted operations on liberation of Tikhvin (December 1941), breaking (1943) and lifting (1944) the blockade, liberation of the Transpolar region. In the post-war years held a number of command positions in the Soviet Army. Author of memoirs. A street in the Krasnoselsky District of St. Petersburg in 1978 was named after Meretskov (Marshala Meretskova Street).

Work: На службе народу. 5-е изд. М., 1988.

Reference: Маршал Мерецков: [Сб.]. М., 2000.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Meretskov Kirill Afanasievich
Marshala Meretskova St./Saint Petersburg, city
На службе народу. 5-е изд. М., 1988
Маршал Мерецков: [Сб.] М., 2000 Volkhov Front
Leningrad Front
Breaking of the Siege (1943)
Lifting of the Siege, 1944