Iakubovskii, Ivan

Born Dec. 25, 1911 (Jan. 7, 1912), in the village of Zaitsevo, in what is now Gorki Raion, Mogilev Oblast; died Nov. 31, 1976, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; marshal of the Soviet Union (1967). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Jan. 10, 1944, and Sept. 23, 1944). Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1970). Member of the CPSU since 1937.

The son of a Byelorussian peasant, Iakubovskii joined the Soviet Army in 1932. He graduated from the United Byelorussian Military School in 1934, from the Leningrad Advanced Courses for Command Personnel of Armored Troops in 1935, and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1948. He fought in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–40.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Iakubovskii commanded a tank regiment and between July 1941 and June 1944 served as deputy commander and then as commander of a tank brigade. From June 1944 to the end of the war he was deputy commander of a guards tank corps. Iakubovskii took part in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, in the liberation of the Ukraine, and in the Vistula-Oder, Lower Silesian, Berlin, and Prague operations.

After the war, Iakubovskii held important command positions in the armed forces. From July 1957 to April 1960 and from August 1961 through April 1962, Iakubovskii served as first deputy commander in chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany; he was commander in chief from April 1960 to August 1961 and from April 1962 to January 1965. In January 1965 he became commander of the Kiev Military District. Iakubovskii was named first deputy minister of defense of the USSR in April 1967; in July 1967 he also assumed the position of commander in chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact countries.

Iakubovskii was elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1961. He served as a deputy to the sixth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Iakubovskii was awarded four Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of the Red Star, the Order for Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR Third Class, the Honorary Weapon, and various medals. He was also awarded orders and medals by foreign countries. Iakubovskii is buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall.