Ivan Grigorevich Zakharkin

Born Jan. 15 (27), 1889, in the village of Tiurino, in what is now Shatsk Raion, Riazan’ Oblast; died Oct. 15, 1944. Soviet military commander; colonel general (1943). Member of the CPSU from 1918.

Zakharkin was the son of a poor peasant and was a worker until joining the army in 1910. During World War I he was a noncommissioned officer, graduated from an ensign training school, and advanced to second lieutenant. Zakharkin volunteered for the Red Army in May 1918 and fought in the Civil War on the Southern Front, where he was a battalion and regimental commander. He graduated from the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1921 and from courses of the Military Political Academy in 1930. From 1937 to 1941, /akharkin was chief of staff of the Moscow Military District, and then its deputy commander (until August 1941). During the Great Patriotic War, Zakharkin commanded the Forty-ninth Army from August 1941 to June 1943 and was deputy commander of the Central and Byelorussian fronts from June 1943 until March 1944, when he assumed command of the Odessa Military District. Zakharkin was awarded four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, and the Order of the Red Star. He died in an automobile accident and was buried in Odessa.