Mikhail Chistiakov

Chistiakov, Mikhail Nikolaevich

 

Born Nov. 6 (18), 1896, in St. Petersburg. Soviet military leader; marshal of the artillery (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

The son of a railroad employee, Chistiakov fought in World War I from 1915 as an artillery scout and was twice awarded the Cross of St. George. In 1917 he was promoted to ensign and made a platoon commander. He joined the Red Army in September 1918. During the Civil War of 1918–20, Chistiakov commanded a platoon, a battery, and a battalion. He graduated from courses for senior command personnel in 1926 and from advanced courses for higher command personnel at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1930.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Chistiakov was commander of artillery on the Western Front and later commanded the Thirty-fourth Army on the Northwestern Front (1941). He was named head of the Directorate of Combat Training of the Main Artillery Directorate in December 1941 and deputy artillery commander of the Red Army in June 1943. As a representative of the commander of the artillery, Chistiakov helped prepare and execute several operations on the Stalingrad, Don, Southern, Voronezh, Steppe, Third and Fourth Ukrainian, Third Byelorussian, and First, Second, and Third Baltic fronts. As acting commander of the artillery under the commander in chief of Soviet forces in the Far East, he participated in the defeat of the Japanese forces in the Far East in 1945.

In April 1946, Chistiakov was named deputy artillery commander of the armed forces of the USSR. He became inspector general of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense in November 1957 and military inspector-adviser of the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense in December 1964. Chistiakov has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Orders of Suvorov First and Second Class, two orders of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First 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, and various medals. He is also the recipient of foreign orders and medals.