Mikhail Lukin

Born Nov. 6 (18), 1892, in the village of Polukhtino, now Zubtsov Raion, Kalinin Oblast; died May 25, 1970, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; lieutenant general (1940). Member of the CPSU from 1919. Son of a peasant.

Lukin served in World War I (1914-18), graduated from an ensigns’ school in 1916, and held the rank of senior lieutenant. He joined the Red Guard in 1917 and the Red Army in 1918. Lukin served in the Civil War of 1918-20 as deputy chief of staff of a division, commander of a regiment and a brigade, and chief of staff of a division. He graduated from reconnaissance courses of the Field Staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1918 and from advanced training courses for the command staff at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1926. He was commandant of Moscow in 1935-37 and subsequently chief of staff and deputy commander of the troops of the Siberian Military District. Lukin became an army commander in 1940.

In the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), Lukin commanded the Sixteenth, Twentieth, and Nineteenth armies on the Western Front. During the offensive by the fascist German troops on Moscow in October 1941, Lukin commanded a group of armies that, encircled near Viaz’ma, managed to pin down the enemy. On October 14 he was wounded (his leg was amputated) and taken captive, where he conducted himself courageously under difficult conditions. He was released from captivity in May 1945. He retired in 1946. Lukin was awarded the Order of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.