Mikhail Malinin

Born Dec. 16 (28), 1899, in the village of Polutino, now in Antropovo Raion, Kostroma Oblast; died Jan. 24, 1960, in Moscow. Soviet military leader; general of the army (1953); Hero of the Soviet Union (May 29, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1931.

Malinin entered the Red Army in 1919. He graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1931 and academic training courses in 1933. He took part in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40. In 1940 he became chief of staff of a mechanized corps. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 he was chief of staff of the Sixteenth Army of the Western Front (1941-42) and chief of staff of the Briansk, Don, Central, Byelorussian, and First Byelorussian fronts (1942-45). After the war he was chief of staff and deputy commander in chief of the Soviet Group of Forces in Germany (1945-48), chief of the Main Headquarters of the ground forces and deputy commander in chief of the ground forces (1948-50), first deputy chief inspector and chief inspector of the Soviet Army (1950-52), and first deputy chief of the General Staff (1952-60). He was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the third and fourth convocations, a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1952-56), and a member of the Central Inspection Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1956-60). He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov First Class, two Orders of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, three foreign orders, and various medals.