Kreizer, Iakov

Born Oct. 22 (Nov. 4), 1905, in Voronezh; died Nov. 29, 1969, in Moscow. Soviet military leader, army general (1962); Hero of the Soviet Union (July 11, 1941). Member of the CPSU from 1925.

Kreizer graduated from an infantry school (1923); Vystrel, the Higher Infantry School of the Soviet Army (1931); the Training Courses for Higher Command Personnel of the Military Academy of the General Staff (1942); and the Higher Academic Training Courses of the Military Academy of the General Staif (1949). During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 he took part in fighting on various fronts and held the positions of commander of the 1st Motorized and 1st Tank divisions (from June 1941); commander of the Third Army (from August 1941); deputy commander of the Fifty-seventh Army (from February 1942); commander of the First Reserve Army (from September 1942); deputy commander of the Second Guards Army (from October 1942); and commander of the Fifty-first Army (from August 1943 until the end of the war).

After the war he was commander of forces of a number of military districts. In November 1963 he became head of the Vystrel Higher Officers Training School. He was a delegate to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the sixth convocation. From 1961 to 1966 he served as a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU. He was awarded five Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First and Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, and various medals.