Luchinskii, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich

Born Mar. 10 (23), 1900, in Kiev. Soviet military commander; general of the army (1955); Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 19, 1945). Member of the CPSU (1943).

Luchinskii has been in the Soviet Army since 1919. He fought in the Civil War of 1918-20 as a platoon and squadron commander. He graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1940 and from Higher Academic Training Courses in 1948. In 1937-38, Luchinskii participated as a volunteer in the Chinese people’s struggle against the Japanese imperialists. In the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) he was commander of a rifle division and corps from 1942 to 1944 and commander of the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-sixth armies in 1944-45.

After the war Luchinskii served as deputy commander in chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in 1949 and commanded the Leningrad Military District from 1949 to 1953 and the Turkestan Military District from 1953 to 1957. He was deputy chief inspector of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR from 1958 to 1964. Luchinskii has been military inspector-adviser of the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR since 1964. He was a deputy to the second through fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1952 to 1959. Luchinskii has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Uzbek SSR, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.