Kuzma Galitskii

Born Oct. 24, 1897, in Taganrog. Soviet military commander, general of the army (1955). Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 19, 1945). Member of the CPSU since 1918.

Born into the family of a worker, Galitskii was drafted into the army in 1917 and was a junior noncommissioned officer. In August 1918 he enlisted in the Red Army and fought in the Civil War in the Ukraine and at the Southern and Southwestern fronts, commanding a platoon, a company, and a battalion. Galitskii graduated from a higher tactical infantry school in 1922 and from the Frunze Military Academy in 1927. He participated in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 as a division commander. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 he commanded a division and a corps and was deputy army commander at the Western and Northwestern fronts from June 1941 until March 1942. From September 1942 he commanded the Third Shock Army and the Eleventh Guards Army at the Kalinin, First Baltic, and Third Byelorussian fronts. After the war, Galitskii commanded troops of the Special Military District and after 1946, troops of the Ciscar-pathian and Odessa Military districts and a group of forces. From 1958 to 1961 he was commander of the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District. He retired in January 1962. Galitskii was a deputy to the second through fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.