Mezheninov, Sergei Aleksandrovich

Born Jan. 7 (19), 1890, in Kashira; died Sept. 28, 1937. Soviet military figure; corps commander (1935). Member of the CPSU from 1931. Son of dvorian’e (nobility or gentry).

Mezheninov graduated from the Kazan Military College in 1910, the Academy of the General Staff in 1914, and the Kiev Aerial Observers School in 1916. He served in World War I (1914-18) as a captain. He joined the Red Army in August 1918. Mezheninov was chief of staff of the Fourth Army of the Eastern Front (1918-19) and commander of the Third Army (1919), the Twelfth Army (1919-20), and the Fifteenth Army (1920). In 1921 he was deputy commander and commander of the troops of the Orel Military District and chief of staff of the Western Front.

After the war Mezheninov served as chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Main Directorate of the Air Fleet (1921-24), chief of staff of the Ukrainian Military District (1924-25), and assistant and deputy chief of the air force (1925-31). He was chief of staff of the Directorate of the Air Force in 1932-33. Mezheninov was assistant chief of staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army from 1933 to 1937 and a member of the Military Council of the People’s Commissariat of Defense of the USSR from 1934.