Pokrovskii, Aleksandr

Born Oct. 21 (Nov. 2), 1898, in Tambov. Soviet military commander, colonel general (1944). Member of the CPSU from 1940. Son of an office worker.

Pokrovskii was drafted into the army in 1915 and graduated from a school for ensigns the same year. He joined the Soviet Army in 1919. He fought in the Civil War of 1918–20 on the Southern and Southwestern fronts as a battalion and regimental commander. He graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1926. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Pokrovskii served as chief of staff of the Reserve Group of Forces of the Southwestern Front from June to October 1941 and of the Sixtieth and Third Shock armies on the Northwestern Front from October 1941 to February 1942. He was deputy chief of staff of the Western Axis from February to May 1942 and then chief of staff of the Thirty-third Army. He became chief of staff of the Western Front in February 1943 and chief of staff of the Third Byelorussian Front in April 1944.

After the war, Pokrovskii served as chief of staff of the Baranovichi Military District in 1945–46. In 1946 he became assistant chief of the General Staff for military science, and in 1953, chief of the Directorate of Military Science of the General Staff. He retired in 1961.

Pokrovskii was awarded the Order of Lenin, three 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, the Order of the Red Star, various medals, and one foreign order.