Semen Kurkotkin

Born Jan. 31 (Feb. 13), 1917, in the village of Zaprudnaia, Ramenskoe Raion, Moscow Oblast. Soviet military commander; general of the army (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

In the Soviet Army since 1937, Kurkotkin graduated from the Orel Tank School in 1939, the Military Political School in 1941, the Military Academy of Tank and Mechanized Troops in 1951, and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR in 1958. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Kurkotkin served in the Seventh Detached Army and, later, in the Voronezh and First Ukrainian Fronts. He was a military commissar and commander of a detached tank battalion, deputy commander of a tank regiment and a tank brigade, and, from November 1944, commander of a tank brigade.

Kurkotkin held command posts in the forces after the war. He was appointed first deputy commander in chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in August 1966, commander of the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District in April 1968, and commander in chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in September 1971. Since July 1972 he has been deputy minister of defense and chief of rear services of the armed forces of the USSR. He has been a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since April 1971; he was a deputy to the eighth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Kurkotkin has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov Second Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii Second Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign states.