Proshliakov, Aleksei

Born Feb. 5 (18), 1901, in the village of Golenishchevo, now in Sapozhok Raion, Riazan’ Oblast; died Dec. 12, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; marshal of the engineer troops (1961). Hero of the Soviet Union (May 29, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1921.

The son of a worker, Proshliakov joined the Red Army in 1920. He graduated from the advanced training courses for the command staff in 1931 and 1938 and from the higher academic training courses of the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1951.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Proshliakov served as chief of the engineer troops on the Western Front, deputy chief of the engineer directorate of the Central and Briansk fronts (1941), and deputy commander and chief of the engineer troops of the Southern, Stalingrad, Don, Central, Byelorussian, and First Byelorussian fronts (1942–45). After the war, Proshliakov was chief of the engineer troops and deputy chief commander of a group of forces of the Soviet Army (1945–50), chief of the directorate of military training of the engineer troops of the Soviet Army (1951–52), and chief of the engineer troops of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR (1952–65). From February 1965 he served as a military inspector-adviser for the group of inspectors general of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.

Proshliakov was awarded three Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, two Orders of the Red Star, various medals, and seven foreign orders.