Zakhvataev, Nikanor Dmitrievich

Born July 14 (26), 1898, in the village of Gari, present-day Malmyzh Raion, Kirov Oblast; died Feb. 15, 1963, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; colonel general (1945); Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 28, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1925. Son of a peasant.

Zakhvataev joined the army in 1916 and graduated from a school for ensigns. He fought in World War I (1914–18) and was promoted to lieutenant. He joined the Red Army in September 1918 and fought in the Civil War. Zakhvataev graduated from the Artillery School in 1920, from Vystrel, the higher infantry school of the Soviet Army, in 1930, from the Frunze Military Academy in 1935, and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1939. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Zakhvataev was deputy chief of the operations department of the staff of the Southwestern Front and army chief of staff (June-November 1941), chief of staff of the First Shock Army of the Western Front and Northwestern Front (November 1941-May 1942), commander of the I and XII Guards Infantry Corps of the Northwestern Front and Second Baltic Front (May 1942-May 1944), and commander of the First Shock Army and Fourth Guards Army of the Second and Third Baltic Fronts and Third Ukrainian Front. In the war with Japan, Zakhvataev commanded the Thirty-fifth Army of the First Far Eastern Front. After the war he was chief of staff and commander of the troops of a military district and deputy chief of the General Staff (1955–57). He retired in 1960 for health reasons. Zakhvataev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, the Orders of Kutuzov First and Second Class, four foreign orders, and various medals.