Boldin, Ivan

Born Aug. 3 (15), 1892, in the village of Vysotskaia, now in the Mordovian ASSR; died Mar. 28, 1965, in Moscow. Colonel general (1944) in the Soviet Army. Member of the CPSU from 1918.

Born into a peasant family, Boldin participated in World War I and became a senior noncommissioned officer. In 1918–19 he was chairman of the Insar district executive committee and a member of the Penza province executive committee. In October 1919 he voluntarily entered the Red Army and took part in the Civil War (as commander of a company, a battalion, and a regiment). Boldin graduated from Vystrel, the higher infantry academy of the Soviet Army (1923), completed courses for the advanced training of command personnel (1926 and 1930), and graduated from the Frunze Military Academy (1936). He commanded a rifle division and a rifle corps. Then in the years 1938–41 he commanded the troops of the Kalinin Military District and was deputy commander of troops of the Western Military District.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Boldin was deputy commander of troops on the western front; from November 1941 he commanded the Fiftieth Army, which participated in the battles near Tula and Kaluga, in the battle of Kursk in 1943, the liberation of Byelorussia, and the Eastern Prussian Operation of 1945. From April 1945 he was deputy commander of troops of the Third Ukrainian Front.

After the war Boldin was commander and deputy commander of troops in a number of military districts. From 1958 he did executive work in the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, two Orders of the Red Star, medals, and one Mongolian order.