Eremenko, Andrei Ivanovich

Eremenko, Andrei Ivanovich

 

Born Oct. 2 (14), 1892, in the village of Markovka, now in Voroshilovgrad Oblast; died Nov. 19, 1970, in Moscow. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1955). Hero of the Soviet Union (July 29, 1944). Member of the CPSU from 1918.

Born into the family of a poor Ukrainian peasant, Eremenko served in the Russian army from 1913 to 1917, taking part in World War I as a private. In 1918 he organized a partisan detachment, which subsequently merged with units of the Red Army. During the Civil War of 1918–20 he held command appointments. He completed advanced courses for command personnel in 1925 and the political courses at the Military Political Academy in 1931 and graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1935. In 1939 he participated in the liberation of the Western Ukraine, serving as a cavalry corps commander.

During the Great Patriotic War, Eremenko commanded the troops of the Briansk Front (from August to October 1941); the Fourth Shock Army (from December 1941 to February 1942); the Southeastern, Stalingrad, and Southern fronts (from August 1942 to February 1943); the Kalinin Front (from April to October 1943); the First Baltic Front (October and November 1943); the Separate Maritime Army (from February to April 1944); the Second Baltic Front (from April 1944 to February 1945); and the Fourth Ukrainian Front (from March to May 1945). He took part in the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, in combat at Smolensk, and in the liberation of the Crimea, the Baltic region, and Czechoslovakia. He was wounded three times.

After the war Eremenko commanded the forces of the Carpathian, Western Siberian, and Northern Caucasus military districts from 1945 to 1958 and in 1958 became inspector general of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. In 1956 he was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Eremenko was a deputy to the second through seventh convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, four Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, seven foreign orders, and various medals. He wrote the memoirs entitled The Years of Retribution, 1943–1945, published in 1969, and other works. He is buried in Red Square at the Kremlin Wall.