Fedor Ogorodnikov

Born July 4 (16), 1867, in St. Petersburg; died Mar. 3, 1939, in Moscow. Soviet military figure and historian; division commander (1939); professor (1938). Son of the ethnographer and statistician E. K. Ogorodnikov.

Ogorodnikov graduated from the Nicholas Engineering School in 1887 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1893. He became a professor of statistics and geography at the Academy of the General Staff in 1902. He served as a military attaché in North China from 1903 to 1907 and then commanded a regiment. In World War I (1914–18), Ogorodnikov was chief of staff of a corps and commander of a division and a corps. He was chief head of supplies of the Southwestern Front from 1916 to August 1917. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1916. In the Red Army from February 1918, Ogorodnikov was military instructor of the White Sea District Military Commissariat in 1919 and served as assistant head of supplies of the Western Front.

From 1920, Ogorodnikov taught at commanders’ training courses and at the Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (RKKA) and then served at the Staff Headquarters of the RKKA. From 1932 he was head of a subdepartment at the Military Transport Academy and a professor at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy. Ogorodnikov was the author of many works on history and tactics.