Kirill Meretskov

Kirill Meretskov was a prominent Russian field marshal who served in the Red Army from 1920. He joined the Communist Party in 1917 and became a member of the Central Committee in 1939. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and the Winter War against Finland, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was arrested by the NKVD in 1941, but released two months later and returned to command the 7th Army and later the Volkhov Front during the siege of Leningrad. He commanded the Karelian Front from February 1944, notably the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive of October 1944. From April 1945 he was assigned to the Far East, where he commanded a front during the Soviet invasion of Japanese Manchuria. He was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1944 and held various posts as Chief of the General Staff, Deputy Commissar of Defense, Assistant Minister of Defense, and Inspector-General of the Army. He died in 1968 at the age of 71.