From NKVD Deputy Commissar to General of the Army: the rare commander who held senior rank in both the security apparatus and the Red Army
At the Vorkuta uprising in 1953, Maslennikov appeared to negotiate. A prisoner shouted: 'General! You abandoned us unarmed in the swamps in 1941! You survived — we got twenty-five years!' Maslennikov listened calmly to the end.
A railway lineman's son, he rose to cavalry brigade commander in the Civil War, then joined the OGPU Border Troops in 1928 to crush basmachi guerrillas in Central Asia. Beria made him Deputy NKVD Commissar for all Border and Internal Troops in 1939. After the German invasion he led the 29th and 39th Armies in the Moscow counteroffensive and the North Caucasus Front in the Battle of the Caucasus, securing Baku's oilfields. In 1944 he commanded the 3rd Baltic Front to recapture Pskov, Tartu and Riga, becoming General of the Army. As Vasilevsky's deputy against Japan he helped plan the destruction of the Kwantung Army and earned the Hero of the Soviet Union. Returning to the MGB after the war, he was hounded after Beria's fall over a fabricated coup plot and shot himself in 1954.
Career Timeline
- 1917–1921Red Guards and Red Army, rising to cavalry brigade commander
- 1928–1935OGPU/NKVD Border Troops in Central Asia, crushes basmachi; Frunze Academy
- 1937–1939Commander NKVD Border Troops Belorussia; First Deputy NKVD Commissar BSSR
- 1939–1941Deputy NKVD Commissar for Troops — all Border and Internal Troops
- 1941–1942Commander 29th and 39th Armies — Moscow counteroffensive, Rzhev pocket
- 1942–1943Commander Northern Group, then North Caucasus Front
- 1944Commander 3rd Baltic Front — Pskov, Tartu, Riga; General of the Army
- 1945Deputy Commander Far East — Kwantung Army plan; Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1948–1954Deputy Minister MGB/MVD — commands all MVD troops