From Civil War cavalryman to the commander whose army liberated Auschwitz, the last surviving wartime Front commander
On 4 July 1917, the sixteen-year-old Kurochkin stood guard as Lenin addressed a crowd from the balcony of the Kshesinskaya Palace. He later recalled: "That speech had an enormous influence on me."
Born in rural Smolensk, Kurochkin joined the Red Guards in Petrograd during the October Revolution and cut his teeth as a cavalry officer in the Civil War and Polish-Soviet War. In the Great Patriotic War he commanded the Northwestern Front, planned the Korsun pocket as deputy commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, and led the 60th Army, whose 322nd Rifle Division liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 1945. After the war he served as Commandant of the Frunze Military Academy (1954–1968), shaping a generation of Soviet officers, and later as Warsaw Pact Supreme Command representative in East Germany. He was the last surviving wartime Front commander at his death in 1989 and received the Lenin Prize for his work on the documentary series The Great Patriotic War.
Career Timeline
- 1917Red Guard in Petrograd; participant in the October Revolution
- 1918–1921Red Army cavalry officer; Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Tambov Rebellion
- 1932, 1940Graduate of the Frunze Military Academy and the General Staff Academy
- 1939–1940Commander 28th Rifle Corps; cut Finnish supply lines near Vyborg in the Winter War
- 1941–1942Commander Northwestern Front; Toropets-Kholm operation and Demyansk encirclement
- 1943–1944Deputy commander 1st Ukrainian Front; planned the Korsun-Cherkassy encirclement
- 1944Commander 2nd Belorussian Front; Polesskaya offensive
- 1944–1945Commander 60th Army; liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Prague offensive
- 1954–1968Commandant of the Frunze Military Academy; professor (1962)
- 1968–1970Warsaw Pact Supreme Command representative in East Germany
- 1970–1989General Inspectors Group, USSR Ministry of Defence
Related historical events
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionOctober Revolution participant
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCivil War participant
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter WarCommander, 28th Rifle Corps · cut off Vyborg
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic War60th Army commanderAs commander of the 60th Army he led the troops that liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 1945.