One of the last Marshals, who ran the Soviet rear for 16 years
In 1944, when the 14th Guards Tank Brigade's commander fell, Kurkotkin took over. Corps commander Poluboyarov wrote: 'He assumed command and the brigade executed complex tasks brilliantly, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy without losing a single tank of its own.'
A tank commander of peasant stock who rose from political officer to brigade command in the German-Soviet war. As Deputy Minister of Defence and Chief of the Rear Services (Тыл) from 1972 to 1988, the longest tenure in that post, he directed a sweeping reform in the late 1970s that made the rear structure mobile, efficient, and increasingly automated. He personally oversaw logistics for the Soviet contingent in Afghanistan and the rear response to the Chernobyl disaster and the Spitak earthquake. Promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1983 and Hero of the Soviet Union in 1981, he served on the CPSU Central Committee from the Brezhnev years through perestroika as the institutional anchor of military logistics.
Career Timeline
- 1937–1941Graduates from Oryol Tank School, serves as political officer
- 1941–1945Serves in the German-Soviet war, rising from political instructor to commander of 14th and 13th Guards Tank Brigades, advancing to Prague
- 1951–1958Graduates from Armored Forces Academy and General Staff Academy; tank division commander
- 1959–1968Corps commander, then commands 5th Guards Tank Army, 2nd Guards Tank Army, 3rd Army; first deputy C-in-C of GSFG
- 1968–1971Commander of the Transcaucasus Military District
- 1971–1972Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
- 1972–1988Deputy Minister of Defence and Chief of Rear Services: rear reform, logistical direction of Afghanistan, Chernobyl, and Spitak earthquake responses
- 1988–1990Serves in the Group of Inspectors General of the Defence Ministry