Aleksei Ivanovich Baksov (; 18 March 1907 – 26 November 1986) was a

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

colonel general Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a ra ...

and a

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

Early life and prewar service

Aleksei Ivanovich Baksov was born on 18 March 1907 in the village of Bolshaya Kamyshinka, Saratov Governorate. From 1922 to 1925, he worked as a lumberjack at the 2nd State Plant in

Saratov Oblast Saratov Oblast (russian: Сара́товская о́бласть, ''Saratovskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the types of ...

and then as a recorder at the registrar's office in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

. Conscripted into the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

in September 1926, Baksov was sent to study at the Lenin Combined Central Asian Military School in Tashkent. Upon his graduation in September 1929, he served as assistant chief and chief of line border outposts of the

Osh Osh (Kyrgyz: Ош, romanised Osh; uz, O‘sh/Ўш) is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". It is the oldest city in the country (e ...

Separate Border ''Komendatura'' of the 58th Border Detachment of the NKVD Troops. From December 1932 he was chief of the line border outpost and assistant commandant of the 2nd sector of the 68th Border Detachment of the NKVD Troops. Baksov was sent to study at the Budyonny Red Banner Cavalry Officers Improvement Course (KUKS) from November 1934 to June 1935, then appointed senior course commander at the 2nd NKVD Border School in

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

. From May 1936 he studied at the

Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (russian: Военная академия имени М. В. Фрунзе), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (rus ...

and after graduation in May 1939 was appointed deputy chief of the Main Directorate of NKVD Forces for the Protection of Important Industrial Enterprises.

World War II

After

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

began, then-Colonel Baksov was appointed chief of the operations department of the local air defense directorate of the NKVD in Moscow in September 1941. From June 1942 he was deputy commander of the

160th Rifle Division The 160th Rifle Division of the Soviet Union's Red Army may refer to: * 160th Rifle Division (1940 formation) * 160th Rifle Division (1941 formation) {{Short pages monitor