Ivan Vasilievich Galanin (; –12 November 1958) was a

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 ...

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Galanin was drafted into the Red Army in 1919 and fought as an ordinary soldier in the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

. He became an officer during the interwar period and graduated from 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 ...

. Galanin then served in several staff positions in the

Transbaikal Military District The Transbaikal Military District (russian: Забайкальский военный округ) was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on May 17, 1935 and included the ...

and commanded the 57th Rifle Division during the

Battles of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Jap ...

in 1939. He was promoted to command the 17th Rifle Corps in Ukraine in 1940, and held that position when

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 ...

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began. After leading the corps in the

Battle of Uman The Battle of Uman (15 July – 8 August 1941) was the World War II German offensive in Uman, Ukraine against the 6th and 12th Soviet Armies. In a three-week period, the Wehrmacht encircled and annihilated the two Soviet armies. The battle oc ...

and the retreat east through Ukraine, he took command of the 12th Army and then the 59th Army. From August 1942 he was deputy command of the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

, and in October he took command of the 24th Army, which he led in

Operation Uranus Operation Uranus (russian: Опера́ция «Ура́н», Operatsiya "Uran") was the codename of the Soviet Red Army's 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis ...

. After leading the

70th Army The 70th Army was a Soviet field army during World War II. It was the highest-numbered combined arms army to be formed by the ''Stavka'' during the war. It was active at the Battle of Kursk, the Lublin–Brest Offensive, and the Berlin Strategic ...

in the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

, Galanin became command of the 4th Guards Army, which he led for the rest of the war, except for a brief period as commander of the 53rd Army. Postwar, he was made deputy commander of a rifle corps, and retired in 1946.

Early life and Russian Civil War

Born on 25 July 1899 in the village of Pokhorovka in

Nizhny Novgorod Governorate The Nizhny Novgorod Governorate (Pre-reformed rus, Нижегородская губернія, r=Nizhegorodskaya guberniya, p=nʲɪʐɨɡɐˈrotskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə), was an administrative division (a ''guberniya'') of the Russian Empir ...

, Galanin was drafted into the

in April 1919. He was initially sent to the

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), w ...

Reserve Regiment as an ordinary soldier. Galanin fought on the Eastern Front with the 296th Rifle Regiment, and from December served with the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Rifle Division. He joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in 1920. In April 1920, he transferred to the 38th VOKhR Battalion of the Urals

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

. In June, Galanin was sent to study at the 2nd Moscow Infantry Courses. He led a cadet section in the suppression of the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Locat ...

in March 1921.

Interwar period

After graduating from the courses in 1923, Galanin commanded a platoon and a company of the Combined Military School. In October 1928, he became head of a special command, then a company commander of the Moscow Kremlin Commandant's Office. After graduating from Vystrel commander's improvement courses in June 1931, Galanin became a training company commander in the Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division's 2nd Rifle Regiment. He subsequently led a rifle company and battalion of the division and graduated from the

in 1936. From November 1937, Galanin served in the

headquarters as assistant chief of the 3rd Section of the 1st Staff Department, chief of the 4th Department, and deputy chief of staff of the district. In August 1938, he became commander of the 57th Rifle Division, which he led in the

in 1939. Promoted to

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

in June 1940, Galanin was transferred to the

Kiev Special Military District Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

to command its 17th Rifle Corps.

World War II

After

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the corps, part of the 18th Army, fought in the border battles, attempting to repulse the German attack in

Right-bank Ukraine Right-bank Ukraine ( uk , Правобережна Україна, ''Pravoberezhna Ukrayina''; russian: Правобережная Украина, ''Pravoberezhnaya Ukraina''; pl, Prawobrzeżna Ukraina, sk, Pravobrežná Ukrajina, hu, Jobb p ...

. In July the corps, as part of the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front, fought to the west of Stanislav and in the

. Galanin took command of the Southern Front's 12th Army on 25 August, and 2 November he transferred to the

Volkhov Front The Volkhov Front (russian: Волховский фронт) was a major formation of the Red Army during the first period of the Second World War. It was formed as an expediency of an early attempt to halt the advance of the Wehrmacht Army Group ...

to command the 59th Army. After leading the latter during the

Tikhvin Tikhvin (russian: Ти́хвин; Veps: ) is a town and the administrative center of Tikhvinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on both banks of the Tikhvinka River in the east of the oblast, east of St. Petersburg. Tikhvin i ...

counteroffensive In the study of military tactics, a counter-offensive is a large-scale strategic offensive military operation, usually by forces that had successfully halted the enemy's offensive, while occupying defensive positions. The counter-offensive i ...

, he became commander of the ''Galinin Army Group'' under the 16th Army in April 1942 on the Western Front. In October 1942, he took command of the 24th Army of the Donfront, which was involved in the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

(including

). On January 27, 1943, Galanin was promoted to lieutenant general. From April 1943, he commanded the

of the Central Front, which took part in the

and

Operation Kutuzov Operation Kutuzov was the first of the two counteroffensives launched by the Red Army as part of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation. It commenced on 12 July 1943, in the Central Russian Upland, against Army Group Center of the German '' He ...

. Galanin commanded the 4th Guards Army in the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation. From February 1944 he commanded the 53rd Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the Battle of Cherkassy. Until November 1944, Galanin again commanded the 4th Guards Army in the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

and in Apatin-Kaposvar Operation. He was the first to be awarded the

Order of Kutuzov The Order of Kutuzov (russian: орден Кутузова ''orden Kutuzova'') is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named after famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov (1745–1813). The Order was established du ...

1st class. After the war, he was deputy commander of the

7th Rifle Corps The 7th Rifle Corps (''7th ck'') was a corps in Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces, before and during The Great Patriotic War/World War II. History 1st formation The 11th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a resolution o ...

of the Soviet Armed Forces Group in Germany. He retired from active service in September 1946.
He died in 1958 and was buried in The Vedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*
Generals.dk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galanin, Ivan 1899 births 1958 deaths People from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast People from Makaryevsky Uyezd (Nizhny Novgorod Governorate) Bolsheviks First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Soviet lieutenant generals Frunze Military Academy alumni Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st class Recipients of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union), 1st class