Ivan Kensorinovich Griaznov

(or Kensa-rionovich). Born Jan. 11 (23), 1897; died July 29, 1938. Soviet military leader; corps commander (1935). Member of the CPSU from 1922. Born in Mikhailovskii Zavod (now Zavod-Mikhailovskii, Perm’ Oblast) into the family of an office worker.

In 1916, Griaznov was drafted into the army, and in 1917 he graduated from a noncommissioned officers school. A member of the Red Army from June 1918, he participated in the Civil War as commander of a regiment and a brigade, and from March 1920 as commander of the 30th Irkutsk Rifle Division, which distinguished itself in the rout of Wrangel’s troops. After the war he commanded a corps. In 1930–31 he was assistant commander of the troops of the Middle Asian Military District, and in 1931–33 he was deputy chief of the Directorate for Mechanization and Motorization of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. From 1933 to 1938 he commanded the troops of the Transbaikal and Middle Asian military districts. In 1934 he became a member of the Military Council under the USSR People’s Commissariat of Defense. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner.