Ivan Mikhailovich Chistiakov

Born Sept. 14 (27), 1900, in the village of Otrubnivo, in what is now Kashin Raion, Kalinin Oblast. Soviet military leader; colonel general (1944). Hero of the Soviet Union (July 22, 1944). Member of the CPSU since 1926.

The son of a peasant, Chistiakov joined the Red Army in 1918. He fought in the Civil War of 1918–20 as an assistant platoon commander. He graduated from machine gunner’s school in 1920, Vystrel courses in 1930, and the Advanced Academic Courses of the K. E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy in 1949. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he commanded the 64th Infantry Brigade on the Western Front from 1941 to 1942 and the 8th Guards Rifle Division and the II Guards Rifle Corps in 1942 on the Kalinin Front. He served as troop commander of the First Guards Army (September-October 1942), Twenty-first Army (October 1942-April 1943), and Sixth Guards Army (April 1943 to the end of the war) on the Stalingrad, Don, Voronezh, First and Second Baltic, and Leningrad fronts. In 1945, Chistiakov commanded the Twenty-fifth Army, which fought in the Harbin-Kirin Operation during the defeat of the Japanese forces in the Soviet Far East. After the war he held various command positions. He was the first deputy commander of the Transcaucasian Military District from 1954 to 1957 and inspector general of the Inspectorate of Ground Forces of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR from 1957 to 1968. He retired in July 1968.

Chistiakov was a deputy to the second and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, two orders of Suvorov First Class, two orders of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, and various medals. He has also received various foreign orders and medals.