Vasilii Vasilevich Glagolev

Born Feb. 21 (Mar. 4), 1896, in Kaluga; died Sept. 21, 1947, in Moscow. Soviet military commander. Colonel general (1944) and Hero of the Soviet Union (Nov. 1, 1943). Member of the CPSU from 1925.

The son of a physician, Glagolev joined the army in 1916 and served as a senior reconnaissance scout in World War I. Joining the Soviet Army in August 1918, he fought in the Civil War. Glagolev completed the Baku Courses for Commanders (1921), advanced courses for command personnel (1926 and 1931), and advanced courses for the superior command personnel at the Frunze Military Academy (1941). During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) he commanded a division and a corps (June 1941-February 1943). He also commanded the Ninth Army (February-March 1943), the Forty-sixth Army (March 1943-May 1944), and the Thirty-first Army (May-December 1944), as well as the Ninth Guards Army (from December 1944). Glagolev fought in the Crimea and the Caucasus and in the battle of Kursk and the battle for control of the Dneiper, and he participated in the Balaton defensive operations of 1945. After the war he was commander of the Airborne Forces. Glagolev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, and various medals.