Zheltov, Aleksei

Born Aug. 15 (28), 1904, in Kharkov. Soviet military commander and colonel general (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1929. The son of a worker, Zheltov joined the Soviet Army in 1924. He graduated from the Second Moscow Infantry School in 1927, from the Frunze Military Academy in 1937, and from the military political courses in 1938. In 1937 he began party-political work, serving as commissar of a division and as a member of a district military council. From February to August 1941 he was a member of the Military Council of the Far Eastern Front. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he was a member of the Military Council of the Karelian Front from September 1941 to July 1942 and a member of the Military Council of the Sixty-third Army from July to September 1942. He was also a member of the military council of the Don Front in October 1942, of the Southwestern Front from October 1942 to October 1943, and of the Third Ukrainian Front from October 1943 to June 1945. He took part in the defense of the Soviet arctic, in the Battle of Stalingrad, and in the liberation of Ukraine, Moldavia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Austria. After the war he was the Soviet Union’s deputy supreme commissar in Austria and a member of the Military Council of the Central Group of Troops (1945–50), a member of the Military Council of the Turkestan Military District (1950–51), head of the Main Directorate of the Cadres of the Soviet Army (1951–53), head of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy (1953–57), and chief of a section of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1958–59). Since June 1959 he has headed the V. I. Lenin Military Political Academy. A deputy at the second, fourth, and fifth convocations of the USSR Supreme Soviet, he has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, an Order of Suvorov First Class, two Orders of Kutuzov First Class, Orders of the Red Star and of the Badge of Honor, nine foreign orders, and medals.