Chanchibadze, Porfirii

Born Dec. 13 (26), 1901, in the city of Makharadze, Georgian SSR; died Mar. 14, 1950, in Moscow. Soviet military leader. Colonel general (1945). Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 19, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1930.

The son of a Georgian peasant, Chanchibadze joined the Red Army in 1921. He graduated from infantry school in 1922, advanced courses for command personnel in 1927, two courses at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1940, Vystrel courses in 1940, and the Higher Academic Courses at the Higher Military Academy in 1948. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Chanchibadze commanded a motorized rifle regiment, a rifle division, and a corps between 1941 and 1944. In June 1944 he assumed command of the Second Guards Army. He fought in the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, in the liberation of the Crimea, the Donbas, and Byelorussia, and in the East Prussian Operation. After the war he held various command positions in the military.

Chanchibadze was a deputy to the second convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded two orders of Lenin, three orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov First and Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov Second Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskü Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.