Georgii Fedotovich Odintsov

Born Feb. 21 (Mar. 6), 1900, in Voronezh; died Mar. 1, 1972, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; marshal of the artillery (1968); professor (1962). Member of the CPSU from 1920.

Odintsov entered the Red Army in 1920. He fought in the Civil War of 1918–20 as a private on the Southern and Caucasian fronts. He graduated from the Kiev Combined School in 1927 and from the Artillery Academy in 1934. He became an instructor at the Artillery Academy in 1935. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Odintsov was commander of the Luga Artillery Group of the Northern Front, chief of staff of the artillery of the Fifty-fourth Army, chief of staff of the artillery of the Leningrad Front, and, from May 1942, commander of the artillery of the Leningrad Front. He fought in the defense of Leningrad, in the breakthrough of the blockade and in offensive operations at Leningrad and Vyborg, and in the liberation of the Soviet Baltic region.

After the war, Odintsov served as commander of the artillery of the Leningrad Military District (1945–47), commander of the troops of the Far East and of the Far Eastern Military District (1947–53), and chief of the F. E. Dzerzhinskii Military Engineering Academy (1953–69). He was in retirement from 1969 to 1971. He was appointed military inspector and adviser for the Ministry of Defense of the USSR in July 1971. Odintsov was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First and Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, and various medals.