Grishin, Ivan

Grishin, Ivan Tikhonovich 

Born Dec. 3 (16), 1901, in the village of Vnukovichi, in present-day Roslavl’ Raion, Smolensk Oblast; died June 20, 1951, in Moscow. Colonel general (1945). Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 10. 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1927. Born into the family of a peasant.

Grishin entered the Soviet Army in 1920. He took part in the liquidation of the Antonovites. In 1922 he completed infantry command training, in 1928 infantry school, and in 1936 the Frunze Military Academy. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 he took part in fighting on the Western, Briansk. and Second Byelorussian fronts as the commander of an infantry division (from June 1941 to March 1942); as chief of staff of the Fiftieth, later the Eleventh Guards, Army (from March 1942 to June 1943); and as commander of the Forty-ninth Army (from June 1943 to May 1945). His skillful command of his army in the liberation of Mogilev and the forcing of the Dnieper, Drut’, and Berezina rivers won him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he was chief of the Directorate for the Military training of the Ground Forces. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.