Loktionov, Aleksandr

Loktionov, Aleksandr Dmitrievich 

Born Aug. 11 (23), 1893; died Oct. 28, 1941. Soviet military commander; colonel general (1940). Member of the CPSU from 1921. Born in the village of Verkhnii Liubazh, now Fatezh Raion, Kursk Oblast; son of a peasant.

Loktionov was drafted into the army in 1914 and graduated from an ensigns’ school in 1916. He served in World War I (1914–18) as a company and battalion commander and deputy regimental commander. He joined the Red Army in 1918. Loktionov fought in the Civil War of 1918–20 on the Southern and Caucasian fronts as deputy regimental commander and regimental and brigade commander. He graduated from the Higher Academic Training Courses in 1923 and from the advanced training courses for the higher command staff in 1928. After the Civil War he served as commander of a rifle brigade, division, and corps (1921–33), deputy commander of the troops of the Byelorussian and Kharkov military districts for aviation (1933–37), and commander of the troops of the Middle Asian Military District (1937). He was chief of the air force of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1937–39. Loktionov was deputy people’s commissar of defense of the USSR in 1939–40 and subsequently commander of the troops of the Baltic Special Military District (until December 1940). He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the ACP (Bolshevik) in 1939–40 and a deputy to the first convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Loktionov was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.