Tsvetaev, Viacheslav

Tsvetaev, Viacheslav Dmitrievich 

Born Jan. 5 (17), 1893, at the railroad station of Maloarkhangel’sk, in what is now Orel Oblast’; died Aug. 11, 1950, in Moscow. Soviet military leader. Colonel general (1943); Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 6, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Tsvetaev, the son of a railroad official, served as commander of a company and a battalion and held the rank of lieutenant in World War I (1914–18). He served in the Red Army beginning in 1918. During the Civil War of 1918–20 he commanded a regiment, a brigade, and an infantry division. He graduated from the Higher Academic Courses in 1922 and completed the Course of Advanced Study for Higher Command Personnel at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1927. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Tsvetaev was commander of an operational group of the Seventh Army (July 1941-January 1942), commander of the Fifth Assault Army (December 1942-May 1944), deputy commander of the First Byelorussian Front (May-September 1944), and commander of the Thirty-third Army on the Southern Front, Third and Fourth Ukrainian fronts, and First Byelorussian Front (from September 1944).

After the war, Tsvetaev served as deputy commander in chief (July 1945–January 1947) and commander in chief (January 1947–January 1948) of the Southern Group of Forces. In January 1948 he became head of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy.

Tsvetaev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, and various medals.