Alexei Ivanovich Vinogradov (; 12 February 1899 – 11 January 1940) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

kombrig () is an abbreviation of Commanding officer of the brigade (), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR from 1935 to 1940. It was also the designation to military personnel appointed to command a brigade sized formation (X ...

'' and the commander of the

44th Rifle Division The 44th ''Kievskaya'' of the Red Banner Rifle Division of Nikolay Shchors, or ''44th Kievskaya'' for short, was an elite military formation of the Soviet Union. Created during the beginnings of the Russian Civil War. It was destroyed during the ...

. His unit took part in the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

and the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

against the Finns. The unit perished in the

Battle of Raate Road The Battle of Raate Road () was fought during the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in January 1940, as a part of the Battle of Suomussalmi. On December 7, 1939, the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division captured Suomussalmi, but found itsel ...

and Vinogradov was executed by the Soviet military for the failure.

Biography

Early life

Alexei Vinogradov was born to an

ethnic Russian The Russian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking (''Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russians or not. History ...

family in the village of Zhiganovo in

Tver Governorate Tver Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. Its seat was in Tver. The governorate was lo ...

. He started his military career as a private in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

on the

Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War spread to the east in May 1918, with a series of revolts along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the part of the Czechoslovak Legion and officers of the Russian Army. Provisional anti-Bolshevik local governmen ...

in March 1919. He graduated from the Soviet infantry course in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

in 1922 and the highest course of

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Tver Tver (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa rivers. Tver is located northwest of Moscow. Population: The city is ...

in 1924.Raunio, Ari & Kilin, Yuri; p. 143 Vinogradov served as a platoon leader and later as a company commander and regiment staff officer between 1922 and 1937 before advancing to the position of a regiment commander 1937–1938.

World War II

During the Soviet military purges of 1938–1939, Vinogradov was a part of the commander reserve. He was promoted to the rank of

and was made the commander of the 44th Rifle Division by the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its exist ...

.Raunio, Ari & Kilin, Yuri; p. 143 During the

Battle of Suomussalmi The Battle of Suomussalmi was fought between Finnish and Soviet forces in the Winter War. The action took place from 30 November 1939 to 8 January 1940. The outcome was a Finnish victory against superior forces. This battle is considered the cl ...

in January 1940, the Soviet 163rd Division of the 9th Army had been trapped deep inside Finnish territory and the 44th Rifle Division led by Vinogradov was sent to break the encirclement. Early attacks by the 44th Division were repelled by the Finns and later attack plans were cancelled by Vinogradov. The 44th Division found its supply line severed as well and with soldiers suffering from hunger, Vinogradov requested immediate support from the 9th Army headquarters on the evening of 3 January. After the battalion commander Pashutov told Vinogradov that his hungry men wouldn't be fit for combat without new supplies, Vinogradov ordered him to feed the troops, but this order could not be acted upon and a part of the 44th Division's troops were permanently left inside the encirclement in Haukila. The radio contact of the 9th Army headquarters with the encircled troops was cut on 6 January and Vinogradov was allowed to act on his will as long as no equipment was left for the Finns to capture. Vinogradov ordered a retreat to the east by marching on the northern side of the Raate Road. Artillery formations of the 44th Division, however, had to retreat using the road which they found was cut off by Finnish troops. Chaos ensued, with heavy Soviet casualties and loss of equipment. According to a Soviet report, the 44th Division lost 4,674 out of 13,962 men, whereas Finnish sources estimate between 7,000 and 9,000 killed.

Stavka The ''Stavka'' ( Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка, ) is a name of the high command of the armed forces used formerly in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrat ...

(military high command) ordered a report on the incident and the 9th Army war council blamed the decision to bring transport vehicles near the frontline, as this tied the 44th Division to defend their supply columns. The 9th Army war council pin-pointed the blame on the commander of the 146th Infantry Regiment, Pyotr V. Iyevlev and his staff, for the defeat. Stavka decided, however, that Alexei Vinogradov, his chief of staff Colonel Volkov and the chief of the political department Pakhomov were responsible and to be executed. Alexei Vinogradov and the two staff members were executed by a firing squad in front of the surviving 44th Division members in Vazhenvaara on 11 January 1940. He was rehabilitated by a decision of the

Leningrad Military District The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern ...

on 17 November 1990.

Notes

References

* Raunio, Ari & Kilin, Yuri: ''Itsenäisyyden puolustajat: Sodan taisteluja 1. Talvisota'' (in Finnish). Weilin+Göös, 2005. * Kulju, Mika: ''Raatteen tie : Talvisodan pohjoinen sankaritarina'' (in Finnish). Helsinki: Ajatus kirjat. .

External links

Alexei Vinogradov biography on istor-44gsd.ru website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinogradov, Alexei 1899 births 1940 deaths People from Ostashkovsky District People from Ostashkovsky Uyezd Soviet kombrigs Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War People of the Soviet invasion of Poland Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Executed Soviet people from Russia People executed by the Soviet Union by firing squad Executed military leaders Soviet rehabilitations Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner