Andrey Grigoryevich Kravchenko (; ; – 18 October 1963) was the commander of multiple tank units of the Red Army throughout World War II who was twice awarded the title

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

Early life

Kravchenko was born in a farming family in the village of Sulimivtsy near

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

, Ukraine. He was an ethnic Ukrainian. Kravchenko fought in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. He was educated at the Poltava infantry Academy (1923) and the

Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...

. He subsequently served with the infantry and taught at the

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

Tank Warfare school. From 1939 he was attached to the

Volga Military District The Volga Military District (PriVO) was a military district of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that existed from 1918 to 1989 and 1992 to 2001. The district headquarters was located at Kazan, Saratov and Kuibyshev (Samara) at differen ...

as chief of staff of the 61st Rifle Division. Kravchenko fought in the Soviet Finnish War as chief of staff of the 173rd Motorized Division. In 1940 Kravchenko was appointed chief of staff of the 16th Tank Division and later the 18th Mechanised Corps.

World War II

Kravchenko commanded the

2nd Tank Corps The 2nd Tank Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. The unit had approximately the same size and combat power as a Wehrmacht Panzer Division, and less than a British Armoured Division ...

, 4th Tank Corps, 5th Guards Tank Corps and

6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first formed in January 1944 as the 6th Tank Army,Glantz (Companion), p. 66. and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet U ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He fought in the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

, the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...

, the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...

at the

Battle of Prokhorovka The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, Belgorod Oblast, Prokhorovka, southeast of Kursk, in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War. Taking place on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front, the e ...

, the

Battle of the Dnieper The Battle of the Dnieper was a military campaign that took place in 1943 on the Eastern Front of World War II. Being one of the largest operations of the war, it involved almost four million troops at one point and stretched over a front. Ov ...

, the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky Offensive, the

Uman–Botoșani Offensive The Uman–Botoșani offensiveTsouras, p. 244 or Uman–Botoshany offensive () was a part of the Dnieper–Carpathian offensive, carried out by the Red Army in the western Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic against the German 8th Army (Wehrma ...

, the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

, the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street figh ...

and the Bratislava–Brno Offensive. After the German surrender, Kravchenko's 6th Guards Tank Army was transferred to the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

and fought in the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

as part of the

Transbaikal Front The Transbaikal Front () was a front formed on September 15, 1941, on the basis of the Transbaikal Military District. Initially, it included the 17th and 36th armies, but in August 1942 the 12th Air Army was added to the front, and, finally, in ...

Postwar

Kravchenko graduated from the higher academic courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1949. He subsequently commanded tank forces and was commander of the

Far Eastern Military District The Far Eastern Military District () was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District. Histo ...

from 1954. Kravchenko retired from the army in 1955 and served as a deputy in the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet () was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These soviets were modeled after the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, establ ...

. He died on October 18, 1963. He was buried in Moscow at the

Novodevichy cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

. A bronze bust to Kravchenko was installed at his former home in Sumy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kravchenko, Andrey 1899 births 1963 deaths Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class Recipients of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union), 1st class Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class Soviet colonel generals People from Poltava Governorate Frunze Military Academy alumni Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni Soviet military personnel of World War II from Ukraine