Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov (; October 23 (November 4) 1896, Razgulyayka, now in

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,119,115 as of the 2021 Ru ...

– December 6, 1967,

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

) was a Soviet military commander.

Life

1914–1941

Born in the village of Razgulyayka, he left school in 1915 and joined the

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

at the rank of

Praporshchik (, , ) is a rank used by the Russian Armed Forces and a number of former communist states. The rank is a non-commissioned officer's and is equivalent to in the corresponding navies. It is usually equivalent to warrant officer class 1 or serge ...

. He served in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and graduated from officer training school in 1917. He moved to 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 ...

in 1918, commanding a battalion and then a regiment 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 ...

. In December 1922 he became the commander of the 4th Turkestan Regiment, then of the 109th Regiment in September 1924. He moved to the staff in 1928, then to head the Kiev Infantry School in 1930. He then became the commander and commissar of

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 ...

in January 1931. Next, he became a general tactical lecturer at the RKKA Military Academy in December 1935, deputy commander of the troops in

Odessa Military District The Odessa Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military administrative division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This district consisted of Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldavia and five Oblasts of Ukraine, Ukrainian oblasts of Odesa ...

in April 1940, and head of the Main Directorate of Red Army Air Defence in December 1940. 1940 also saw him promoted to

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

. He also fought in the

Russo-Finnish 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 ...

1941–1967

In January 1941 he was appointed commander of the troops of

Transcaucasian Military District The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of First Republic of Armenia, Armenia, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Azerbaijan, and Democratic Republic ...

and when the Germans invaded in August of that year he was put in command of the

Transcaucasian Front The Transcaucasus Front (), also translated as Transcaucasian Front, was a front of the Soviet Red Army—a military formation comparable to an army group, not a geographic military front—during the Second World War. The Transcaucasus Front ...

, where he led the Soviet contingent in the

Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, also known as the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia, was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The two powers announced that they w ...

. He moved to command the Caucasian Front in December 1941 and the

Crimean Front The Crimean Front () was one of the Red Army fronts of World War II, which existed from January–May 1942. Composition It was commanded throughout its existence by Dmitr Timofeyevich Kozlov, and was made up of * 44th Soviet Army ( Stepan ...

in January 1942. He commanded the Kerch Peninsula landings but, despite initial successes, the operation ended in disaster, with the Soviets losing over 176,000 men, 37 tanks, around 3,500 guns and mortars and 400 aircraft and losing the bridgehead to the Germans in

Operation Trappenjagd The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, which commenced with the Soviet Kerch-Feodosia Landing Operation () and ended with the German Operation Bustard Hunt (), was a World War II battle between Erich von Manstein's German and Romanian 11th Army and ...

. On 4 June 1942, he was demoted to major general and removed from command of the front. In August of that year he was transferred to command 24th Army and from October 1942 was assistant deputy commander of the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

. Kozlov headed

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

's defence and was one of the last Russians to leave it before the Germans recaptured it on 14 March 1943. From 14 to 21 March 1943 Soviet divisions were constantly withdrawing through the woods northeast of Mokhnachev, and Kozlov took the same route away from Kharkiv. From May to August 1943 he was given a post on the

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front () was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front on August 27, 1941. History The Leningrad Front was immediately ...

and from August 1943 was made deputy commander 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 ...

, where he took part in the Soviet offensives against Japan. From 1946 until his retirement in 1954, he was made deputy commander of Transbaikal. He died in 1967 in Minsk.

Sources

* KA Zaleski, ''Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь.'' (Stalin's empire. Biographical Encyclopaedia.) Moscow, Veche, 2000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kozlov, Dmitry Timofeyevich 1896 births 1967 deaths People from Semyonov, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast People from Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Soviet lieutenant generals Frunze Military Academy alumni Military personnel of the Russian Empire Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner