Ilya Prokofyevich Alekseyenko (; 20 June 1899 – 3 August 1941) was a Ukrainian

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 ...

major general. After joining the Red Army in 1918, Alekseyenko served as a junior commander in machine gun units during 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 ...

and the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

. Stationed in Ukraine for much of the 1920s and 1930s, he held command and staff positions and from the early 1930s served in armored units. Decorated for his command of a tank brigade during the

Battles of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (; ) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolian People's Republic, Mongolia, Empire of Japan, Japan and Manchukuo in 1939. The conflict wa ...

, Alekseyenko commanded the 5th Mechanized Corps at the outbreak of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. He led it during the Battle of Smolensk, receiving a second

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

for his performance during the Lepel counterattack, and was mortally wounded in early August 1941.

Early life and Russian Civil War

Alekseyenko was born to a peasant family on 20 June 1899 in the ''

sloboda A sloboda was a type of settlement in the history of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for 'freedom' and may be loosely translated as 'free settlement'.

'' of Podol, Grayvoronsky Uyezd,

Kursk Governorate Kursk Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1796 to 1928 with its capital in Kursk. Administrative divisions As of 1914, Kursk Governorate included 15 uyezds. * Belgorods ...

. After graduating from a four-year primary school in 1913, he worked at a noodle factory in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

between 1915 and 1917. Following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, Alekseyenko first joined a

Red Guard The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

detachment in March 1918 and two months later joined the

, becoming a

Red Army man Red Army man () was the lowest military rank in the Red Army of the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1946. On 30 November 1917, after the October Revolution, the Military Revolutionary Committee cancelled all "officer and class ranks". Henceforth, the ...

with the 74th Kursk Soviet Infantry Regiment. In April 1919 he became a cadet at the Kursk Infantry Command Courses, before being transferred to the 1st Moscow Soviet Machine Gun Command Courses. After graduation from the latter in April 1920, he was appointed a machine gun platoon commander in the 420th Rifle Regiment of the

47th Rifle Division The 47th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army. It was first formed in 1922 as the Georgian Rifle Division. In 1924, it became the 1st Georgian Mountain Division. The division became the 47th Georgian Mountain Rifle Division in 1 ...

of the 12th Army. A month later, he was transferred to the 57th Rifle Regiment of the army's 7th Rifle Division, serving successively as a platoon commander, assistant chief and chief of the machine gun detachment. During this period he fought in the

and against the

Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (; RIAU), also known as ''Makhnovtsi'' (), named after their founder Nestor Makhno, was an anarchist army formed largely of Ukrainian peasants and workers during the Russian Civil War. They protect ...

Interwar period

Alekseyenko served with 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 ...

of the

Ukrainian 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 ...

from May 1922 as assistant chief of the machine gun detachments of the 391st and later 131st Rifle Regiments of the division. He transferred to the Kiev Combined Military School in October 1924 to serve as course commander and company commander. After graduating from the Kharkov Machine Gun Command Courses in 1925, Alekseyenko graduated from the Kiev Combined Military School by external examination in 1926. He returned to the 44th Rifle Division in November 1930, becoming a battalion commander in the 132nd and later the 131st Rifle Regiments. After studying at the Leningrad Armored Courses for the Improvement of Command Cadre between May and September 1932, Alekseyenko returned to the 44th as commander of the divisional separate tank battalion. He transferred to the 17th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Military District (later renamed 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 ...

) in May 1935 to serve as commander of its tank training battalion, and became commander of the 28th Mechanized Regiment of the

28th Cavalry Division Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an interval b ...

in June 1937. Alekseyenko was promoted to

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in 1935 and to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in 1938. Having transferred to the 32nd Cavalry Division of the same district to command its 9th Tank Regiment in April 1938, Alekseyenko received command of the 11th Light Tank Brigade on 12 July 1939 and led it during the

. During the massive Soviet counterattack at Khalkhin Gol in late August, Alekseyenko was given command of the northern group of the Soviet force.

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( 189618 June 1974) was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-ch ...

, the commander of the 1st Army Group, described Alekseyenko as having commanded "firmly and confidently" and "behaved courageously", characterizing him as a "proactive and energetic" commander deserving of promotion. For his leadership, Alekseyenko was awarded the

and promoted to ''

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 ...

'' on 29 October. Made a major general on 4 June 1940 when the Red Army reintroduced general's ranks, Alekseyenko became commander of the 17th Tank Division of the 5th Mechanized Corps during the month and in March 1941 received command of the corps itself, part of the 16th Army of the

Transbaikal Military District The Transbaikal Military District () was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on 17 May 1935 and included the Buryat Republic, Chita Oblast, and Yakutia. Chita was ...

World War II

The 5th Mechanized Corps was transferred west just before the beginning of

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941. In July the corps was attached to the 20th Army of the Western Front and fought in the Lepel counterattack, in which it suffered heavy losses to German tanks and aircraft. Alekseyenko commanded the corps in the Battle of Smolensk, during which it fought encircled between 10 and 11 July. For "skillful command of corps units when breaking out of the encirclement," Alekseyenko posthumously received a second Order of Lenin on 9 August. He was severely wounded on 2 August by mortar shell fragments during a bombardment at the Solovyovsky Crossing, and died on the next day at a hospital in

Vyazma Vyazma () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District, Smolensk Oblast, Vyazemsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk, the ...

. He was buried at the Yekaterininsky Cemetery in Vyazma.

Awards and honors

Alekseyenko received the following awards and decorations: *

(1939, 1941) *

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

(1938) *

Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" The Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" () was a state military commemorative medal of the Soviet Union established on January 24, 1938 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to denote the twentie ...

(1938) * Order of the Red Banner of the Mongolian People's Republic (1939)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alekseyenko, Ilya 1899 births 1941 deaths People from Belgorod Oblast People from Grayvoronsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Soviet major generals Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet military personnel of the Polish–Soviet War Soviet military personnel killed in World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Deaths by firearm in the Soviet Union Deaths by firearm in Russia Deaths by explosive device