Mikhail Fyodorovich Tikhonov (; 11 November 1900 – 11 February 1971) was a

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Tikhonov 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 ...

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 ...

. He commanded the 39th Guards Rifle Corps during 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 ...

. After the end of

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 ...

, Tikhonov continued his career in the

Soviet Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

and was the chief Soviet advisor to the

Hungarian People's Army The Hungarian People's Army (, MN) or the HPA was the military of the Hungarian People's Republic and the armed branch of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1951 to 1990. It only saw combat in a foreign country once during its existence ...

during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

Early life

Mikhail Tikhonov was born on 11 November 1900 in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

to a family of workers. In 1912, he graduated from the 4th class in the

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

City College. He graduated from the vocational school in

Kimry Kimry (), formerly Kimra (), is a town in the south of Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River at its confluence with the Kimrka River, to the east of Tver. Population: History The town was known as Kimra until the beginning of the 20 ...

in 1914. Tikhonov worked as a messenger for a Moscow bookstore and at a Moscow slaughterhouse. From 1916, he was a mechanic at the railroad depot at

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

's Finland Station. He became a plumber in the Moscow City food department in June 1918. In October, he was 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 ...

. Tikhonov first participated in the suppression of anti-Soviet forces in the

Kirsanovsky Uyezd Kirsanovsky Uyezd (''Кирса́новский уе́зд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Tambov Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the eastern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Kirsanov. Demographics ...

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, and the Russian SFSR, with its capital in Tambov. It was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north latitude, north and betwee ...

and then fought on the Southern Front and on the

Southeastern Front The Southeastern Front was a front of the Red Army during World War II. It was formed on August 5, 1942, out of parts of the Stalingrad Front, using the command elements from the First Tank Army and the disbanded Southern Front. The front's mai ...

. He originally was an officer in the 3rd Reserve Cavalry Regiment. On 29 October 1918, he was wounded. Tikhonov joined the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

in 1919. In October 1919, he graduated from the Moscow Cavalry Courses. Tikhonov became the commander of a cavalry squadron training courses for the 8th Army in October 1919. In April 1920, he became a platoon commander and head of intelligence for the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the 22nd Rifle Division. He was again wounded on 1 November. In December, Tikhonov was the adjutant in a unit of the 9th Kuban Army. In the same year, Tikhonov was awarded a Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR-inscribed gold watch for reported personal bravery.

Interwar

In June 1921, Tikhonov graduated from the repeated courses of cavalry higher command in

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

. He became a squadron commander of the 44th Cavalry Regiment, part of the 3rd Separate Cavalry Brigade and the 57th Rifle Division in August 1921. During that year and 1922, he participated in operations against anti-Soviet groups in Troitsky Uyezd, Chelyabinsk Province. Between April and August 1923, Tikhonov studied at 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 ...

cavalry commanders courses. After their end, he returned to the 44th Cavalry Regiment, fighting to suppress an uprising in

Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...

and was wounded on 21 February 1925. From April, he was assistant to the commander of the 68th Cavalry Regiment of the

North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces from 1992-2010. Before 1992 it had been part of the Soviet Armed Forces since 1918. In 2010 it became the Southern Military District and lately also included t ...

. For these actions, he was awarded honorary weapons in 1928. Tikhonov graduated from 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 ...

in 1930. In May he became the 33rd Cavalry Regiment's chief of staff. He became chief of staff for the 6th Cavalry Division in April 1931. From November, he was in the

first management staff. Tikhonov later became assistant chief and chief of the sector and then the assistant chief and chief of the operational department. In June 1935 Tikhonov went to

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

as an advisor to the

Mongolian People's Army The Mongolian People's Army (, ), also known as the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army () or the Mongolian Red Army (), was an institution of the Mongolian People's Party, Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party constituting as the armed forc ...

cavalry. Between December 1935 and April 1936 he participated in the border conflicts with

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in the Tamsak-Bulak area. For his actions during the border conflicts, Tikhonov was awarded the Mongolian

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 ...

and the Order of the North Star. After returning to the Soviet Union, Tikhonov became the commander of the 71st Reserve Cavalry Regiment in March 1939. In December 1939 he became the commander of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Separate Cavalry Brigade based in the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District () is a Military districts of Russia, military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Originally it was a district of the Imperial Russian Army until the Russian Empire's collapse in 191 ...

. During January and March 1940, Tikhonov fought in the

commanding the 28th Cavalry Regiment in the same brigade as part of the

13th Army Thirteenth Army or 13th Army may refer to: * Thirteenth Army (Japan) * Japanese Thirteenth Area Army * 13th Army (Russian Empire), unit in World War I *13th Army (RSFSR), a unit in the Russian Civil War *13th Army (Soviet Union) The 13th Army (, ...

. He was sent to study at the Military Academy of Command and Officers of the Red Army Air Force in October. After graduating in May 1941, he was appointed commander of the 7th Airborne Brigade, part of the 4th Airborne Corps in the

Western Special Military District Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

World War II

After

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 ...

, the 7th Airborne Brigade took part in the defense of the line on the

Berezina River The Berezina or Byarezina (, ; ) is a river in Belarus and a right tributary of the Dnieper. The river starts in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The length of the Berezina is . The width of the river is 15–20 m, the maximum is 60 m. The ba ...

. Tikhonov was seriously wounded on 4 July and commanded the reformed 2nd Airborne Corps after leaving the hospital. The corps became the 32nd Guards Rifle Division in May 1942, part of the

47th Army The 47th Army () was a field army of the Red Army during World War II, active from 1941 to 1946. History The 47th Army was formed in late July 1941 in the Transcaucasian Military District as part of the Soviet Union's border defenses with Iran. O ...

deployed in defence of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

coast. After the German breakthrough in

Case Blue Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the ''Wehrmacht'' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of Baku ( Azerb ...

during the summer, the division was transferred to

Tuapse Tuapse (; , Ṫuapsă ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population: Tuapse is a sea port and the northern center of a resort zone which extends sou ...

, where it reportedly disrupted German attacks on the city. Tikhonov was awarded the

for his actions defending Tuapse. On 17 November, he was promoted to major general. From January 1943, the division fought in the

Battle of the Caucasus The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus as part of the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet ...

and the

Krasnodar Offensive Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

. On 30 January, he was awarded the

for his leadership of the 7th Airborne Brigade in 1941. From 9 March to 2 April, Tikhonov commanded the

11th Guards Rifle Corps In music theory, an eleventh is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a fourth. A perfect eleventh spans 17 and the augmented eleventh 18 semitones, or 10 steps in a diatonic scale. Since there are only seven degrees in a diaton ...

, part of the 9th Army during the advance on the Taman Peninsula. In July he became the deputy commander of the

58th Army The 58th Guards Combined Arms Army () is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered at Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, within Russia's Southern Military District. It was formed in 1941 as part of the Soviet Union's Red Army and has be ...

, where he was wounded and in August the deputy commander of the 56th Army. Tikhonov fought in the Novorossiysk-Taman Operation and was wounded again in October. Tikhonov was awarded the

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

, 1st class on 25 October. In January 1944, Tikhonov was appointed commander of the 108th Rifle Corps of 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 ...

42nd Army 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the Hi ...

. During the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, the army captured

Ropsha Ropsha ( rus, Ропша, p=ˈropʂə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, settlement in Lomonosovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Lomonosovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated about south of Petergof, Peterhof and south ...

, Krasnogvardeysk,

Gdov Gdov () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Gdovsky District in Pskov Oblast, Russia, located on the river Gdovka, just from its outflow into Lake Peipus. Population: History It was first menti ...

and Koivisto, as well as helping break the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. He was promoted to

on 22 February. In the spring, the corps transferred to the line of

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

and fought in the

Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive or Karelian offensive was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War, on the Eastern Front of Wor ...

, capturing Uuras. On 9 August 1944, he became the commander of the 39th Guards Airborne Corps in Kalinin. In January 1945, the corps converted to infantry as part of the

9th Guards Army The 9th Guards Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II, which fought in the Vienna Offensive and the Prague Offensive at the end of the war. The army was formed in January 1945 and included airborne divisions converted into infant ...

. The corps was sent to the front on 21 March and fought in the

, in which it participated in the capture of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. On 28 April, Tikhonov was awarded the

Order of Kutuzov The Order of Kutuzov ( ''orden Kutuzova'') is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named after famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov (1745–1813). The Order was established during World War II t ...

1st class. After the capture of Vienna it advanced in the Prague Offensive. For his actions during the Vienna offensive, Tikhonov was awarded the title

Hero of the Soviet Union citation, available online a
pamyat-naroda.ru
/ref> and the

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 ...

on 29 June.

Postwar

In October 1945, Tikhonov became the assistant chief of drill at the Frunze Military Academy. In 1949 he became its first deputy chief and in 1950 the deputy head of the Academy of scientific and educational work. In September 1952, he left the Academy of Scientific and educational work and entered the higher academic courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff, from which he graduated in 1953. In September he became the chief military advisor to the

and also the military attache at the Soviet embassy in Budapest. In March 1957 he became the head of the department of general tactics and operational training at the Military-Engineering Red Banner Academy named for V.V. Kuybyshev. In October 1962, he retired and died on 11 February 1971. Tikhonov was buried in

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 ...

Awards and decorations

;Soviet Union ;Foreign

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikhonov, Mikhail 1900 births 1971 deaths Military personnel from Odesa Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Soviet lieutenant generals Frunze Military Academy alumni Soviet military personnel of World War II Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st class Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Officers of the Legion of Merit Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni