Aleksey Nikolayevich Krutikov

Alexey Nikolayevich Krutikov (; 20 July 1895 - 23 April 1949) was a Soviet military leader.

A veteran of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, Alexey Krutikov graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1931 and General Staff Academy in 1938. He was appointed 7th Army chief of staff in November 1940 and served as the commander of the 7th Army between January 1943 and August 1944.

He closely collaborated with Marshal Kirill Meretskov while chief of staff for the Karelian Front (September - November 1944), chief of staff for the Maritime Group of Forces (April - August 1945), and chief of staff for the 1st Far Eastern Front (August - October 1945).

Biography

Early career Alexey Nikolayevich Krutikov was born in Kineshma, Kostroma Governorate on 20 July 1895. Conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he fought at the front as a junior officer (poruchik) after an accelerated junior officers' training course. He joined the newly formed Red Army of Soviet Russia in 1918 and joined the Bolshevik Party in 1919 during the Russian Civil War.

Advancing through the Red Army ranks in the interwar period, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1931 and the General Staff Academy in 1938. He was promoted to kombrig in 1939 and made a major-general when the traditional general officer ranks were first introduced into the Red Army in June 1940.

Appointed a senior instructor at the General Staff Academy in August 1940, he then took up the position of chief of staff for the 7th Army of the Leningrad Military District in November 1940.

World War II Following Finland's entry into war with the Soviet Union on the side of Germany after the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the 7th Army temporarily formed part of the Northern and Karelian Fronts until autumn 1941, but remained in eastern Karelia as the 7th Independent Army afterward. Succeeded as its chief of staff by Colonel M. I. Peshekhontsev, Major-General Krutikov was named 7th Independent Army commanding officer in January 1943 and promoted to lieutenant-general in April 1943. The 7th Independent Army rejoined the Karelian Front (now under Army General Meretskov) in the spring of 1944.

In June 1944, the Karelian Front turned to offensive operations. Destruction of enemy forces between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega fell to Lieutenant-General Krutikov's 7th Army, tasked with attacking in the Olonets-Pitkyaranta-Sortavala direction after forcing the Svir River. One rifle corps with a tank brigade was detached to clear the western shore of Lake Onega with Filip D. Gorelenko 's 32nd Army, which received orders to destroy the concentration of enemy troops around Medvezhyegorsk and cooperate with the 7th Army in liberating the city of Petrozavodsk before moving onward.

Expecting a Soviet offensive, the Finns withdrew from the Svir and their forward positions in the Medvezhyegorsk area, permitting the 7th Army to quickly reach the Svir on the evening of 20 June.

Though successful in eliminating the first two of three Finnish defensive lines between Loymola and Koyrinoya in July after being reinforced by a new corps and tank brigade, Krutikov's 7th Army did not manage to break through the final defense at the Battle of Nietjärvi and the front stabilized. The Soviets reached Neiden on 29 October, ultimately stopping at Tanafjord as the Germans retreated further westward to Lakselv. Concurrently, elements of the Front's 25th Army fought into Japanese Korea with the support of Naval Infantry deployed by the Pacific Ocean Fleet.

When Hirohito's announced assent to unconditional surrender came on 15 August, most of the Soviets' objectives in Manchuria had been attained. On 20 August, the last resistance to the Soviet forces ended with recognition of Japan's defeat.

Post-war career The 1st Far Eastern Front was disbanded at the end of the war in 1945, with Marshal Meretskov being made commander of the Soviet Far East's Primorsky Military District and Lieutenant-General Krutikov remaining as his chief of staff. He was made deputy chief of the Department of Military Colleges at the Ministry of Defense of the USSR in Moscow in 1946. He died on 23 April 1949.

Awards Order of Lenin (twice) Order of the Red Banner (twice) Order of Suvorov, 1st class (twice) Order of the Red Star and other awards