Grigori Shtern

Grigory Mikhailovich Shtern (; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He also served with distinction during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Winter War. The Soviet authorities accused him of treason and had him shot during Stalin's military purge of 1941.

Career

Shtern was born into a Jewish family in Smila, Kiev Governorate (present-day part of Ukraine) in 1900. He started his military career as a Commissar of a Red Army brigade in 1919, the same year he joined the Communist Party. Shtern graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army in 1929 and worked for the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. He was appointed commander of the 7th Cavalry Division in 1936. Shtern served as a Soviet military advisor to the Spanish Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War between January 1937 to April 1938.

After returning from Spain, Shtern became chief of staff of the Far Eastern Front, commanded by Vasily Blyukher, who would soon be executed in the Great Purge. During the July and August 1938 Battle of Lake Khasan, Shtern was given command of operations after Blyukher's initial counterattack failed. He attacked the Japanese troops on the disputed ridge with numerically superior forces and slowly pushed them back. The pressure of the Soviet attack forced the Japanese to a cease-fire on 11 August as they could not hold the ridge without widening the conflict. On 31 August Stalin decided to abolish the Far Eastern Front as he felt it had not "proved its worth", and Shtern was given command of the new 1st Red Banner Army. On 9 February 1939 he was promoted to Komandarm 2nd rank. he "confessed" that he had belonged to a Trotskyist conspiracy within the Red Army from 1931, and that he was a German spy. He was shot without trial on 28 October. Shtern was posthumously rehabilitated in August 1954.

Awards and honors Hero of the Soviet Union (29 August 1939) Two Order of Lenin (21 June 1937, 29 August 1939) Three Order of the Red Banner (4 September 1924, 22 October 1937, and 25 October 1938) Order of the Red Star (19 May 1940) Order of the Red Banner of Mongolia 10 August 1939)