Ivan Susloparov

Ivan Alexeyevich Susloparov (, also Sousloparov; 19 October 1897 – 16 December 1974) was a Soviet general who served in World War II as the Military Liaison Mission Commander with the French government and the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe in 1944–45. He is mostly known as the person who signed for the Soviet Union the German Instrument of Surrender on 7 May 1945. He signed before receiving authorization from Moscow to do so; the Soviet Union insisted on signing another Act of Military Surrender near Berlin two days later.

Biography

Ivan Susloparov was born in the village of Krutikhintsy, in what is today Kumyonsky District of Kirov Oblast in northeastern European Russia. He fought in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer, participated in the October Revolution of 1917, and fought in the Red Army on the Eastern and Southern Fronts of the Russian Civil War. After the Reds' victory, Susloparov stayed in the army. While in service, he graduated from Kiev's Joint Military School in 1925, and from Engineering Command Department of Dzerzhinsky Military Academy in 1938.

After the war, General Susloparov worked in the Military Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, His job title was described as nachalnik kursa, i.e. the officer in charge of all cadets who entered the academy in a particular year. He died on 16 December 1974 in Moscow, and was buried in Vvedenskoye Cemetery.