Nikolai Vedeneyev

Nikolai Denisovich Vedeneyev (; 28 March 1897 16 November 1964) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Vedeneyev was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I as a non-commissioned officer. He became a Red Guard and became a partisan on the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War. Vedeneyev joined the Red Army and became a Political commissar. He held posts in cavalry units during the interwar period and later served in mechanized units. In 1938 he became chief of the commanders' improvement courses at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. Vedeneyev became chief of staff and deputy commander of the 6th Mechanized Corps in 1940, and then was deputy commander of the 20th Mechanized Corps.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the corps was encircled in the Siege of Mogilev. Vedeneyev escaped the encirclement and later became head of the faculty at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. In April 1944 he returned to the front as the deputy commander of the 8th Guards Tank Corps. Vedeneyev took command of the 3rd Tank Corps, which became the 9th Guards Tank Corps. For his leadership of the corps in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, Vedeneyev received the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Postwar, he became head of combat training of the Soviet Army Armored and Mechanized Forces. In 1947, Vedeneyev again became head of the faculty at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization, retiring in 1951.

Early life, World War I, and Russian Civil War Vedeneyev was born on 16 March 1897 in Verkhnyaya Sanarka in what is now Plastovsky District to a peasant family. He received primary education and worked as a telegraphist. In August 1915, he was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army. Vedeneyev served in a reserve battalion in Syzran and graduated from a training unit. In 1917, he fought on the Southwestern Front as a platoon sergeant in the 1st Rybinsk Border Regiment. Vedeneyev later served in the 531st Infantry Regiment of the 133rd Infantry Division. In May 1931, Vedeneyev became commander and military commissar of the 25th Amur Cavalry Regiment. From March 1932, he was commander and commissar of the 1st Special Troitsko-Savskogo Cavalry Division of the Transbaikal Group. In February 1933, Vedeneyev became commander and commissar of the 15th Mechanized Regiment of the 15th Cavalry Division in the Transbaikal Military District. In November 1935, he became commander and commissar of the 26th Mechanized Regiment of the 26th Cavalry Division in the Kiev Military District. In 1936, he was awarded the Order of Lenin. On 22 July, units of the corps stopped and destroyed a German train carrying the Lublin garrison, which was attempting to escape. On 30 July, the corps had reached a point 15 kilometers from Warsaw, but was thrown back by German counterattacks, in the Battle of Radzymin. On 23 August, he was awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd class. For its actions in the capture of Lublin and Dęblin, the corps became the 9th Guards Tank Corps on 20 November. In February and March, the corps fought in the East Pomeranian Offensive. On 16 April, the corps began the Battle of Berlin, advancing out of its bridgehead at Kustrin. On 23 April, the corps reached Berlin.

Postwar In June 1945, the corps became the 9th Guards Tank Division, which Vedeneyev, promoted to lieutenant general a few weeks later on 11 July, continued in command of. In October 1946, Vedeneyev became head of combat training of the Armored and Mechanized Forces. In March 1947, he became head of faculty at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. He retired in May 1951 and lived in Moscow. At some point, he was made an honorary citizen of Sieradz. Vedeneyev died on 16 November 1964 and was buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.

Awards and honors

A bust of Vedeneyev was installed in Plast.