Vasily Chuikov

Born to peasants near Tula in 1900, Chuikov worked a factory floor at twelve, joined the Red Army after the Revolution, and earned his reputation in the Civil War. He graduated from Frunze, served as military attaché in China, and led armies into Poland and Finland when the war began. Recalled from China in March 1942, he took command of the 62nd Army that September with orders to hold Stalingrad at all costs. He kept his line so close to the Germans that their air and armor lost their edge, and though they took most of the city by mid-November, his army joined the counter-offensive that crushed the 6th Army weeks later. He drove through Poland into Berlin and accepted the German surrender on 2 May 1945. After the war he commanded Soviet forces in Germany, led the Kiev Military District, served as Deputy Minister of Defense, and headed Civil Defense until 1972. He died in 1982 and was buried at Mamayev Kurgan, where his army had fought.