Aleksey Zhadov

Aleksey Semenovich Zhadov, born with the surname "Zhidov" (, 30 March 1901 – 30 November 1977), was a Soviet military officer in the Red Army, who during World War II commanded the 66th Army, later renamed the 5th Guards Army, from the Battle of Stalingrad up till the end of the war. For his leadership of the army, Zhadov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Postwar, Zhadov commanded the Central Group of Forces and was deputy commander of the Soviet Ground Forces. Early life and prewar military career Aleksey Zhadov was born on 30 March 1901 in the village of Nikolskoye in what is now Sverdlovsk district of Orel Oblast. He joined the Red Army in 1919 and fought in the Russian Civil War. He graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1934, and in 1940 he took command of a cavalry division. In late May 1941, while serving as the commander of the 21st Turkestan Mountain Cavalry Division in the Central Asian Military District, he was promoted to command the 4th Airborne Corps stationed in Pukhovichi in the Western Special Military District, the military administration of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Having primarily served in the Red Army's cavalry branch for 21 years, the promotion to command an airborne unit was a huge leap of responsibility for him. German Invasion of Soviet Union in 1941 During the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Major General Aleksey Zhadov was en route on a train to Moscow from Tashkent in order to join the 4th Airborne Corps, which was now subordinated to the Soviet Western Front. When he arrived in Moscow on the morning of 24 June, he expected to hear news that the German attack had been promptly repulsed and the fight taken to German territory, but instead he was informed that the Soviet forces in the border areas were being battered and that communication among units and their lines of command had broken down. The next day on 25 June, he left on train for Minsk, the capital of Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. On the train, he met Colonel Nikolai Naumenko, who was en route to the headquarters of the Western Front's Air Force. After a German air raid while the train was in Orsha, further transportation on the railway was cancelled. He and Naumenko later at night continued in a staff car to Borisov, driving slowly since using headlamps were prohibited.