Ivan Morozov

Ivan Konstantinovich Morozov (; – July 11, 1979) was a major general of the Red Army during the Second World War. Morozov joined the Red Army during the Russian Civil War as a teenager, and following the end of the war served in the Caucasus region, rising to command positions in the cavalry. During the mid-1930s he was moved to the far east of Russia, to take several peacetime commands and deputy commands, and served as a battalion chief of staff at the Battle of Lake Khasan. He reached the rank of colonel before taking over what would eventually be the 422nd Rifle Division, the highest-numbered such division to actually see combat in the Soviet-German War. In recognition of the 422nd's achievements in Operation Ring, it was re-designated as the 81st Guards Rifle Division on March 1, 1943, and Morozov was promoted to the rank of major general the same day. He continued to lead the 81st Guards until September 14, returning to command on December 12. He remained there until November 11, 1944, when he was replaced. Morozov was retired from the Soviet Army on February 15, 1955, due to illness. During his retirement he lived in Voronezh and Stalingrad (Volgograd) and wrote several volumes of memoirs before he died on July 11, 1979. Early life and Russian Civil War Morozov was born on January 6, 1905, at the Kagalnitskaya stanitsa in the Don Host Oblast, and graduated from a parochial school in 1914. In June 1918 he joined the Red Army in Rakov (now Novobataisk) during the Russian Civil War. Serving as a Red Army man and a scout in the Sreda detachment of the 1st Peasant Regiment, Morozov fought against the Volunteer Army and the White Cossacks at Kushevka in the Don Host Oblast, and in the Kuban on the Manych. The detachment was defeated in March 1919 and Morozov with a group of fighters escaped towards Bataysk. Having linked up with Red Army units south of Rostov, he became a scout in the 3rd Squadron of the 20th Salsk Cavalry Regiment in the 4th Cavalry Division, which subsequently became part of the 1st Cavalry Army. With the army, Morozov fought in battles at Tsaritsyn, the Voronezh–Kastornoye operation, the Kharkiv operation, the Donbass operation (1919), the Rostov–Novocherkassk operation, the North Caucasus operation, and the Battle of Yegorlykskaya.