Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (Васи́лий Ива́нович Чуйко́в) (February 12, 1900 - March 18, 1982) was a lieutenant general in the Soviet army during World War II.
Chuikov served in the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1939 and in the Russo-Finnish War of 1940. He was then sent to China as an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. In May 1942 he was recalled to take up command of the 62nd Russian army at the Battle of Stalingrad.
After his victory at Stalingrad, Chuikov commanded the 8th Guards Army on the Byelorussian front and advanced through Poland, finally heading the Soviet offensive which captured Berlin in April 1945. He was later Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany until 1953.
He was a major consultant for the design of the Stalingrad battle memorial on Mamayev Kurgan, and after his death was buried there. He was the first Marshal of the Soviet Union to be buried outside Moscow.
