Semyon Krivoshein (28 November 1899-16 September 1978) was a Lieutenant-General of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. Krivoshein pioneered the use of armored warfare in the Red Army, and his 1941-1943 reforms led to the Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk and, eventually, the rest of the war.
Biography[]
Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein was born on 28 November 1899 in Voronezh, Russian Empire to a Jewish family. He joined the 1st Cavalry Army of the Red Army in 1918 during the Russian Civil War, and he later decided to join the tank forces of the Red Army. Krivoshein was one of the men responsible for the transition from horses to tanks in the Soviet military, and he served as a tank commander during the Spanish Civil War, including at Madrid. Krivoshein also took part in the war with Japan in Mongolia in 1939, leading a tank brigade. In 1940, he was promoted to Major-General after taking part in the Winter War with Finland, and he led the reform of Soviet armored forces from 1941 to 1943. Krivoshein's reforms led to victory at the Battle of Kursk, and he took part in the push into western Ukraine. During Operation Bagration, his mechanized corps took Brest from Nazi Germany, and he helped in the defeat of Germany after the Battle of Berlin in 1945. In 1946, he was appointed to become a Frunze Military Academy faculty member, and he retired in 1953. He died in 1978 in Moscow at the age of 78.