Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer (4 November 1905-29 November 1969) was a General of the Soviet Red Army during World War II. Kreizer was the first Soviet general to be awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" during the war, the first Soviet general to fight off a German attack during Operation Barbarossa, one of the few Colonel-Generals in command of field armies, and one of the highest-ranking Jews in the Soviet military (his family was one of the few families allowed to settle outside of the "Pale of Settlement" in Eastern Europe).
Biography[]
Hero of the Soviet Union[]
Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer was born on 4 November 1905 in Voronezh, Russian Empire to a family of Jews; his family was allowed to leave the Pale of Settlement because a relative of his was stationed in southern Russia as an Imperial Russian Army soldier. He enlisted in the Red Army in 1921 and was rapidly promoted as a result of the Great Purge, and he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1941. Kreizer's 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division outfought the German Wehrmacht's Army Group Center on the Minsk-Moscow highway in July 1941, the first time that the Soviets were able to fight back a German attack during Operation Barbarossa. At Borisov, he stalled Heinz Guderian's panzer forces for two days and killed 1,000 German troops, dozens of tanks, and twelve planes, leading to Stalin promoting Kreizer to Major-General at the age of 35. He was also the first general to be granted the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" (on 21 July 1941).
Counterattacks[]
An older Kreizer after the war
Kreizer was later given command of the Soviet 3rd Army during the bloody First Battle of Smolensk and then the Battle of Moscow, and he was given command of the 2nd Guards Army in October 1942. His army took part in the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-1943, and he was promoted to Lieutenant-General in recognition of his role in the Stalingrad victory. He was given command of the Soviet 51st Army in August 1943. Kreizer defeated the Germans in the Ukraine, Crimea, Belarus, and the Baltics, and he was wounded twice. He became one of the few field army commanders to have the high rank of Colonel-General.
Later career[]
After the war, Kreizer's advancement stalled, but Nikita Khrushchev's 1953 coup led to Kreizer resuming his rise to power. Khrushchev remembered Kreizer's heroism at Stalingrad and gave him command of several military districts, and he was sent to the Far East Military District in 1961 as Soviet relations with China soured. From 1962 to 1966, he sat on the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, but he fell ill in 1963 and joined the Ministry of Defense. He died in Moscow in 1969 at the age of 64.