Ivan Fedyuninsky

Ivan Ivanovich Fedyuninsky (Иван Иванович Федюнинский; July 30, 1900 - October 17, 1977) was a Soviet military leader and Hero of the Soviet Union (1939).

Biography
Fedyuninsky was born into a peasant family near Tugulym in the Urals. He finished the village school in 1913 and was apprenticed to a painter and decorator. He joined the Red Army in 1919. He fought on the Western Front in the Russian Civil war and was wounded twice. He studied at the Vladivostok Infantry School between 1923–24 and was appointed to an infantry regiment. He served in the Russian Far East between 1919 and 1940 fighting in the Sino-Soviet conflict (1929) and as a regimental commander in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, where he won the Hero of the Soviet Union for his valour. He was promoted to divisional commander in 1940.

He was commanding 15th Rifle Corps in 5th Army on 22 June 1941, and after several other army commands, including 42nd Army in the Leningrad area, took over 2nd Shock Army just before the Battle of Narva (1944). From 1946 for a period he commanded 7th Guards Army.

After the war Fedyuninsky was deputy commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1951–54), commander the Transcaucasian (1954–57) and Turkestan (1957–65) Military Districts. He was awarded the rank of General of the Army in 1955 and was an inspector and advisor to the Soviet ministry of defence from 1965 until his death. He was also a deputy in the Supreme Soviet.

Ivan Fedyuninsky was awarded four Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov (1st and 2nd Class), two Orders of Kutuzov, Order of the Red Star, Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR (3rd Class), numerous medals, and a few foreign orders and medals.

Soviet

 * Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Four Orders of Lenin
 * Order of the Red Banner, five times
 * Order of Suvorov, 1st and 2nd classes
 * Order of Kutuzov, 1st class, twice
 * Order of the Red Star
 * Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class
 * Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"
 * Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
 * Medal "For the Defence of Kiev"
 * Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Medal "For the Capture of Königsberg"
 * Medal "For the Capture of Berlin"
 * Medal "For Development of the Virgin Lands"
 * Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
 * Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
 * Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad"

Foreign

 * Mongolia
 * Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic
 * Order of Sukhbaatar, twice
 * Order "For Military Merit"
 * Order of the Red Banner


 * Poland
 * Order of Polonia Restituta
 * Gold Cross of the Virtuti Militari
 * Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class
 * Cross Olshansky Province


 * German Democratic Republic
 * President of Gold Star
 * Order of Merit for the Fatherland in gold (1st class)


 * Tuva People's Republic
 * Order "Red Banner"


 * Czechoslovakia
 * Medal "For the strengthening of friendship in Arms», 1st class

He is an honorary citizen of the cities of: the Volkhov University, Kingisepp, Tallinn, Bryansk, Karachev, Gomel, Choibalsan (Mongolia), Flomberha (Poland).
 * Other awards

Sources and references

 * John Erickson (historian), The Road to Stalingrad (1975), & The Road to Berlin (1982).
 * page in Russian from warheroes.ru