General Aleksei Antonov

September 9, 1896 – June 16, 1962

Though never as well known as battlefield hero General Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, General Aleksei Antonov was one of the most effective leaders within the Red Army. Antonov came from a military family. His father served in the Imperial Russian Army, and he was educated at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, where he later became an instructor. During World War II, Antonov served as the Red Army’s Chief of Operations, and by the time of the Moscow Conference in October 1944, he had become the Red Army’s primary spokesman and represented the Soviet military at both the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, rising to the lofty position of the Red Army’s Chief of the General Staff.

Photograph: Wikimedia commons, public domain