Aleksandr Stepanov

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Stepanov (; 30 August 1893 – 11 August 1941) was a Red Army major general. Stepanov rose from private to officer during World War I and held brigade command during the Russian Civil War. Between the wars, he held command and staff positions and was decorated for his actions in the Winter War. He commanded the 27th Rifle Division in Belarus during the Battle of Białystok–Minsk and was killed in action while escaping from encirclement. Early life, World War I, and Russian Civil War Stepanov was born on 30 August 1893 to a Russian peasant family in the village of Pepel, Soligalichsky Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate. He graduated from primary school and a city school before working at the Petrograd Post Office as a postal clerk. During World War I, Stepanov was mobilized into the Imperial Russian Army in September 1914 and sent to the Krasnoye Selo Reserve Rifle Battalion of the Petrograd Military District as a private. In April 1915 he became a junker at the Oranienbaum School of Praporshchiks, graduating as a praporshchik (ensign) in July of that year. Stepanov was sent to the Western Front, where he served as a junior officer and company commander with the 272nd Infantry Regiment of the 68th Infantry Division. He was awarded three orders for his actions and rose to the rank of staff captain. Due to illness, he was hospitalized for a year beginning in August 1917. After leaving the hospital, Stepanov joined the Red Army during the Russian Civil War on 2 September 1918 and was appointed a vsevobuch military training instructor of the Soligalichsky Uyezd military commissariat. From February 1919 he commanded the Communist Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 29th Rifle Division of the 3rd Army, leading it on fighting on the Eastern Front against the White forces of Alexander Kolchak in the areas of Tyumen, Ishim, Perm, and Glazov. After taking command of the brigade in August, he and the division where relocated to the Western Front for the Polish–Soviet War. In the latter, they fought as part of the southern group of the 15th Army in the area of Lepel, Vileyka, Borisov, Molodechno, and Lida.