Andrey Matveyevich Andreyev

Andrey Matveyevich Andreyev (Russian: Андрей Матвеевич Андреев; 30 October 1905-17 November 1983) was a Soviet Army Colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union.

Andreyev was born on 30 October 1905 in Saint Petersburg to Matvey Andreyev, a turner, and Praskovya Nikitichna, a weaver.

His family was extremely poor.

In 1920 Matvey decided to return to his home village of Tatarsk in Smolensk Governorate along with his family, where he was given redistributed land.

Andreyev worked on the farm and graduated from high school in 1922.

After spending the first months of World War II as logistics chief of the 23rd Army, he was appointed to command the 43rd Rifle Division in September.

Andreyev joined the Soviet Border Troops in 1924 and became an officer.

After graduating from the Frunze Military Academy, he was given command of a border detachment.

Andreyev fought in the Winter War as commander of a ski regiment of the border troops.

In August 1924, Andreyev joined the Soviet Border Troops.

In May 1925 he was sent to study at the Belorussian School of Frontier Troops, from which he graduated in 1927.

Between 1930 and 1933 he was a political instructor in the 28th Separate Smolensk Border Troops Battalion.

In 1935, he graduated from the Higher School of the Border Troops in Moscow.

Between 1935 and 1938 Andreyev was assistant political commissar of the regiment, battalion commander, chief of the regimental school and finally battalion commander again in the 13th Alma-Ata NKVD Motor Rifle Regiment.

In 1939, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy.

In May 1939, Andreyev became chief of the 5th Sestroretsk Border Detachment.

On 5 May, he was promoted to Major.

In November 1939 the border detachment was upgraded into the 5th NKVD Regiment of Operational Troops.

It fought in the Winter War with Andreyev in command.

On 13 February, he was promoted to colonel.

In April 1940 the regiment became a border detachment again, now stationed at Enso.

In July 1941 Andreyev became the logistics chief for 23rd Army.

He fought in battles north of Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus.

At the beginning of September he became commander of the People's Militia in Sestroretsk.

In April 1942 Andreyev became deputy commander of the 23rd Army and then the 42nd Army in May.

He became commander of a special group in the 42nd Army's Staro-Panovo Offensive, in which he was wounded.

In November 1942 he took command of the newly formed 102nd Rifle Division and led it in Operation Kutuzov, the Battle of the Dnieper and the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive.

In December 1943 he was appointed commander of the 29th Rifle Corps and fought in the Operation Bagration and the Lublin–Brest Offensive.

In September, Andreyev became commander of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps, defending the Magnuszew bridgehead.

Later in the month, Andreyev took command of the 43rd Rifle Division.

In April 1945 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership in the capture of Warsaw.

In November he was appointed deputy commander of the 47th Army and in December given command of the 125th Rifle Corps.

He led the corps in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, East Pomeranian Offensive and the Battle of Berlin.

After leading the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Andreyev retired in 1973.

He lived in Moscow and died in 1983.

In late October he took command of the 86th Rifle Division, fighting in the Nevsky Pyatachok.

He was then the assistant chief of a frontier post in the 12th Bigosovo Border Detachment and later transferred to the same position in the 14th Pleshchenitsy Border Detachment.

He served in the 15th Zaslonovo Border Detachment.

Postwar, he commanded the 4th Guards Rifle Corps, 7th Guards Rifle Corps, 19th Rifle Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 28th Army and Voronezh Military District.

He was then Warsaw Pact representative to the Albanian People's Army and Czechoslovak People's Army.