20 Facts About Boris Shaposhnikov

Boris Shaposhnikov served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1928 to 1931 and at the start of the Second World War.

Boris Shaposhnikov supported the Russian Revolution and later joined the Red Army, but did not become a member of the Communist Party until 1939.

Boris Shaposhnikov was Chief of the Staff of the Red Army from 1928 to 1931, followed by a stint as commandant of the Frunze Military Academy.

Boris Shaposhnikov resigned as Chief of the General Staff following Soviet failures during the Winter War in Finland.

Boris Shaposhnikov then held the post of commandant of the Academy of the General Staff, and remained an influential and respected advisor to Stalin until his death in 1945.

Boris Shaposhnikov, born at Zlatoust, near Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains, had Orenburg Cossack origins.

Boris Shaposhnikov joined the army of the Russian Empire in 1901 as an officer cadet, and graduated from the Nicholas General Staff Academy in 1910, reaching the rank of colonel in the Caucasus Grenadiers division in September 1917 during World War I Also in 1917, unusually for an officer of his rank, he supported the Russian Revolution, and in May 1918 joined the Red Army.

Boris Shaposhnikov was one of the few Red Army commanders with formal pre-revolutionary military training, and in 1921 he became 1st Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army's General Staff, where he served until 1925.

Boris Shaposhnikov was appointed commander of the Leningrad Military District in 1925 and then of the Moscow Military District in 1927.

Boris Shaposhnikov was then demoted to command of the Volga Military District from April 1931 to 1932 as a result of slanderous accusations of belonging to a clandestine organization.

Boris Shaposhnikov was one of the few men whom Stalin addressed by his Christian name and patronymic.

Fortunately for the Soviet Union, Boris Shaposhnikov had a fine military mind and high administrative skills.

Boris Shaposhnikov combined these talents with his position in Stalin's confidence to rebuild the Red Army's leadership cadres after the purges.

Boris Shaposhnikov obtained the release from the Gulag of 4,000 officers deemed necessary for this operation.

Boris Shaposhnikov planned the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland, but was much less optimistic about its duration than Stalin and the campaign's commander Kliment Voroshilov.

The resultant Winter War did not deliver the immediate success the Soviet side had hoped for, and Boris Shaposhnikov resigned as Chief of the General Staff in August 1940, due to ill-health and to disagreements with Stalin about the conduct of that campaign.

Boris Shaposhnikov resigned again as Chief of the General Staff due to ill-health on 10 May 1942.

Boris Shaposhnikov held the position of commandant of the Voroshilov Military Academy until his death in 1945 at the age of 62.

Boris Shaposhnikov had groomed his successor as Chief of Staff, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, and remained an influential and respected advisor to Stalin until his death.

Boris Shaposhnikov's ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.