Filipp Rudkin | |
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| Native name | Филипп Никитович Рудкин |
| Born | 27 November 1893 Chornaya Sosna, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 12 October 1954 (aged 60) Moscow, Soviet Union |
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| Rank | Major general |
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Filipp Nikitovich Rudkin (Russian: Фили́пп Ники́тович Ру́дкин; 27 November 1893 – 12 October 1954) was a Belarusian Soviet Army major general and a Hero of the Soviet Union.
After fighting in World War I, he successively became a Cheka, OGPU, and NKVD officer, seeing action in the Russian Civil War. Rudkin was transferred to the reserve in 1938 but reinstated two years later. After the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, he became an armor officer in the Red Army. Given command of a separate tank brigade, Rudkin led it in the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, Operation Star, and the Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943. For his leadership he received the title Hero of the Soviet Union in March, and became commander of the 15th Tank Corps in June. After leading the unit in Operation Kutuzov, he was considered unsuited for corps command and relieved, being demoted to command a rear area tank training unit. Rudkin was sent back to the front in January 1944, and led the 11th Tank Corps until July, when his corps suffered heavy losses after advancing into a German counterattack, after which he became deputy commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front's armored and mechanized troops, a position he ended the war in. Postwar, he served in several armored and mechanized forces posts in the Soviet Army, retiring in 1952.