Kirill Meretskov
Soviet marshal (1897–1968)
Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov (Russian: Кири́лл Афана́сьевич Мерецко́в; 7 June [O.S. 26 May] 1897 – 30 December 1968) was a Soviet military commander. Having joined the Communist Party in 1917, he served in the Red Army from 1920. During the Winter War of 1939–1940 against Finland, he had the task of penetrating the Mannerheim Line as commander of the 7th Army. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union shortly afterwards.
The NKVD arrested Meretskov at the start of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Released two months later, he returned to command the 7th Army and later the Volkhov Front during the 1941–1944 siege of Leningrad. He commanded the Karelian Front from February 1944, notably the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive of October 1944. From April 1945 he was assigned to the Far East, where he commanded a front during the Soviet invasion of Japanese Manchuria. During the war he reached the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Early life and career
Meretskov was born at Nazaryevo in Ryazan Governorate (now in Moscow Oblast), southeast of Moscow.
The public source identifies “Kirill Meretskov” as soviet marshal (1897–1968). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kirill, Meretskov and Soviet.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48145. VIAF identifies the subject as 77108232. The Library of Congress control number is n83147480. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1968, 1917 and 1920.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kirill Meretskov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.