Purkaev, Maksim

Born Aug. 14 (26), 1894, in the village of Nalitovo, now the village of Purkaevo, Dubenki Raion, Mordovian ASSR; died Jan. 1, 1953, in Moscow. Soviet military commander, general of the army (1944). Member of the CPSU from 1919. Son of a Mordovian worker.

Purkaev was drafted into the army in 1915 and graduated from a school for ensigns in 1916. In the Red Army from 1918, Purkaev fought in the Civil War of 1918–20 on the Eastern and Western fronts as the commander of a company, battalion, and regiment. He graduated from Vystrel, the Higher Infantry School of the Red Army, in 1923 and from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1936. He was a division commander from 1936 to 1938 and chief of staff of the Byelorussian and Kiev special military districts from 1938 to 1941. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Purkaev served as chief of staff of the Southwestern Front in June-July 1941, commander of the Sixtieth Army (Third Shock Army from December 1941) on the Northwestern and Kalinin fronts, and commander of the forces of the Kalinin Front in 1942–43, the Far Eastern Front from April 1943 to August 1945, and the Second Far Eastern Front in 1945.

After the war, Purkaev was commander of the forces of the Far Eastern Military District from September 1945 to January 1947. From June 1947 he was chief of staff and then first deputy commander in chief of the forces of the Far East. In July 1952 he became chief of the Directorate of Higher Military Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. He was a deputy to the second convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Purkaev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, and various medals.