Boris Shaposhnikov

Boris Mikhaylovich Shaposhnikov (Russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Ша́пошников) (2 October [O.S. 20 September] 1882 – 26 March 1945) was a Soviet military officer, theoretician and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He 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. Shaposhnikov was one of the foremost military theorists during the Stalin-era. His most important work, Mozg Armii ("The Brain of the Army"), is considered a landmark in Soviet military theory and doctrine on the organization of the Red Army's General Staff. Born to a family of Orenburg Cossack origins in Zlatoust in the Urals, Shaposhnikov was a graduate of the Nicholas General Staff Academy and served in the Imperial Russian Army, reaching the rank of colonel during the First World War. He supported the Russian Revolution and later joined the Red Army, but did not become a member of the Communist Party until 1939. He was Chief of the Staff of the Red Army from 1928 to 1931, followed by a stint as commandant of the Frunze Military Academy. In 1937, he was appointed to the newly created title of Chief of the General Staff. In 1940, he was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union. Shaposhnikov resigned as Chief of the General Staff following Soviet failures during the Winter War in Finland. He was reappointed to the position following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, replacing Georgy Zhukov, but was again forced to resign a year later due to declining health. He 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.