Ivan Vertelko

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Ivan Petrovich Vertelko (Russian: Иван Петрович Вертелко; 17 August 1926 – 14 June 2021) was an officer of the Soviet military who held a number of posts in the Soviet Tank Forces, and later the Soviet Border Forces, reaching the rank of colonel general. Born in 1926, Vertelko was still a child when the Second World War broke out, and following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, lived for some time under German occupation. He narrowly avoided being deported to Germany by escaping from a camp, and in 1943 joined the Red Army at the age of 17. He initially served as a scout in a motorcycle reconnaissance battalion, going on to see action at the liberation of Minsk and during the Vilnius offensive. Wounded in action, he lost a finger, and received the Order of the Red Star when defending against counterattacks, before joining the tank forces as a crewman on a T-34. In this role he saw out the war, but continued to serve in the armed forces. By now attached to the tank forces, Vertelko studied at several schools and rose through the ranks and positions to more senior commands. He studied at the Military Academy of the Armoured Forces, and later at the Military Academy of the General Staff, and after distinguishing himself in military exercises, became first deputy commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army. He then made a radical switch in his career after being transferred to the Soviet Border Forces, who were in the process of equipping with new heavier armaments, and who needed an experienced commander. He served as deputy head of the Main Directorate for the Internal Affairs of the KGB, and then as first deputy head of the Main Directorate of the KGB, being heavily involved in...