He graduated from an industrial school in Irkutsk in 1917 and worked as a metalworker for the local Trans-Baikal Railway station.

In 1918 he joined the Red Guards as a machine gunner and helped suppress the Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion and served on several Soviet steamships on Lake Baikal.

[1] When Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 Sukhomlin was named deputy chief of staff for the Northwestern Front centered around Leningrad.

He led the army in February 1943 during Operation Polar Star, an unsuccessful attempt to lift the blockade of Leningrad.

He replaced Kuzma Trubnikov, who was blamed for the early failures of Operation Suvorov, an attempt to liberate Smolensk.