Andreyev fought in the Winter War as commander of a ski regiment of the border troops.

After spending the first months of World War II as logistics chief of the 23rd Army, he was appointed to command the 43rd Rifle Division in September.

In November 1942 he took command of the newly formed 102nd Rifle Division and led it in Operation Kutuzov, the Battle of the Dnieper and the Gomel-Rechitsa Offensive.

In December 1943 he was appointed commander of the 29th Rifle Corps and fought in the Operation Bagration and the Lublin–Brest Offensive.

In September, Andreyev became commander of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps, defending the Magnuszew bridgehead.

In April 1945 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership in the capture of Warsaw.

In 1920 Matvey decided to return to his home village of Tatarsk in Smolensk Governorate along with his family, where he was given redistributed land.

[1] In November 1939 the border detachment was upgraded into the 5th NKVD Regiment of Operational Troops.

[3] Andreyev led the division in the Nevsky Pyatachok until April 1942,[4] when he became deputy commander of the 23rd Army.

The offensive began on 22 July and initially achieved success when both objectives were captured, but strong German counterattacks inflicted heavy losses on Soviet troops, forcing them to withdraw back to the starting positions on 25 July.

[5] In October 1942, Andreyev was summoned to Moscow, where he received orders to lead the Far Eastern NKVD Rifle Division, then forming at Khabarovsk.

The division then marched 200 kilometers to positions southeast of Dmitrovsk-Orlovsky, in preparation for the Dmitriyev-Sevsk Offensive.

The 16th and 30th Rifle Regiments attacked German positions from the night of 7–8 March, but were soon repulsed.

On 22 August the division became part of the 48th Army and transferred to the area of Pochinok-Aleshok in Oryol Oblast.

For its actions the division was given the honorific "Novgorod-Seversky" and Andreyev received the Order of Suvorov 2nd class.

[6] The division continued the advance toward Gomel, crossing the Sozh River on the night of 7–8 October and capturing a bridgehead.

On 25 November the western outskirts of Gomel were captured by the 30th Rifle Regiment, and the rest of the city fell the next day.

It crossed the river and seized bridgeheads, which it fought fierce battles to retain.

[12] On 6 April, Matveyev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for his leadership.

In August he was appointed commander of the 7th Guards Rifle Corps in the Leningrad Military District.

Between June 1960 and August 1951 he was Warsaw Pact senior representative to the Albanian People's Army.