Arkhip Ruchkin

Arkhip Ivanovich Ruchkin (Russian: Архип Иванович Ручкин; 19 September 1898 – 8 November 1979) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general who held corps commands during World War II.

Arkhip Ivanovich Ruchkin was born in a peasant family on 19 September 1898 in the village of Nizovka, Balashovsky Uyezd, Saratov Governorate.

He was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army during World War I in February 1917, fighting as a ryadovoy on the Romanian Front.

During May and June 1924 he served as chief of the machine gun detachment of the 5th Corps School for Training of Junior Command Personnel.

From September to April 1943, he served as officer for special assignments of the Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army Georgy Zhukov during the destruction of the encircled German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.

During the entire period of the pursuit of the enemy, driving him to the west, the corps in cooperation with other formations of the 46th Army took by storm on 22 February 1944 the large industrial center of Ukraine - the city of Krivoy Rog.

For his skillful conduct of offensive operations, inflicting of great losses in personnel and equipment on the enemy, liberation of the major population center of Apostolovo and industrial center of Ukraine - the city of Krivoy Rog, Major General Ruchkin is deserving of the award of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 2nd class.

After the corps' divisions reached the Dniester at the end of the Odessa Offensive, Ruchkin's troops failed to overcome German resistance at Chebruchi on 14 April.

In late June, during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive, the units of the corps broke through the German defenses northwest of Vitebsk and advanced 20 to 40 kilometers in two days, reaching the Western Dvina.

The units of the corps broke through the fortified, deeply echeloned defense of the enemy and in five days moved up to 25 kilometers in bitter fighting, liberating 131 settlements and the railroad stations of Lovsha and Obol.

For skillful command of the corps in the breakthrough of the enemy defensive zone, quick organization of the pursuit, and displaying in this courage and urgency, Guards Major General Ruchkin is deserving of the award of the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class.

The corps seized Zarasai during the Šiauliai offensive as part of the 6th Guards Army and subsequently fought its way to the Mūša river in the region west of Biržai.

[8] He was moved up to acting deputy commander of the 4th Shock Army of the front in December 1944, taking part in the preparation and conduct of offensive battles on the Venta river and near Memel.

Ruchkin returned to the Soviet Union in March 1959 to serve as a senior instructor in the operational art department of the Military Academy of the General Staff, his last post before being retired in January 1961.