An officer in the NKVD Border Troops before World War II, Tarasov was given command of the 249th Rifle Division after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began in June 1941.

From the fall of 1923 he studied at the Tyumen Road Construction Institute, but did not graduate due to its closure, after which he worked as a teacher at the first-stage (primary) school in the village of Poloy.

In August 1925, Tarasov joined the Red Army and entered the Ulyanovsk Military School, graduating with honors in September 1927.

In March 1932, Tarasov became chief of the school of junior commanders of the 29th Regiment of the OGPU Troops in Magnitogorsk.

[1] After his graduation, Tarasov was sent to the 14th Pleshchenitsy Border Detachment of the NKVD Troops to serve as its chief of staff.

From August 1938, he served in the Headquarters of the Border Troops of the Belorussian District in Minsk as chief of the 1st Section of the 3rd Department.

[2] Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, Tarasov was given command of the 249th Rifle Division, forming in the Moscow Military District at Zagorsk.

[3] After completing its formation, the army joined the Kalinin Front, defending positions on a line southwest of Bely.

As part of the Voronezh Front, the 4th Guards Army fought in the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation and the Battle of the Dnieper from the summer through the early fall of 1943.