After a mixed career in field troops of World War II and three post-war years, Maslennikov returned to NKVD in 1948 and stayed there, despite political changes, until his suicide in 1954.

Ivan Maslennikov, born on a remote railroad station in present-day Saratov Oblast, joined the pro-bolshevik Red Guards in 1917, fighting near Astrakhan.

Post-war Soviet sources give credits for taking Tver to general Vasily Yushkevich, commander of 31st army.

[12] In the same July 1942, immediately after extraction from Rzhev pocket, Maslennikov reappeared in the South, leading a makeshift defence on the path of Evald von Kleist's troops advancing towards the Caucasus.

[14] Later they were reinforced with 100 tanks, earmarked for Baku defense,[15] and were the first to receive experimental infrared sights and silenced sniper rifles,[2] however, the manpower shortage persisted into 1943.

[16] Consolidation of reserves, supervised personally by Joseph Stalin,[17] enabled Maslennikov to check 1st Panzer Army advance in Terek valley and secure Baku oil.

Stalin reprimanded Maslennikov and Ivan Petrov (commander of Black Sea Group) for "not understanding this"[18][19] and, three days later, for issuing unrealistic offensive orders to depleted troops leading to loss of control and potential envelopement by the Germans.

From this moment, Northern Group became an independent North Caucasus Front, with Maslennikov still in command, charged with a strategic task of cutting Kleist's lifeline in Bataisk.

This ultimate goal never materialized: the Germans fiercely defended Bataisk, winning enough time to evacuate Army Group A.

After a week of fighting, Germans abandoned Pskov; north from Lake Peipus, Leonid Govorov's troops captured Narva; this operation Maslennikov was promoted to the rank of General of the Army.

August 24 Count von Strachwitz's tank group attempted a counterstrike which failed; next day, Maslennikov's forces captured Tartu.

Officially, he was the first deputy to Alexander Vasilevsky, commander-in-chief of Far Eastern forces; the operation earned Maslennikov the Star of Hero of Soviet Union.

Future Soviet Air Forces chief Konstantin Vershinin described Maslennikov's personal style of this period as "tough, sometimes ruthless".

Alexander Solzhenitsyn mentions a general Maslennikov taking part in the appeasement of Vorkuta uprising (July 1953) that soon turned into mass shooting of rioting inmates.

While his name appeared frequently in Soviet books on World War II (seldom mentioning his NKVD past), he never became subject of a thoroughly researched biography.