Mikhail Timofeyevich Romanov

Mikhail Timofeyevich Romanov (Russian: Михаил Тимофеевич Романов; 3 November 1891 – 13 December 1941) was a Red Army major general.

[1] In September 1915 he was mobilized as part of a militia call-up into the Imperial Russian Army, becoming a ratnik 2-go razryada (2nd class warrior) in the 153rd Separate Reserve Battalion, stationed in Kungur.

With the regiment, Romanov was sent to fight against the Basmachi in Fergana Oblast during November, serving in actions at Aralsk, Tashkent, and Andijan, where he was wounded in the head in May 1920.

In October 1923, he left Central Asia for the Higher Rifle-Tactics Courses for the Improvement of the Red Army Infantry Command Cadre.

[2] When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June, the 172nd was stationed at the Tesnitskoye Military Camp near Tula.

In late June and early July, the division was rushed to the Belarusian city of Mogilev, where it became part of the 61st Rifle Corps of the 13th Army of the Western Front.

[4] Immediately after it arrived, the city was besieged by German troops, whose first attack was made by elements of the 3rd Panzer Group against the division on 3 July.

The defenders managed to repulse the attack and successive German attempts to cross the Dnieper, but were gradually worn down after 23 days in encirclement.

[2] On the night of 26 to 27 July 61st Rifle Corps commander Major General Fyodor Bakunin ordered a breakout attempt after the garrison ran out of ammunition.

He was captured there on 22 September and sent to the Lupolovo prisoner-of-war camp after being treated at a German hospital in Mogilev, according to an interrogation report written by a Police Regiment Centre officer.