5 November] 1912 to a Russian peasant family in what is now Novonikolskoe village of Volgograd Oblast, he was forced to begin working at a young age due to the deaths of his parents.

[4] During the initial stage of Operation Barbarossa he was posted as commander of a training battalion within the 6th Motor-rifle Regiment, based in the Moscow Military District.

While caring for him she helped him make contact with local Communist sympathizers to form a partisan unit in addition to the other soldiers from his battalion.

[5][6] Upon his return to the army he commanded the 132nd Guards Rifle Regiment; during his tenure the unit fought on the Western, Voronezh, and 1st Ukrainian fronts, participating in offensive operations that resulted in the expulsion of enemy forces from many areas, including a bridgehead of the Dnieper which they crossed on 24 September 1943.

In later 1944 he was promoted to commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Division, but shortly afterwards he was badly wounded when his car drove over a land mine.