After joining the Red Army during the final phases of the Russian Civil War, Bobruk became a junior commander in cavalry units, serving in the suppression of the Basmachi movement.

Bobruk commanded the 47th Guards Rifle Division during the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership in it.

In the final year of the war he led the 31st Guards Rifle Corps in its westward advance, continuing his command into the early postwar period.

Bobruk was born on 15 February 1901 in the village of Shubichi, Mikhailovsky volost, Pruzhansky Uyezd, Grodno Governorate in a peasant family of Belarusian ethnicity.

[1] After completing primary school in 1914,[2] he worked as a laborer in a shoe factory in Taldom, and from 1919 was a helper and assistant machinist in the machine-mechanical workshop.

From March to June 1933 he studied at Red Army cavalry advanced training courses (KUKS) in Novocherkassk, then returned to his previous position.

In March of the latter year Bobruk was appointed assistant chief of staff of the 5th Cavalry Division, with which he fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland, advancing into western Ukraine.

in April, he was transferred to the Volga Military District as head of the operational department and deputy chief of staff of the 148th Rifle Division in Saratov.

In early August, elements of the 148th fought in battles on the Sozh River, retreating to the east in stubborn defensive fighting.

[4] Until mid-November, the division units firmly held their positions, and in early December it became part of the newly formed 1st Guards Army of the Southwestern Front, participating in Operation Little Saturn.

For his "skilled organization of the actions of the division" in the operation, Bobruk was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin on 19 March; he received a simultaneous promotion to major general.