In early February 1918 Askalepov joined the red partisan detachment of Mikhail Fedoseevich Blinov, a Soviet military leader during the Civil War in Russia, in Morozovsk.

In 1927 he graduated from the cavalry advanced training course for the command staff of the Red Army in Novocherkassk.

[1] Askalepov was released due to the termination of the case on June 5, 1938, and subsequently reinstated in the Red Army.

In July 1938 Askalepov became teacher of tactics of the cavalry courses for the improvement of the command staff of the Red Army in Novocherkassk.

Askalepov formed the division in the Kirghiz SSR and in August 1942 arrived with it in the Moscow Military District.

The division under his command held a bridgehead on the Don to the northwest Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses and was disbanded on November 5, 1942.

For outstanding distinctions in the Battle of Stalingrad, especially during the destruction of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht surrounded in Stalingrad, the 173rd Rifle Division, by order of the People's Commissar of Defence of the USSR on March 1, 1943, received the rank of the Guards and was renamed the 77th Guards Rifle Division.

The next day, September 28, 1943, the entire division crossed the river under German fire and continued the offensive to expand the bridgehead.

"For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the Command for forcing the Dnieper River and the courage and heroism shown at the same time," by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 15, 1944, Guards Major General Vasily Semyonovich Askalepov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the medal "Gold Star" (No.

[5][6] After World War II he continued to command the 77th Guards Rifle Division in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

In June 1946 due to the reduction of the armed forces, the division was transformed into the 10th Separate Guards Rifle Brigade where Askalepov remained as its commander.