Rakovsky led the division in a temporarily successful counterattack during the Battle of Smolensk, and managed to lead a small group from his command out of encirclement several weeks later.

His division disbanded due to its losses, Rakovsky was given command of the 53rd Separate Rifle Brigade in late 1941, leading it with the 2nd Shock Army in the first days of the January 1942 Lyuban Offensive.

An ethnic Russian, Rakovsky was born on 1 January 1898 in the village of Plavna, Brakhlovskoy volost, Novozybkovsky Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate.

During World War I, he was mobilized for service in the Imperial Russian Army on 13 February 1917 and sent to the training detachment of the 28th Siberian Rifle Regiment in Omsk.

The regiment was disbanded after the October Revolution in November, and following his demobilization Rakovsky went to Barnaulsky Uyezd of Tomsk Governorate, where he worked as a miner.

[1] During the Russian Civil War, he was conscripted into the White army of Alexander Kolchak on 13 August 1918 while at Kamen and sent to Novonikolayevsk to serve with the Nikolayevsk Reserve Regiment.

Two weeks later, he was sent with the courses to the Southern Front to fight against the White Armed Forces of South Russia in the area of Millerovo and Voronezh.

Ten days later, he was relieved of command for "not fulfilling orders and tolerating heavy losses", being again placed at the disposal of the Main Personnel Directorate.

Rakovsky never held a combat command again and in February was appointed head of the 2nd Leningrad Infantry School, evacuated to Glazov, where he spent the rest of the war.