planning of the Soviet–Japanese War. Post-war career In April 1946 Shtemenko was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff. In November 1948, the 41-year-old Shtemenko was made the Chief of the General Staff and a Deputy Minister of Defence. However, in June 1952 he was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by Vasily Sokolovsky. Shtemenko was then transferred to command the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In 1953 Shtemenko was listed as an intended victim of the Doctors' Plot. He continued to serve in the General Staff as deputy chief, and was made a candidate member of the Central Committee, a position he held until 1956. In June 1953 he was dismissed from the General Staff and demoted to Lieutenant General, after being accused of being an associate of Beria. In 1956 Zhukov appointed him Chief of Military Intelligence and promoted him to Colonel General. However, Shtemenko again fell out of grace after Zhukov was removed as Defense Minister, and was demoted again to Lieutenant General in 1957. He was sent to occupy the position of deputy commander of the Volga Military District. Shtemenko slowly regained his status. In June 1962 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, and in April 1964 he became Chief of the Main Organizational-Mobilization Department of the General Staff. On 6 August 1968 he was promoted to be the Chief of Combined Staff of the Warsaw Pact under the Pact's forces Supreme Commander Marshal Ivan Yakubovsky, and granted the rank of Army General once more. His promotion was part of the preparations for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which began two weeks later. Shtemenko died in Moscow in 1976. On 10 February 1977, on the 70th anniversary of his birth and 10 months after his death, the Krasnodar Red Banner Military Academy was renamed after him. Honours and awards Order of Lenin Order of the Red Banner, three times Order of Suvorov, 1st class, twice; 2nd class Order of Kutuzov, 1st class Order of the Red Banner of Labour Order of the Red Star Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Jubilee Medal "Twenty