Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin (Russian: Никола́й Эра́стович Берза́рин; 1 April 1904 – 16 June 1945) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became the first town mayor of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin. Biography Berzarin was born in Saint Petersburg as the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress. He had one brother and four sisters. In 1925, he married bank employee Natalja Prosinjuk, with whom he had two daughters, Larissa and Irina. Training In 1918 Berzarin enlisted in the Red Army and fought against Allied troops in Archangelsk. Between 1921 and 1923 he received more military training at the Leningrad Command Courses, machine gun course at the "Vistrel" and a command course at the Siberian Military District. In 1922, he became a member of Komsomol. In 1923 he was assigned to Siberia. In 1926, after officer training, he became a member of the CPSU. Military career He began service as an enlisted soldier in the Soviet Union in Petrograd, and after service on the Northern Front against the Allied Intervention also participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion (1921). In 1924 he was serving as a junior officer in the Amur region against the bandit raiders. In 1927 he returned to Siberia, where he was an assistant to commander of an officers training unit in Irkutsk. From 1933 to 1935, he served in the staff of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army; from 1935 to 1937 he led the 77th Rifle Regiment of the 26th Rifle Division of the Far Eastern Army. Until 1938, he was the chief instructor of the Amur group. During the Great Purge, he was accused of owing his career to the "enemies of the people", but was supported by various Communist Party members. As commander of the 32nd Rifle Division, he repelled Japanese attacks at Lake Khasan (1938), for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After his appointment as Major General, he was transferred at his own request to Riga, and became commander of the 27th Army in May 1941. He fought against the German armed forces after their assault on the Soviet Union. From December 1941 to May 1944 he was Commander-in-Chief of several armies; he was badly wounded in March 1943 and was hospitalized for six months. He received the Order of Lenin