Sergey Semyonovich Biryuzov (; 21 August 1904 – 19 October 1964) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and Chief of the General Staff. Early life and prewar service Biryuzov was born in Skopin, in the Ryazan Governorate of the Russian Empire, in a working-class family of Russian ethnicity. He joined the Red Army in September 1922, studying at the 48th Rostov Infantry and Machine Gun and the 10th Vladikavkaz Courses in the North Caucasus Military District before transferring to the VTsIK Combined Military School in Moscow in October 1923. After graduating from the latter, Biryuzov returned to the North Caucasus Military District in September 1926 to command a platoon of the 65th Rifle Regiment of the 22nd Rifle Division. In the same year he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From December 1929 he served as commander of an airfield company of the 36th Aircraft Fleet in the district. After completing studies at the Military Faculty of the Moscow Zootechnical Institute between June 1930 and February 1931, Biryuzov served with the 3rd Rifle Regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division, rising from company commander to chief of staff of the training battalion to rifle battalion commander during his service with the regiment. Entering the Frunze Military Academy in June 1934, Biryuzov became chief of staff of the 30th Rifle Division following his graduation in October 1937. He was acting division commander until February 1938 and in April of that year became chief of the operations department Kharkov Military District staff. Biryuzov held this position until August 1939, when he became the commanding officer of the 132nd Rifle Division. World War II Biryuzov commanded this unit for the next three years, a rarity among Soviet generals, especially during World War II–as Soviet generals rarely held command positions for longer than a few months at most. Biryuzov's division was a part of Southwestern and Bryansk Fronts. Biryuzov was a fine division commander, often leading his division personally into battle. Within the first year of Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), Biryuzov had been wounded five times, two times rather severely. In April 1942, he was made the Chief of Staff of the 48th Army, which was a part of Bryansk Front. He commanded this unit until November 1942, when he was made the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Guards Army. He was in this position until April