During 1937 Kulik became commander of the Red Army 's Main Artillery Directorate , and remained commander of the Soviet artillery forces until 1941 . He was both a sycophantic Stalinist and a radical military conservative , strongly opposed to the reforms proposed by Mikhail Tukhachevsky during the 1930s . For this reason he survived Stalin 's Great Purge of the Red Army during 1937-38 , and during 1939 he became Deputy People 's Commissar of Defense , also participating with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland during September . He commanded the Soviet 's artillery attack on Finland at the start of the Winter War , which quickly foundered by his poor leadership . He was awarded the title of " Hero of the Soviet Union " in recognition of " outstanding services to the country and personal courage . " As a friend of Stalin he was successfully able to convince him to spare more than 150,000 Polish prisoners from execution during the Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
Grigory Kulik