Nikolay Prishchepa (original) (raw)

Nikolay Andreyevich Prishchepa (Russian: Николай Андреевич Прищепа; 14 April 1900 – 18 August 1941) was a Ukrainian Red Army major general killed in World War II. A revolutionary worker, Prishchepa joined the Red Guards and then the Red Army in early 1918, serving with a railway unit during the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War. He became a junior commander during the early 1920s, serving with units stationed in Ukraine. Prishchepa held staff and command positions during the late 1930s and became commander of the as the Red Army expanded before Operation Barbarossa. He led the division in a temporarily successful counterattack during the Battle of Smolensk, but died of severe wounds received while attempting to escape from encirclement several weeks later.