Andrey Khrulyov

General armii Andrei Vasilyevich Khrulyov (1892-1962).

General Andrei Vasilyevich Khrulyov (Russian: Андрей Васильевич Хрулёв) (September 30 [O.S. September 18] 1892, village of Bolshaya Alexandrovka, Saint Petersburg Governorate - June 9, 1962, Moscow) was a Soviet military commander.

Early life

Andrey Khrulyov was born in the village of Bolshaya Aleksandrovka, the son of Vasily Vasilyevich Khrulev, a blacksmith’s striker, and Maria Ivanovna, a peasant. He apprenticed to a goldsmith (1903–1912). At some point, he became a revolutionary, for which he was exiled to Estonia (1912–1914).

Career

Joining the Red Army in 1918 during the Russian Civil War, Khrulyov first served first in Petrograd, and during 1919–1921 as a political commissar in the 11th cavalry division of Budenny's First Cavalry Army.

After the war, he remained in military service, and began developing a more sophisticated logistical system for the Red Army, which became the Rear of the Russian Armed Forces. Khrulev was Head of Main Intendant Directorate of the Red Army (1939-1941), deputy chief of People’s Commissar of Defence of the USSR and Head of Main Directorate of the Rear Services of the Red Army (from 1941). From 1942–1943 he served as People's Commissariat for Railways.

A plaque in honor of General Andrey Khrulyov on Tverskaya Street in Moscow.

At his death in 1962, a group of marshals pressed the Politburo to bury Khrulyov in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Normally, generals of his rank (Army General) were not entitled to this honor; Nikita Khrushchev was known to dislike Khrulyov and suggested burying him at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The military prevailed, and Khrulyov's ashes were buried on Red Square.