Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko
Born	April 15, 1890 Russian Empire
Died	5 August 1943(1943-08-05) (aged 53) Soviet Union
Allegiance	Russian Empire Soviet Union
Service/branch	Imperial Russian Army Soviet Red Army
Years of service	1911–1917 (Russian Empire) 1918–1943 (Soviet Union)
Rank	General of the army
Commands held	6th Cavalry Division (Soviet Union) Central Asian Military District Far Eastern Front
Battles/wars	World War I Russian Civil War World War II Battle of Kursk

Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko (Russian: Иосиф Родионович Апанасенко) (April 15 (April 3 O.S.), 1890 – August 5, 1943) was a Soviet division commander.

Career

Iosif Apanasenko was an ethnic Russian, born in a village in Stravopol province.^[1] His family were poor peasants. As a teenager, he worked as a labourer and a shepherd. In 1911, he was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, and fought in World War I, at the end of which he was commander of a machine gun regiment. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he returned to his native village, where he was elected chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee. In May 1918, he organised a partisan detachment to fight against the White Army. Later in 1918, he took command of the Sixth Cavalry Division of the Red Cavalry, commanded by Semyon Budyonny, and fought in the Civil War across south Russia and Ukraine to Lviv, but during the Polish–Soviet War, members of the Sixth Cavalry Division committed particularly serious atrocities against the Jews, and the political commissar who tried to restore was killed, and Apanasenko was dismissed form his command for failing to keep his men under control.^[1]

Apanasenko was allowed to re-enlist in the cavalry as commander of the Fifth Cavalry Division in 1924, after undergoing military training. In 1935-38, he was deputy commander of the Belarus military district. He was one of a number of former cavalry officers to receive rapid promotion during the Great Purge, being appointed Commander of the Central Asian Military District in February 1938. In 1941, he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, promoted to the rank of General, and appointed Commander of the Far Eastern Front. As it became clear that there was no risk of another war with Japan on the Chinese border, he made numerous requests to be transferred to the front to fight the Germans, and was appointed deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. He visited units on the frontline and led them during the fighting. He was killed by an airstrike during the Soviet counteroffensive at Kursk. He was a recipient of the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner.