Ivan Bezugly

Who is Ivan Bezugly?

Ivan Semyonovich Bezugly was a Soviet Red Army officer who served as commander of the Red Army's V Airborne Corps in 1941, the first airborne corps of the Red Army to fight in World War II after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Suffering heavy casualties just south of Daugavpils in combat against the advancing Panzer units of Army Group North in the summer of 1941, the unit made its way to the Moscow Military District on 15 August.

Promoted to lieutenant-general later in the war, Bezugly took part in the Soviet operations against Imperial Japan following the end of World War II in Europe as commanding officer of the V Guards Rifle Corps, which fought as part of Colonel-General Ivan Lyudnikov's 39th Army in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945. The V Guards Rifle Corps captured Solun during the Manchurian operation.