Konev, << KOHN yehf, >> Ivan Stepanovich (1897-1973), rose to fame as a Soviet marshal in World War II. He drove the Nazis back through southern Poland to Berlin in 1945, and also captured Prague. His troops were the first Soviets to meet American forces in Germany, on the banks of the Elbe River.
In 1946, Konev was made a deputy war minister and commander in chief of all land forces. In 1955, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union’s leader, made Konev supreme commander of all the Soviet and “satellite” armies of eastern Europe. In October 1957, Konev helped Khrushchev strip power from Georgi K. Zhukov, another Soviet marshal who became famous in World War II.
Konev was born of poor farmers in Lodeino, in northern Russia. He served as a private in World War I. In 1918, he joined the Communist Party and the Red Army, and he fought in Russia’s civil war.
