Ivan Yefimovich Petrov, born 30-09-1896 in Trubchevsk, Oryol Governorate, Russian Empire 
Ivan began his military service in the Red Army in 1918, the year when he also joined the Bolshevik Party. Petrov fought in the Russian Civil war near Samara, the Polish Soviet War of 1920 and the Basmachi rebellion in 1922. In the late 1920s and 1930s Petrov served in Central Asia. Petrov fought against the Basmachi in 1929 and 1931-32 as commander of a cavalry regiment and a rifle division. In 1933 Petrov was appointed chief of the Combined Middle Asian Military School (subsequently the Tashkent Military Infantry School).
In the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), Petrov commanded a rifle division on the Southern Front (July-October 1941), the Maritime Army (October 1941-July 1942 and November 1943— February 1944), the Forty-fourth Army (August-October 1942), the Black Sea Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front (October 1942-March 1943), the Northern Caucasus Front (May-November 1943) 
, the Thirty-third Army of the Western Front (March-April 1944), the Second Byelorussian Front (April-June 1944), and the Fourth Ukrainian Front (August 1944-March 1945). He was chief of staff of the First Ukrainian Front from April to June 1945. Petrov was one of the leaders of the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol’ 
and fought in the battle for the Caucasus, in the liberation of Byelorussia and Czechoslovakia, and in the Berlin and Prague operations.
After the war, Petrov was appointed commander of the troops of the Turkestan Military District in July 1945 and first deputy chief inspector of the Soviet Army in July 1952. Hebecame chief of the Main Directorate for Combat and Physical Training in April 1953, first deputy commander in chief of the ground forces in March 1955, chief inspector of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR in January 1956, and chief scientific consultant for the deputy minister of defense of the USSR in June 1957. He was a deputy to the second, third, and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Monument to Army General Ivan Yefimovich Petrov, Kosice, in Jan.2012 
Death and burial ground of Petrov, Ivan Yefimovich.
On 29-03-1945 Petrov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. 
The United States awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross in War Department General Order No. 3 of 1944.
After the war Petrov commanded the Turkestan Military District and was inspector general of land forces. Petrov died in Moscow on 07-04-1958 (aged 61) in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR and is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.
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