Sergei Matveevich Shtemenko (20 April 1907, Uryupinsk - 23 April 1976, Moscow) was a Soviet general and chief of the GRU. Born to a peasant family, he volunteered into the Red Army in 1926. In 1930 he joined the Communist Party, and graduated from the Anti-Aircraft School in Sevastopol at the same year. After several years in the Artillery, he moved to the Armored Corps, completing his studies in the Mechanization and Motorization Academy at 1937. He commanded a tank regiment during the Invasion of Poland. Then he was transferred him to staff duty. Shtemenko graduated from the Academy at 1940. Soon after the German invasion, in August 1941, he was appointed as deputy chief of operational planning in the General Staff, rapidly rising through the ranks in the Operations Department until becoming it's chief in May 1943. He took part in the planning of numerous offensives as a representative of the Stavka, among them almost all the major battles on the Eastern Frnot. He escorted Stalin to the Tehran Conference. At the end of the war Shtemenko was among the organizers of the Victory Parade. In April 1946 Shtemenko was promoted to the role of Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and from November 1948 to June 1952 was the Chief of the General Staff and the Deputy Minister of Defence. Then Stalin decided to dismiss him from this position, and demoted him from his rank of Army General to Colonel General. Shtemenko continued to serve in the General Staff, and in August 1956 was appointed chief of the GRU, but again fell out of grace. He was demoted further to Lieutenant General in 1957, and sent to occupy the position of deputy commander in the Volga Military District. Shtemenko slowly regained his status. In 1962 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, and in 1964 he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff again. In 1968 he was installed as Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Pact armies, and granted the rank of Army General once more.
