A 9-mm Borchardt-Luger Parabellum (P.08) pistol, Germany.

A 9-mm Borchardt-Luger Parabellum (P.08) pistol, Germany.

Personal weapon of Marshal of the Soviet Union Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov.

Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov (1921-2013).

He was born on 5.07.1921 in the village of Verkhnyaya Lyubovsha, currently the Novoderevenkovsk District of the Oryol Region.

He graduated from the Grodno Military School in 1941.

He graduated from the Leningrad Higher Officer School of Armored and Mechanized Troops in 1947.

He graduated from the Leningrad M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in 1953.

He graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1959.

Since the outset of the war, he was involved in combat operations at the Southwestern, then Kalinin, 1st Baltic and 2nd Belarusian Fronts serving as commander of a motorcycle reconnaissance company and then chief of staff of a tank battalion.

From August 1943 to May 1945 he served as chief of staff of the 143rd separate tank brigade. He was responsible for planning combat operations of the brigade during the Smolensk, Belarusian, Riga, East Prussian and other offensive operations.

After WWII, he rose through the ranks from division commander to Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.

In January 1977, he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization.

He was a deputy of the seventh, eighth and ninth Supreme Councils.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin five times, the Order of Red Banner three times, the Order of the Patriotic War,
1st class twice, the Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class, medals, and foreign orders.