Ivan Konev - Early Career

Early Career

Konev was born into a peasant family near Podosinovets in Vologda Governorate (now - Kirov Oblast). He had little formal education, and worked as a lumberjack before being conscripted into the Russian Army in 1916.

When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917 he was demobilised and returned home, but in 1919 he joined the Bolshevik party and the Red Army, serving as an artilleryman. During the Russian Civil War he served with the Red Army in the Russian Far Eastern Republic. His commander at this time was Kliment Voroshilov, later a close colleague of Joseph Stalin and Commissar for defense. This alliance was the key to Konev's subsequent career.

In 1926 Konev completed advanced officer training courses at the Frunze Military Academy, and between then and 1931 he held a series of progressively more senior commands, becoming head of first the Transbaikal then the North Caucasus Military Districts. In July 1938 he was appointed a corps commander. In 1937 he became a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet and in 1939 a candidate member of the Party Central Committee.