Early Years and Russian Revolution
Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov was born into a peasant family in the village of Butyrki in central Russia (now in Kirov Oblast). He attended a technical high school in Yelabuga and enrolled in the shipbuilding department of Petrograd Polytechnical Institute. In December 1916, however, he was mobilized and was sent to the Konstantinovskye Artillery School, from which he graduated in 1917. He became an artillery officer with the rank of podporuchik.
When the Russian Revolution broke out and the Russian Army disintegrated, Govorov returned home, but was later conscripted into the White Guard army of Aleksandr Kolchak. He deserted in late 1919 and joined the Red Army in early 1920. In the Russian Civil War he served in the 51st Rifle Division, commanding an artillery battery. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1921.
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