Ivan Andreyevich Kopyak (; 26 August 1897 – July 1942) was a Red Army major general who held division command during World War II.
A veteran of World War I, Kopyak rose to regimental command by the end of the Russian Civil War. He took command of the 112th Rifle Division in the first days after Operation Barbarossa began and led it during the Battle of Smolensk. Kopyak led the division in its breakout from encirclement and in late 1941 took command of the 140th Rifle Division. The division suffered heavy losses defending against Case Blue in mid-1942, during which Kopyak was presumed killed.
Early life, World War I and Russian Civil War
A Ukrainian, Ivan Andreyevich Kopyak was born on 26 August 1897 in the village of Glubokaya Balka, Poltavsky Uyezd, Poltava Governorate. During World War I, Kopyak was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army on 15 May 1916 and sent to the 235th Reserve Regiment at Azov. In June he was dispatched to the Western Front with a march company, where he fought in the region of Brody in Galicia with the 402nd Ust-Medveditsa Infantry Regiment of the 101st Infantry Division of the 32nd Army Corps. Kopyak graduated from the regimental training detachment in 1917, reaching the rank of feldfebel. Demobilized at the end of December, he joined the 1st Kiev Red Guard Detachment in January 1918 while returning home through Kiev and served with it for thirteen days until German troops occupied the city, after which he continued to his home village.
During the Russian Civil War, Kopyak joined the Red Army on 23 February 1918 and was sent to the 1st Poltava Soviet Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army of the Southern Front. With this unit, he commanded a platoon and company, fighting with German troops and the Ukrainian People's Army in the regions of Poltava, Kharkov, Lyubotin, Zhuravka, Rossosh and Voronezh. Kopyak and the regiment were transferred to the Eastern Front in mid-June, where the regiment was redesignated the 251st Rifle Regiment and assigned to the 28th Rifle Division of the 2nd Army. With the regiment, Kopyak served as an assistant company commander, company commander, battalion commander, regimental commander and assistant regimental commander. He took part in battles with the Czechoslovaks and Whites near Kazan. In January 1919 he was wounded in action and evacuated to a hospital. In summer 1919 the division was relocated west to Tsaritsyn, where it fought against the White Armed Forces of South Russia as part of the 10th Army. For distinguishing himself in combat, Kopyak was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 6 May. In August he was sent to the Vystrel course, and returned to his regiment after graduation in February 1920. From April the division fought on the Caucasian Front with the 11th Army on the axis of Baku, Yelizavetpol, Agdam, Shusha, and Nakhichevan. During these operations Kopyak served as an assistant regimental commander, regimental commander, and acting brigade commander. He was wounded on 6 November and evacuated to a hospital.
Interwar period
After the end of the Russian Civil War, Kopyak was sent to the Kiev Military District headquarters in June 1921, where he was appointed commander of the 492nd Rifle Regiment of the 164th Separate Rifle Brigade in Nezhin. The brigade was disbanded in August, and Kopyak sent to the 24th Rifle Division as a battalion commander in the 216th Rifle Regiment at Gaisin. From September 1922 he commanded the 14th Separate Border Battalion of the 2nd Podolsk Border Division of the Ukrainian Military District, and then was assistant commander of the 11th Separate Battalion of the division in the region of Mogilev-Podolsky. In June 1923 Kopyak was sent to the North Caucasus where he became chief of the Pyatigorsk Convoy Detachment of the Convoy Guard Troops of the OGPU. From February 1925 he commanded the 6th and 14th Separate Battalions of the Convoy Guard Troops at Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don. From November 1927 to August 1928 Kopyak completed the Vystrel course again, after which he commanded the 2nd and 9th Separate Battalions of the Convoy Guard Troops at Dnepropetrovsk and Zhitomir.