Ivan Mefodyevich Managarov (; – 27 November 1981) was a Soviet Army colonel general and a Hero of the Soviet Union who held field army command during World War II.
A decorated veteran of the Imperial Russian Army, Managarov fought as a cavalryman in the Russian Civil War and rose to division command by the late 1930s. After commanding a rifle and cavalry corps in the Soviet Far East and front reserve in 1941–1942, Managarov briefly commanded the 41st Army before being appointed commander of the 53rd Army in early 1943. He led the army for most of the rest of the war, and commanded the Soviet forces fighting in the city during the Siege of Budapest. After the end of the war in Europe, he commanded the army in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Postwar, Managarov held army command, but retired in the early 1950s due to his health.
Early life, World War I, and Russian Civil War
A Russian, Ivan Mefodyevich Managarov was born on in the settlement of Yenakiyevo, Yekaterinoslav Governorate. The son of a Donbas coal miner, he worked at the Donetsk Mine No. 20 and the Yenakiyevo Metallurgical Plant after completing primary school. Joining the Imperial Russian Army during World War I in September 1914, Managarov was assigned to the 5th Reserve Cavalry Regiment at Balakleya as a ryadovoy. He was then sent to the front, serving with the mounted reconnaissance platoon of the 9th Finland Rifle Regiment of the 22nd Army Corps. Managarov was wounded and invalided out in June 1915, awarded the Cross of St. George thrice for his actions.
After the February Revolution, Managarov joined the Yenakiyevo Red Guard Detachment, formed from miners, in August 1917, and was chosen as its commander due to his combat experience. Following the transfer of the Red Guards to the Red Army in February 1918, Managarov became commander of the Proletarian Regiment of the 1st Steel Rifle Division in May of that year. The division was merged with the 1st Don Soviet Cavalry Brigade in late November to form the 1st Consolidated Cavalry Division, which was renamed the 4th Cavalry Division in March 1919. With the division, Managarov continued as commander of the Proletarian Regiment before leading the 1st Ukrainian Steel Regiment from March 1919. Further reorganization of the division left him as assistant commander of its 22nd Cavalry Regiment in May. With the 4th Cavalry Division, Managarov fought on the Southern and Southeastern Fronts at Tsaritsyn and in the Don Host Oblast.
Managarov was transferred in July 1919 to serve as assistant commander of the 2nd Taman Cavalry Regiment, which joined the 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division in November. With the regiment, he fought on the Southern, Southeastern, and Caucasian Fronts in the operations of the 9th Army and 2nd Cavalry Corps. Becoming a cadet at the 5th Cavalry School in Taganrog in July 1920, Managarov fought in the suppression of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine with a cadet detachment.
Interwar period
Upon his graduation from the cavalry school in September 1923, Managarov was appointed a platoon commander in the 21st Cavalry Regiment of the 4th Cavalry Division, now stationed in the Petrograd Military District. Transferred to serve in the same position with the 46th Cavalry Regiment of the 8th Cavalry Division of the Turkestan Front in March 1925, he fought in the suppression of the Basmachi movement. Managarov shifted to political work when he became secretary of the party bureau of the 47th Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Cavalry Division at Troitsk in April 1926, and for further political education studied at the Military-Political Academy between 1928 and 1931. Following his graduation from the academy, he was appointed political commissar of the 7th Mechanized Regiment of the 7th Cavalry Division at Minsk.
Managarov soon returned to command positions, serving as commander and commissar of the 3d Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division at Proskurov from 1932, and became a colonel in 1935 when the Red Army introduced personal military ranks. After a stint as a military advisor in Xinjiang from January 1936 to June 1938, he returned to the Soviet Union to command the 8th Cavalry Division of the 1st Separate Red Banner Army of the Far Eastern Front. Promoted to kombrig on 20 November 1938, he became a major general on 4 June 1940 when the army introduced general officer ranks.