World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMikhail Pavlovich Dukhanov was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine) in 1896. A WW1 and a Russian Civil War veteran, he was made the commanding officer of the Leningrad Military District in Aug 1938. At the start of the Winter War, he was made the commanding officer of the Soviet 9th Army at the rank of corps commander and placed in charge of capturing Kajaani in central Finland as the Soviet forces moved toward Oulu on the western coast; after a series of defeats, however, he was relieved of this position on 22 Dec 1939. When Germany turned on the Soviet Union, Dukhanov was initially made the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northern Front, then in Sep 1941 became the commanding officer of the 10th Rifle Division fighting in the Leningrad region. Between Oct 1942 and Dec 1943, he was the commanding officer of the Soviet 67th Army. In Mar 1944, he was made the deputy commanding officer of Soviet 8th Guards Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front; he would remain in this position until the end of WW2. After the war, he served as the assistant commanding officer for the military schools in the Leningrad Military District. He retired from military service in Apr 1953 and passed away in 1969. He was buried at the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery in Leningrad.

Mikhail Dukhanov Timeline