On July 30, an EWCS dedicated to the 125th Birth Anniversary of Army General Ivan Fedyuninsky, a military commander, a Hero of the Soviet Union, was put into postal circulation in the “On the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the GPW of 1941–1945” series

Ivan Fedyuninsky (1900–1977) was a Soviet military commander, an Army General, and a Hero of the Soviet Union.

He was born on July 17 (30), 1900, in the village of Gilyovo, Tyumen District of the Tobolsk Province. In 1919, he volunteered to join the Red Army. During the Civil War, he fought as a private soldier on the Western Front. In 1924, he graduated from the Vladivostok Infantry School. From 1931, he served in the Far East as a battalion commander, and from 1936, he was an assistant regiment commander. During the fighting to defeat Japanese troops at the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939, he commanded the 24th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 36th Motorized Rifle Division of the 1st Army Group. From November of 1940 and in the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Colonel (Major General from August of 1941) I. Fedyuninsky was the commander of the 15th Rifle Corps of the Kiev Special Military District. Under his leadership, the corps units in the composition of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front successfully repelled the enemy at the state border.

In September of 1941, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Leningrad Front and simultaneously Commander of the 42nd Army. After G. Zhukov's departure in October of 1941, he temporarily commanded the front, and later was appointed Commander of the 54th Army, which took an active part in the Tikhvin defensive and offensive operations. In April of 1942, he became the Commander of the 5th Army on the Western Front, and in October of 1942, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Volkhov Front. I. Fedyuninsky played a significant role in the Iskra offensive, which was held from January 12 to January 30 of 1943 with the aim of breaking the siege of Leningrad. For the success in the operation, the general, who had been badly wounded during the fighting, was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class.

In 1943-1945, the troops under the command of I. Fedyuninsky participated in the Bryansk and Gomel-Rechitsa operations, as well as in battles of the 2nd Baltic, Belorussian, and the 2nd Belorussian Fronts. They also fought against the Nazis in the Krasnoselsk-Ropsha, Narva, Tallinn, and East Prussian operations. During the Berlin operation, the troops of the 2nd Shock Army successfully broke through the enemy's defenses north and south of the city of Stettin, made a forced crossing of the Oder River on May 5, 1945, and captured the city of Swinemünde, a large German port and naval base on the Baltic Sea.

After the War, I. Fedyuninsky commanded the troops of the Arkhangelsk Military District. In 1948, he graduated from the Higher Academic Courses under the Voroshilov Academy of the General Staff and was appointed commander of the 7th Guards Army. From 1951 to 1954, he served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, from 1954, he commanded the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District, and from 1957, of the Turkestan Military District. Since 1965, he was a military inspector and advisor to the group of general inspectors of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.

The envelope with a commemorative stamp provides a portrait of military commander I. Fedyuninsky against an illustration featuring the Iskra military operation; the commemorative stamp provides an image of the emblem for the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg.


Design Artists: A. Moskovets and R. Komsa.
Quantity: 500 thousand envelopes.

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