Soviet general
Ivan Alexeyevich Susloparov
(
Russian
:
Иван Алексеевич Суслопа?ров
; the surname is often transcribed in the French manner,
Sousloparov
) (19 October 1897 ? 16 December 1974) was a
Soviet
general who served in
World War II
as the
Military Liaison Mission
Commander with the
French
government and the
Allied Expeditionary Force
in Europe in 1944?45. He is mostly known as the person who signed for the Soviet Union the
German Instrument of Surrender
on 7 May 1945. He signed before receiving authorization from Moscow to do so; the Soviet Union insisted on signing another Act of Military Surrender near Berlin
two days later
.
Biography
[
edit
]
The Instrument of Surrender with Susloparov's signature at the bottom: 8 May 1945
Ivan Susloparov was born in the village of
Krutikhintsy
, in what is today
Kumyonsky District
of
Kirov Oblast
in northeastern European Russia.
[1]
He fought in the
First World War
as a non-commissioned officer, participated in the
October Revolution
of 1917, and fought in the
Red Army
on the Eastern and Southern Fronts of the
Russian Civil War
. After the Reds' victory, Susloparov stayed in the army. While in service, he graduated from
Kiev
's Joint Military School in 1925, and from Engineering Command Department of
Dzerzhinsky Military Academy
in 1938.
[1]
In 1939, Susloparov was appointed as the Soviet military
attache
in
Paris
, where, it is said, he also was in charge of the Soviet military intelligence network in Western Europe, including the so-called
Rote Kapelle
organization.
[1]
When General Officer ranks were introduced in the Red Army, Susloparov was made Major General; the commission was reported in the
Red Star
on 12 July 1940.
[1]
After the
invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany
in 1941, Susloparov served in the headquarters of the Red Army's artillery; from 1942 until the middle of 1944 he was the commander of the artillery of the
10th Army
of the Western Front.
[1]
In the summer of 1944 Susloparov was posted to recently liberated Paris again, as the chief of the Soviet liaison mission with the French Government and the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
. His moment of fame came on 7 May 1945, when
Dwight D. Eisenhower
informed him of the arrival of German general
Alfred Jodl
with the proposal of Germany's surrender. Although initially planning to surrender only to the Western Allies, the German emissary had to agree to surrender the rump Nazi forces to all allies. At Eisenhower's suggestion, Susloparov forwarded the proposed text of the surrender instrument to his superiors in Moscow, and started to wait for the authorization to sign it in the name of the USSR. No response, however, came by the scheduled signing ceremony time (02:30 on 8 May), and General Susloparov made the decision to sign the document, but with the caveat that a new surrender ceremony would take place elsewhere if any of the allies requested it. Susloparov executed the document using the French transliteration of his name,
Sousloparov
, rather than
Cyrillic
letters.
As Susloparov went to report on his actions to Moscow, he saw a freshly arrived order
not
to sign the surrender document.
Just as Susloparov expected, the Soviet Government indeed requested a second surrender ceremony, which took place in
Karlshorst
near
Berlin
late on 9 May. General Susloparov was present there as well.
[2]
After the war, General Susloparov worked in the Military Diplomatic Academy in Moscow,
[1]
an institution that trained military attaches and intelligence officers.
[3]
His job title was described as
nachalnik kursa
, i.e. the officer in charge of all cadets who entered the academy in a particular year. He died on 16 December 1974 in Moscow, and was buried in
Vvedenskoye Cemetery
.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]