Ivan Kovalev (politician)

Born into a peasant family, until the age of 18, he worked in his father's household. In March 1919, he was drafted into the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

• 1919–1921 – Scout of the 31st Turkestan Artillery Battalion, Red Army Soldier of the 3rd Battalion of the All–Russian Extraordinary Commission in Voronezh;
• 1921–1922 – Cadet of the Voronezh Military Railway School of Technicians;
• 1922–1923 – Reserve Agent, Assistant to the Station Chief of the 10th Railway Regiment, then a battalion of the Caucasian Army;
• 1923–1925 – Political Leader of a company in the 13th Voronezh Railway Battalion, then in the 7th Michurinsky Railway Regiment;
• 1925–1926 – Student of the Advanced Training Courses for Command Personnel in Leningrad;
• 1926–1930 – Platoon Commander, Commander and Political Leader of a company of the 7th Railway Regiment;[1]
• 1930–1935 – Student at the Military Transport Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army;
• 1935–1936 – Senior Inspector of the People's Commissariat of Communication Routes of the Soviet Union;
• 1936–1937 – Head of the Control and Inspection Group at the Administration of the Moscow–Belarusian–Baltic, then South Ural Railways;[2]
• 1937–1939 – Road Inspector for Traffic Safety on the Omsk Railway, then Head of the Western Railway Department;
• 1939–1941 – Head of the Central Military Department, member of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Communication Routes of the Soviet Union;[2]
• May–July 1941 – Deputy People's Commissar of State Control of the Soviet Union for Railway Transport;
• 8 July 1941–1944 – Head of the Office of Military Communications of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (from January 1943 – of the Central Office of Military Communications of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army).[3] Also, since 1942, he was a member of the Transport Committee under the State Defense Committee of the Soviet Union.
• 20 December 1944–1948 – People's Commissar (Minister) of Communication Routes of the Soviet Union. Participated in the work of the Potsdam Conference.[2]
• 1948–1950 – Chief Adviser to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China – the head of Soviet military specialists in China;
• 1950–1951 – Head of the Donetsk District of Railways;
• 1951–1957 – Deputy Minister of the Coal Industry of the Soviet Union;[4]
• 1957–1960 – Senior Researcher of the Military Scientific Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union;
• 1960–1969 – Senior Lecturer at the Military Academy of the General Staff;
• 1969–1985 – at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union: Senior Researcher, Head of Laboratory, Chief Researcher;
• Since September 1985, he has been a pensioner of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union.[1] During these years, he was a consultant at the Center for Operational–Strategic Research of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.

He was buried in Moscow at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.[5]

On 19 January 2018 the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation established the Lieutenant General Kovalev Medal.[6]

• 3 Orders of Lenin (1939, 3 March 1942, 21 February 1945);
• Order of the October Revolution;
• 3 Orders of the Red Banner (18 September 1943, 3 November 1944, ...);
• Order of Suvorov, 1st Class (29 July 1945);
• Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class (3 August 1944);
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (11 March 1985);
• Order of the Red Star;
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour;
• A number of medals of the Soviet Union.

• Ivan Kovalev. Soviet Railway Transport. 1917–1947 – Moscow: Publishing House and 1st Printing House of the All–Union Publishing and Printing Association of Railway Transport, 1947;
• Ivan Kovalev. Railway Transport in the New Stalinist Five–Year Plan – Moscow: Publishing House and 1st Printing House of the All–Union Publishing and Printing Association of Railway Transport, 1947;
• Ivan Kovalev. Transport in the Decisive Operations of the Great Patriotic War – Moscow: Knowledge, 1969;
• Ivan Kovalev. Rail Transport in the Far East Campaign // Military History Journal – 1975 – No. 9 – Pages 50–54;
• Willful Decisions... [Interview With Ivan Kovalev] // Military History Journal – 1988 – No. 12 – Pages 38–50.

• State Power of the Soviet Union. The Highest Authorities and Management and Their Leaders. 1923–1991. Historical and Biographical Reference Book / Compiled by Vladimir Ivkin – Moscow, 1999 – ISBN 5-8243-0014-3
• Answers to the Questions of Professor Georgy Kumanev on 28 May 1988
• Georgy Kumanev. Stalin's People's Commissars Speak – Smolensk: Rusich, 2005 – 632 Pages With Illustrations – ISBN 5-8138-0660-1
• Always at the Forefront. Ivan Kovalev Was the First Minister of Communication Routes of the Soviet Union
• Leonid Troitsky. People's Commissar of the Fiery Years – Moscow, 2002 – 239 Pages