Nikolai Berzarin
| Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin | |
|---|---|
Berzarin at a gala of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1945)
|
|
| Born |
April 1, 1904 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 16 June 1945 (aged 41) Berlin, Allied-occupied Germany |
| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union
|
| Service/branch | Red Army |
| Years of service | 1918 — 1945 |
| Rank | Colonel-general |
| Commands held | |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
Order of the Red Banner Order of Lenin |
Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin (Russian Николай Эрастович Берзарин) (April 1, 1904 – June 16, 1945) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became the first town mayor of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin.
Berzarin was born in Saint Petersburg as the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress. He had one brother and four sisters. In 1925, he married bank employee Natalja Prosinjuk, with whom he had two daughters, Larissa and Irina.
In 1918 Berzarin enlisted in the Red Army and fought against Allied troops in Archangelsk. Between 1921 and 1923 he received more military training at the Leningrad Command Courses, machine gun course at the "Vistrel" and a command course at the Siberian Military District. In 1922, he became a member of Komsomol. In 1923 he was assigned to Siberia.
In 1926, after officer training, he became a member of the CPSU.
He began service as an enlisted soldier in the Soviet Union in Petrograd, and after service on the Northern Front against the Allied Intervention also participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion (1921). In 1924 he was serving as a junior officer in the Amur region against the bandit raiders. In 1927 he returned to Siberia, where he was an assistant to commander of an officers training unit in Irkutsk. From 1933 to 1935, he served in the staff of the Separate Far Eastern Army; from 1935 to 1937 he led the 77th Infantry Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division of the Far East Army. Until 1938, he was the chief instructor of the Amur group.
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