| Galaktion Yeliseyevich Alpaidze | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 November 1916 Kursebi, Russian Empire (now in Tqibuli District, Georgia) |
| Died | 2 May 2006 (aged 89) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Buried at | Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, Moscow |
| Allegiance | Soviet Union |
| Service/branch |
Red Army / Soviet ArmyStrategic Rocket Forces |
| Years of service | 1938 – 1975 |
| Rank | Lieutenant-general |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | |
| Other work |
|
Galaktion Yeliseyevich Alpaidze (Russian: Галактио́н Елисе́евич Алпаи́дзе; 7 November 1916 [O.S. 25 October] - 2 May 2006) was a Soviet military officer, Hero of the Soviet Union, chief of the Plesetsk rocket proving ground in 1963-1975, and 1977 laureate of the USSR State Prize.
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A son of ethnic Georgian peasant villagers, Alpaidze was born and raised in the settlement of Kursebi in Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1916 and finished a seven-year educational curriculum. Employed as an electrician at a factory in the Georgian SSR in the 1930s, he joined the Red Army in 1938 and became an artillery officer after finishing an officers' course at an artillery school in Tbilisi in 1940.
A lieutenant at the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Alpaidze repeatedly experienced combat in the following four years of war on the Eastern Front. He joined the Communist Party in 1942.
Alpaidze was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union with a Gold Star Medal of a Hero of the Soviet Union (no. 5434) and Order of Lenin by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in April 1945, in recognition of his feats as a thrice-wounded commander of the 972d Artillery Regiment within the 113th Rifle Division of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, which had particularly distinguished itself in battle at the time of the Germans' March 1945 offensive at Lake Balaton in Hungary.
Elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR after the war, Alpaidze held a seat in the Soviet of Nationalities chamber in 1946-1950 and continued his service in the artillery and rocket forces, eventually rising to deputy chief of the rocket proving ground at Kapustin Yar after joining the armed foces' newly-formed Strategic Rocket branch. He next served as chief of the proving ground at the famed Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 1963-1975. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant-general in 1967.
Alpaidze retired from the service in 1975 and settled in Moscow. He next held the position of deputy director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology in 1975-1992, winning the USSR State Prize in 1977.
Alpaidze died at the age of 89 in Moscow on 2 May 2006. His body was interred at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
11824 Alpaidze, a main belt asteroid discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh in 1982, was named after Lieutenant-General Galaktion Alpaidze.[1]