Boris Shaposhnikov conflict Eastern Front (World War II)
Shaposhnikov planned the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland, but was much less optimistic about its duration than Stalin and the campaign's commander Kliment Voroshilov. The resultant Winter War (1939–1940) did not deliver the immediate success the Soviet side had hoped for, and Shaposhnikov resigned as Chief of the General Staff in August 1940, due to ill-health and to disagreements with Stalin about the conduct of that campaign. Following the  Axis invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, he was reinstated (29 July 1941) as Chief of the General Staff to succeed Georgy Zhukov, and also became  Deputy People's Commissar for Defence, the post he held until his career was cut short by ill-health in 1943. He resigned again as Chief of the General Staff due to ill-health on 10 May 1942. He held the position of commandant of the  Voroshilov Military Academy until his death in 1945. Shaposhnikov had groomed his successor as Chief of Staff, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, and remained an influential and respected advisor to Stalin until his death in 1945 at the age 62. His ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
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