Once in the Red Army he was stationed in the Kiev Military District, and after graduating from tank school he became the deputy political officer of the 60th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion in 1938. In September that year he entered the Lenin Military-Political Academy, which he graduated from in 1939. As a junior political officer he was made a deputy squadron commander of political affairs of the 1st Army Group in May, and was soon sent to Mongolia to fight Japan in Khalkhin Gol. For his actions in the conflict he was awarded the Soviet Medal for Courage and the Mongolian Order of the Polar Star. That year he became a member of the Communist Party, and before the start of 1940 he was a regimental political department instructor. In May 1941 he graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy and made deputy commander of a tank battalion within the 109th Tank Regiment.