In January 1941 he was appointed commander of the 50th Rifle Corps of the 23rd Army of the Northern Front on the Karelian Isthmus. At the beginning of the German invasion he became commander of the 42nd Army, then still under formation, with which in August 1941 he was engaged in the defense of the Koporye Bay, on the Leningrad front, where he was wounded in combat. Between 1 and 24 September 1941 he commanded the 8th Army, in defense of the Oranienbaum Bridgehead during the battles to block the German advance towards Leningrad. On 24 September he was removed from office, on the orders of Generals Georgy Zhukov and Andrei Zhdanov, because he was deemed "unsuitable for the role" and passed to command of the 11th Rifle Division in the same 8th Army.