He fought in World War II and suffered wounds during the battles at Yartsevo (near Smolensk) in 1941 and during the 1941-1942 Battle of the Kerch Peninsula. He caught typhus while recovering from the latter wound in a military hospital in 1942 and subsequently served as a company training officer in the Volga Military District from April 1942. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and rejoined the front lines in 1943.