page_title: Vadim Kirpichenko
section_title: Early life and wartime service
hierarchical_section_title: Vadim Kirpichenko / Early life and wartime service
caption_attribution_description: English: Vienna Operations Čeština: Vídeňská operace
context_page_description: Vadim Alekseyevich Kirpichenko was a Russian officer of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB and its successor, the Foreign Intelligence Service. He served as resident in various countries and rose to First Deputy Head of the First Chief Directorate with the rank of General Lieutenant.
  Born in 1922, Kirpichenko initially trained to be a pilot, but with the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, he enlisted in the Red Army and served in Eastern and Central Europe during the closing stages of the war. Demobilised in 1946, he undertook studies at the Arab branch of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, and was then recruited into intelligence work with the KGB's First Chief Directorate. He began his overseas postings with a period in Egypt as the KGB's deputy resident. This came during the early administration of Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Kirpichenko worked to gather information on its intentions. He passed information back to Moscow during the Suez Crisis in 1956, and worked to establish diplomatic relations with Yemen, before being recalled to the USSR in 1960.
context_section_description: Kirpichenko was born on 25 September 1922 in Kursk, Kursk Oblast, part of the Russian SFSR, in the USSR. He attended the No. 4 Air Force Special School, which provided primary flight training alongside the usual secondary education. He went on to attend the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, but the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 interrupted his studies. He joined the 103rd Guards Rifle Division in January 1945, seeing action in the closing stages of the war, in Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia, and at the Balaton Defensive Operation in March that year. During his wartime service he was awarded the Medal "For Courage", for his part in the Vienna Offensive. His unit remained in action until the surrender of Axis forces in Czechoslovakia on 12 May 1945.
caption: Soviet troops approach Vienna during the closing stages of the war. Kirpichenko was involved in the Red Army's advances during 1945.
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