Dmitry Pavlov ( general ) Dmitry Grigorevich Pavlov ( , October 23 , 1897 – July 22 , 1941 ) was a Soviet general who commanded the key Soviet Western Front during the initial days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union , or Operation Barbarossa , in June 1941 . After his forces were heavily defeated in the first days of the campaign , he was relieved of his command , arrested , charged with military incompetence and then executed . He was exonerated ( or rehabilitated in Soviet parlance ) in 1956 . Military career . He was a veteran of the First World War , as well as the Russian Civil War , serving in the Red Army since 1919 . He graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1928 . He then commanded various mechanised and cavalry units . As one of the Soviet military advisers , in 1936 - 37 he took part in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side ( using the nom de guerre " Pablo " ) and commanded a brigade of Soviet tanks , for which he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union . In contrast to many other officers who took part in that war , he was not purge d after his return to the Soviet Union , and was made the Head of the Directorate of Tank and Armoured Car Troops of the Red Army which gave him considerable influence on its development . In particular he insisted that tanks be shifted to infantry support roles , which in hindsight turned out to be incorrect . He participated in the Winter War , as well as the border clashes with Japan . In 1940 he became the commander of the Western ( Belorussian ) Special Military District , which became the Soviet Western Front bearing the brunt of German attack during Operation Barbarossa in June , 1941 . On February 22 , 1941 , he was one of the first Soviet generals to receive the new rank of General of the Army , inferior only to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union . Downfall . After the units under his command suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Białystok - Minsk , during the first days of the invasion , Pavlov was relieved of his command , arrested and accused of criminal incompetence and treason . He and his chief of staff Klimovskikh were first accused of : Pavlov and his deputies were accused of " failure to perform their duties " rather than treason . On July 22 , 1941 the same day the sentence was handed down , Pavlov ' s property was confiscated , and he was deprived of military rank , shot and buried in a landfill near Moscow by the NKVD . Death penalties were also passed down for other commanders of the Western Front , including the Chief of Staff , Major General B . E . Klimovskikh ; the chief of the communications corps , Major General AT Grigoriev ; the Chief of Artillery , Lieutenant General of Artillery A . Klich ; and Air Force Deputy Chief of the Western Front ( who , after the suicide of Major General Aviation II Kopec , was , nominally at least , Chief of the Air Force of the Western Front ) , Major General Aviation A . I . Tayursky . Also , the commander of the 14th Mechanized Corps , Major General C . I . Oborin , was arrested on July 8 and shot . The commander of the 4th Army , Major General A . A . Korobkov , was dismissed on July 8 , arrested the next day and shot on July 22 . Pavlov and other commanders of Western Front were exonerated as " lacking evidence " in 1956 . External links .