Filipp Afanasyevich Yershakov (; – 9 June 1942) was a Red Army lieutenant general who held field army command during World War II. Yershakov led the 22nd Army during the Battle of Smolensk and was captured while commanding the 20th Army in the Vyazma pocket. He died in German captivity.
Early life, World War I and Russian Civil War
Filipp Afanasyevich Yershakov was born in a peasant family on in the village of Taganki, Pyatninsky volost, Vyazemsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate. During World War I, he was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army in January 1915 and assigned as a ryadovoy to the 195th Reserve Battalion of the Moscow Military District. In April of that year he was sent to the Western Front with a march company, where he was assigned to the 13th Yerevan Grenadier Regiment. Wounded in battle on 4 July 1915 near Kholm, Yershakov returned to his regiment after treatment, and graduated from its training detachment as a squad leader. In November 1916 he was transferred to the 525th Infantry Regiment, with which he fought in battles on the Northern Front in the regions of Vilno, Krevo, and Smorgon. Yershakov rose to the rank of podpraporshchik while serving with the regiment. After the October Revolution he was elected a company commander, ending his service at Borisov, where he was demobilized in April 1918.
Yershakov immediately joined the Red Army in April 1918 during the Russian Civil War, serving as a rifleman guarding the Vasileostrovsky District Soviet in Petrograd. From July of that year he served in the Separate Vasileostrovsky Battalion as a platoon commander and assistant company commander, rising to command the battalion in September. He became commander of a detachment formed from the battalion near Arkhangelsk in September. Yershakov subsequently commanded a battalion of the 158th Rifle Regiment, formed from the detachments operating in the Arkhangelsk region. The regiment fought against the White Northern Army and in May 1919 was transferred to Petrograd to fight the White Northwestern Army. Yershakov transferred to command a battalion of the 15th Rifle Regiment of the 2nd Rifle Division, then commanded a regiment. With the 2nd Rifle Division, he took part in the Polish–Soviet War.
Interwar period
In November 1921, Yershakov was appointed assistant commander of the newly formed 11th Rifle Regiment. From May 1922 he commanded a battalion of the 58th Rifle Regiment, then was assistant commander of the 4th Rifle Regiment. In 1924 he graduated from the Vystrel course and was appointed assistant commander of the 98th Territorial Rifle Regiment. From October 1926 he commanded the 109th Rifle Regiment of the 37th Rifle Division, and in December transferred to command the 80th Rifle Regiment of the 27th Rifle Division. Yershakov completed the commander courses at the Military-Political Academy between November 1929 and April 1930, then returned to his previous position. From October 1931 he served in the Belorussian Military District as assistant commander of the 29th Rifle Division, and rose to command the 5th Rifle Division in February 1932. From December 1932 to November 1934 he received advanced training at the special department of the Frunze Military Academy, then was appointed commander of the 29th Rifle Division. From December 1935 he commanded the 8th Rifle Corps of the Belorussian Military District. From January 1938 he was deputy commander of the Kharkov Military District, and in July of that year rose to command the Ural Military District, receiving the rank of lieutenant general on 4 June 1940 when the Red Army introduced general ranks. In June 1941 the 22nd Army was formed from the troops of the district, and Yershakov appointed its commander. The 22nd Army was ordered to board trains bound for the Western Dvina line on 13 June, becoming part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.