Starikov was born in the village of Novo-Torzhatskaya in
Urzhumsky District in
Vyatka Governorate (now in
Kirov Oblast). He entered the
Imperial Russian Army in 1915 as a private. During
World War I he served as senior clerk of an infantry regiment on the
Romanian Front. He joined the
Red Army in 1918 and served in the
Russian Civil War as a platoon commander, fighting the
White movement on the
Eastern Front and
Southern Front as well as the
Basmachi movement in
Russian Turkestan. In 1928 he completed the
Vystrel course intended to train battalion and regimental officers for the Soviet infantry. In 1938 Starikov received command of the 9th Rifle Corps, part of the
7th Army. During the
Winter War Starikov's unit was to capture the Finnish town of Terijoki (now
Zelenogorsk,
Russia). Rather than an expected easy victory, the Red Army performed poorly, and while the Soviet Union was able to impose several territorial concessions on Finland, the reputation of the Soviet armed forces suffered. In June 1940 Starikov was promoted to
major general and later named Chief Inspector of the Red Army's Infantry Inspectorate. In November Starikov was promoted to
lieutenant general. On July 22, the Red Army launched the
Mga Offensive, named for the town of
Mga, where the 8th Army was supposed to link up with
67th Army. Starikov's 8th Army attacked from the east, but was unsuccessful, and the offensive ended with large Soviet losses on August 22. In January 1944 Starikov's 8th Army participated in the
Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, providing vital defense during the
Battle for Narva Bridgehead when the German
170th,
11th, and
227th Infantry Divisions under
Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz penetrated deep into Soviet lines. After a period of rest and reinforcement, Starikov and 8th Army next saw action during the
Narva Offensive, successfully capturing
Narva but failing to dislodge Axis forces from the
Tannenberg Line. Along with the 2nd Shock Army and the
Baltic Fleet, the 8th Army took mainland
Estonia in the
Tallinn Offensive in September. As a subset of the overall
Baltic Offensive, 8th Army was part of the
Moonsund Operation in November that cleared Axis forces from the
West Estonian archipelago. The 8th Army defended the Estonian coast from December to May 1945 and in October 1945 it was disbanded. From 1945 to 1949 Starikov served as deputy commander of the
Moscow Military District and as Assistant Inspector General of Infantry for the inspector general of the Soviet Ministry of Defense. From 1949 to 1951 and again from 1953 to 1954 he served as deputy chair of the central committee of
DOSAAF, the Soviet Union's paramilitary sports organization. Between those tenures he worked for the
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. Until his retirement in 1955 he held a position at the
Moscow State Institute of International Relations. ==Awards and decorations==