Born in a village in the
Oryol Governorate (today in the
Izmalkovsky District in
Lipetsk Oblast), Shcherbakov entered the Red Army in 1919 by attending the officers course of the South-Western Front in
Serpukhov. As part of the course, he participated in the fighting against the forces of General Denikin in the
Kalach-na-Donu area in the period May–June 1919, and subsequently against the Cossack
Mamontov Raid in the
Yelets region. In July 1920 he took part in the
Soviet-Polish War, fighting against the Poles and the Ukrainian forces of
Simon Petlyura with the south-western front of
General Yegorov, reaching the rank of company commander. In 1939-1940, as commander of the
104th Mountain Rifle Division of the 14th Army, Shcherbakov took part in the
Winter War, in the Arctic sector of the front. He led his unit in the occupation of the
Rybachy Peninsula, the city of
Petsamo, the port of
Liinahamari and the locality of
Luostari on the border with Norway. For the skill shown in the conduct of the 104th division, Shcherbakov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In January 1941 Shcherbakov was appointed commander of the
50th Rifle Corps of the 23rd Army of the Northern Front on the
Karelian Isthmus. At the beginning of the German invasion he became commander of the
42nd Army, then still under formation, with which in August 1941 he was engaged in the defense of the
Koporye Bay, on the Leningrad front, where he was wounded in combat. Between 1 and 24 September 1941 he commanded the
8th Army, in defense of the
Oranienbaum Bridgehead during the
battles to block the German advance towards Leningrad. On 24 September he was removed from office, on the orders of Generals
Georgy Zhukov and
Andrei Zhdanov, because he was deemed "unsuitable for the role" and passed to command of the
11th Rifle Division in the same 8th Army. As commander of the 11th Division, Shcherbakov fought bravely, so in February 1942 he was again awarded the Order of the Red Banner and on 6 March of the same year he was promoted to command the
14th Army, a command which he would hold until the end of the war. With his army, he was engaged in the far north of Russia in defending the region between Murmansk,
Kandalaksha and
Uhtua against numerically superior German and Finnish forces, and managed to prevent the Nazis from capturing Murmansk and the railway that connected the city to the rest of Russia. For his valor as commander of the 14th Army, in 1943 he was promoted to the rank of general in the army corps. In the autumn of 1944 he led the 14th Army in the victorious
Petsamo-Kirkenes Offensive, driving the German troops out of Soviet territory, capturing the Finnish port city of Petsamo, and liberating the far north of Norway including the town of
Kirkenes. After the end of the war, Shcherbakov was first appointed deputy commander of the
Baltic Military District and then commander of
Arkhangelsk Military District. In 1949 he passed to the command of the
Gorky Military District and in 1953 became deputy commander of the
Voronezh Military District. In 1957 he retired from service and was elected deputy at the III convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He died in Leningrad on November 4, 1981. == Sources ==