Mark Plotkin

Mark Plotkin was born in 1904 in the town of Aleksandria in Odessa Province, Ukraine. Thereafter his family moved to Kiev. Mark Plotkin studied for four years in a realschuleand also worked as a messenger for a pharmacy.

In 1919, at the age of 15, he volunteered to join the newly established Red Army and, as a signalman, fought in Ukraine during the civil war. He was wounded in battle.

After the war, in 1924 Mark Plotkin graduated from a military communications school and became a commander in a signal corps. During the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929 he was in charge of communications for a regiment. Plotkin also participated in the Soviet-Finish war of 1939 – 1940.

Mark Plotkin began the Soviet-German war that started on June 22, 1941 with the rank of major in the territories of Bessarabia that the USSR had annexed in 1940. Plotkin was in charge of communications for an infantry unit. He rose in rank to become a major-general and took up the post of commander of the Signal Corps of the 28th Army in May 1944. He was wounded several times but continued to carry out his duties. Mark Plotkin was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, and the Red Star. Shmuel Persov's article "Colonel Mark Plotkin," which was written for the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1944, was sent to Jewish newspapers abroad.

After the war he served as the commander of a signal corps of a military district.

Mark Plotkin died in Kiev in 1946.