Nikolai Popel

Nikolai Kirilovitch Popel (Russian Николай Кириллович Попель; * 1901, † 1980) was a Soviet lieutenant general of panzer troops and functionaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

During the Second World War, he was People's Commissar and Lieutenant General of the eighth Soviet tank corps. The tank battle of Dubno - Lutsk - Rovno in the summer of 1941, he attacked the enemy only with captured vehicles and the fighting could initially opt for the Soviet side, but the defeat not ultimately prevent. In addition to the Operation Citadel in 1943, the Battle of Dubno - Lutsk - Rovno was the largest tank battle of World War II.

In the Soviet film The Battle of Moscow from 1985 his role of Valery Yurchenko was embodied.