""He was born on December 8, 1916 in the village of Uryum now Chernyshevsky district of Transbaikal region in a family of a miner. Russian. Member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) since 1941. Education of 8 classes. Worked as a physical education instructor in Sretensk, Chita region. In 1937, he was drafted into the Red Army. Participated in the Soviet liberation campaign in Western Belorussia in 1939. During the war with the White Finns, he commanded the 402nd Howitzer Artillery Regiment. In December 1939 - January 1940 he made several successful reconnaissance raids to detect enemy fire points. On the night of January 12, 1940 in the group of Senior Lieutenant Vatagin he participated in the raid to the enemy rear. In this raid a Finnish dot was destroyed. With the direct participation of Kirilov a “tongue” was captured – a Finnish officer, who gave valuable information about the enemy line of defense. The reconnaissance raid of Senior Lieutenant Vatagin's group ensured successful fulfillment of the combat mission set before the regiment. All the scouts were awarded combat awards. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 21, 1940, junior commander Kirillov Veniamin Ivanovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the medal ""Gold Star"". After the war with Finland he entered the Leningrad Artillery School, which he graduated in 1941. In the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a division of rocket artillery, the famous ""Katyusha"". In July 1942, the famous military journalist Alexander Krivitsky wrote from the Voronezh Front about the division commander Kirillov: ""He gave orders quickly and calmly, having time to look in the direction of non-stop moving German chains. He saw the target and assessed it with the experienced eye of a professional artilleryman - good"". In October 1942 he was appointed commander of the 61st Mortar Regiment. Under the command of Kirillov V.I. the regiment distinguished itself in the Battle of the Dnieper and earned the honorary name ""Zaporozhye"". Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov V.I. was killed on November 5, 1943 in the battle for the city of Dnepropetrovsk. "