Mikhail Grigorievich Efremov was born on February 27, 1897 in the city of Tarusa (now the Kaluga region). In 1915 he was drafted into the Russian army.
He graduated from the school of warrant officers, participated in the First World War, since 1918 in the Red Army.
During the civil war in Soviet Russia, Mikhail Efremov commanded a company, battalion, railway regiment, rifle brigade and division on the South and Caucasian fronts. He especially distinguished himself, commanding a detachment of armored trains during the liberation of the city of Baku in 1920.
After the civil war, Mikhail Efremov graduated from advanced training courses for higher command personnel (1928), the Military-Political Academy (1930), the Military Academy. Frunze (1933).
Mikhail Efremov commanded rifle divisions, corps, troops of the Volga (1937), Oryol (1938), North Caucasian (1940), Transcaucasian (August 1940 – January 1941) military districts of the USSR. In January 1941 he was appointed first deputy inspector general of the Red Army infantry.
At the beginning of World War II, Mikhail Efremov commanded the 21st, then the 10th armies. He was the deputy commander of the Bryansk Front of the Red Army.
Since October 1941, Mikhail Efremov commanded the 33rd Army of the Western Front. During an unsuccessful offensive during the Rzhev-Vyazma operation, the 33rd army was surrounded. Mikhail Efremov refused to be evacuated on an airplane specially sent for him by Stalin. On April 19, 1942, during a breakthrough from the encirclement in the Vyazma region, with part of his army forces, he was wounded three times in battle and, to avoid capture, shot himself.
By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 31, 1996 “for courage and heroism shown in the struggle against the German fascist invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” Lieutenant General Mikhail Grigorievich Efremov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.