Commanders during the war. Generals of the Second World War: list. Marshals and generals of the Second World War. Commanders of air defense forces
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Marshals of the Great Patriotic War
Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich
11/19 (12/1). 1896—06/18/1974Great commander
Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Minister of Defense of the USSR
Born in the village of Strelkovka near Kaluga in a peasant family. Furrier. In the army since 1915. Participated in the First World War, a junior non-commissioned officer in the cavalry. In the battles he was seriously shell-shocked and awarded 2 Crosses of St. George.
Since August 1918 in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he fought against the Ural Cossacks near Tsaritsyn, fought with the troops of Denikin and Wrangel, took part in the suppression of the Antonov uprising in the Tambov region, was wounded, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the Civil War, he commanded a regiment, brigade, division, and corps. In the summer of 1939, he carried out a successful encirclement operation and defeated a group of Japanese troops under General. Kamatsubara on the Khalkhin Gol River. G. K. Zhukov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of the Red Banner of the Mongolian People's Republic.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941 - 1945) he was a member of the Headquarters, Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and commanded the fronts (pseudonyms: Konstantinov, Yuryev, Zharov). He was the first to be awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union during the war (01/18/1943). Under the command of G.K. Zhukov, troops of the Leningrad Front, together with the Baltic Fleet, stopped the advance of Army Group North of Field Marshal F.W. von Leeb on Leningrad in September 1941. Under his command, the troops of the Western Front defeated the troops of Army Group Center under Field Marshal F. von Bock near Moscow and dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi army. Then Zhukov coordinated the actions of the fronts near Stalingrad (Operation Uranus - 1942), in Operation Iskra during the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade (1943), in the Battle of Kursk (summer 1943), where Hitler’s plan was thwarted. Citadel" and the troops of Field Marshals Kluge and Manstein were defeated. The name of Marshal Zhukov is also associated with victories near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky and the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine; Operation Bagration (in Belarus), where the Vaterland Line was broken and Army Group Center of Field Marshals E. von Busch and W. von Model was defeated. At the final stage of the war, the 1st Belorussian Front, led by Marshal Zhukov, took Warsaw (01/17/1945), defeated Army Group A of General von Harpe and Field Marshal F. Scherner with a dissecting blow in the Vistula-Oder operation and victoriously ended the war with a grandiose Berlin operation. Together with the soldiers, the marshal signed the scorched wall of the Reichstag, over the broken dome of which the Victory banner fluttered. On May 8, 1945, in Karlshorst (Berlin), the commander accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from Hitler’s Field Marshal W. von Keitel. General D. Eisenhower presented G. K. Zhukov with the highest military order of the United States “Legion of Honor”, the degree of Commander-in-Chief (06/5/1945). Later in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, the British Field Marshal Montgomery placed on him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, 1st Class, with star and crimson ribbon. On June 24, 1945, Marshal Zhukov hosted the triumphal Victory Parade in Moscow.
In 1955-1957 “Marshal of Victory” was the Minister of Defense of the USSR.
American military historian Martin Kaiden says: “Zhukov was the commander of commanders in the conduct of war by mass armies of the twentieth century. He inflicted more casualties on the Germans than any other military leader. He was a "miracle marshal". Before us is a military genius."
He wrote the memoirs “Memories and Reflections.”
Marshal G.K. Zhukov had:
- 4 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (08/29/1939, 07/29/1944, 06/1/1945, 12/1/1956),
- 6 Orders of Lenin,
- 2 Orders of Victory (including No. 1 - 04/11/1944, 03/30/1945),
- order of the October Revolution,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov, 1st degree (including No. 1), a total of 14 orders and 16 medals;
- honorary weapon - a personalized saber with the golden Coat of Arms of the USSR (1968);
- Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1969); Order of the Tuvan Republic;
- 17 foreign orders and 10 medals, etc.
In 1995, a monument to Zhukov was erected on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow.
Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich
18(30).09.1895—5.12.1977 Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR
Born in the village of Novaya Golchikha near Kineshma on the Volga. Son of a priest. He studied at the Kostroma Theological Seminary. In 1915, he completed courses at the Alexander Military School and, with the rank of ensign, was sent to the front of the First World War (1914-1918). Staff captain of the tsarist army. Having joined the Red Army during the Civil War of 1918-1920, he commanded a company, battalion, and regiment. In 1937 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. From 1940 he served in the General Staff, where he was caught up in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). In June 1942, he became the Chief of the General Staff, replacing Marshal B. M. Shaposhnikov in this post due to illness. Of the 34 months of his tenure as Chief of the General Staff, A. M. Vasilevsky spent 22 directly at the front (pseudonyms: Mikhailov, Alexandrov, Vladimirov). He was wounded and shell-shocked. Over the course of a year and a half, he rose from major general to Marshal of the Soviet Union (02/19/1943) and, together with Mr. K. Zhukov, became the first holder of the Order of Victory. Under his leadership, the largest operations of the Soviet Armed Forces were developed. A. M. Vasilevsky coordinated the actions of the fronts: in the Battle of Stalingrad (Operation Uranus, Little Saturn), near Kursk (Operation Commander Rumyantsev), during the liberation of Donbass (Operation Don "), in the Crimea and during the capture of Sevastopol, in the battles in Right Bank Ukraine; in the Belarusian Operation Bagration.
After the death of General I. D. Chernyakhovsky, he commanded the 3rd Belorussian Front in the East Prussian operation, which ended with the famous “star” assault on Koenigsberg.
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet commander A. M. Vasilevsky smashed Nazi field marshals and generals F. von Bock, G. Guderian, F. Paulus, E. Manstein, E. Kleist, Eneke, E. von Busch, W. von Model, F. Scherner, von Weichs, etc.
In June 1945, the marshal was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Soviet troops in the Far East (pseudonym Vasiliev). For the quick defeat of the Kwantung Army of the Japanese under General O. Yamada in Manchuria, the commander received a second Gold Star. After the war, from 1946 - Chief of the General Staff; in 1949-1953 - Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
A. M. Vasilevsky is the author of the memoir “The Work of a Whole Life.”
Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 09/08/1945),
- 8 Orders of Lenin,
- 2 orders of "Victory" (including No. 2 - 01/10/1944, 04/19/1945),
- order of the October Revolution,
- 2 Orders of the Red Banner,
- Order of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star,
- Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" 3rd degree,
- a total of 16 orders and 14 medals;
- honorary personal weapon - saber with the golden Coat of Arms of the USSR (1968),
- 28 foreign awards (including 18 foreign orders).
Konev Ivan Stepanovich
16(28).12.1897—27.06.1973 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the Vologda region in the village of Lodeyno in a peasant family. In 1916 he was drafted into the army. Upon completion of the training team, junior non-commissioned officer Art. division is sent to the Southwestern Front. Having joined the Red Army in 1918, he took part in battles against the troops of Admiral Kolchak, Ataman Semenov, and the Japanese. Commissioner of the armored train "Grozny", then brigades, divisions. In 1921 he took part in the storming of Kronstadt. Graduated from the Academy. Frunze (1934), commanded a regiment, division, corps, and the 2nd Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army (1938-1940).
During the Great Patriotic War he commanded the army and fronts (pseudonyms: Stepin, Kyiv). Participated in the battles of Smolensk and Kalinin (1941), in the battle of Moscow (1941-1942). During the Battle of Kursk, together with the troops of General N.F. Vatutin, he defeated the enemy on the Belgorod-Kharkov bridgehead - a German bastion in Ukraine. On August 5, 1943, Konev’s troops took the city of Belgorod, in honor of which Moscow gave its first fireworks, and on August 24, Kharkov was taken. This was followed by the breakthrough of the “Eastern Wall” on the Dnieper.
In 1944, near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, the Germans set up “New (small) Stalingrad” - 10 divisions and 1 brigade of General V. Stemmeran, who fell on the battlefield, were surrounded and destroyed. I. S. Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union (02/20/1944), and on March 26, 1944, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front were the first to reach the state border. In July-August they defeated the Army Group “Northern Ukraine” of Field Marshal E. von Manstein in the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. The name of Marshal Konev, nicknamed “the forward general,” is associated with brilliant victories at the final stage of the war - in the Vistula-Oder, Berlin and Prague operations. During the Berlin operation, his troops reached the river. Elbe near Torgau and met with the American troops of General O. Bradley (04/25/1945). On May 9, the defeat of Field Marshal Scherner near Prague ended. The highest orders of the “White Lion” 1st class and the “Czechoslovak War Cross of 1939” were a reward to the marshal for the liberation of the Czech capital. Moscow saluted the troops of I. S. Konev 57 times.
In the post-war period, the marshal was the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces (1946-1950; 1955-1956), the first Commander-in-Chief of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states (1956-1960).
Marshal I. S. Konev - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1970), Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1971). A bronze bust was installed in his homeland in the village of Lodeyno.
He wrote memoirs: “Forty-fifth” and “Notes of the Front Commander.”
Marshal I. S. Konev had:
- two Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/1/1945),
- 7 Orders of Lenin,
- order of the October Revolution,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star,
- a total of 17 orders and 10 medals;
- honorary personalized weapon - a saber with the Golden Coat of Arms of the USSR (1968),
- 24 foreign awards (including 13 foreign orders).
Govorov Leonid Alexandrovich
10(22).02.1897—19.03.1955 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Butyrki near Vyatka in the family of a peasant, who later became an employee in the city of Elabuga. A student at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, L. Govorov, became a cadet at the Konstantinovsky Artillery School in 1916. He began his combat activities in 1918 as an officer in the White Army of Admiral Kolchak.
In 1919, he volunteered to join the Red Army, participated in battles on the Eastern and Southern fronts, commanded an artillery division, and was wounded twice - near Kakhovka and Perekop.
In 1933 he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze, and then the General Staff Academy (1938). Participated in the war with Finland of 1939-1940.
In the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), artillery general L.A. Govorov became the commander of the 5th Army, which defended the approaches to Moscow in the central direction. In the spring of 1942, on instructions from I.V. Stalin, he went to besieged Leningrad, where he soon led the front (pseudonyms: Leonidov, Leonov, Gavrilov). On January 18, 1943, the troops of generals Govorov and Meretskov broke through the blockade of Leningrad (Operation Iskra), delivering a counter-attack near Shlisselburg. A year later, they struck again, crushing the Germans' Northern Wall, completely lifting the blockade of Leningrad. The German troops of Field Marshal von Küchler suffered huge losses. In June 1944, troops of the Leningrad Front carried out the Vyborg operation, broke through the “Mannerheim Line” and took the city of Vyborg. L.A. Govorov became Marshal of the Soviet Union (06/18/1944). In the fall of 1944, Govorov’s troops liberated Estonia, breaking into the enemy “Panther” defenses.
While remaining commander of the Leningrad Front, the marshal was also the representative of Headquarters in the Baltic States. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In May 1945, the German army group Kurland surrendered to the front forces.
Moscow saluted the troops of commander L. A. Govorov 14 times. In the post-war period, the marshal became the first Commander-in-Chief of the country's air defense.
Marshal L.A. Govorov had:
- Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (01/27/1945), 5 Orders of Lenin,
- Order of Victory (05/31/1945),
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star - a total of 13 orders and 7 medals,
- Tuvan "Order of the Republic",
- 3 foreign orders.
Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich
9(21).12.1896—3.08.1968 Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Marshal of Poland
Born in Velikiye Luki in the family of a railway driver, a Pole, Xavier Jozef Rokossovsky, who soon moved to live in Warsaw. He began his service in 1914 in the Russian army. Participated in the First World War. He fought in a dragoon regiment, was a non-commissioned officer, was wounded twice in battle, was awarded the St. George Cross and 2 medals. Red Guard (1917). During the Civil War, he was again wounded 2 times, fought on the Eastern Front against the troops of Admiral Kolchak and in Transbaikalia against Baron Ungern; commanded a squadron, division, cavalry regiment; awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner. In 1929 he fought against the Chinese at Jalainor (conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway). In 1937-1940 was imprisoned as a victim of slander.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he commanded a mechanized corps, army, and fronts (Pseudonyms: Kostin, Dontsov, Rumyantsev). He distinguished himself in the Battle of Smolensk (1941). Hero of the Battle of Moscow (September 30, 1941—January 8, 1942). He was seriously wounded near Sukhinichi. During the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943), Rokossovsky’s Don Front, together with other fronts, was surrounded by 22 enemy divisions with a total number of 330 thousand people (Operation Uranus). At the beginning of 1943, the Don Front eliminated the encircled group of Germans (Operation “Ring”). Field Marshal F. Paulus was captured (3 days of mourning were declared in Germany). In the Battle of Kursk (1943), Rokossovsky's Central Front defeated the German troops of General Model (Operation Kutuzov) near Orel, in honor of which Moscow gave its first fireworks (08/05/1943). In the grandiose Belorussian operation (1944), Rokossovsky’s 1st Belorussian Front defeated Field Marshal von Busch’s Army Group Center and, together with the troops of General I. D. Chernyakhovsky, surrounded up to 30 drag divisions in the “Minsk Cauldron” (Operation Bagration). . On June 29, 1944, Rokossovsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The highest military orders “Virtuti Militari” and the “Grunwald” cross, 1st class, were awarded to the marshal for the liberation of Poland.
At the final stage of the war, Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front participated in the East Prussian, Pomeranian and Berlin operations. Moscow saluted the troops of commander Rokossovsky 63 times. On June 24, 1945, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of the Order of Victory, Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky commanded the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow. In 1949-1956, K.K. Rokossovsky was the Minister of National Defense of the Polish People's Republic. He was awarded the title of Marshal of Poland (1949). Returning to the Soviet Union, he became the chief inspector of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
Wrote a memoir, A Soldier's Duty.
Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/1/1945),
- 7 Orders of Lenin,
- Order of Victory (30.03.1945),
- order of the October Revolution,
- 6 Orders of the Red Banner,
- Order of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- a total of 17 orders and 11 medals;
- honorary weapon - saber with the golden coat of arms of the USSR (1968),
- 13 foreign awards (including 9 foreign orders)
Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich
11(23).11.1898—31.03.1967 Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Minister of Defense of the USSR
Born in Odessa, he grew up without a father. In 1914, he volunteered for the front of the 1st World War, where he was seriously wounded and awarded the St. George Cross, 4th degree (1915). In February 1916 he was sent to France as part of the Russian expeditionary force. There he was again wounded and received the French Croix de Guerre. Returning to his homeland, he voluntarily joined the Red Army (1919) and fought against the whites in Siberia. In 1930 he graduated from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. In 1937-1938, he volunteered to take part in battles in Spain (under the pseudonym “Malino”) on the side of the republican government, for which he received the Order of the Red Banner.
In the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he commanded a corps, an army, and a front (pseudonyms: Yakovlev, Rodionov, Morozov). He distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad. Malinovsky’s army, in cooperation with other armies, stopped and then defeated Army Group Don of Field Marshal E. von Manstein, which was trying to relieve Paulus’s group encircled at Stalingrad. The troops of General Malinovsky liberated Rostov and Donbass (1943), participated in the cleansing of Right Bank Ukraine from the enemy; Having defeated the troops of E. von Kleist, they took Odessa on April 10, 1944; together with the troops of General Tolbukhin, they defeated the southern wing of the enemy front, encircling 22 German divisions and the 3rd Romanian Army in the Iasi-Kishinev operation (08.20-29.1944). During the fighting, Malinovsky was slightly wounded; On September 10, 1944, he was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky, liberated Romania, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. On August 13, 1944, they entered Bucharest, took Budapest by storm (02/13/1945), and liberated Prague (05/9/1945). The marshal was awarded the Order of Victory.
From July 1945, Malinovsky commanded the Transbaikal Front (pseudonym Zakharov), which dealt the main blow to the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria (08/1945). Front troops reached Port Arthur. The marshal received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Moscow saluted the troops of commander Malinovsky 49 times.
On October 15, 1957, Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky was appointed Minister of Defense of the USSR. He remained in this position until the end of his life.
The Marshal is the author of the books “Soldiers of Russia”, “The Angry Whirlwinds of Spain”; under his leadership, “Iasi-Chisinau Cannes”, “Budapest - Vienna - Prague”, “Final” and other works were written.
Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (09/08/1945, 11/22/1958),
- 5 Orders of Lenin,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- a total of 12 orders and 9 medals;
- as well as 24 foreign awards (including 15 orders of foreign states). In 1964 he was awarded the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia.
Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich
4(16).6.1894—17.10.1949 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Androniki near Yaroslavl in a peasant family. He worked as an accountant in Petrograd. In 1914 he was a private motorcyclist. Having become an officer, he took part in battles with Austro-German troops and was awarded the Anna and Stanislav crosses.
In the Red Army since 1918; fought on the fronts of the Civil War against the troops of General N.N. Yudenich, Poles and Finns. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In the post-war period, Tolbukhin worked in staff positions. In 1934 he graduated from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. In 1940 he became a general.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he was the chief of staff of the front, commanded the army and the front. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad, commanding the 57th Army. In the spring of 1943, Tolbukhin became commander of the Southern Front, and from October - the 4th Ukrainian Front, from May 1944 until the end of the war - the 3rd Ukrainian Front. General Tolbukhin's troops defeated the enemy at Miussa and Molochnaya and liberated Taganrog and Donbass. In the spring of 1944, they invaded Crimea and took Sevastopol by storm on May 9. In August 1944, together with the troops of R. Ya. Malinovsky, they defeated the army group “Southern Ukraine” of Mr. Frizner in the Iasi-Kishinev operation. On September 12, 1944, F.I. Tolbukhin was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Tolbukhin's troops liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria. Moscow saluted Tolbukhin's troops 34 times. At the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, the marshal led the column of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
The marshal's health, undermined by the wars, began to fail, and in 1949 F.I. Tolbukhin died at the age of 56. Three days of mourning were declared in Bulgaria; the city of Dobrich was renamed the city of Tolbukhin.
In 1965, Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
People's Hero of Yugoslavia (1944) and "Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria" (1979).
Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin had:
- 2 Orders of Lenin,
- Order of Victory (04/26/1945),
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star,
- a total of 10 orders and 9 medals;
- as well as 10 foreign awards (including 5 foreign orders).
Meretskov Kirill Afanasyevich
26.05 (7.06).1897—30.12.1968 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Nazaryevo near Zaraysk, Moscow region, into a peasant family. Before serving in the army, he worked as a mechanic. In the Red Army since 1918. During the Civil War he fought on the Eastern and Southern fronts. He took part in battles in the ranks of the 1st Cavalry against Pilsudski's Poles. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In 1921 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army. In 1936-1937, under the pseudonym "Petrovich", he fought in Spain (awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner). During the Soviet-Finnish War (December 1939 - March 1940), he commanded the army that broke through the Manerheim Line and took Vyborg, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1940).
During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded troops in the northern directions (pseudonyms: Afanasyev, Kirillov); was a representative of the Headquarters on the North-Western Front. He commanded the army, the front. In 1941, Meretskov inflicted the first serious defeat of the war on the troops of Field Marshal Leeb near Tikhvin. On January 18, 1943, the troops of generals Govorov and Meretskov, delivering a counter strike near Shlisselburg (Operation Iskra), broke the blockade of Leningrad. On January 20, Novgorod was taken. In February 1944 he became commander of the Karelian Front. In June 1944, Meretskov and Govorov defeated Marshal K. Mannerheim in Karelia. In October 1944, Meretskov's troops defeated the enemy in the Arctic near Pechenga (Petsamo). On October 26, 1944, K. A. Meretskov received the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and from the Norwegian King Haakon VII the Grand Cross of St. Olaf.
In the spring of 1945, the “cunning Yaroslavets” (as Stalin called him) under the name of “General Maksimov” was sent to the Far East. In August - September 1945, his troops took part in the defeat of the Kwantung Army, breaking into Manchuria from Primorye and liberating areas of China and Korea.
Moscow saluted the troops of commander Meretskov 10 times.
Marshal K. A. Meretskov had:
- Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (03/21/1940), 7 Orders of Lenin,
- Order of Victory (8.09.1945),
- order of the October Revolution,
- 4 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- 10 medals;
- an honorary weapon - a saber with the Golden Coat of Arms of the USSR, as well as 4 highest foreign orders and 3 medals.
During the Great Patriotic War, the combined arms and tank armies of the Red Army were large military formations designed to solve complex operational problems.
In order to effectively manage this army structure, the army commander had to have high organizational skills, be well aware of the features of the use of all types of troops included in his army, but also, of course, have a strong character.
During the fighting, various military leaders were appointed to the post of army commander, but only the most trained and talented of them remained there until the end of the war. Most of those who commanded armies at the end of the Great Patriotic War occupied lower positions before it began.
Thus, it is known that during the war years, a total of 325 military leaders served as commanders of a combined arms army. And the tank armies were commanded by 20 people.
At the beginning, there was a frequent change of tank commanders, for example, the commanders of the 5th Tank Army were Lieutenant General M.M. Popov (25 days), I.T. Shlemin (3 months), A.I. Lizyukov (33 days, until his death in battle on July 17, 1942), 1st commanded (16 days) artilleryman K.S. Moskalenko, 4th (for two months) - cavalryman V.D. Kryuchenkin and the shortest TA commander (9 days) was the combined arms commander (P.I. Batov).
Subsequently, the commanders of tank armies during the war were the most stable group of military leaders. Almost all of them, having begun to fight as colonels, successfully commanded tank brigades, divisions, tank and mechanized corps, and in 1942-1943. led the tank armies and commanded them until the end of the war. http://www.mywebs.su/blog/history/10032.html
Of the combined arms military commanders who ended the war as army commanders, 14 people before the war commanded corps, 14 - divisions, 2 - brigades, one - a regiment, 6 were in teaching and command work in educational institutions, 16 officers were staff commanders at various levels, 3 were deputy division commanders and 1 deputy corps commander.
Only 5 generals who commanded armies at the start of the war ended it in the same position: three (N.E. Berzarin, F.D. Gorelenko and V.I. Kuznetsov) on the Soviet-German front and two more (M. F. Terekhin and L.G. Cheremisov) - on the Far Eastern Front.
In total, 30 military leaders from among the army commanders died during the war, including:
22 people were killed or died from wounds received in battle,
2 (K. M. Kachanov and A. A. Korobkov) were repressed,
2 (M. G. Efremov and A. K. Smirnov) committed suicide to avoid capture,
2 people died in plane (S. D. Akimov) and car accidents (I. G. Zakharkin),
1 (P.F. Alferyev) went missing and 1 (F.A. Ershakov) died in a concentration camp.
For success in planning and carrying out combat operations during the war and immediately after its end, 72 military commanders from among the army commanders were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 9 of them twice. After the collapse of the USSR, two generals were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
During the war years, the Red Army consisted of about 93 combined arms, guards, shock and tank armies, of which there were:
1 seaside;
70 combined arms;
11 Guards (from 1 to 11);
5 drums (from 1 to 5);
6 tank guards;
In addition, the Red Army had:
18 air armies (from 1 to 18);
7 air defense armies;
10 sapper armies (from 1 to 10);
In the Independent Military Review dated April 30, 2004. a rating of commanders of the Second World War was published, below is an extract from this rating, an assessment of the combat activity of the commanders of the main combined arms and tank Soviet armies:
3. Commanders of combined arms armies.
Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich (1900-1982) - Marshal of the Soviet Union. Since September 1942 - commander of the 62nd (8th Guards) Army. He particularly distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Batov Pavel Ivanovich (1897-1985) - army General. Commander of the 51st, 3rd armies, assistant commander of the Bryansk Front, commander of the 65th army.
Beloborodov Afanasy Pavlantievich (1903-1990) - army General. Since the beginning of the war - commander of a division, rifle corps. Since 1944 - commander of the 43rd, in August-September 1945 - 1st Red Banner Army.
Grechko Andrey Antonovich (1903-1976) - Marshal of the Soviet Union. From April 1942 - commander of the 12th, 47th, 18th, 56th armies, deputy commander of the Voronezh (1st Ukrainian) Front, commander of the 1st Guards Army.
Krylov Nikolai Ivanovich (1903-1972) - Marshal of the Soviet Union. From July 1943 he commanded the 21st and 5th armies. He had unique experience in the defense of besieged large cities, being the chief of staff of the defense of Odessa, Sevastopol and Stalingrad.
Moskalenko Kirill Semenovich (1902-1985) - Marshal of the Soviet Union. Since 1942, he commanded the 38th, 1st Tank, 1st Guards and 40th Armies.
Pukhov Nikolai Pavlovich (1895-1958) - Colonel General. In 1942-1945. commanded the 13th Army.
Chistyakov Ivan Mikhailovich (1900-1979) - Colonel General. In 1942-1945. commanded the 21st (6th Guards) and 25th armies.
Gorbatov Alexander Vasilievich (1891-1973) - army General. Since June 1943 - commander of the 3rd Army.
Kuznetsov Vasily Ivanovich (1894-1964) - Colonel General. During the war years he commanded the troops of the 3rd, 21st, 58th, 1st Guards Armies; since 1945 - commander of the 3rd Shock Army.
Luchinsky Alexander Alexandrovich (1900-1990) - army General. Since 1944 - commander of the 28th and 36th armies. He especially distinguished himself in the Belarusian and Manchurian operations.
Lyudnikov Ivan Ivanovich (1902-1976) - Colonel General. During the war he commanded a rifle division and corps, and in 1942 he was one of the heroic defenders of Stalingrad. Since May 1944 - commander of the 39th Army, which participated in the Belarusian and Manchurian operations.
Galitsky Kuzma Nikitovich (1897-1973) - army General. Since 1942 - commander of the 3rd shock and 11th guards armies.
Zhadov Alexey Semenovich (1901-1977) - army General. Since 1942 he commanded the 66th (5th Guards) Army.
Glagolev Vasily Vasilievich (1896-1947) - Colonel General. Commanded the 9th, 46th, 31st, and in 1945 the 9th Guards armies. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Kursk, the battle for the Caucasus, during the crossing of the Dnieper, and the liberation of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Kolpakchi Vladimir Yakovlevich (1899-1961) - army General. Commanded the 18th, 62nd, 30th, 63rd, 69th armies. He acted most successfully in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations.
Pliev Issa Alexandrovich (1903-1979) - army General. During the war - commander of guards cavalry divisions, corps, commander of cavalry mechanized groups. He particularly distinguished himself by his bold and daring actions in the Manchurian strategic operation.
Fedyuninsky Ivan Ivanovich (1900-1977) - army General. During the war years, he was commander of the 32nd and 42nd armies, the Leningrad Front, 54th and 5th armies, deputy commander of the Volkhov and Bryansk fronts, commander of the 11th and 2nd shock armies.
Belov Pavel Alekseevich (1897-1962) - Colonel General. Commanded the 61st Army. He was distinguished by decisive maneuvering actions during the Belarusian, Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations.
Shumilov Mikhail Stepanovich (1895-1975) - Colonel General. From August 1942 until the end of the war, he commanded the 64th Army (from 1943 - the 7th Guards), which, together with the 62nd Army, heroically defended Stalingrad.
Berzarin Nikolai Erastovich (1904-1945) - Colonel General. Commander of the 27th and 34th armies, deputy commander of the 61st and 20th armies, commander of the 39th and 5th shock armies. He particularly distinguished himself by his skillful and decisive actions in the Berlin operation.
4. Commanders of tank armies.
Katukov Mikhail Efimovich (1900-1976) - Marshal of the Armored Forces. One of the founders of the Tank Guard is the commander of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Corps. Since 1943 - commander of the 1st Tank Army (since 1944 - Guards Army).
Bogdanov Semyon Ilyich (1894-1960) - Marshal of the Armored Forces. Since 1943, he commanded the 2nd (since 1944 - Guards) Tank Army.
Rybalko Pavel Semenovich (1894-1948) - Marshal of the Armored Forces. From July 1942 he commanded the 5th, 3rd and 3rd Guards Tank Armies.
Lelyushenko Dmitry Danilovich (1901-1987) - army General. From October 1941 he commanded the 5th, 30th, 1st, 3rd Guards, 4th Tank (from 1945 - Guards) armies.
Rotmistrov Pavel Alekseevich (1901-1982) - Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces. He commanded a tank brigade and a corps and distinguished himself in the Stalingrad operation. Since 1943 he commanded the 5th Guards Tank Army. Since 1944 - Deputy Commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Soviet Army.
Kravchenko Andrey Grigorievich (1899-1963) - Colonel General of Tank Forces. Since 1944 - commander of the 6th Guards Tank Army. He showed an example of highly maneuverable, rapid actions during the Manchurian strategic operation.
It is known that army commanders who were in their positions for a relatively long time and showed fairly high leadership abilities were selected for this list.
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus
Belarusian State University
Faculty of Humanities
Abstract on the Great Patriotic War
on the topic “Commanders of the Great Patriotic War”
Performed :
1st year student, group 3
departments communication design
Trusevich Anna
1. Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich
2. Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich
3. Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich
4. Timoshenko Semyon Konstantinovich
5. Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich
6. Meretskov Kirill Afanasyevich
7. Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich
8. Konev Ivan Stepanovich
9. Kuznetsov Nikolay Gerasimovich
Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich
Four times
Born on November 19 (December 1), 1896 in the village of Strelkovka, Ugodsko-Zavodskaya volost, Maloyaroslavets district, Kaluga region (now Zhukovsky district, Kaluga region), in the family of peasants Konstantin Artemyevich and Ustinya Artemyevna Zhukov.
At the beginning of May 1940, G.K. Zhukov was received by I.V. Stalin. This was followed by his appointment as commander of the Kyiv Special Military District. In the same year, a decision was made to assign the ranks of general to the senior command staff of the Red Army. G.K. Zhukov was awarded the rank of Army General.
In December 1940, a meeting was held at the General Staff with the participation of district and army commanders, members of Military Councils and chiefs of staff. Army General G.K. Zhukov also made a report there. He emphasized that an attack on the USSR by Nazi Germany is inevitable. The Red Army will have to deal with the most powerful army in the West. Based on this, Georgy Konstantinovich put forward the most important task of accelerating the formation of tank and mechanized formations, strengthening the Air Force and air defense.
At the end of January 1941, G.K. Zhukov was appointed Chief of the General Staff - Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. Relying on his closest assistants, he quickly got used to this multifaceted and very responsible position. The General Staff carried out a great deal of operational, organizational and mobilization work. But G.K. Zhukov immediately noticed significant shortcomings in his activities, as well as in the work of the People's Commissar of Defense and the commanders of the military branches. In particular, in case of war, no measures were taken to prepare command posts from which it would be possible to control all the Armed Forces, quickly transmit Headquarters directives to the troops, and receive and process reports from the troops.
The activities of the General Staff under the leadership of G.K. Zhukov intensified significantly. First of all, it was aimed at successfully preparing our army for war in a short time. But time was already lost. On June 22, 1941, the troops of Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began.
In August-September 1941, G.K. Zhukov, commanding the troops of the Reserve Front, successfully carried out the first offensive operation in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Then an extremely dangerous situation developed near Yelnya. A ledge had formed there, from which the German tank and motorized divisions of Army Group Center, led by Field Marshal von Bock, were preparing to attack our troops, crush them, and deal them a mortal blow. But Georgy Konstantinovich figured out this plan in time. He threw the main artillery forces of the Reserve Front against the tank and motorized divisions. Seeing dozens of tanks and vehicles go up in flames, the field marshal ordered the armored forces to be withdrawn and replaced with infantry. But that didn't help either. Under powerful fire, the Nazis were forced to retreat. The dangerous ledge was eliminated. The Soviet Guard was born in the battles near Yelnya.
When an extremely critical situation developed near Leningrad and the question arose about whether this glorious city on the Neva should exist or not, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was appointed commander of the troops of the Leningrad Front on September 11, 1941. At the cost of incredible efforts, he manages to mobilize all reserves and rouse everyone who was able to contribute to the defense of the city to fight.
Since August 1942, G. K. Zhukov has been the first deputy people's commissar of defense of the USSR and deputy supreme commander-in-chief. He coordinated the actions of the fronts at Stalingrad, during the days of breaking the siege of Leningrad, in the battle of Kursk, and in the battles for the Dnieper. In April 1944, troops under his command liberated many cities and railway junctions and reached the foothills of the Carpathians. For particularly outstanding services to the Motherland, Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov was awarded the highest military award - the Order of Victory No. 1.
In the summer of 1944, G. K. Zhukov coordinated the actions of the 1st and 2nd Belarusian Fronts in the Belarusian Strategic Operation. Well-planned and well-provided with logistics, this operation was completed successfully. The destroyed Minsk and many cities and villages of Belarus were liberated from the enemy.
On August 22, 1944, G. K. Zhukov was summoned to Moscow and received a special task from the State Defense Committee: to prepare the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front for the war with Bulgaria, whose government continued to cooperate with Nazi Germany. On September 5, 1944, the Soviet government declared war on Bulgaria. However, on the territory of Bulgaria, Soviet troops were met by Bulgarian military units with red banners and without weapons. And crowds of people greeted Russian soldiers with flowers. G.K. Zhukov reported this to J.V. Stalin and received instructions not to disarm the Bulgarian garrisons. Soon they opposed the fascist troops.
In April–May 1945, front troops under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, in cooperation with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, successfully carried out the Berlin offensive operation. Having defeated the largest group of Nazi troops, they captured Berlin. On May 8, 1945, G. K. Zhukov, on behalf of the Soviet Supreme High Command, accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany in Karlshorst. This is the brightest and most brilliant page in the biography of the outstanding commander Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. The second outstanding event in his life was the Victory Parade on Red Square. He, the commander who made a huge contribution to the defeat of fascism, had the honor of hosting this historical parade.
While retired, Georgy Konstantinovich accomplished his last feat. Despite his poor health (heart attack, stroke, inflammation of the trigeminal nerve), he did a truly gigantic job, personally writing a truthful book about the Great Patriotic War - “Memories and Reflections.” The book began with the words: “I dedicate it to the Soviet Soldier. G. Zhukov." On June 18, 1974 at 14.30 Georgy Konstantinovich died.
Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich
Born on December 21, 1896 in the small Russian town of Velikiye Luki (formerly Pskov province), in the family of a Pole railway driver, Xavier-Józef Rokossovsky, and his Russian wife Antonina.
With the outbreak of World War I, Rokossovsky asked to join one of the Russian regiments heading west through Warsaw.
After the October armed uprising, he served in the Red Army as an assistant detachment chief, commander of a cavalry squadron and a separate cavalry division. For the battle against Kolchak he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Then Rokossovsky commanded cavalry regiments, brigades, divisions, and corps. On the Eastern Front he took part in battles against the White Czechs, Admiral Kolchak, Semenov's gangs, and Baron Ungern. For the last operation he was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner.
In August 1937, he became a victim of slander: he was arrested and accused of having connections with foreign intelligence services. He behaved courageously, did not admit guilt to anything, and in March 1940 he was released and fully restored to civil rights.
From July to November 1940, K.K. Rokossovsky commanded the cavalry, and from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - the 9th mechanized corps. In July 1941, he was appointed commander of the 4th Army and transferred to the Western Front (Smolensk direction). The Yartsevo group of troops, led by Rokossovsky, stops the powerful pressure of the Nazis.
During the German offensive on Moscow, Rokossovsky commanded the troops of the 16th Army and led the defense of the Yakhroma, Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk directions. In the decisive days of the battle for the capital, he organizes a successful counter-offensive of the troops of the 16th Army in the Solnechnogorsk and Istra directions. During the bold operation, enemy strike forces trying to bypass Moscow from the north and south were defeated. The enemy was driven back 100–250 km from Moscow. The Wehrmacht suffered its first major defeat in the war, and the myth of its invincibility was dispelled.
In July 1942, during the German breakthrough to Voronezh, K.K. Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Bryansk Front. In those days, the enemy managed to reach the great bend of the Don and create a direct threat to Stalingrad and the North Caucasus. The front troops covered the Tula direction with their right wing, and the Voronezh direction with their left, with the task of holding the occupied line (northwest of Voronezh) and stopping the enemy’s advance into the interior of the country. With a counterattack from the front forces, Rokossovsky thwarted the Germans’ attempt to expand the breakthrough to the north towards Yelets.
In 1943, the Central Front, led by Rokossovsky, first successfully carried out a defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, and then, having organized a counteroffensive west of Kursk, defeated fascist troops here, liberated from the invaders the entire territory east of the Sozh and Dnieper rivers from Gomel to Kyiv, capturing a number of bridgeheads on western bank of the Dnieper.
At the end of 1943 and in January 1944, commanding the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, K.K. Rokossovsky led the offensive operations of the front troops on the territory of Belarus. As a result of these operations, a wide bridgehead was conquered west of the Dnieper River, the cities of Mozyr, Kalinkovichi, Rechitsa, Gomel were liberated, bridgeheads were captured on the western bank of the Dnieper to the Drut River north of Rogachev and on the Berezina River south of Rogachev. This made it possible to begin preparations for the Bobruisk-Minsk operation.
On June 23, Rokossovsky, according to the Headquarters plan, began the Belarusian strategic operation “Bagration” (06.23-08.29). It was one of the largest operations of World War II. As a result of the decisive actions of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, with the assistance of the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, one of the most powerful enemy groups - Army Group Center - was defeated. During the first five days of hostilities, front troops broke through enemy defenses in a 200-kilometer area and advanced to a depth of more than 100 km. 17 enemy divisions and 3 brigades were completely destroyed, 50 divisions lost more than half of their strength. Deeply enveloping the German 4th Army from the south, the front troops reached lines favorable for a rush to Minsk and the development of an offensive against Baranovichi. For carrying out this very complex and talentedly carried out strategic operation, K. K. Rokossovsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
The continuation of the strategic operation of 1944 was the Minsk offensive operation (June 29 - July 4). It began without a pause and in the absence of a previously prepared defense by the enemy. By the end of July 3, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the southeastern outskirts of Minsk, where they united with units of the 3rd Belorussian Front, thereby completing the encirclement of the main forces of the 4th and separate formations of the 9th German armies. The successful actions of the Belarusian fronts were assisted by units of the 1st Baltic Front. The task of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command - encircling the enemy's Minsk group and capturing Minsk - was completed ahead of schedule. The liquidation of the encircled enemy group was carried out on July 5–11.
Developing an offensive west from Minsk, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured Brest at the end of July, liberated the southwestern regions of Belarus, the eastern regions of Poland and captured important bridgeheads on the Vistula - north and south of Warsaw. And again the award - on July 29, K. K. Rokossovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The marshal of two countries and peoples - Soviet and Polish - deserved many kind words, reviews and characteristics. But G.K. Zhukov said more precisely than anyone else: “Rokossovsky was a very good boss... I’m not even talking about his rare spiritual qualities - they are known to everyone who served at least a little under his command... More thorough, efficient, hardworking and By and large, it’s hard for me to remember a gifted person. Konstantin Konstantinovich loved life, loved people.”
For military exploits accomplished during the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars, K. K. Rokossovsky was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Victory, seven Orders of Lenin, six Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov I degree and Kutuzov I degree, and also many medals. He was awarded a number of foreign awards: Poland - the Order of Virtuti Military, 1st class with a star and the Grunwald Cross, 1st class, France - the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross, Great Britain - the Knight's Commander's Cross of the Order of the Bath; Mongolia - Order of the Red Banner.
Konstantin Konstantinovich died on August 3, 1968 at the age of 72. An urn with his ashes was buried on Red Square in the Kremlin wall. A bronze bust of him was installed in the city of Velikiye Luki, Pskov region.
Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born on September 18 (30), 1895 in the village of Novaya Golchikha, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region. Father, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was first a psalm-reader, and later a priest. Mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna, was raising eight children.
In 1919, Vasilevsky began serving in the Red Army as an assistant platoon commander in a reserve regiment. But soon he took over a company, then a battalion, and again went to the front. As an assistant commander of the 429th Infantry Regiment of the 11th Petrograd Infantry Division, he fought with the White Poles.
For more than twelve years, A. M. Vasilevsky served in the 48th Infantry Division. He took turns commanding all the regiments that were part of it.
In May 1931, he was transferred to the Combat Training Directorate (UBP) of the Red Army, took part in organizing exercises, and in the development of Instructions for conducting deep combat. Service under the leadership of such luminaries of military thought as the head of the Combat Training Directorate A. Ya. Lapinsh and Army Commander A. I. Sidyakin enriched him. Communication with the heads of inspections gave a lot: infantry - Vasilenko, artillery - Grendal, engineering troops - Petin. Deputy People's Commissar Tukhachevsky and Chief of Staff of the Red Army Egorov worked closely with the UBP.
At the same time, Vasilevsky met his future comrade-in-arms, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. At the same time, his brilliant staff abilities first appeared. And their friendship with the great military theorist Triandafillov developed them. It was Triandafillov who first discovered his staff talent. He achieved Vasilevsky’s transfer to the People’s Commissariat apparatus, constantly mentored him, edited his first article himself and took it to Voenny Vestnik. From 1931 to 1936, Alexander Mikhailovich attended the staff service school at the People's Commissariat of Defense and the headquarters of the Volga Military District. By May 1940, he became deputy head of the Operations Directorate. And this is one of the key figures in the structure of the General Staff.
The events on Khasan, Khalkhin Gol, the beginning of World War II, the campaign to the west of Belarus and Ukraine, the victory, albeit with a bitter aftertaste, over Finland - these are just the main milestones of those terrible years. And in all these events, the General Staff and its Operational Directorate played a decisive role.
Since the fall of 1938, brigade commander Vasilevsky practically moved into an ancient building on Arbat Square. Suffice it to say that Vasilevsky was the main executor of the plan for the strategic deployment of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in the event of aggression in the West and East. This document, compiled by Vasilevsky on May 15, 1941, developed a victory strategy in the event of an enemy attack: “to cover the concentration and deployment of our troops and prepare them to go on the offensive.” Vasilevsky insisted on the inadmissibility of the construction of airfields and the placement of warehouses and arsenals near the border. Opponents of the General Staff, deputy people's commissar of defense Kulik, Mehlis, Shchadenko, close to Stalin, and people's commissar Timoshenko himself were against it and achieved their goal.
During the battle of Moscow, Alexander Mikhailovich became a lieutenant general, received his first slight wound, and became even closer to the front commander G.K. Zhukov. At the most critical moments of the defense, Vasilevsky softened as best he could the Supreme’s anger towards Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev.
It was Vasilevsky who strongly supported the decision to launch a counterattack with all the forces of the fronts. On December 1, 1941, historic order No. 396 was issued on our counter-offensive near Moscow, signed “Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. I. Stalin, A. Vasilevsky.”
On June 24, 1942, in the most difficult time for the country and the Red Army, Alexander Mikhailovich became chief of the General Staff.
It was then that the military leadership talent of A. M. Vasilevsky began to flourish. Planning and development of operations of the Red Army, resolution of the most important issues of providing the fronts with everything necessary, training of reserves were combined with practical work in the troops as a representative of Headquarters. From that time on, his fate was closely intertwined with the fate of another great commander - G.K. Zhukov. Their long, devoted friendship will begin with the hardest defensive battles near Stalingrad. The Germans reached the Volga, most of the city was in their hands, and Vasilevsky and Zhukov proposed to the Supreme Commander a plan for future victorious operations. Working in the General Staff and the troops, they prepared a plan for a counteroffensive, encirclement and destruction of the most powerful Wehrmacht group at that time of the war.
On February 16, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, A. M. Vasilevsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Over the course of several war months, he rose from major general to marshal, becoming the second military leader in this war after Zhukov to receive this highest military rank. He is awarded orders, including the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, for No. 2.
In the summer of 1943, Vasilevsky faced new challenges. Hitler had one last chance for a decisive offensive. There was little doubt that we should wait for him at the Kursk Bulge. Intelligence only confirmed this. For the Soviet command, the question was the methods and forms of confronting the enemy. Vasilevsky and Zhukov insisted on conducting a defensive operation followed by a counteroffensive and defeating the enemy. The frontline command, especially the southern front of the Kursk Bulge, proposed a preemptive offensive operation. The Supreme Commander hesitated, not even hoping for a powerful, defense in depth. But this was not the first time for Vasilevsky to convince Stalin and take responsibility for himself. He shared it with Zhukov. He went as a representative of Headquarters to the northern front of the arc to Rokossovsky, and Vasilevsky went south to Vatutin.
Until the spring of 1944, Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky stayed in the south to lead the planning and conduct of operations of the Southern and Southwestern (later 3rd and 4th Ukrainian) fronts. At the same time, he remained the Chief of the General Staff. But by that time, the Supreme Commander himself had acquired that confidence and conviction of a military leader, which allowed him to calmly accept the arguments and objections of his subordinates, having his own option in reserve. Stalin certainly mastered the most complex science of combat control. And the presence of Vasilevsky’s own nominee, his first deputy and academy classmate A.I. Antonov, was already at hand, making this confidence firm. Headquarters and the General Staff worked efficiently, and Vasilevsky calmly switched his attention to front-line operations.
The Belarusian offensive operation “Bagration” was perhaps the most brilliant, classic in concept and execution offensive operation of the Second World War. It is no coincidence that it was studied and continues to be studied in all military educational institutions in the world. Everything was present here: strict theory, and practice calculated before the actions of each soldier, and the initiative of the lower command level, and the creativity of the highest. There were frontal attacks, detours, envelopments, encirclements and the complete defeat of the enemy. Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky fought in familiar places, but now he led not units into battle, but entire armies and fronts. For Operation Bagration he was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In February 1945, after the death of the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, I. D. Chernyakhovsky, Vasilevsky was appointed to his place. Soon the 1st Baltic Front also came under his command. Under his leadership, the troops completed the defeat of the East Prussian enemy group and stormed the fortified city of Königsberg. Ahead were the Victory salute, the Victory Parade, in which Vasilevsky walked at the head of the column of the 3rd Belorussian Front.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, twice holder of the highest military order "Victory" A. M. Vasilevsky was also awarded eight Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, six Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 1st degree, the Order of the Red Star and "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR » III degree, many other domestic and foreign orders and medals.
Having lived a long and glorious life, Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky died on December 5, 1977. He was buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall. He forever went down in history as one of the great commanders of our Motherland.
Timoshenko Semyon Konstantinovich
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born on February 6 (18), 1895 in the village of Furmanka (now Furmanovka), Kilisky district, Odessa region.
In 1914 he was drafted into the tsarist army. He took part in the First World War as an ordinary machine gunner on the Western Front. In 1917, as part of the 1st Black Sea Red Guard detachment, he participated in the liquidation of the Kornilov revolt.
In August 1920, S.K. Timoshenko took command of the 4th Cavalry Division. It caused very serious damage to Wrangel’s troops and Makhno’s gang. For courage and heroism in the battles of the Civil War, S. K. Timoshenko was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner. Soon Semyon Konstantinovich was entrusted with command of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. In 1922 and 1927 he graduated from higher academic courses, and in 1930 he graduated from courses for single commanders at the Military-Political Academy. In 1933, S.K. Timoshenko was appointed to the post of deputy commander of the troops of the Belarusian Military District. At that time it was commanded by the talented military leader I.P. Uborevich. The two heroes of the Civil War together successfully conducted exercises in the area of Slutsk and other garrisons in order to increase the combat readiness of the troops. In those years, S.K. Timoshenko became close to G.K. Zhukov. They carried this relationship through many years and trials.
In September 1935, S.K. Timoshenko received a new appointment - deputy commander of the Kyiv Military District. Two years later, a new position - commander of the troops of the North Caucasus Military District. Four months later, S.K. Timoshenko took over the Kharkov Military District, and in February 1938, the Kiev Special Military District.
In September 1939, under his command, the armies of the Kyiv OVO, united into the Ukrainian Front, made a historic campaign in Western Ukraine.
The purpose of the campaigns of 1939–1940 was to assist the peoples of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Northern Bukovina, forcibly torn away from Soviet Russia during the Civil War, in their struggle to restore Soviet power and reunite with the USSR. In addition, the invasion of Poland by the Nazi army in September 1939 not only created a direct threat of fascist enslavement of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, but also posed a danger to the western borders of the USSR. For outstanding services in leading troops and decisive actions during the war with Finland, Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In May 1940, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko became People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. In this position, he took the maximum possible measures aimed at rearming the Red Army with more powerful military equipment and automatic weapons, strategic regrouping of military units, strengthening the state border, training command personnel, strengthening discipline in the troops, and reorganizing units and formations.
G.K. Zhukov, who then commanded the troops of the Kyiv Special Military District, noted that during 1940 exercises were often held. Many of them were personally attended by People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko. In the winter of 1940/41, a large operational-strategic war game took place. In his speech during the summing up of its results, the People's Commissar of Defense said that in 1941 the troops would be able to prepare in a more purposeful and organized manner. First of all, because they have already settled in new areas of deployment.
But these plans were not destined to come true... The Great Patriotic War broke out.
The most important and difficult time has come for S.K. Timoshenko. He becomes chairman of the High Command Headquarters. But on August 8, 1941, J.V. Stalin, who headed the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This caused a reshuffle in the People's Commissariat of Defense. S.K. Timoshenko was appointed Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and became part of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command.
In July 1941, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Western Direction.
From September 1941 to June 1942, S.K. Timoshenko was the commander-in-chief of the South-Western direction. Under his leadership, a counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Rostov-on-Don in 1941 was prepared and carried out.
On July 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front was created. S.K. Timoshenko is appointed commander of this front. The role of this front is difficult to overestimate. The troops of the Stalingrad Front took on the blows of superior enemy forces and stopped the advance of the Nazi troops for some time. In October 1942, S.K. Timoshenko took command of the Northwestern Front. In the most difficult conditions, the troops of this front liquidated the enemy’s Demyansk bridgehead and reached the Lovat River. And from March to June 1943, Marshal Timoshenko, already as a representative of the Headquarters, coordinated the actions of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, and in June–November 1943 - the North Caucasus Front and the Black Sea Fleet.
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko commanded the troops of the Baranovichi Military District for less than a year. From 1946 to 1949, he headed the South Ural Military District, formed in November 1941. Semyon Konstantinovich considered the Belarusian Military District his homeland. Taking over the district in 1949, he led it for 11 consecutive years. Under his leadership, many troop exercises, command and staff games, and field training under conditions of the use of atomic weapons were held here.
As a member of the CPSU Central Committee and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he provided real assistance to Belarus in solving many economic problems.
For great successes on the fronts and courage shown in battles and battles, for his contribution to strengthening the Soviet Armed Forces, S. K. Timoshenko was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded the Order of Victory, five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, five Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of Suvorov, 1st degree, honorary weapons, many medals of the USSR, as well as foreign orders.
S.K. Timoshenko died on March 31, 1970 at the age of 75. He was buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall.
Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich
Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born on June 16, 1894 in the village of Androniki, Danilovsky district, Yaroslavl province, in the family of a middle peasant.
In August 1918 he joined the Red Army as a military specialist. In 1919 he graduated from the staff service school. During the Civil War, he was the military leader of the Sadyrevsky and Shagotsky volost commissariats of the Yaroslavl province, assistant chief of staff and chief of staff of the division, head of the operational department of the army headquarters, and participated in battles against white troops on the Northern and Western fronts. After the end of the Civil War, he served as chief of staff of a rifle division and corps. In 1930 he graduated from the Advanced Training Course for Commanding Officers, and in 1934 from the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze. From September 1937 - commander of a rifle division, and from July 1938 - chief of staff of the Transcaucasian Military District. In June 1940 he received the rank of major general.
From 1941 to 1942, General Tolbukhin held the position of chief of staff of the Transcaucasian, Caucasian and Crimean fronts. In March 1942, due to the failures of the offensive actions taken by the Crimean Front, he was relieved of the post of chief of staff of this front and transferred to the post of deputy commander of the troops of the Stalingrad District. Since July 1942, he has commanded the 57th Army, which, while defending the southern approaches to Stalingrad, did not allow the Wehrmacht 4th Tank Army to reach the city, and then participated in the dismemberment and destruction of the enemy group surrounded on the Volga. On January 19, 1943, the army commander was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
After a short command of the 68th Army on the Northwestern Front in March 1943, F.I. Tolbukhin was appointed commander of the Southern Front. From that time until the end of the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the fronts operating on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front: from October 1943 - the 4th Ukrainian, from May 1944 until the end of the war - the 3rd Ukrainian. The first of the operations he carried out as a front commander was the Mius offensive of 1943, which had the goal of pinning down and, under favorable conditions, in cooperation with the Southwestern Front, defeating the Donbass enemy group and preventing the transfer of its forces to the area of the Kursk salient, where the decisive battles were taking place.
The troops of the Southern Front, having launched an offensive on July 17, penetrated the defenses of the 6th German Army (reformed to replace the one destroyed at Stalingrad) to a depth of 5–6 km and created a bridgehead on the Mius River in the area of Stepanovka and Marinovka. In order to prevent the complete collapse of its so-called “Mius Front”, which covered the Donbass, the German command was forced to weaken the group near Kharkov, transferring three of its best tank divisions from there against Tolbukhin’s troops. In order to avoid unjustified losses due to a powerful enemy counterattack, by order of the Headquarters, the front troops were withdrawn to their original position by August 2, and the Germans stormed virtually empty places.
In the next Donbass operation, the 5th Shock Army, operating in the direction of the main attack, broke through the enemy defenses and went 10 km deeper on the first day. In order to prevent the pace of the offensive from slowing down, F.I. Tolbukhin brought the 4th Guards Mechanized Corps into the breakthrough zone, which by the end of the next day advanced another 20 km to the west and crossed the Krynka River.
Developing an attack on Amvrosievka, the troops split the 6th German Army into two parts. Then F.I. Tolbukhin undertook an unprecedentedly daring maneuver with the forces of the 4th Guards Cavalry Corps. Turning sharply from the Amvrosievka area to the south, during the night of August 27 he penetrated 50 km into the enemy’s defenses. On August 30, the cavalrymen, together with the approaching units of the 4th mechanized corps, struck from the rear with the assistance of the Azov military flotilla, completely defeated the Taganrog group of Germans. Their 6th Army faced the threat of a “new Stalingrad.” The commander of Army Group South, Field Marshal E. Manstein, obtained Hitler's consent to withdraw it and other forces to the previously prepared positions of the Eastern Wall. Tolbukhin's troops disrupted their planned retreat. On September 8, 1943, they liberated Stalino (Donetsk), and on September 21 they reached the strongest section of the “Eastern Wall” - the Molochnaya River.
On October 20, 1943, the front was renamed the 4th Ukrainian. During the next - Nikopol-Krivoy Rog - operation, carried out from January 30 to February 29, 1944, together with the 3rd Ukrainian Front, three right-flank armies of the 4th Ukrainian Front: 3rd Guards, 5th Shock and 28th - by February 8, they completely knocked the Germans out of the bridgehead, crossed the Dnieper in the Malaya Lepetikha area and, together with the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, liberated Nikopol.
F.I. Tolbukhin skillfully maneuvered forces and means in the operation to liberate Crimea. When the armies of the first echelon, which had previously created a bridgehead beyond Perekop and on Sivash, crushed the enemy’s first defensive line, the front commander, sensing the turning point, on the morning of April 11, 1944, brought the 19th Tank Corps into the breakthrough, which immediately captured Dzhankoy. The enemy, under threat of encirclement, fled from the Perekop positions, as well as from the Kerch Peninsula, where the Separate Primorsky Army began its offensive. In order to break into Simferopol on the shoulders of the enemy, Fyodor Ivanovich allocated a powerful mobile group, which, in addition to the 19th Tank Corps, also included a rifle division mounted on vehicles, and an anti-tank artillery brigade equipped with standard vehicles.
Having thoroughly studied the situation, Army General F.I. Tolbukhin came to the conclusion that it was necessary to deliver the main blow in this operation from the Kitskansky bridgehead on the Dniester, which was not very convenient in many respects, and not in the Chisinau direction, as the Headquarters recommended. He managed to defend his point of view. Having misled the enemy through a series of camouflage measures, he concentrated powerful forces at Kitskan and ensured that even on the second day from the start of the operation, the commander of the opposing Army Group “Southern Ukraine”, Colonel General G. Friesner, was still expecting the main attack of the 3rd Ukrainian Front in the Chisinau direction, kept there the bulk of the forces of the Dumitrescu army group and its reserves.
On September 8, 1944, the 3rd Ukrainian Front entered Bulgaria with three armies in order to expel the remnants of German troops from this country and create the preconditions for their defeat in the territory of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. This operation, which began bloodlessly, actually ended bloodlessly on the second day. In connection with the transfer of power in Bulgaria to the government of the Fatherland Front and its declaration of war on Germany, Headquarters ordered the operation to be stopped on the evening of September 9 and the troops to be stopped at the achieved lines. Then, at the request of the government of the Fatherland Front, Soviet troops, having completed a 500-km march, reached the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border. Tolbukhin again carried out an operational maneuver and brought his troops into cooperation with the Bulgarian army. On September 12, 1944, he was awarded the highest military rank - Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Marshal Tolbukhin, the first of the country's commanders, had the extraordinary task of conducting an operation with coalition forces in the vast Balkans. In the period from September 28 to October 20, 1944, his troops, in cooperation with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia with the participation of troops of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front, carried out the Belgrade operation, liberated Belgrade and most of Serbia, and then joined in carrying out, together with the 2nd Ukrainian Front, the Budapest operations. The armies of the 3rd Ukrainian, overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, crossed the Danube to lakes Balaton and Velence. On December 20, they broke through the fortifications of the Margaret Line southwest of the Hungarian capital. The main forces created an external encirclement front, and part of the forces, uniting in the Esztergom area with the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, closed the encirclement ring of the enemy in Budapest itself.
Hitler once again gave firm assurances that he would help rescue those surrounded. The commander of the “South” group, Colonel General G. Friesner, having received additional forces for this, boastfully promised to “bath Tolbukhin in the Danube.” But this turned out to be an empty threat... On February 13, a specially created group, which included formations of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, took Budapest.
Of all the front commanders, he was perhaps the most modest, unpretentious in personal terms, tolerant and attentive to his subordinates. He was distinguished by a high general level of culture, concern for the timely and complete material supply of troops, the desire to smash the enemy primarily with artillery and aviation, if possible not to throw troops into the attack when enemy firing points had not yet been destroyed or reliably suppressed, and to achieve victory with little loss of life.
Meretskov Kirill Afanasyevich
Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born on June 7, 1897 in the village of Nazaryevo, Zaraisky district, Ryazan province, into a poor peasant family.
In 1935, K. A. Meretskov was appointed chief of staff of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKDVA), which was commanded by V.K. during the Civil War. Blucher. In 1936, Kirill Afanasyevich went to Spain as an adviser to the Chief of the General Staff of the Republican Army, and then to the Chairman of the Defense Junta of Madrid. The situation requires him to solve three problems. This is the strengthening of the defense of Madrid, the organization of the work of the General Staff, the formation, training and introduction into battle of republican and international brigades. For the defense of Madrid and the defeat of the Moroccan Corps on the Harima River, K. A. Meretskov was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner, and for the defeat of the Italian Expeditionary Force in the Guadalajara region - the Order of Lenin. This was the first victory over fascism.
Upon returning from Spain in 1937, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Then, in September 1938, he assumed the post of commander of the Volga Military District, and from 1939, the Leningrad Military District. During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940, without being relieved from the leadership of the district, he commanded the 7th Army and ensured a breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. In 1940 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of the same year, Kirill Afanasyevich received the rank of army general and was appointed first as Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, and then as Chief of the General Staff. During this period, he organizes and participates in the consistent conduct of tactical divisional exercises in military districts with live shooting - the highest form of troop training. In December, at the General Staff, with the direct participation of K. A. Meretskov, a meeting of the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Defense, military districts and armies is held. During the gathering, the results of the year are summed up, the scope of military operations in the USSR and the West is summarized, uniform requirements for tactics and operational art are developed and specified, and tasks are set for the speedy implementation of these requirements in the training of troops.
In January 1941, K. A. Meretskov transferred the position of Chief of the General Staff to G. K. Zhukov and again became Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. On the evening of June 21, 1941, I received an order from the People's Commissar of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union, S.K. Timoshenko: “Perhaps a war will begin tomorrow. You need to be a representative of the High Command in the Leningrad Military District...”
At a meeting of the District Military Council on the first day of Hitler's aggression, the army general proposed a number of urgent measures. Their implementation served as the most important prerequisite for the stability of the defense against the Finnish troops who went on the offensive. Meretskov also recommended immediately preparing defensive positions on the Luga River.
On the second day of the war, the Headquarters of the Main Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR was created. It also included K. A. Meretskov. On the same day he was called to Moscow. And in the evening, in Stalin’s reception room, Kirill Afanasyevich was arrested on false charges fabricated by Beria and his satraps.
The difficult situation at the front prompted I.V. Stalin to remember the talented military leader and, in early September, return him to combat formation, appointing him as a representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters on the North-Western and Karelian fronts, and then appoint him as commander of the 7th separate army, operating in two isolated each other. from each other in groups: the Northern Operational Group in the Petrozavodsk direction and the Southern Operational Group defending on the Svir River. Since that time, many pages of the heroic struggle of Soviet soldiers against the invaders in the north-west are associated with the name of K. A. Meretskov.
In October-November 1941, the Germans made great efforts to take Leningrad before the onset of cold weather. In an attempt to create a second, deeper blockade ring, they managed to break through the defenses of the 4th Separate Army on Volkhov and rush to Tikhvin in large forces with the intention, after capturing it, to unite with the Finns on Svir and intercept communications to Murmansk.
On December 17, 1941, Headquarters appointed K. A. Meretskov as commander of the Volkhov Front, created by combining forces operating east of the Volkhov River. Commanding this and then the Karelian fronts, the commander prepared and carried out a number of successful offensive operations. Completing the Tikhvin operation, on December 27, 1941, his troops reached the Volkhov River and captured several bridgeheads on its left bank.
On the appointed day, the Volkhov Front began the operation. The 4th and 52nd armies, understaffed and not provided with material resources, went on the offensive. And only as they arrived from the Headquarters reserve, the 59th and 2nd shock armies were introduced into the battle. The troops experienced an acute shortage of automatic weapons, transport, communications, food and fodder. The offensive took place in a heavily snow-covered, wooded and swampy area, with no roads.
To achieve success, Kirill Afanasyevich focuses his efforts on ensuring the actions of the most equipped 2nd Shock Army of General N.K. Klykov. On January 17, this army managed to break through the first enemy defensive line. By the end of the month, it had advanced 75 km, cut the Novgorod-Leningrad railway and reached the approaches to Lyuban. However, the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front was able to reach the approaches to Lyuban only in March.
By this time, the German command had transferred more than a dozen divisions to the Lyuban direction and, having ensured overwhelming superiority, began to squeeze the 2nd strike force into a deep “sack.” To the misfortune of this and other armies, on April 23, the Headquarters transformed the Volkhov Front into an operational group as part of the Leningrad Front, and K. A. Meretskova was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the Western direction. In May, at his request, he was appointed to the army, commander of the 33rd Army.
It is not difficult to imagine the state of mind of a military commander forced to leave his post, even with promotion to a higher one, when the troops that began the operation under his leadership found themselves in an emergency situation. The then commander of the Leningrad Front, General I. S. Khozin, who persistently sought the decision taken by Headquarters, was unable to effectively control the actions of all the troops he had accepted over a vast space. He was also unable to carry out the belated order from Headquarters to withdraw the 2nd Shock Army from the “bag”. General Vlasov, who was appointed commander in place of the sick Klykov at the end of April, finally plunged the army into disaster by his inaction and then by going over to the enemy’s side.
In June 1942, Meretskov was summoned to Headquarters and again appointed commander of the recreated Volkhov Front. With great difficulty, he managed to rescue part of the forces of the 2nd strike, saving it from complete extermination. He was able to prepare the next one in more detail - the Sinyavinsk operation. Conducted jointly with the Leningrad Front, with the assistance of the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga Military Flotilla from August 12 to October 10, 1942, it led to the disruption of the German Operation Nordlich (Northern Lights), which envisaged a new “decisive” assault on the city in September.
It was possible to break the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 during Operation Iskra. This was an important result of the coordinated activities of the commanders of the two sister fronts.
At this time, a representative of Headquarters, K.E. Voroshilov, arrived at the command post of the division that had wedged itself into the enemy’s position, accompanied by K. A. Meretskov. It was at this moment that a group of Nazis, supported by assault guns, broke through to the divisional command post. A small number of personal guards, headquarters workers and signalmen entered the battle with them. Soon two of our tanks, called by the commander from the 7th brigade, arrived to help them. Together with the soldiers defending the command post, they immediately attacked and drove back the Nazis. A little later, a tarred and smoked tankman entered the dugout to the military commanders from top to bottom and reported: “Comrade Army General, your order has been carried out. The enemy who broke through was defeated and driven back!”
Recognition of the commander's skill and merits was the awarding of the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union to him on October 26, 1944. June 24, 1945 Marshal of the Soviet Union K.A. Meretskov led the combined regiment of the Karelian Front at the Victory Parade.
Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
At the age of 16, Rodion Malinovsky became a soldier of the First World War - a carrier of cartridges in the machine gun company of the 256th Elisavetgrad Infantry Regiment of the 64th Infantry Division. Six months later, he replaced the wounded number two of the machine gun crew. Many times he repelled enemy infantry and cavalry attacks. In March 1915, private machine gun team Rodion Malinovsky was awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree and promoted to corporal.
In 1939, Malinovsky was appointed senior teacher at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy. In March 1941, he was appointed to the Odessa Military District as commander of the 48th Rifle Corps. The headquarters of this association was located in the Moldovan city of Balti.
Here on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War found the corps commander. The enemy significantly outnumbered the defenders in numbers and military equipment. But parts of the corps held out heroically. For several days they did not leave the state border along the banks of the Prut River. But the forces were too unequal.
A special page in the life of General Malinovsky is Stalingrad. In August 1942, in order to hold Stalingrad, the 66th Army was created, reinforced with tank and artillery units. R. Ya. Malinovsky was appointed its commander. In September-October 1942, army units, in cooperation with the 24th and 1st Guards armies, went on the offensive north of Stalingrad. They managed to pin down a significant part of the forces of the 6th German Army and thereby weaken its strike force attacking directly on the city.
In October 1942, R. Ya. Malinovsky was deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. Then he left for Tambov, in the area of which the 2nd Guards Army was urgently being formed. It was intended to participate in the defeat of the Nazi group of troops at Stalingrad. General Sergei Semenovich Biryuzov was appointed chief of staff. Rodion Yakovlevich was united with him by military fate for many years.
The actions of the 2nd Guards Army are a glorious and bright page in the annals of the history of the Great Patriotic War. This army was prepared for combat by December 1942. Its advance to Stalingrad began at the most critical period of the great battle. Then the German command, in order to save its numerous troops who were surrounded, threw the last but powerful tank reserves of Army Group Don into battle. The Soviet command promptly decided to immediately advance the 2nd Guards Army towards the main enemy forces. In conditions when enemy tanks with troops on board were already close, Army Commander Malinovsky threw regiments into battle as they arrived. Reinforced with artillery and tanks, they stopped the advance of the Nazis. Then, in cooperation with the 5th and 51st armies, Malinovsky's 2nd Guards Army stopped and defeated Manstein's troops. Nothing - neither December frosts, nor snow drifts, nor the fierce resistance of the fascist German troops of Army Group Don - could disrupt the implementation of the strategic plan of the Soviet command.
Since February 1943, R. Ya. Malinovsky was again the commander of the Southern Front, and since March - the Southwestern Front. (On October 20, 1943, the Southwestern Front was renamed the 3rd Ukrainian Front.) Front troops under the command of Army General Malinovsky participated in a number of offensive operations.
A special place among them is occupied by the Zaporozhye operation, carried out by troops of the Southwestern Front on October 10–14, 1943. The balance of forces at the beginning of this operation was in favor of the Soviet troops. This made it possible to break through the enemy’s well-fortified lines in four days and reach the near approaches to Zaporozhye. The front commander decided, without giving the enemy a break, to capture the city in a night assault with the participation of 200 tanks and self-propelled artillery units. This plan of R. Ya. Malinovsky was successfully implemented. Early in the morning, Soviet troops broke into the city. On the evening of October 14, the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was transmitted by radio. It noted that the troops of the Southwestern Front captured the large regional and industrial center of Ukraine, the city of Zaporozhye - one of the important strongholds of the Germans in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. In commemoration of the victory, 31 formations and units began to be called “Zaporozhye”.
In this operation, as in a number of subsequent ones, Rodion Yakovlevich showed his ability to make creative, non-standard solutions that stunning the enemy with ingenuity and surprise. Thus, during the capture of Zaporozhye, he carried out a night assault unprecedented in military history. Three armies and two corps simultaneously participate in it. As a result of the operation, the situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front significantly improved. And the troops of the Southwestern Front, having expanded the captured bridgeheads on the Dnieper, continued the offensive in the Krivoy Rog direction. Then they defeated the enemy group in Melitopol. This contributed to the isolation of German troops in Crimea.
In May 1944, Army General R. Ya. Malinovsky received the 2nd Ukrainian Front from Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev. By that time, he had already established himself as a commander who knew how to accurately determine his own forces and the enemy’s plans, taking into account the combat capabilities of his troops, accurately determine the direction of the main attack, closely interact with the command of neighboring fronts and armies, and act decisively and prudently.
On August 20, after a powerful artillery barrage, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front broke through the entire depth of the enemy’s defenses on the first day of the offensive and advanced 16 km forward. Army General Malinovsky, contrary to the expectations of the enemy, ordered the 6th Tank Army to enter the breakthrough in the middle of the same day. This decision of the front commander made it possible to ensure a high tempo of the offensive, and ultimately the encirclement of the main group of enemy troops. In a short time, Army Group “Southern Ukraine” was defeated. The collapse of the enemy's defenses on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front changed the entire military-political situation in the Balkans.
For his courage and great services in the defeat of the Kwantung Army, Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 48 times the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in his orders declared gratitude to the troops commanded by R. Ya. Malinovsky.
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky died on March 31, 1967 after a serious and long illness. He was buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall. The memory of the outstanding commander is unquenchable. His name was given to the Military Academy of Armored Forces and the Guards Tank Division. In Moscow, Kyiv, and a number of other cities there are Marshal Malinovsky streets.
Konev Ivan Stepanovich
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born on December 28, 1897 in the village of Lodeino, Shchetkinsky volost, Nikolsky district, Vologda province (now Podosinovsky district, Kirov region), in a peasant family.
In 1926, Konev successfully completed advanced training courses for senior command personnel at the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze. And in 1934 he completed his studies at a special faculty of the same academy. He successively commands a regiment, division, corps, army, and troops of the Trans-Baikal, then the North Caucasus military districts. In July 1938, he was awarded the rank of corps commander, and in March 1939 - army commander of the 2nd rank.
On the night of June 26, 1941, I. S. Konev received an order to urgently redeploy units of the 19th Army from Ukraine to the Vitebsk area. A defensive line was created there with the main line along the line Sushchevo, Vitebsk, and the Dnieper River. Here, first on the distant (Yelnya - Smolensk), and then on the near approaches to Moscow, the 19th Army took part in bloody battles, covering the capital from the enemy. For successful military operations, Konev was awarded the rank of Colonel General.
On September 12, 1941, a high appointment followed - commander of the troops of the Western Front. Konev commanded this front for just one month. But I’ve probably never experienced such a severe strain of strength. It was from this time until the end of the war that Konev fought as commander of the front troops. Ivan Stepanovich headed Kalininsky (from October 1941), again Western (August 1942 - February 1943), Northwestern (from March 1943), Stepnoy (from July 1943), 2nd Ukrainian (from October 1943) and 1st Ukrainian (May 1944 - May 1945) fronts.
The greatest successes in battles with the Nazi hordes were achieved by the troops of the Steppe, and later the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts. Taking part in the famous Battle of Kursk in 1943, the troops of the Steppe Front, as a result of a swift counter-offensive, liberated Belgorod and Kharkov from the enemy with a powerful blow and crossed the Dnieper in its middle reaches.
The Korsun-Shevchenko operation of early 1944 was a classic operation in encircling and destroying a huge group of enemy troops. It is rightly called “Stalingrad on the Dnieper”. In this operation, I. S. Konev largely outplayed Field Marshal E. Manstein. First, having regrouped his troops in completely impassable conditions, Konev delivered an unexpected powerful blow to the enemy forces. As a result, about 80 thousand people, more than 230 tanks and assault guns were surrounded in the Zvenigorodka area. And when E. Manstein attempted a breakthrough, Konev prevented it by transferring his 5th Guards Tank Army to the threat area. For his excellent leadership of the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Army General I. S. Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union in February 1944.
In the spring of 1944, a new major operation was launched - the Uman-Botoshan operation. And again success: the enemy was defeated, the front troops were the first to reach the State border of the USSR - with Romania and Czechoslovakia.
Complex military-political tasks were solved by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Konev in the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive operation in the summer of 1944. One front carried out two simultaneous strategic strikes against enemy forces.
“In the Lvov-Sandomierz operation,” Hero of the Soviet Union General of the Army P. Lashchenko later wrote, “by decision of Ivan Stepanovich, two tank armies were successively introduced into the battle along a narrow six-kilometer corridor, penetrated by rifle formations, in conditions when the Nazis carried out a counterattack with the aim of close the gap in your defense. As a participant in that battle, the degree of risk of the marshal is especially clear to me. Another thing is clear: this risk was justified, supported by comprehensive support for the introduction of tank armies, the subsequent actions of which predetermined the defeat of the fascist group.”
During this very complex operation, eight enemy divisions were surrounded and defeated in the area of the city of Brody, the western regions of the USSR and the southeastern regions of Poland were liberated, and the vast Sandomierz bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula was occupied.
The commander's talent is again adequately appreciated. On July 29, 1944, Ivan Stepanovich Konev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Thousands of soldiers from his front received high awards.
On January 12, 1945, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, together with the 1st Belorussian Front, began the largest offensive operation - the Vistula-Oder operation. In mid-January, tankers captured the city of Czestochowa. Two days later, as a result of a complex outflanking maneuver by the 3rd Guards Tank and 59th Combined Arms Armies, Krakow was liberated. At the same time, the entire Upper Silesian industrial region was cleared of the enemy. He began to produce products necessary for Poland. On January 27, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, where at that time there were several thousand prisoners.
On the morning of April 17, troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts, with the assistance of the 2nd Belorussian Front and the Baltic Fleet, began the largest offensive operation in the Berlin direction of the entire war.
On April 18, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through the enemy defenses erected along the Oder and Neisse rivers, reached the Spree River and created conditions for the successful development of the offensive. On April 25, the Berlin group of German troops was cut into two parts and surrounded in the Berlin area and to the southeast of it. At the same time, a meeting took place between soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front on the Elbe River near the city of Torgau and the Americans.
A day earlier, tankers of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts met southeast of Berlin. The joint destruction of the troops of the Berlin garrison began. On April 30, the red Banner of Victory hoisted over the Reichstag, and on May 2, Berlin capitulated.
According to the plan approved by the Headquarters, in addition to the 1st Ukrainian Front, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian (R. Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th Ukrainian (A. I. Eremenko) fronts took part in the Prague operation of Prague, moving around Prague from the southeast and east. The main blow to Field Marshal Schörner's Army Group Center was delivered by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, advancing from the Berlin and Dresden directions through the impassable Ore Mountains. The forced march was unprecedentedly difficult and rapid: it took only five days and nights. This was the last offensive operation carried out under the leadership of Marshal I. S. Konev. On the morning of May 9, joyful Prague residents greeted Soviet soldiers with flowers.
Until the very last days of his life, which ended on May 21, 1973, Ivan Stepanovich carried out great and very important work on the heroic and patriotic education of Soviet people, especially young people. He headed the Central Headquarters of the All-Union Campaign to the places of revolutionary, military and labor glory of the Soviet people. It was under him that this popular youth movement reached its greatest flowering. By telling the truth about the massive feats shown during the years of the last war, Ivan Stepanovich instilled in young men and women a passionate love for the Motherland, for their people.
Ivan Stepanovich Konev was repeatedly awarded for outstanding services to the Fatherland. He became the Marshal of the Soviet Union, he was twice awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945), he was awarded the highest military Order of Victory, seven Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov I degree, two Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, Order of the Red Star, honorary weapon, and many other state awards. Among his awards are 27 foreign orders, the highest awards of the USA - the Order of Honor, France - the Order of the Legion of Honor. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Ivan Stepanovich, at the British Embassy in Moscow, the widow of Marshal Antonina Vasilyevna and daughter Natalia Ivanovna, the British Minister of Defense presented the highest English award that I. S. Konev was awarded after the Second World War - the “Order of the Cleansing Font”. He is a Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and a Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic.
The memory of the outstanding commander is imperishable. The urn with his ashes was buried on Red Square in the Kremlin wall. The name of I. S. Konev was given to a street in Moscow. In the homeland of Ivan Stepanovich, in the village of Lodeyno, Podosinovsky district, Kirov region, his bronze bust was installed.
Kuznetsov Nikolay Gerasimovich
Hero of the Soviet Union, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union
In the fall of 1920, Kuznetsov was transferred to Petrograd and enrolled in the Central Fleet Crew. From December 6, 1920 to May 20, 1922, he studied at the preparatory school at the Naval School (later the M. V. Frunze Naval School), to which he was transferred in September 1922. On October 5, 1926, he graduated from college with honors, receiving the rank of commander of the Red Red Army Fleet, and was enrolled in the middle-ranking command corps of the Red Army Navy. He was given the right to choose a fleet
In November 1933, Captain 2nd Rank Kuznetsov was appointed commander of the cruiser Chervona Ukraine. He remained in this position until August 15, 1936.
This period of service for the young commander was marked by important events: a single-ship combat readiness system was developed; later it was adopted by all USSR fleets. A method of emergency heating of turbines was also developed, which made it possible to prepare turbines in 15–20 minutes instead of 4 hours (later adopted in all fleets), firing main caliber guns at the highest cruiser speeds and at the maximum target detection distance. The movement “Fight for the first salvo” was launched on the cruiser. For the first time, gunners began to use aircraft to correct an invisible target. In the navy, many started talking about methods of organizing combat training “according to the Kuznetsov system.”
In 1935, the cruiser "Chervona Ukraine" took first place in the Naval Forces of the Red Army. For his success in organizing the combat training of the cruiser in the same year, Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
In December 1935, Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of the Red Star “for outstanding services in organizing the underwater and surface Naval Forces of the Red Army and for success in the combat and political training of the Red Navy.”
Since August 1936, he has worked as a naval attaché and chief naval adviser, as well as the leader of Soviet volunteer sailors in Spain. He did a lot to ensure that the Republican fleet fulfilled its tasks. His work in helping the Republican fleet was highly appreciated by the Soviet government: in 1937 he was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner. In July 1937, Kuznetsov returned to his homeland and in August of the same year was appointed deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet, and from January 10, 1938 to March 28, 1939, he was commander of this fleet.
As the commander of the fleet on the Far Eastern borders of the country, Kuznetsov closely monitors the situation, the provocations of the Japanese military at Lake Khasan in 1938, takes measures to increase the combat readiness of the fleet (the first directives on operational readiness are being worked out here on a fleet scale), personally visits the battle area, organizes assistance to ground forces. For this activity, Kuznetsov was awarded the combat badge “Participant in the battles at Lake Khasan.” On February 23, 1939, the commander of the Pacific Fleet was one of the first in the fleet to take the military oath (new text) and swear to defend the Motherland, “not sparing one’s blood and life itself to defeat the enemy.”
In December 1937, by decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of the USSR Navy was created; in March 1938, N. G. Kuznetsov was introduced to the Main Military Council of the Navy under the People's Commissariat of the Navy.
On March 28, 1939, N. G. Kuznetsov was appointed Deputy People's Commissar of the Navy, and on April 28, 1939 (at age 34), two years and two months before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was appointed People's Commissar of the USSR Navy.
The first problem that confronted the young People's Commissar was to find a place for the People's Commissariat of the Navy and his position as People's Commissar in the then established system of management of the Armed Forces. This has not been documented. Each People's Commissariat was controlled by one of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, and some were personally led by J.V. Stalin. The newly created People's Commissariat of the Navy was in this group.
At the end of July 1939, N.G. Kuznetsov led the exercises of the Baltic Fleet forces, and in September, in the Northern Fleet, together with the headquarters and the Military Council of the fleet, he developed new combat training plans that corresponded to the international situation.
Kuznetsov made decisions without looking at the top. At the beginning of 1941, the People's Commissar ordered to open fire on foreign reconnaissance aircraft without warning if they violated our borders and appeared over fleet bases. On March 16–17 of the same year, foreign aircraft were fired upon over Libau and Polyarny. For such actions, Kuznetsov received a reprimand from Stalin and a demand to cancel the order. Kuznetsov canceled this order, but issued another: do not open fire on the intruders, send fighters and force the intruder aircraft to land on our airfields.
In February 1941, the People's Commissar assigned the fleets the task of forming the combat core of the fleet to repel enemy attacks and cover the coast and developing operational plans that would form the basis for the actions of the fleets in the initial period of the war. He personally led this work, making instructions to the General Staff of the Navy.
In May 1941, on the instructions of N.G. Kuznetsov, the fleets increased the composition of the combat core, strengthened ship patrols and reconnaissance. On June 19, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy, all fleets switched to operational readiness No. 2, bases and formations were asked to disperse forces and strengthen surveillance of water and air, and prohibit the dismissal of personnel from units and ships. The ships took on the necessary supplies and put the materiel in order; a certain duty was established. All personnel remained on the ships. Political work among the Red Navy men was intensified in the spirit of constant readiness to repel an enemy attack, despite the TASS report of June 14, refuting rumors of a possible German attack on the USSR.
On June 21, 1941, after receiving a warning from the General Staff at 23:00 about a possible attack on the USSR by Nazi Germany, the People's Commissar of the Navy, with his directive No. 3N/87, at 23:50, announced to the fleets: “Immediately switch to operational readiness No. 1.” Even earlier, his verbal order was conveyed to the fleets by telephone. The fleets carried out the order by 00.00 on June 22 and were already in full combat readiness when at 01:12 on June 22, the military councils of the fleets received a second detailed directive from the People's Commissar of the Navy Kuznetsov “on the possibility of a surprise attack by the Germans” No. 3N/88.
On June 22, 1941, all fleets and flotillas of the USSR met aggression on combat alert, and on the first day of the war did not suffer losses either in the naval personnel or in the naval air force.
Having received reports from the fleets about fascist air raids on bases, N.G. Kuznetsov, under his own responsibility, announced the beginning of the war to the fleets and ordered them to repel aggression with all their might. He gave the command to the fleets to begin implementing the plans developed on the eve of the war. Minefields were laid, submarines were deployed, and ships and aircraft launched strikes against enemy targets. The People's Commissar ordered the Main Naval Staff not to lose control of the fleets, to control the situation on them, to be aware of all orders of the People's Commissariat of Defense, and to frequently inform the General Staff about events in the fleets.
During the war, organizing interaction between the Navy and ground forces in order to defeat the enemy was one of the main directions in the activities of the People's Commissariat and the Main Naval Staff of the Navy. Kuznetsov proved himself to be an outstanding organizer of interaction between naval forces and ground forces. He acted as the People's Commissar of the Navy, a member of the State Defense Committee and a representative of the Supreme High Command Headquarters on the use of naval forces on the fronts (1941–1945), as the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy (from February 1944), as a member of the Supreme High Command Headquarters (from February 1945). During the war, Kuznetsov, on orders from Headquarters and on his own initiative, traveled to the fronts and fleets, where his presence was necessary to resolve the most difficult situations that required organizing and coordinating the activities of fleets in joint operations with artillery units. By order of the People's Commissar of the Navy, his deputies, the chief and other employees of the General Staff went to the fleets. He personally reported to Headquarters on the situation on the fronts where the naval forces were operating, made his proposals, plans of operations developed at the General Staff, and sought decisions. He directly personally participated in the development of plans for conducting operations, including those the concept of which originated at the Supreme Command Headquarters.
In July 1941, the People's Commissar of the Navy proposed to the General Headquarters to launch bombing attacks on Berlin using naval aviation from airfields on the island of Ezel. Headquarters agreed, placing all responsibility on Kuznetsov. During the period from August 8 to September 5, 1941, nine raids were carried out on Berlin, in which dozens of Navy Air Force aircraft took part. The bombings caused some damage to the German capital, but it is difficult to overestimate the moral and political significance of these raids at that time.
LITERATURE:
KHAMETOV M. N. In the sky of the Arctic: About twice Hero of the Soviet Union B. F.
Safonov / Preface. A. Maryamova. - M.: Politizdat, 1983. - 110 p.: ill.
STUPIN E. On the wings of immortality // Sov. warrior - 1988. - No. 12. - P. 31.
Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections (volume 1, 2, 3). 1984
Zhukova M.G. Georgy Zhukov. 1974
Shubina T. G. Encyclopedia of military art 1997.
Master of Environments Marshal Konev: Portuguese R. Yauza Eksmo 2007 Great commanders of World War II
The Second World War is considered one of the most fierce and bloody armed conflicts of the 20th century. Of course, victory in the war was the merit of the Soviet people, who, at the cost of countless sacrifices, gave the future generation a peaceful life. However, this became possible thanks to unsurpassed talent - the participants of the Second World War forged victory together with ordinary citizens of the USSR, demonstrating heroism and courage.
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov is considered one of the most key figures of the Great Patriotic War. The beginning of Zhukov's military career dates back to 1916, when he took direct part in the First World War. In one of the battles, Zhukov was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, but despite this, he did not leave his post. For courage and valor he was awarded the Cross of St. George, 3rd and 4th degree.
The WWII generals are not just military commanders, they are real innovators in their field. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov is a striking example of this. It was he, the first of all representatives of the Red Army, who was awarded the insignia - the Marshal's Star, and was also awarded the highest service - Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Alexey Mikhailovich Vasilevsky
It is impossible to imagine the list of “Generals of the Second World War” without this outstanding person. During the entire war, Vasilevsky was at the fronts for 22 months with his soldiers, and only 12 months in Moscow. The great commander personally commanded the battles in heroic Stalingrad, during the days of the defense of Moscow, and repeatedly visited the most dangerous territories from the point of view of attack by the enemy German army.
Alexey Mikhailovich Vasilevsky, Major General of the Second World War, had an amazingly courageous character. Thanks to his strategic thinking and lightning-fast understanding of the situation, he was repeatedly able to repel enemy attacks and avoid many casualties.
Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky
The rating “Outstanding Generals of the Second World War” will not be complete without mentioning an amazing person, the talented commander K.K. Rokossovsky. Rokossovsky's military career began at the age of 18, when he asked to join the Red Army, whose regiments passed through Warsaw.
The biography of the great commander has a negative imprint. So, in 1937, he was slandered and accused of having connections with foreign intelligence, which served as the basis for his arrest. However, Rokossovsky’s perseverance played a significant role. He did not admit to the charges against him. The acquittal and release of Konstantin Konstantinovich took place in 1940.
For successful military operations near Moscow, as well as for the defense of Stalingrad, Rokossovsky’s name is at the top of the list of “great generals of the Second World War.” For the role that the general played in the attack on Minsk and Baranovichi, Konstantin Konstantinovich was awarded the title “Marshal of the Soviet Union.” He was awarded many orders and medals.
Ivan Stepanovich Konev
Do not forget that the list of “Generals and Marshals of the Second World War” includes the name of I. S. Konev. One of the key operations, which is indicative of the fate of Ivan Stepanovich, is considered to be the Korsun-Shevchenko offensive. This operation made it possible to encircle a large group of enemy troops, which also played a positive role in turning the tide of the war.
Alexander Werth, a popular English journalist, wrote about this tactical offensive and Konev’s unique victory: “Konev carried out a lightning-fast attack on enemy forces through slush, dirt, impassability and muddy roads.” For his innovative ideas, perseverance, valor and colossal courage, Ivan Stepanovich joined the list that included generals and marshals of the Second World War. Commander Konev received the title of “Marshal of the Soviet Union” third, after Zhukov and Vasilevsky.
Andrey Ivanovich Eremenko
One of the most famous personalities of the Great Patriotic War is Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko, born in the settlement of Markovka in 1872. The military career of an outstanding commander began in 1913, when he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army.
This person is interesting because he received the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union for merits other than Rokossovsky, Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Konev. If the listed generals of the armies of the Second World War were awarded orders for offensive operations, then Andrei Ivanovich received an honorary military rank for defense. Eremenko took an active part in the operations near Stalingrad, in particular, he was one of the initiators of the counteroffensive, which resulted in the capture of a group of German soldiers in the amount of 330 thousand people.
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky is considered one of the most prominent commanders of the Great Patriotic War. He enlisted in the Red Army at the age of 16. During the First World War he received multiple severe wounds. Two fragments from shells stuck in my back, the third pierced my leg. Despite this, after recovery he was not discharged, but continued to serve his homeland.
His military successes during the Second World War deserve special words. In December 1941, with the rank of lieutenant general, Malinovsky was appointed commander of the Southern Front. However, the most striking episode in the biography of Rodion Yakovlevich is considered to be the defense of Stalingrad. The 66th Army, under the strict leadership of Malinovsky, launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad. Thanks to this, it was possible to defeat the 6th German Army, which reduced the enemy’s pressure on the city. After the end of the war, Rodion Yakovlevich was awarded the honorary title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko
The victory, of course, was forged by the entire people, but the WWII generals played a special role in the defeat of the German troops. The list of outstanding commanders is supplemented by the name of Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko. The commander repeatedly received anger due to failed operations in the first days of the war. Semyon Konstantinovich, showing courage and bravery, asked the commander-in-chief to send him to the most dangerous area of the battles.
During his military activities, Marshal Timoshenko commanded the most important fronts and directions that were of a strategic nature. The most striking facts in the biography of the commander are considered to be the battles on the territory of Belarus, in particular the defense of Gomel and Mogilev.
Ivan Khristoforovich Chuikov
Ivan Khristoforovich was born into a peasant family in 1900. He decided to devote his life to serving his homeland and to connect it with military activities. He took a direct part in the Civil War, for which he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner.
During World War II he was the commander of the 64th and then the 62nd Army. Under his leadership, the most important defensive battles took place, which made it possible to defend Stalingrad. Ivan Khristoforovich Chuikov was awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” for the liberation of Ukraine from fascist occupation.
The Great Patriotic War is the most important battle of the 20th century. Thanks to the valor, bravery and courage of Soviet soldiers, as well as the innovation and ability of commanders to make decisions in difficult situations, it was possible to achieve a crushing victory of the Red Army over Nazi Germany.
Soviet propaganda did its job, and every schoolchild knew the names of these military leaders. And the phrase of Mikhail Ulyanov in the role of Zhukov: “To fight to the death... made me shiver.” However, recently there have been a lot of alternative points of view that cast doubt on the abilities of the commanders of that war, pointing to obvious tactical miscalculations and unjustified sacrifices. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know, but I’m sure that, sitting at a computer with a cup of coffee, it’s very easy to evaluate people’s actions, find mistakes and move entire armies, everything is different in life and understand the motives for actions without having all the data very not easy.
Let's remember the names of these people.
1 . Zhukov (1896-1974)
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov is a three-time hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union, who has the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, and two Orders of Victory. Participated in the Leningrad and Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk battles. In 1944 he was appointed commander of the First Belorussian Front.
2 Voroshilov (1881-1969)
Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor, since 1935 - Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1942-43 he was the commander-in-chief of the partisan movement, and in 1943 he was the coordinator of troops in breaking the siege of Leningrad.
3 Rokossovsky (1896-1968)
Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky is one of the most titled military leaders of the Great Patriotic War. It was he who was entrusted with commanding the Victory Parade in 1945. Marshal of the Soviet Union and Marshal of Poland, Rokossovsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Victory, the Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov, 1st degree. Known for his participation in many military operations, including Operation Bagration for the liberation of Belarus. He commanded troops in the Battles of Stalingrad and Leningrad, participated in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations.
4 Tolbukhin (1894-1949)
Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin is a man who went through the war from chief of staff (1941) to Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944). His troops took part in the Crimean, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna and other operations. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Tolbukhin posthumously in 1965.
Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky is the commander of dozens of successful military operations. At the age of 35, he became the commander of a tank division, and from 1944, the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded many orders and medals. He died in 1945 from a fatal wound.
6 Govorov (1897-1955)
Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov - Hero and Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander at different times of the Leningrad and Baltic fronts. He led the defense of Leningrad for 670 of the 900 days of the siege. Participated in the liberation of Borodino. He led the encirclement of the Kurland group of Germans, who capitulated on May 8, 1945.
7 Malinovsky (1898-1967)
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union, holder of the highest Soviet Order of Victory. Participated in the liberation of Rostov and Donbass, led the Zaporozhye and Odessa operations.
8 Konev (1897-1973)
Ivan Stepanovich Konev - commander of the army and fronts, and since 1950 - deputy. Minister of Defense During the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the Battle of Kursk and the Battle of Moscow, in the Berlin, Vistula-Oder and Paris operations.
9 Vasilevsky (1885-1977)
Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky - Hero and Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of the General Staff, Commander of the 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic Fronts. Participated in operations to liberate Donbass, Crimea, Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania. He led troops in the Far East in the Russo-Japanese War.
10 Tymoshenko (1895-1970)
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko is a holder of the Order of Victory, awarded a personalized saber with the coat of arms of the USSR. He took part in the Leningrad and Moscow battles; in the Iasi-Kishinev and Budapest operations, and also took part in the liberation of Vienna.