Famous commanders of the Second World War 1941 1945. Abstract: Commanders of the Great Patriotic War

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 strong army 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, she was aimed at successful training in short term our army to war. 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 Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov was awarded the highest military award- Order "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 poor health (heart attack, stroke, inflammation 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 Eastern Front participated 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 gained west of the river Dnieper, 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 the Second World War. 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 peace. 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 provide assistance to the peoples of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Northern Bukovina, forcibly torn away from Soviet Russia during the Civil War, in their struggle for the restoration of Soviet power and reunification 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 re-equipping 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 was prepared and carried out Soviet troops near Rostov-on-Don in 1941.

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 deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he provided real help 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 with favorable conditions in cooperation with the Southwestern Front, defeat the enemy’s Donbass group and prevent the transfer of its forces to the area of ​​the Kursk salient, where the decisive battles took 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, in 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 live-fire exercises in military districts - highest form 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 the most important prerequisite stability of defense against 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 understaffed and undersupplied went on the offensive. material means 4th and 52nd armies. 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 emergency. 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 found themselves 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 realized. 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 be creative, non-standard solutions, 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 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 inextinguishable. 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 Lodeyno, 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, 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 fighting 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. Main blow Field Marshal Schörner's Army Group Center was attacked by 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 the Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the 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 preparatory school at the Naval School (later - the Naval School named after M.V. Frunze), 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 receive military oath(new text) and takes an oath to defend the Motherland, “not sparing your 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 also found itself 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 received the necessary supplies, put the material part 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, the organization of 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 Headquarters 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, went to the fronts and fleets, where his presence was necessary to resolve the most difficult situations, which required the organization and coordination of 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 names of some are still honored, the names of others are consigned to oblivion. But they are all united by their leadership talent.

USSR

Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich (1896–1974)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Zhukov had the opportunity to take part in serious hostilities shortly before the start of World War II. In the summer of 1939, Soviet-Mongolian troops under his command defeated the Japanese group on the Khalkhin Gol River.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Zhukov headed the General Staff, but was soon sent to the active army. In 1941, he was assigned to the most critical sectors of the front. Restoring order in the retreating army with the most stringent measures, he managed to prevent the Germans from capturing Leningrad, and to stop the Nazis in the Mozhaisk direction on the outskirts of Moscow. And already at the end of 1941 - beginning of 1942, Zhukov led a counter-offensive near Moscow, pushing the Germans back from the capital.

In 1942-43, Zhukov did not command individual fronts, but coordinated their actions as a representative of the Supreme High Command at Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge, and during the breaking of the siege of Leningrad.

At the beginning of 1944, Zhukov took command of the 1st Ukrainian Front instead of the seriously wounded General Vatutin and led the Proskurov-Chernovtsy offensive operation he planned. As a result, Soviet troops liberated most of Right Bank Ukraine and reached the state border.

At the end of 1944, Zhukov led the 1st Belorussian Front and led an attack on Berlin. In May 1945, Zhukov accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, and then two Victory Parades, in Moscow and Berlin.

After the war, Zhukov found himself in a supporting role, commanding various military districts. After Khrushchev came to power, he became deputy minister and then headed the Ministry of Defense. But in 1957 he finally fell into disgrace and was removed from all posts.

Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (1896–1968)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Shortly before the start of the war, in 1937, Rokossovsky was repressed, but in 1940, at the request of Marshal Timoshenko, he was released and reinstated in his former position as corps commander. In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, units under the command of Rokossovsky were one of the few that were able to provide worthy resistance to the advancing German troops. In the battle of Moscow, Rokossovsky’s army defended one of the most difficult directions, Volokolamsk.

Returning to duty after being seriously wounded in 1942, Rokossovsky took command of the Don Front, which completed the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad.

On the eve of the Battle of Kursk, Rokossovsky, contrary to the position of most military leaders, managed to convince Stalin that it was better not to launch an offensive ourselves, but to provoke the enemy into active action. Having precisely determined the direction of the main attack of the Germans, Rokossovsky, just before their offensive, undertook a massive artillery barrage that bled the enemy’s strike forces dry.

His most famous achievement as a commander, included in the annals of military art, was the operation to liberate Belarus, codenamed “Bagration,” which virtually destroyed the German Army Group Center.

Shortly before the decisive offensive on Berlin, command of the 1st Belorussian Front, to Rokossovsky's disappointment, was transferred to Zhukov. He was also entrusted with commanding the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front in East Prussia.

Rokossovsky had outstanding personal qualities and, of all Soviet military leaders, was the most popular in the army. After the war, Rokossovsky, a Pole by birth, for a long time headed the Ministry of Defense of Poland, and then served as Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR and Chief Military Inspector. The day before his death, he finished writing his memoirs, entitled A Soldier's Duty.

Konev Ivan Stepanovich (1897–1973)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

In the fall of 1941, Konev was appointed commander of the Western Front. In this position he suffered one of the biggest failures of the beginning of the war. Konev failed to obtain permission to withdraw troops in time, and, as a result, about 600,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were surrounded near Bryansk and Yelnya. Zhukov saved the commander from the tribunal.

In 1943, troops of the Steppe (later 2nd Ukrainian) Front under the command of Konev liberated Belgorod, Kharkov, Poltava, Kremenchug and crossed the Dnieper. But most of all, Konev was glorified by the Korsun-Shevchen operation, as a result of which a large group of German troops was surrounded.

In 1944, already as commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Konev led the Lviv-Sandomierz operation in western Ukraine and southeastern Poland, which opened the way for a further offensive against Germany. The troops under the command of Konev distinguished themselves in the Vistula-Oder operation and in the battle for Berlin. During the latter, rivalry between Konev and Zhukov emerged - each wanted to occupy the German capital first. Tensions between the marshals remained until the end of their lives. In May 1945, Konev led the liquidation of the last major center of fascist resistance in Prague.

After the war, Konev was the commander-in-chief of the ground forces and the first commander of the combined forces of the Warsaw Pact countries, and commanded troops in Hungary during the events of 1956.

Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich (1895–1977)

Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of the General Staff.

As Chief of the General Staff, which he held since 1942, Vasilevsky coordinated the actions of the Red Army fronts and participated in the development of all major operations of the Great Patriotic War. In particular, he played a key role in planning the operation to encircle German troops at Stalingrad.

At the end of the war, after the death of General Chernyakhovsky, Vasilevsky asked to be relieved of his post as Chief of the General Staff, took the place of the deceased and led the assault on Koenigsberg. In the summer of 1945, Vasilevsky was transferred to the Far East and commanded the defeat of the Kwatuna Army of Japan.

After the war, Vasilevsky headed the General Staff and then was the Minister of Defense of the USSR, but after Stalin’s death he went into the shadows and held lower positions.

Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich (1894–1949)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Tolbukhin served as chief of staff of the Transcaucasian District, and with its beginning - of the Transcaucasian Front. Under his leadership, a surprise operation was developed to introduce Soviet troops into the northern part of Iran. Tolbukhin also developed the Kerch landing operation, which would result in the liberation of Crimea. However, after its successful start, our troops were unable to build on their success, suffered heavy losses, and Tolbukhin was removed from office.

Having distinguished himself as commander of the 57th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad, Tolbukhin was appointed commander of the Southern (later 4th Ukrainian) Front. Under his command, a significant part of Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula were liberated. In 1944-45, when Tolbukhin already commanded the 3rd Ukrainian Front, he led troops during the liberation of Moldova, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and ended the war in Austria. The Iasi-Kishinev operation, planned by Tolbukhin and leading to the encirclement of a 200,000-strong group of German-Romanian troops, entered the annals of military art (sometimes it is called “Iasi-Kishinev Cannes”).

After the war, Tolbukhin commanded the Southern Group of Forces in Romania and Bulgaria, and then the Transcaucasian Military District.

Vatutin Nikolai Fedorovich (1901–1944)

Soviet army general.

In pre-war times, Vatutin served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he was sent to the North-Western Front. In the Novgorod area, under his leadership, several counterattacks were carried out, slowing down the advance of Manstein's tank corps.

In 1942, Vatutin, who then headed the Southwestern Front, commanded Operation Little Saturn, the purpose of which was to prevent German-Italian-Romanian troops from helping Paulus’ army encircled at Stalingrad.

In 1943, Vatutin headed the Voronezh (later 1st Ukrainian) Front. He played a very important role in the Battle of Kursk and the liberation of Kharkov and Belgorod. But Vatutin’s most famous military operation was the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kyiv and Zhitomir, and then Rivne. Together with Konev’s 2nd Ukrainian Front, Vatutin’s 1st Ukrainian Front also carried out the Korsun-Shevchenko operation.

At the end of February 1944, Vatutin’s car came under fire from Ukrainian nationalists, and a month and a half later the commander died from his wounds.

Great Britain

Montgomery Bernard Law (1887–1976)

British Field Marshal.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Montgomery was considered one of the bravest and most talented British military leaders, but his career advancement was hampered by his harsh, difficult character. Montgomery, himself distinguished by physical endurance, paid great attention to the daily hard training of the troops entrusted to him.

At the beginning of World War II, when the Germans defeated France, Montgomery's units covered the evacuation of Allied forces. In 1942, Montgomery became the commander of British troops in North Africa, and achieved a turning point in this part of the war, defeating the German-Italian group of troops in Egypt at the Battle of El Alamein. Its significance was summed up by Winston Churchill: “Before the Battle of Alamein we knew no victories. After it we didn’t know defeat.” For this battle, Montgomery received the title Viscount of Alamein. True, Montgomery’s opponent, German Field Marshal Rommel, said that, having such resources as the British military leader, he would have conquered the entire Middle East in a month.

After this, Montgomery was transferred to Europe, where he had to operate in close contact with the Americans. This was where his quarrelsome character took its toll: he came into conflict with the American commander Eisenhower, which had a bad effect on the interaction of troops and led to a number of relative military failures. Towards the end of the war, Montgomery successfully resisted the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes, and then carried out several military operations in Northern Europe.

After the war, Montgomery served as Chief of the British General Staff and subsequently as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Alexander Harold Rupert Leofric George (1891–1969)

British Field Marshal.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Alexander led the evacuation of British troops after the Germans captured France. Most of the personnel were taken out, but almost all the military equipment went to the enemy.

At the end of 1940, Alexander was assigned to Southeast Asia. He failed to defend Burma, but he managed to block the Japanese from entering India.

In 1943, Alexander was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied ground forces in North Africa. Under his leadership, a large German-Italian group in Tunisia was defeated, and this, by and large, ended the campaign in North Africa and opened the way to Italy. Alexander commanded the landing of Allied troops on Sicily, and then on the mainland. At the end of the war he served as Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean.

After the war, Alexander received the title of Count of Tunis, for some time he was Governor General of Canada, and then British Minister of Defense.

USA

Eisenhower Dwight David (1890–1969)

US Army General.

His childhood was spent in a family whose members were pacifists for religious reasons, but Eisenhower chose a military career.

Eisenhower met the beginning of World War II with the rather modest rank of colonel. But his abilities were noticed by the Chief of the American General Staff, George Marshall, and soon Eisenhower became head of the Operational Planning Department.

In 1942, Eisenhower led Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. In early 1943, he was defeated by Rommel in the Battle of Kasserine Pass, but subsequently superior Anglo-American forces brought a turning point in the North African campaign.

In 1944, Eisenhower carried out general leadership the landing of Allied troops in Normandy and the subsequent attack on Germany. At the end of the war, Eisenhower became the creator of the notorious camps for “disarming enemy forces”, which were not subject to the Geneva Convention on the Rights of Prisoners of War, which effectively became death camps for the German soldiers who ended up there.

After the war, Eisenhower was commander of NATO forces and then twice elected president of the United States.

MacArthur Douglas (1880–1964)

US Army General.

In his youth, MacArthur was not accepted into the West Point military academy for health reasons, but he achieved his goal and, upon graduating from the academy, was recognized as its best graduate in history. He received the rank of general back in the First World War.

In 1941-42, MacArthur led the defense of the Philippines against Japanese forces. The enemy managed to take American units by surprise and gain a great advantage at the very beginning of the campaign. After the loss of the Philippines, he uttered the now famous phrase: “I did what I could, but I will come back.”

After being appointed commander of the troops in the southwestern zone Pacific Ocean, MacArthur resisted Japanese plans to invade Australia and then led successful offensive operations in New Guinea and the Philippines.

On September 2, 1945, MacArthur, already in command of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, accepted the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship Missouri, ending World War II.

After World War II, MacArthur commanded occupation forces in Japan and later led American forces in the Korean War. The American landing at Inchon, which he developed, became a classic of military art. He called for the nuclear bombing of China and the invasion of that country, after which he was dismissed.

Nimitz Chester William (1885–1966)

US Navy Admiral.

Before World War II, Nimitz was involved in the design and combat training of the American submarine fleet and headed the Bureau of Navigation. At the beginning of the war, after the disaster at Pearl Harbor, Nimitz was appointed commander of the US Pacific Fleet. His task was to confront the Japanese in close contact with General MacArthur.

In 1942, the American fleet under the command of Nimitz managed to inflict the first serious defeat on the Japanese at Midway Atoll. And then, in 1943, to win the fight for the strategically important island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands archipelago. In 1944-45, the fleet led by Nimitz played a decisive role in the liberation of other Pacific archipelagos, and at the end of the war carried out a landing in Japan. During the fighting, Nimitz used a tactic of sudden rapid movement from island to island, called the “frog jump”.

Nimitz's homecoming was celebrated as a national holiday and was called "Nimitz Day." After the war, he oversaw the demobilization of troops and then oversaw the creation of a nuclear submarine fleet. At the Nuremberg trials, he defended his German colleague, Admiral Dennitz, saying that he himself used the same methods of submarine warfare, thanks to which Dennitz avoided a death sentence.

Germany

Von Bock Theodor (1880–1945)

German Field Marshal General.

Even before the outbreak of World War II, von Bock led the troops that carried out the Anschluss of Austria and invaded the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. At the outbreak of war, he commanded Army Group North during the war with Poland. In 1940, von Bock led the conquest of Belgium and the Netherlands and the defeat of French troops at Dunkirk. It was he who hosted the parade of German troops in occupied Paris.

Von Bock objected to an attack on the USSR, but when the decision was made, he led Army Group Center, which carried out an attack on the main direction. After the failure of the attack on Moscow, he was considered one of the main people responsible for this failure of the German army. In 1942, he led Army Group South and for a long time successfully held back the advance of Soviet troops on Kharkov.

Von Bock had an extremely independent character, repeatedly clashed with Hitler and pointedly stayed away from politics. After in the summer of 1942, von Bock opposed the Fuhrer’s decision to divide Army Group South into two directions, the Caucasus and Stalingrad, during the planned offensive, he was removed from command and sent to reserve. A few days before the end of the war, von Bock was killed during an air raid.

Von Rundstedt Karl Rudolf Gerd (1875–1953)

German Field Marshal General.

By the beginning of the Second World War, von Rundstedt, who held important command positions back in the First World War, had already retired. But in 1939, Hitler returned him to the army. Von Rundstedt became the main planner of the attack on Poland, code-named Weiss, and commanded Army Group South during its implementation. He then led Army Group A, which played a key role in the capture of France, and also developed the unrealized Sea Lion attack plan on England.

Von Rundstedt objected to the Barbarossa plan, but after the decision was made to attack the USSR, he led Army Group South, which captured Kyiv and other big cities in the south of the country. After von Rundstedt, in order to avoid encirclement, violated the Fuhrer's order and withdrew troops from Rostov-on-Don, he was dismissed.

However, the following year he was again drafted into the army to become commander-in-chief of the German armed forces in the West. His main task was to counter a possible Allied landing. Having familiarized himself with the situation, von Rundstedt warned Hitler that a long-term defense with the existing forces would be impossible. At the decisive moment of the Normandy landings, June 6, 1944, Hitler canceled von Rundstedt's order to transfer troops, thereby wasting time and giving the enemy the opportunity to develop an offensive. Already at the end of the war, von Rundstedt successfully resisted the Allied landings in Holland.

After the war, von Rundstedt, thanks to the intercession of the British, managed to avoid the Nuremberg Tribunal, and participated in it only as a witness.

Von Manstein Erich (1887–1973)

German Field Marshal General.

Manstein was considered one of the strongest strategists of the Wehrmacht. In 1939, as Chief of Staff of Army Group A, he played a key role in developing the successful plan for the invasion of France.

In 1941, Manstein was part of Army Group North, which captured the Baltic states, and was preparing to attack Leningrad, but was soon transferred to the south. In 1941-42, the 11th Army under his command captured the Crimean Peninsula, and for the capture of Sevastopol, Manstein received the rank of Field Marshal.

Manstein then commanded Army Group Don and tried unsuccessfully to rescue Paulus's army from the Stalingrad pocket. Since 1943, he led Army Group South and inflicted a sensitive defeat on Soviet troops near Kharkov, and then tried to prevent the crossing of the Dnieper. When retreating, Manstein's troops used scorched earth tactics.

Having been defeated in the Battle of Korsun-Shevchen, Manstein retreated, violating Hitler's orders. Thus, he saved part of the army from encirclement, but after that he was forced to resign.

After the war, he was sentenced to 18 years by a British tribunal for war crimes, but was released in 1953, worked as a military adviser to the German government and wrote a memoir, “Lost Victories.”

Guderian Heinz Wilhelm (1888–1954)

German Colonel General, commander of armored forces.

Guderian is one of the main theorists and practitioners of “blitzkrieg” - lightning war. He assigned a key role in it to tank units, which were supposed to break through behind enemy lines and disable command posts and communications. Such tactics were considered effective, but risky, creating the danger of being cut off from the main forces.

In 1939-40, in the military campaigns against Poland and France, the blitzkrieg tactics fully justified themselves. Guderian was at the height of his glory: he received the rank of Colonel General and high awards. However, in 1941, in the war against the Soviet Union, this tactic failed. The reason for this was both the vast Russian spaces and the cold climate, in which equipment often refused to work, and the readiness of the Red Army units to resist this method of warfare. Guderian's tank troops suffered heavy losses near Moscow and were forced to retreat. After this, he was sent to the reserve, and subsequently served as inspector general of tank forces.

After the war, Guderian, who was not charged with war crimes, was quickly released and lived out his life writing his memoirs.

Rommel Erwin Johann Eugen (1891–1944)

German field marshal general, nicknamed "Desert Fox". He was distinguished by great independence and a penchant for risky attacking actions, even without the sanction of the command.

At the beginning of World War II, Rommel took part in the Polish and French campaigns, but his main successes were associated with military operations in North Africa. Rommel headed the Afrika Korps, which was initially assigned to help Italian troops who were defeated by the British. Instead of strengthening the defenses, as the order prescribed, Rommel went on the offensive with small forces and won important victories. He acted in a similar manner in the future. Like Manstein, Rommel assigned the main role to rapid breakthroughs and maneuvering of tank forces. And only towards the end of 1942, when the British and Americans in North Africa had a great advantage in manpower and equipment, Rommel’s troops began to suffer defeats. Subsequently, he fought in Italy and tried, together with von Rundstedt, with whom he had serious disagreements affecting the combat effectiveness of the troops, to stop the Allied landing in Normandy.

In the pre-war period, Yamamoto paid great attention to the construction of aircraft carriers and the creation of naval aviation, thanks to which the Japanese fleet became one of the strongest in the world. For a long time, Yamamoto lived in the USA and had the opportunity to thoroughly study the army of the future enemy. On the eve of the start of the war, he warned the country's leadership: “In the first six to twelve months of the war, I will demonstrate an unbroken chain of victories. But if the confrontation lasts two or three years, I have no confidence in the final victory.”

Yamamoto planned and personally led the Pearl Harbor operation. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes taking off from aircraft carriers destroyed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and caused enormous damage to the US fleet and air force. After this, Yamamoto won a number of victories in the central and southern parts of the Pacific Ocean. But on June 4, 1942, he suffered a serious defeat from the Allies at Midway Atoll. This happened largely due to the fact that the Americans managed to decipher the codes of the Japanese Navy and obtain all the information about the upcoming operation. After this, the war, as Yamamoto feared, became protracted.

Unlike many other Japanese generals, Yamashita did not commit suicide after the surrender of Japan, but surrendered. In 1946 he was executed on charges of war crimes. His case became a legal precedent, called the “Yamashita Rule”: according to it, the commander is responsible for not stopping the war crimes of his subordinates.

Other countries

Von Mannerheim Carl Gustav Emil (1867–1951)

Finnish marshal.

Before the revolution of 1917, when Finland was part of the Russian Empire, Mannerheim was an officer in the Russian army and rose to the rank of lieutenant general. On the eve of the Second World War, he, as chairman of the Finnish Defense Council, was engaged in strengthening the Finnish army. According to his plan, in particular, powerful defensive fortifications were erected on the Karelian Isthmus, which went down in history as the “Mannerheim Line”.

When the Soviet-Finnish war began at the end of 1939, 72-year-old Mannerheim led the country's army. Under his command, Finnish troops for a long time held back the advance of Soviet units significantly superior in number. As a result, Finland retained its independence, although the peace conditions were very difficult for it.

During the Second World War, when Finland was an ally of Hitler's Germany, Mannerheim showed the art of political maneuver, avoiding active hostilities with all his might. And in 1944, Finland broke the pact with Germany, and at the end of the war it was already fighting against the Germans, coordinating actions with the Red Army.

At the end of the war, Mannerheim was elected president of Finland, but already in 1946 he left this post for health reasons.

Tito Josip Broz (1892–1980)

Marshal of Yugoslavia.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Tito was a figure in the Yugoslav communist movement. After the German attack on Yugoslavia, he began organizing partisan detachments. At first, the Titoites acted together with the remnants of the tsarist army and the monarchists, who were called “Chetniks.” However, differences with the latter eventually became so strong that it came to military clashes.

Tito managed to organize scattered partisan detachments into a powerful partisan army of a quarter of a million fighters under the leadership of the General Headquarters of the People's Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia. She used not only traditional partisan methods of war, but also entered into open battles with fascist divisions. At the end of 1943, Tito was officially recognized by the Allies as the leader of Yugoslavia. During the liberation of the country, Tito's army acted together with Soviet troops.

Shortly after the war, Tito led Yugoslavia and remained in power until his death. Despite his socialist orientation, he pursued a fairly independent policy.

The fate of millions of people depended on their decisions! This is not the entire list of our great commanders of the Second World War!

Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich (1896-1974) Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was born on November 1, 1896 in the Kaluga region, into a peasant family. During the First World War, he was drafted into the army and enrolled in a regiment stationed in the Kharkov province. In the spring of 1916, he was enrolled in a group sent to officer courses. After studying, Zhukov became a non-commissioned officer and went to a dragoon regiment, with which he participated in battles Great War. Soon he received a concussion from a mine explosion and was sent to the hospital. He managed to prove himself, and for capturing a German officer he was awarded the Cross of St. George.

After the civil war, he completed the courses for Red commanders. He commanded a cavalry regiment, then a brigade. He was an assistant inspector of the Red Army cavalry.

In January 1941, shortly before the German invasion of the USSR, Zhukov was appointed chief of the General Staff and deputy people's commissar of defense.

Commanded the troops of the Reserve, Leningrad, Western, 1st Belorussian fronts, coordinated the actions of a number of fronts, made a great contribution to achieving victory in the battle of Moscow, in the Battles of Stalingrad, Kursk, in the Belarusian, Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations. Four times Hero of the Soviet Union , holder of two Orders of Victory, many other Soviet and foreign orders and medals.

Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich (1895-1977) - Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Born on September 16 (September 30), 1895 in the village. Novaya Golchikha, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region, in the family of a priest, Russian. In February 1915, after graduating from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, he entered the Alekseevsky Military School (Moscow) and graduated from it in 4 months (in June 1915).
During the Great Patriotic War, as Chief of the General Staff (1942-1945), he took an active part in the development and implementation of almost all major operations on the Soviet-German front. From February 1945, he commanded the 3rd Belorussian Front and led the assault on Königsberg. In 1945, commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East in the war with Japan.
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Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (1896-1968) - Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal of Poland.

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. After the birth of Konstantin, the Rokossovsky family moved to Warsaw. At less than 6 years old, Kostya was orphaned: his father was in a train accident and died in 1902 after a long illness. In 1911, his mother also died. With the outbreak of World War I, Rokossovsky asked to join one of the Russian regiments heading west through Warsaw.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the 9th Mechanized Corps. In the summer of 1941 he was appointed commander of the 4th Army. He managed to somewhat hold back the advance of the German armies on the western front. In the summer of 1942 he became commander of the Bryansk Front. The Germans managed to approach the Don and, from advantageous positions, create threats to capture Stalingrad and break through to the North Caucasus. With a blow from his army, he prevented the Germans from trying to break through to the north, towards the city of Yelets. Rokossovsky took part in the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Stalingrad. His ability to conduct combat operations played a big role in the success of the operation. In 1943, he led the central front, which, under his command, began the defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge. A little later, he organized an offensive and liberated significant territories from the Germans. He also led the liberation of Belarus, implementing the Stavka plan - “Bagration”
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Konev Ivan Stepanovich (1897-1973) - Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Born in December 1897 in one of the villages of the Vologda province. His family was peasant. In 1916, the future commander was drafted into the tsarist army. He participates in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Konev commanded the 19th Army, which took part in battles with the Germans and closed the capital from the enemy. For successful leadership of the army's actions, he receives the rank of colonel general.

During the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Stepanovich managed to be the commander of several fronts: Kalinin, Western, Northwestern, Steppe, Second Ukrainian and First Ukrainian. In January 1945, the First Ukrainian Front, together with the First Belorussian Front, launched the offensive Vistula-Oder operation. The troops managed to occupy several cities of strategic importance, and even liberate Krakow from the Germans. At the end of January, the Auschwitz camp was liberated from the Nazis. In April, two fronts launched an offensive in the Berlin direction. Soon Berlin was taken, and Konev took direct part in the assault on the city.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Vatutin Nikolai Fedorovich (1901-1944) - army general.

Born on December 16, 1901 in the village of Chepukhino, Kursk province, into a large peasant family. He graduated from four classes of the zemstvo school, where he was considered the first student.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vatutin visited the most critical sectors of the front. The staff worker turned into a brilliant combat commander.

On February 21, Headquarters instructed Vatutin to prepare an attack on Dubno and further on Chernivtsi. On February 29, the general was heading to the headquarters of the 60th Army. On the way, his car was fired upon by a detachment of Ukrainian Bandera partisans. The wounded Vatutin died on the night of April 15 in a Kiev military hospital.
In 1965, Vatutin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Katukov Mikhail Efimovich (1900-1976) - Marshal of the armored forces. One of the founders of the Tank Guard.

Born on September 4 (17), 1900 in the village of Bolshoye Uvarovo, then Kolomna district, Moscow province, into a large peasant family (his father had seven children from two marriages). He graduated with a diploma of commendation from an elementary rural school, during which he was the first student in the class and schools.
In the Soviet Army - since 1919.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he took part in defensive operations in the area of ​​the cities of Lutsk, Dubno, Korosten, showing himself to be a skillful, proactive organizer of a tank battle with superior enemy forces. These qualities were brilliantly demonstrated in the Battle of Moscow, when he commanded the 4th Tank Brigade. In the first half of October 1941, near Mtsensk, on a number of defensive lines, the brigade steadfastly held back the advance of enemy tanks and infantry and inflicted enormous damage on them. Having completed a 360-km march to the Istra orientation, the M.E. brigade. Katukova, as part of the 16th Army of the Western Front, heroically fought in the Volokolamsk direction and participated in the counter-offensive near Moscow. On November 11, 1941, for brave and skillful military actions, the brigade was the first in the tank forces to receive the rank of guards. In 1942, M.E. Katukov commanded the 1st Tank Corps, which repelled the onslaught of enemy troops in the Kursk-Voronezh direction, from September 1942 - the 3rd Mechanized Corps. In January 1943, he was appointed commander of the 1st Tank Army, which was part of the Voronezh, and later the 1st The Ukrainian Front distinguished itself in the Battle of Kursk and during the liberation of Ukraine. In April 1944, the armed forces were transformed into the 1st Guards Tank Army, which, under the command of M.E. Katukova participated in the Lviv-Sandomierz, Vistula-Oder, East Pomeranian and Berlin operations, crossed the Vistula and Oder rivers.

Rotmistrov Pavel Alekseevich (1901-1982) - chief marshal of the armored forces.

Born in the village of Skovorovo, now Selizharovsky district, Tver region, into a large peasant family (he had 8 brothers and sisters)... In 1916 he graduated from higher primary school

In the Soviet Army from April 1919 (he was enlisted in the Samara Workers' Regiment), a participant in the Civil War.

During the Great Patriotic War P.A. Rotmistrov fought on the Western, Northwestern, Kalinin, Stalingrad, Voronezh, Steppe, Southwestern, 2nd Ukrainian and 3rd Belorussian fronts. He commanded the 5th Guards Tank Army, which distinguished itself in the Battle of Kursk. In the summer of 1944, P.A. Rotmistrov and his army took part in the Belarusian offensive operation, the liberation of the cities of Borisov, Minsk, and Vilnius. Since August 1944, he was appointed deputy commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Soviet Army.

Kravchenko Andrey Grigorievich (1899-1963) - Colonel General of tank forces.
Born on November 30, 1899 on the Sulimin farm, now the village of Sulimovka, Yagotinsky district, Kyiv region of Ukraine, in a peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1925. Participant in the Civil War. He graduated from the Poltava Military Infantry School in 1923, the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze in 1928.
From June 1940 to the end of February 1941 A.G. Kravchenko - chief of staff of the 16th tank division, and from March to September 1941 - chief of staff of the 18th mechanized corps.
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since September 1941. Commander of the 31st Tank Brigade (09/09/1941 - 01/10/1942). Since February 1942, deputy commander of the 61st Army for tank forces. Chief of Staff of the 1st Tank Corps (03/31/1942 - 07/30/1942). Commanded the 2nd (07/2/1942 - 09/13/1942) and 4th (from 02/7/43 - 5th Guards; from 09/18/1942 to 01/24/1944) tank corps.
In November 1942, the 4th Corps took part in the encirclement of the 6th German Army at Stalingrad, in July 1943 - in the tank battle near Prokhorovka, in October of the same year - in the Battle of the Dnieper.

Novikov Alexander Alexandrovich (1900-1976) - chief marshal of aviation.
Born on November 19, 1900 in the village of Kryukovo, Nerekhta district, Kostroma region. He received his education at the teachers' seminary in 1918.
In the Soviet Army since 1919
In aviation since 1933. Participant of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. He was the commander of the Northern Air Force, then the Leningrad Front. From April 1942 until the end of the war, he was the commander of the Red Army Air Force. In March 1946, he was illegally repressed (together with A.I. Shakhurin), rehabilitated in 1953.

Kuznetsov Nikolai Gerasimovich (1902-1974) - Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. People's Commissar of the Navy.
Born on July 11 (24), 1904 in the family of Gerasim Fedorovich Kuznetsov (1861-1915), a peasant in the village of Medvedki, Veliko-Ustyug district, Vologda province (now in the Kotlas district of the Arkhangelsk region).
In 1919, at the age of 15, he joined the Severodvinsk flotilla, giving himself two years to be accepted (the erroneous birth year of 1902 is still found in some reference books). In 1921-1922 he was a combatant in the Arkhangelsk naval crew.
During the Great Patriotic War, N. G. Kuznetsov was the chairman of the Main Military Council of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Navy. He promptly and energetically led the fleet, coordinating its actions with the operations of other armed forces. The admiral was a member of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and constantly traveled to ships and fronts. The fleet prevented an invasion of the Caucasus from the sea. In 1944, N. G. Kuznetsov was awarded the military rank of fleet admiral. On May 25, 1945, this rank was equated to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union and marshal-type shoulder straps were introduced.

Hero of the Soviet Union,Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich (1906-1945) - army general.
Born in the city of Uman. His father was a railway worker, so it is not surprising that in 1915 his son followed in his father’s footsteps and entered a railway school. In 1919, a real tragedy occurred in the family: his parents died due to typhus, so the boy was forced to leave school and take up farming. He worked as a shepherd, driving cattle into the field in the morning, and sat down to his textbooks every free minute. Immediately after dinner, I ran to the teacher for clarification of the material.
During the Second World War, he was one of those young military leaders who, by their example, motivated the soldiers, gave them confidence and gave them faith in a bright future.

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.

5 Chernyakhovsky (1906-1945)

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 in different time 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.

The fate of millions of people depended on their decisions!

This is not the entire list of our great commanders of the Second World War!

Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich (1896-1974)

Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was born on November 1, 1896 in the Kaluga region, into a peasant family. During the First World War, he was drafted into the army and enrolled in a regiment stationed in the Kharkov province. In the spring of 1916, he was enrolled in a group sent to officer courses. After studying, Zhukov became a non-commissioned officer and joined a dragoon regiment, with which he participated in the battles of the Great War. Soon he received a concussion from a mine explosion and was sent to the hospital. He managed to prove himself, and for capturing a German officer he was awarded the Cross of St. George.

After the civil war, he completed the courses for Red commanders. He commanded a cavalry regiment, then a brigade. He was an assistant inspector of the Red Army cavalry.

In January 1941, shortly before the German invasion of the USSR, Zhukov was appointed chief of the General Staff and deputy people's commissar of defense.

He commanded the troops of the Reserve, Leningrad, Western, and 1st Belorussian fronts, coordinated the actions of a number of fronts, and made a great contribution to achieving victory in the battle of Moscow, in the Battles of Stalingrad, Kursk, in the Belarusian, Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations.

Four times Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of two Orders of Victory, and many other Soviet and foreign orders and medals.

Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich (1895-1977)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Born on September 16 (September 30), 1895 in the village. Novaya Golchikha, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region, in the family of a priest, Russian. In February 1915, after graduating from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, he entered the Alekseevsky Military School (Moscow) and graduated from it in 4 months (in June 1915).

During the Great Patriotic War, as Chief of the General Staff (1942-1945), he took an active part in the development and implementation of almost all major operations on the Soviet-German front. From February 1945, he commanded the 3rd Belorussian Front and led the assault on Königsberg. In 1945, commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East in the war with Japan.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (1896-1968)

Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal of Poland.

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. After the birth of Konstantin, the Rokossovsky family moved to Warsaw. At less than 6 years old, Kostya was orphaned: his father was in a train accident and died in 1902 after a long illness. In 1911, his mother also died.

With the outbreak of World War I, Rokossovsky asked to join one of the Russian regiments heading west through Warsaw.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the 9th Mechanized Corps. In the summer of 1941 he was appointed commander of the 4th Army. He managed to somewhat hold back the advance of the German armies on the western front. In the summer of 1942 he became commander of the Bryansk Front. The Germans managed to approach the Don and, from advantageous positions, create threats to capture Stalingrad and break through to the North Caucasus. With a blow from his army, he prevented the Germans from trying to break through to the north, towards the city of Yelets. Rokossovsky took part in the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Stalingrad. His ability to conduct combat operations played a big role in the success of the operation. In 1943, he led the central front, which, under his command, began defensive battles on the Kursk Bulge. A little later, he organized an offensive and liberated significant territories from the Germans. He also led the liberation of Belarus, implementing the Stavka plan - “Bagration”

Konev Ivan Stepanovich (1897-1973)

Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Born in December 1897 in one of the villages of the Vologda province. His family was peasant. In 1916, the future commander was drafted into the tsarist army. He participates in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Konev commanded the 19th Army, which took part in battles with the Germans and closed the capital from the enemy. For successful leadership of the army's actions, he receives the rank of colonel general.

During the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Stepanovich managed to be the commander of several fronts: Kalinin, Western, Northwestern, Steppe, Second Ukrainian and First Ukrainian. In January 1945, the First Ukrainian Front, together with the First Belorussian Front, launched the offensive Vistula-Oder operation. The troops managed to occupy several cities of strategic importance, and even liberate Krakow from the Germans. At the end of January, the Auschwitz camp was liberated from the Nazis. In April, two fronts launched an offensive in the Berlin direction. Soon Berlin was taken, and Konev took direct part in the assault on the city.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Vatutin Nikolai Fedorovich (1901-1944)

Army General.

Born on December 16, 1901 in the village of Chepukhino, Kursk province, into a large peasant family. He graduated from four classes of the zemstvo school, where he was considered the first student.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vatutin visited the most critical sectors of the front. The staff worker turned into a brilliant combat commander.

On February 21, Headquarters instructed Vatutin to prepare an attack on Dubno and further on Chernivtsi. On February 29, the general was heading to the headquarters of the 60th Army. On the way, his car was fired upon by a detachment of Ukrainian Bandera partisans. The wounded Vatutin died on the night of April 15 in a Kiev military hospital.

In 1965, Vatutin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Katukov Mikhail Efimovich (1900-1976)

Marshal of the Armored Forces.

One of the founders of the Tank Guard.

Born on September 4 (17), 1900 in the village of Bolshoye Uvarovo, then Kolomna district, Moscow province, into a large peasant family (his father had seven children from two marriages).

He graduated from an elementary rural school with a diploma of commendation, during which he was the first student in his class and school.

In the Soviet Army - since 1919.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he took part in defensive operations in the area of ​​the cities of Lutsk, Dubno, Korosten, showing himself to be a skillful, proactive organizer of a tank battle with superior enemy forces. These qualities were brilliantly demonstrated in the Battle of Moscow, when he commanded the 4th Tank Brigade. In the first half of October 1941, near Mtsensk, on a number of defensive lines, the brigade steadfastly held back the advance of enemy tanks and infantry and inflicted enormous damage on them. Having completed a 360-km march to the Istra orientation, the M.E. brigade. Katukova, as part of the 16th Army of the Western Front, heroically fought in the Volokolamsk direction and participated in the counter-offensive near Moscow. On November 11, 1941, for its brave and skillful military actions, the brigade was the first in the tank forces to receive the rank of guards.

In 1942 M.E. Katukov commanded the 1st Tank Corps, which repelled the onslaught of enemy troops in the Kursk-Voronezh direction, and from September 1942 - the 3rd Mechanized Corps. In January 1943, he was appointed commander of the 1st Tank Army, which, as part of the Voronezh and later the 1st Ukrainian Front, distinguished itself in the Battle of Kursk and during the liberation of Ukraine. In April 1944, the armed forces were transformed into the 1st Guards Tank Army, which, under the command of M.E. Katukova participated in the Lviv-Sandomierz, Vistula-Oder, East Pomeranian and Berlin operations, crossed the Vistula and Oder rivers.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Rotmistrov Pavel Alekseevich (1901-1982)

Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces.

Born in the village of Skovorovo, now Selizharovsky district, Tver region, into a large peasant family (he had 8 brothers and sisters). In 1916 he graduated from higher primary school.

In the Soviet Army from April 1919 (he was enlisted in the Samara Workers' Regiment), a participant in the Civil War.

During the Great Patriotic War P.A. Rotmistrov fought on the Western, Northwestern, Kalinin, Stalingrad, Voronezh, Steppe, Southwestern, 2nd Ukrainian and 3rd Belorussian fronts. He commanded the 5th Guards Tank Army, which distinguished itself in the Battle of Kursk. In the summer of 1944, P.A. Rotmistrov and his army took part in the Belarusian offensive operation, the liberation of the cities of Borisov, Minsk, and Vilnius. Since August 1944, he was appointed deputy commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Soviet Army.

Hero of the Soviet Union.

Kravchenko Andrey Grigorievich (1899-1963)

Colonel General of Tank Forces.

Born on November 30, 1899 on the Sulimin farm, now the village of Sulimovka, Yagotinsky district, Kyiv region of Ukraine, in a peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the CPSU(b) since 1925.

Participant in the Civil War. He graduated from the Poltava Military Infantry School in 1923, the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze in 1928.

From June 1940 to the end of February 1941 A.G. Kravchenko - chief of staff of the 16th tank division, and from March to September 1941 - chief of staff of the 18th mechanized corps.

On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since September 1941. Commander of the 31st Tank Brigade (09/09/1941 - 01/10/1942). Since February 1942, deputy commander of the 61st Army for tank forces. Chief of Staff of the 1st Tank Corps (03/31/1942 - 07/30/1942). Commanded the 2nd (07/2/1942 - 09/13/1942) and 4th (from 02/7/43 - 5th Guards; from 09/18/1942 to 01/24/1944) tank corps.

In November 1942, the 4th Corps took part in the encirclement of the 6th German Army at Stalingrad, in July 1943 - in the tank battle near Prokhorovka, in October of the same year - in the Battle of the Dnieper.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Novikov Alexander Alexandrovich (1900-1976)

Air Chief Marshal.

Born on November 19, 1900 in the village of Kryukovo, Nerekhta district, Kostroma region. He received his education at the teachers' seminary in 1918.

In the Soviet Army since 1919

In aviation since 1933. Participant of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. He was the commander of the Northern Air Force, then the Leningrad Front.

From April 1942 until the end of the war - commander of the Red Army Air Force. In March 1946, he was illegally repressed (together with A.I. Shakhurin), rehabilitated in 1953.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Kuznetsov Nikolay Gerasimovich (1902-1974)

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. People's Commissar of the Navy.

Born on July 11 (24), 1904 in the family of Gerasim Fedorovich Kuznetsov (1861-1915), a peasant in the village of Medvedki, Veliko-Ustyug district, Vologda province (now in the Kotlas district of the Arkhangelsk region).
In 1919, at the age of 15, he joined the Severodvinsk flotilla, giving himself two years to be accepted (the erroneous birth year of 1902 is still found in some reference books). In 1921-1922 he was a combatant in the Arkhangelsk naval crew.

During the Great Patriotic War, N. G. Kuznetsov was the chairman of the Main Military Council of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Navy. He promptly and energetically led the fleet, coordinating its actions with the operations of other armed forces. The admiral was a member of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and constantly traveled to ships and fronts. The fleet prevented an invasion of the Caucasus from the sea. In 1944, N. G. Kuznetsov was awarded the military rank of fleet admiral. On May 25, 1945, this rank was equated to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union and marshal-type shoulder straps were introduced.

Hero of the Soviet Union

Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich (1906-1945)

Army General.

Born in the city of Uman. His father was a railway worker, so it is not surprising that in 1915 his son followed in his father’s footsteps and entered a railway school. In 1919, a real tragedy occurred in the family: his parents died due to typhus, so the boy was forced to leave school and take up farming. He worked as a shepherd, driving cattle into the field in the morning, and sat down to his textbooks every free minute. Immediately after dinner, I ran to the teacher for clarification of the material.

During the Second World War, he was one of those young military leaders who, by their example, motivated the soldiers, gave them confidence and gave them faith in a bright future.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

Dovator Lev Mikhailovich

(February 20, 1903, Khotino village, Lepel district, Vitebsk province, now Beshenkovichi district, Vitebsk region - December 19, 1941, Palashkino village area, Ruza district, Moscow region)

Soviet military leader.

Known for successful operations to destroy enemy troops in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. The German command placed a large reward on Dovator's head

Beloborodov Afanasy Pavlantievich

Army General.

(January 18 (31), 1903, village of Akinino-Baklashi, Irkutsk province - September 1, 1990, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the 78th Infantry Division, which stopped the German offensive on Moscow on the 42nd in November 1941 kilometer of the Volokolamsk Highway, commander of the 43rd Army, which liberated Vitebsk from the German occupiers and participated in the assault on Königsberg.

Bagramyan Ivan Khristoforovich (1897-1982)

Participated in organizing a tank battle in the Dubno, Rivne, and Lutsk areas.

In 1941, with the front headquarters, he left the encirclement. In 1941, he developed a plan for the liberation of Rostov-on-Don. In 1942 - the unsuccessful Kharkov operation. Commanded the 11th Army in the winter offensive of 1942-1943. in the Western direction. In July 1943, he prepared and carried out an offensive operation as part of the troops of the Bryansk Front in the Oryol direction. The 1st Baltic Front under the command of Bagramyan carried out: in December 1943 - Gorodok; in the summer of 1944 - Vitebsk-Orsha, Polotsk and Siauliai; in September-October 1944 (together with the 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts) - Riga and Memel; in 1945 (as part of the 3rd Belorussian Front) - operations to capture Konigsberg and the Zemland Peninsula.

Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich (1900-1982)

Commanded the 62nd Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. The army under the command of Chuikov participated in the Izyum-Barvenkovskaya and Donbass operations, the battle for the Dnieper, the Nikopol-Krivoy Rog, Bereznegovato-Snegirevskaya, Odessa, Belarusian, Warsaw-Poznan and Berlin operations.

Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich (1898 - 1967)

He began the Great Patriotic War on the border along the Prut River, where his corps held back attempts by Romanian and German units to cross to our side. In August 1941 - commander of the 6th Army. From December 1941 he commanded the troops of the Southern Front. From August to October 1942 - by troops of the 66th Army, which fought north of Stalingrad. In October-November - Deputy Commander of the Voronezh Front. From November 1942, he commanded the 2nd Guards Army, which was formed in the Tambov region. In December 1942, this army stopped and defeated the fascist strike force that was going to release the Stalingrad group of Field Marshal Paulus (Army Group DON of Field Marshal Manstein).

Since February 1943, R.Ya. Malinovsky commanded the troops of the Southern, and from March of the same year - the Southwestern Front. Front troops under his command liberated Donbass and Right Bank Ukraine. In the spring of 1944, troops under the command of R.Ya. Malinovsky was liberated by the cities of Nikolaev and Odessa. Since May 1944 RL. Malinovsky commanded the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. At the end of August, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, together with the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, carried out an important strategic operation - Iasi-Kishinev. This is one of the outstanding operations of the Great Patriotic War. In the autumn of 1944 - spring of 1945, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front carried out the Debrecen, Budapest and Vienna operations, defeating fascist troops in Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Since July 1945, R.Ya. Malinovsky commanded the troops of the Transbaikal District and participated in the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army. After the Great Patriotic War from 1945 to 1947, Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky commanded the troops of the Transbaikal-Amur Military District. From 1947 to 1953