Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი, Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili; Russian: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Джугашви́ли (help·info), Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953), better known by his adopted name, Joseph Stalin (alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin), was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. Although Stalin's formal position originally had little significant influence, his office being nominally but one of several Central Committee Secretariats, Stalin's increasing control of the Party from 1928 onwards led to his becoming the de facto party leader and the dictator of his country[2], in full control of the Soviet Union and its people. His crash programs of industrialization and collectivization in the 1930s and his campaigns of political repression cost the lives of millions of people.

Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War (1939-45) and went on to achieve the status of superpower, expanding its territory to a size similar to that of the former Russian empire.

<b>World War II</b>
After the failure of Soviet and Franco-British talks on a mutual defense pact in Moscow, Stalin began to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Hitler's Nazi Germany. There is a version that in his speech on August 19, 1939, Stalin prepared his comrades for the great turn in Soviet policy, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. According to a controversial Russian author living in the UK, Viktor Suvorov, Stalin expressed in the speech an expectation that the war would be the best opportunity to weaken both the Western nations and Nazi Germany, and make Germany suitable for "Sovietization". Whether this speech was ever delivered to the public and what its content was is still debated.


Stalin (in background to the right) looks on as Molotov signs the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.Officially a non-aggression treaty only, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had a secret annex according to which Central Europe was divided into the two powers' respective spheres of influence. The USSR was promised an eastern part of Poland, primarily populated with Ukrainians and Belarusians in case of its dissolution, as long as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Another clause of the treaty was that Bessarabia, then part of Romania, was to be joined to the Moldovan ASSR, and become the Moldovan SSR under control of Moscow.

On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of Poland started World War II. Stalin decided to intervene, and on September 17 the Red Army entered eastern Poland and occupied the territory assigned to it by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

In November 1939, Stalin sent troops over the Finnish border, provoking war, and probably intended to annex Finland into the Soviet Union, as he had already done in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. But the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland proved to be far more difficult than Stalin and the Red Army were prepared for, and the Soviets sustained surprisingly high casualties. By some estimates, the Soviet Union lost as many as 391,800 lives in this four-month war against Finland alone, or more than the United States suffered in all of World War Two against Germany and Japan (1941-45). The Soviets finally prevailed over Finland in March, 1940, but only succeeded in occupying the eastern region of Karelia (10% of Finnish territory), a classic example of a pyrrhic victory, and Finland remained an independent country to the present day. The serious problems of the Soviet Army had been revealed to the rest of the world, including Germany.

On March 5, 1940, the Soviet leadership approved an order of execution for more than 25,700 Polish "nationalist, educators and counterrevolutionary" activists in the parts of the Ukraine and Belarus republics that had been annexed from Poland. This event has become known as the Katyn Massacre.[71]

In June 1941, Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Although expecting war with Germany, Stalin may not have expected an invasion to come so soon—and the Soviet Union was relatively unprepared for this invasion. An alternative theory suggested by Viktor Suvorov claims that Stalin had made aggressive preparations from the late 1930s on and was about to invade Germany in summer 1941. Thus, he believes Hitler only managed to forestall Stalin and the German invasion was in essence a pre-emptive strike. This theory was supported by Igor Bunich, Mikhail Meltyukhov (see Stalin's Missed Chance) and Edvard Radzinsky (see Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives). Most Western historians reject this thesis, though.

In the diary of General Fedor von Boch, it is also mentioned that the Abwehr fully expected a Soviet attack against German forces in Poland no later than 1942. Such speculations are difficult to substantiate, however, as information on the Soviet Army from 1939 to 1941 remains classified, but it is known that the Soviets had received some warnings of the German invasion through their foreign intelligence agents, such as Richard Sorge.

Even though Stalin received intelligence warnings of a German attack,[72] he sought to avoid any obvious defensive preparation which might further provoke the Germans, in the hope of buying time to modernize and strengthen his military forces. In the initial hours after the German attack commenced, Stalin hesitated, wanting to ensure that the German attack was sanctioned by Hitler, rather than the unauthorized action of a rogue general.[3]

The Germans initially made huge advances, capturing and killing millions of Soviet troops. The Soviet Red Army put up fierce resistance during the war's early stages. Even so, they were plagued by an ineffective defense doctrine against the well-trained and experienced German forces, despite quite modern equipment, such as first heavy tank in the world, the KV-1.

Stalin feared that Hitler would use disgruntled Soviet citizens to fight his regime, particularly people imprisoned in the Gulags. He thus ordered the NKVD to take care of the situation. They responded by murdering around one hundred thousand political prisoners throughout the western parts of the Soviet Union, with methods that included bayoneting people to death and tossing grenades into crowded cells.[73] Many others were simply deported east.[74][75][76]

Hitler's experts had expected eight weeks of war, and early indications appeared to support their predictions. However, the invading German forces were eventually driven back in December 1941 near Moscow.


The Big Three: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference.Stalin met in several conferences with Churchill and/or Roosevelt in Moscow, Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam to plan military strategy (Truman taking the place of the deceased Roosevelt).

In these conferences, his first appearances on the world stage, Stalin proved to be a formidable negotiator. Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary noted:

"Marshal Stalin as a negotiator was the toughest proposition of all. Indeed, after something like thirty years' experience of international conferences of one kind and another, if I had to pick a team for going into a conference room, Stalin would be my first choice. Of course the man was ruthless and of course he knew his purpose. He never wasted a word. He never stormed, he was seldom even irritated."[77]

His shortcomings as strategist are frequently noted regarding massive Soviet loss of life and early Soviet defeats. An example of it is the summer offensive of 1942, which led to even more losses by the Red Army and recapture of initiative by the Germans. Stalin eventually recognized his lack of know-how and relied on his professional generals to conduct the war.

Yet Stalin did rapidly move Soviet industrial production east of the Volga River, far from Luftwaffe-reach, to sustain the Red Army's war machine with astonishing success. Additionally, Stalin was well aware that other European armies had utterly disintegrated when faced with Nazi military efficacy and responded effectively by subjecting his army to galvanizing terror and unrevolutionary, nationalist appeals to patriotism. He also appealed to the Russian Orthodox church and images of national Russian heroes. On November 6, 1941, Stalin addressed the whole nation of the Soviet Union for the second time (the first time was earlier that year on July 2).

According to Stalin's Order No. 227 of July 27, 1942, any commander or commissar of a regiment, battalion or army, who allowed retreat without permission from above was subject to military tribunal. The Soviet soldiers who surrendered were declared traitors; however most of those who survived the brutality of German captivity were mobilized again as they were freed. Between 5% and 10% of them were sent to Gulag (As "traitors of Homeland". Soviet Criminal Code, §58, clause 1B: criminal conviction - 10 or later 25 years of labor camp plus 5 years without "citizen rights").


Time magazine (1943-01-04). Time had previously named Stalin Man of the Year for the year 1939.In the war's opening stages, the retreating Red Army also sought to deny resources to the enemy through a scorched earth policy of destroying the infrastructure and food supplies of areas before the Germans could seize them. This, along with abuse by German troops, caused starvation and suffering among the civilian population that were left behind.

According to recent figures, of an estimated four million POWs taken by the Russians, including Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians and others, some 580,000 never returned, presumably victims of privation or the Gulags, compared with 3.5 million Soviet POW that died in German camps out of the 5.6 million taken.[78]

Returning Soviet soldiers who had surrendered were viewed with suspicion and some were killed. According to historian Alan Bullock:

“ The huge number of Russian troops taken prisoner in the first eighteen months of the war convinced Stalin that many of them must have been traitors who had deserted at the first opportunity. Any soldier who had been a prisoner was henceforth suspect … All such, whether generals, officers, or ordinary soldiers, were sent to special concentration camps where the NKVD investigated them … Twenty percent were sentenced to death or twenty-five years in camps; only 15 to 20 percent were allowed to return to their homes. The remainder were condemned to shorter sentences (five to ten years), to exile in Siberia, and forced labor - or were killed or died on the way home.[79]

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, GCB (Russian: &#1043;&#1077;&#1086;&#769;&#1088;&#1075;&#1080;&#1081; &#1050;&#1086;&#1085;&#1089;&#1090;&#1072;&#1085;&#1090;&#1080;&#769;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1046;&#1091;&#769;&#1082;&#1086;&#1074;) (December 1 [O.S. November 19] 1896 – June 18, 1974) was a Soviet military commander who, in the course of World War II, led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from the Axis Powers' occupation, to advance through much of Eastern Europe, and to conquer Germany's capital, Berlin.

<b>Career</b>
On June 22, 1941, Zhukov signed the Directive of Peoples' Commissariat of Defence No. 3, which ordered an all-out counteroffensive by Red Army forces: he commanded the troops “to encircle and destroy enemy grouping near Suwalki and to seize the Suwalki region by the evening of 24.6” and “to encircle and destroy the enemy grouping invading in Vladimir-Volynia and Brody direction” and even “to seize the Lublin region by the evening of 24.6”[16] This manoeuver failed and disorganized Red Army units were destroyed by the Wehrmacht. Later, Zhukov claimed that he was forced to sign the document by Stalin, despite the reservations that he raised. [17] This document was supposedly written by Aleksandr Vasilevsky, and Zhukov was forced to sign it.[18]

On July 29, 1941, Zhukov was sacked from his post of Chief of the General Staff because he suggested abandoning Kiev to avoid an encirclement[19] Stalin refused, leading to a stinging Soviet defeat.

In October 1941, when the Germans were closing in on Moscow, Zhukov replaced Semyon Timoshenko in command of the central front and was assigned to direct the defense of Moscow (see Battle of Moscow). He also directed the transfer of troops from the Far East, where a large part of Soviet ground forces had been stationed on the day of Hitler's invasion. The successful Soviet counter-offensive in December 1941 drove the Germans back, out of reach of the Soviet capital. Zhukov's feat of logistics is considered by some to be his greatest achievement.

By now, Zhukov was firmly back in favour and Stalin valued him precisely for his outspokenness. Stalin's (eventual) willingness to submit to criticism and listen to his generals was an important element in Russia's victory; Hitler, on the other hand, usually dismissed any general who disagreed with him.

In 1942 Zhukov was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief and sent to the south-western front to take charge of the defense of Stalingrad. Under the overall command of Vasilievsky, he oversaw the encirclement and capture of the German Sixth Army in 1943 at the cost of perhaps a million dead (see Battle of Stalingrad). During the operation, Zhukov spent most of the time in fruitless attacks in the direction of Rzhev, Sychevka and Vyazma, known as the "Rzhev meat grinder" ("&#1056;&#1078;&#1077;&#1074;&#1089;&#1082;&#1072;&#1103; &#1084;&#1103;&#1089;&#1086;&#1088;&#1091;&#1073;&#1082;&#1072;"). Some historians now question the casualty figures allegedly suffered by the Soviets at Rzhev as being too high. There is also some new evidence which show the Rzhev operation was a diversion in order to prevent the Germans from successfully breaking the encirclement of Stalingrad.

In January 1943, he orchestrated the first breakthrough of the German blockade of Leningrad. He was a STAVKA coordinator at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, and, according to the memoirs, playing a central role in the planning of the battle and the hugely successful offensive that followed. Kursk was the first major German defeat in summer and has a good claim to be a battle at least as decisive as Stalingrad. Commander of Central Front Konstantin Rokossovsky, however, says that planning and decisions for the Battle of Kursk were made without Zhukov, that he only arrived just before the battle, made no decisions and left soon afterwards, and that Zhukov exaggerated his role (Source: &#1042;&#1086;&#1077;&#1085;&#1085;&#1086;-&#1080;&#1089;&#1090;&#1086;&#1088;&#1080;&#1095;&#1077;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081; &#1078;&#1091;&#1088;&#1085;&#1072;&#1083;, 1992 N3 p.31).


Zhukov riding a white Akhal-Teke horse during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945. There is now an equestrian monument to him nearby.Following the failure of Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, he lifted the Siege of Leningrad in January 1944. Zhukov then led the Soviet offensive Operation Bagration (named after Pyotr Bagration, a famous Russian-Georgian general during the Napoleonic Wars), which some military historians believe was the greatest military operation of World War II. He launched the final assault on Germany in 1945, capturing Berlin (see Battle of Berlin) in April. Shortly before midnight, 8 May, German officials in Berlin signed an Instrument of Surrender, in his presence.

After the fall of Germany, Zhukov became the first commander of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. As the most prominent Soviet military commander of the Great Patriotic War, he inspected the Victory Parade in Red Square in Moscow in 1945 while riding a white stallion. General Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander in the West, was a great admirer of Zhukov, and the two toured the Soviet Union together in the immediate aftermath of the victory over Germany.

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko (Russian: &#1057;&#1077;&#1084;&#1105;&#1085; &#1050;&#1086;&#1085;&#1089;&#1090;&#1072;&#1085;&#1090;&#1080;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1058;&#1080;&#1084;&#1086;&#1096;&#1077;&#1085;&#1082;&#1086;, Semën Konstantinovi&#269; Timošenko; February 18 [O.S. February 6] 1895 – March 31, 1970) was a Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

<b>Career</b>
Timoshenko was born into a peasant family at Furmanca (Furmanka), in Southern Bessarabia, Odessa region (now part of Ukraine). In 1915, he was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire and served as a cavalryman on the western front. On the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, he sided with the revolutionaries, joining the Red Army in 1918 and the Bolshevik Party in 1919.

During the Russian Civil War, Timoshenko fought on various fronts. His most important encounter occurred at Tsaritsyn (later renamed Stalingrad, and now Volgograd), where he met and befriended Joseph Stalin. This would ensure his rapid advancement after Stalin gained control of the Communist Party by the end of the 1920s. In 1920-1921, Timoshenko served under Semyon Budyonny in the 1st Cavalry Army; he and Budyonny would become the core of the "Cavalry Army clique" which, under Stalin's patronage, would dominate the Red Army for many years.

By the end of the Civil and Polish-Soviet Wars, Timoshenko had become commander of the Red Army cavalry forces. Thereafter, under Stalin, he became Red Army commander in Belarus (1933); in Kiev (1935); in the northern Caucasus and then Kharkov (1937); and Kiev again (1938). In 1939, he was given command of the entire western border region and led the Ukrainian Front during the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland. He also became a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. As a loyal friend, Timoshenko survived Stalin's Great Purge, to be left as the Red Army's senior professional soldier.

In January 1940, Timoshenko took charge of the Soviet armies fighting Finland in the Soviet-Finnish War. This had begun the previous November, under the disastrous command of Kliment Voroshilov. Under Timoshenko's leadership, the Soviets succeeded in breaking through the Finnish Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus, prompting Finland to sue for peace in March. His reputation increased, Timoshenko was made the People's Commissar for Defence and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in May.

Timoshenko was a competent but traditionalist military commander who nonetheless saw the urgent need to modernise the Red Army if, as expected, it was to fight a war against Nazi Germany. Overcoming the opposition of other more conservative leaders, he undertook the mechanisation of the Red Army and the production of more tanks. He also re-introduced much of the traditional harsh discipline of the Tsarist Russian Army.

When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Stalin took over the post of Defence Commissar and sent Timoshenko to the Central Front to conduct a fighting retreat from the border to Smolensk. Huge casualties were suffered, but Timoshenko managed to save the bulk of the army for the defence of Moscow. In September, he was transferred to Ukraine, where the Red Army had suffered 1.5 million casualties while encircled at Uman and Kiev. Here he succeeded in stabilising the front.

In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive at Kharkov, the first Soviet attempt to gain the initiative in the war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offense. Although Timoshenko's actions slowed the German advance on Stalingrad, he was forced to accept responsibility for failing to drive back the German forces.

General Georgy Zhukov's success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko. Stalin removed Timoshenko from front-line command, giving him roles as overall commander of the Stalingrad (June 1942), then North-Western (October 1942), Leningrad (June 1943), Caucasus (June 1944) and Baltic (August 1944) fronts.

After the war, Timoshenko was reappointed Soviet Army commander in Belarus (March 1946), then of the southern Urals (June 1946); and then Belarus again (March 1949). In 1960, he was appointed Inspector-General of the Defence Ministry, a largely honorary post. From 1961 he chaired the State Committee for War Veterans. He died in Moscow in 1970.

Timoshenko was twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, in March 1940 and 1965. Amongst his other orders were the highest Order of Victory (1945), five times Order of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, five times Order of the Red Banner and three times Order of Suvorov.

Markian Is Sketchy(&#1052;&#1072;&#1088;&#1082;&#1080;&#1072;&#1085; &#1052;&#1080;&#1093;&#1072;&#1081;&#1083;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1055;&#1086;&#1087;&#1086;&#1074;) (1902-1969) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (26.8.1943), Hero of the Soviet Union (1965).

During the Great Patriotic War at various times he commanded a number of Armies and a number of Fronts: Northern Front, Leningrad Front, Bryansk Front (taking part in the Battle of Kursk), Baltic Front, 2nd Baltic Front.

During 1956-1962 he was Chief of General Staff of Land Forces .

Aleksei Innokentievich Antonov (&#1040;&#1083;&#1077;&#1082;&#1089;&#1077;&#1081; &#1048;&#1085;&#1085;&#1086;&#1082;&#1077;&#1085;&#1090;&#1100;&#1077;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1040;&#1085;&#1090;&#1086;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;) (1896-1962) was a General of the Soviet Army, and the awarded the Order of Victory for his efforts in World War II.


<b>Career</b>
Son of a Tsarist artillery officer, Aleksei Innokentievich Antonov graduated from Frunze Military Academy in 1921 and joined the Red Army. He became an instructor at Frunze Military Academy in 1938.

In 1941, Antonov became Chief of Staff, Soviet Southwestern Front and Southern Front. And in the following year, 1942, he became Deputy Chief General Staff of the combined Soviet forces and Head of the Operations Directorate. His job being to liaise with other officers and inform Stalin of the military situation(s).

By 1944 Antonov was Chief Spokesman and was present at both the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. At the Yalta Conference he briefed the Western Allies on how the Allies could aid Soviets by bombing lines of communications which led to the Dresden raid.

After the war Antonov held numerous posts culminating, in 1955, as Chief of Staff for the Warsaw Pact Forces. He held this post until his death in 1962.

Ivan Stepanovich Konev (Russian: &#1048;&#1074;&#1072;&#1085; &#1057;&#1090;&#1077;&#1087;&#1072;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1050;&#1086;&#1085;&#1077;&#1074;) (28 December [O.S. 16 December] 1897 – May 21, 1973), was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, liberated much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin. Later, as the Commander of Warsaw Pact forces, Konev led the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Soviet armed divisions.

<b>Career</b>
When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Konev took command of the 19th Army in the Vitebsk region, and waged a series of defensive battles during the Red Army's retreat, first to Smolensk and then to the approaches to Moscow. He commanded the Kalinin Front from October 1941 to August 1942, playing a key role in the fighting around Moscow and the Soviet counter-offensive during the winter of 1941-42. For his role in the successful defence of the Soviet capital Konev was promoted to Colonel-General.

Konev held high commands for the rest of the war. He commanded the Soviet Western Front until February 1943, the North Western Front February-July 1943, and the Ukrainian Front (later renamed the First Ukrainian Front) from July 1943 until May 1945. During this latter command he participated in the Battle of Kursk, commanding the southern part of the Soviet counter-offensive that successfully enveloped Erich von Manstein's army.

After the victory at Kursk, Konev's armies liberated Belgorod, Odessa, Kharkov and Kiev from the Germans, and advanced to the Romanian border. For his achievements on the Ukrainian Front Konev was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in February 1944.

During 1944 Konev's armies advanced from Ukraine and Byelorussia into Poland and later into Czechoslovakia. By July he had advanced to the Vistula River in central Poland, and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In September 1944 his forces, now designated the Fourth Ukrainian Front, advanced into Slovakia and helped the Slovak partisans in their rebellion against German occupation.

In January 1945 Konev, together with Georgy Zhukov, commanded the Soviet forces which launched the massive winter offensive in western Poland, driving the Germans from the Vistula to the Oder river. In southern Poland his forces seized Kraków. In April his forces, together with the First Byelorussian Front under his competitor, Marshal Georgi Zhukov, forced the line of the Oder and advanced towards Berlin. Konev's forces entered the city, but Stalin gave Zhukov the honor of capturing the Reichstag and hoisting the Soviet flag over Berlin. Konev was ordered to the south-west, where his forces linked up with elements of the United States army at Torgau and also liberated Prague shortly after the official surrender of the German forces.

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (Russian: &#1056;&#1086;&#1076;&#1080;&#1086;&#1085; &#1071;&#1082;&#1086;&#1074;&#1083;&#1077;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1052;&#1072;&#1083;&#1080;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;, Rodion Jakovlevi&#269; Malinovskij; November 23, 1898-March 31, 1967) was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He was involved in the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and, during the post-war era, made a pivotal contribution to the strengthening of the Soviet Union as a military superpower.

Hovhannes Khachatury Bagramyan (I) (Armenian: &#1344;&#1400;&#1406;&#1392;&#1377;&#1398;&#1398;&#1381;&#1405; &#1341;&#1377;&#1401;&#1377;&#1407;&#1400;&#1410;&#1408;&#1387; (or, &#1364;&#1408;&#1387;&#1405;&#1407;&#1377;&#1411;&#1400;&#1408;&#1387;, Christapory) &#1330;&#1377;&#1394;&#1408;&#1377;&#1396;&#1397;&#1377;&#1398;; Russian: &#1054;&#1074;&#1072;&#1085;&#1077;&#769;&#1089; &#1061;&#1072;&#1095;&#1072;&#1090;&#1091;&#769;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1041;&#1072;&#1075;&#1088;&#1072;&#1084;&#1103;&#769;&#1085;; December 2 [O.S. November 20] 1897 – September 21, 1982) was a Soviet Armenian military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Bagramyan was the first non-Slavic military officer to become a commander of a Front. He was among several Armenians in the Soviet Army who held the highest proportion of high ranking officers in the Soviet military during the war,[1] and one of fifty Armenians who attained the rank of General in the same period.[2]

Bagramyan's experience in military planning as a chief of staff allowed him to distinguish himself as a capable commander in the early stages of the Soviet counter-offensives against Nazi Germany. He was given his first command of a unit in 1942, and in November 1943 received his most prestigious command as the head of the First Baltic Front. As head of the Baltic Front, he participated in the offensives which moved westward and pushed German forces out of the Baltic republics.

He did not immediately join the Communist Party after the consolidation of the October Revolution, becoming a member only in 1941, which was atypical for a Soviet military officer. After the war, he served as a deputy member of the Supreme Soviets of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and was a regular attendee of the Party Congresses. In 1952, he became a candidate for entry into the Central Committee and, in 1961, was inducted as a full member. Outside Armenia, he is primarily known by the Russified version of his name, Ivan (or Ovannes) Khristoforovich Bagramyan (Russian: &#1048;&#1074;&#1072;&#769;&#1085; &#1061;&#1088;&#1080;&#1089;&#1090;&#1086;&#1092;&#1086;&#769;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1041;&#1072;&#1075;&#1088;&#1072;&#1084;&#1103;&#1085;). For his contributions during the war, he was widely regarded as a national hero in the Soviet Union,[3] and continues to hold such esteemed status among Armenians.

Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov (Russian &#1051;&#1077;&#1086;&#1085;&#1080;&#1076; &#1040;&#1083;&#1077;&#1082;&#1089;&#1072;&#1085;&#1076;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1043;&#1086;&#1074;&#1086;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;) (February 22, 1897 - March 19, 1955), Soviet military commander, was born in the village of Butyrki in central Russia (now in Kirov Oblast). His father was a sailor. He attended a technical high school in Yelabuga and enrolled in the ship-building department of Petrograd Polytechnical Institute. In December 1916, however, he transferred to the Konstantinovskye Artillery School and in 1917 became an artillery officer.

When the Russian Revolution broke out and the Russian Army disintegrated Govorov returned home, but was later conscripted into the White Guard army of Aleksandr Kolchak. He soon deserted and joined the Red Army, but this episode was later held against him. In the Russian Civil War he served under Vasily Blyukher in the Crimea against the forces of Pyotr Vrangel and was twice wounded, winning the Order of the Red Banner.

During the 1920s and '30s Govorov held a series of artillery commands, and also completed courses at the Frunze Military Academy. In 1936 Govorov founded the Military Academy of Red Army General Staff, and was also head of artillery in the Kiev Military District. In 1938 he was appointed as instructor in tactics at the Dzerzhinskiy Artillery Academy.

This was the period of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. Govorov, as a former member of the Kolchak army and a former subordinate of Blyukher, who was executed in 1938, was lucky to survive. At one point he was dismissed from his position and threatened with arrest, but the intervention of Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and Soviet head of state Mikhail Kalinin saved him.

In 1939 the Soviet-Finnish War broke out, and Govorov was appointed chief of artillery of the 7th Army. In this post he commanded the massive artillery assault that allowed the Soviet breakthrough along the Mannerheim Line in 1940. For this was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the rank of division commander. He was then appointed Deputy Inspector-General of Artillery of the Red Army.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Govorov was appointed Director of Artillery on the Western Front, in eastern Poland and Belarus. In this command Govorov came to the attention of General Georgi Zhukov, who became his patron. He played a leading role in the defensive battles around Moscow in December 1941 and in the Soviet counter-offensives during the winter of 1941-42. As a result he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General of Artillery.

In April 1942 Govorov was appointed Soviet commander in Leningrad, a city which had been surrounded by the German and Finnish armies since November 1941 and which had endured a terrible famine during the winter of 1941-42 (see Siege of Leningrad). Here Govorov's background as an artilleryman and master of positional warfare was most valuable, since the city was under constant shelling, and one of Govorov's tasks was to lauch an artillery counter-offensive against the German guns. In January 1943 he commanded the Leningrad forces in the combined attack called Operation Spark, which captured Schlisselburg and broke the German blockade of Leningrad. In June 1944, during the liberation of the Northern Leningrad region and subsequent invasion of Finland he was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet forces advanced south and west from Leningrad in 1944, Govorov commanded the Red Army artillery during the liberation of Novgorod, the reoccupation of Estonia and Latvia, and the advance into Poland. Leonid Govorov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union on January 27 of 1945.

In the postwar years Govorov was commander of the Leningrad Military District, and then Chief Inspector of Ground Forces. In 1948 he was appointed Commander of National Air Defense Forces, and in 1952 he also became Deputy Minister of Defense. In these posts he oversaw the modernisation of the Soviet air defense system for the age of the jet aircraft and the atomic bomb. But Govorov was by this time suffering from chronic heart disease, and died in March 1955.

Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos (Russian: &#1052;&#1080;&#1093;&#1072;&#1080;&#1083; &#1055;&#1077;&#1090;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1050;&#1080;&#1088;&#1087;&#1086;&#1085;&#1086;&#1089;, Ukrainian: &#1052;&#1080;&#1093;&#1072;&#1081;&#1083;&#1086; &#1055;&#1077;&#1090;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1050;&#1080;&#1088;&#1087;&#1086;&#1085;&#1086;&#1089;, Mykhailo Petrovych Kyrponos) (January 12, 1892 — September 20, 1941) was a Ukrainian-born general of the Red Army. Being accorded the the highest military decoration, the Hero of the Soviet Union title, for the skill and courage in commanding a division in the 1939-1940 Finnish campaign, Kirponos is mostly remembered for his crucial role in organizing and leading the defense of Soviet Ukraine and Kiev during the first months of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis forces (led by Nazi Germany).

Despite the fact that the initial developments of the Great Patriotic War were largely catastrophic for the Red Army and the Soviet state, Kirponos is credited for restoring the fighting capability of the Soviet units under his command. After almost a complete disarray of the Soviet defenses in the wake of German successes, Kirponos organized the defense of Kiev, which significantly delayed the Nazi onslaught and disrupted Hitler's Blitzkrieg plan of a quick victory during the war.

General Kirponos was killed in action during the defense of Kiev, in which the Soviets ended up losing badly due to the overwhelming advantage by the Germans, which was exacerbated by the grave errors of Stalin and the high-ranking military leaders.[1] Nevertheless, more than sixty years later and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kirponos remains highly regarded both in Ukraine and Russia for his exemplary military leadership, courage and valour.

Fyodor Isodorovich Kuznetsov (Russian: &#1060;&#1105;&#1076;&#1086;&#1088; &#1048;&#1089;&#1080;&#1076;&#1086;&#1088;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1050;&#1091;&#1079;&#1085;&#1077;&#1094;&#1086;&#1074;) (1898-1961), Colonel General, was a military commander of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War he commanded a number of Fronts and Armies. In 1945-1948 he commanded the Ural Military District.

<b>Biography</b>
The place of Rokossovsky's birth is unclear, with many sources claiming that he was born in Warsaw, while others, with equal confidence, state that he was born in the town of Velikiye Luki near Pskov in northwestern Russia, and that his family relocated to Warsaw shortly thereafter. The Rokossovsky family was a member of the Polish nobility, and had produced many cavalry men. However, Konstantin's father, Ksawery Wojciech Rokossowski, was a railway worker in Russia and his mother was herself Russian. Orphaned at 14, Rokossovsky earned a living by working in a stocking factory, and some time later he became an apprentice stonemason. Much later in his life, the government of People's Republic of Poland used this fact for propaganda, claiming that Rokossovsky had help build Warsaw's Poniatowski Bridge. At some point Rokossovsy decided to Russify his name by changing the patronymic Ksaverovich to Konstantinovich, because pronouncing Ksaverovich was too hard for Russian speakers and it led to confusion.


<b>Early military career</b>
When World War I broke out in 1914 Rokossovsky joined the Russian Army, serving as a non-commissioned officer in a dragoon regiment. In 1917, he joined the Bolshevik Party and soon thereafter, entered the ranks of the Red Army. During the Russian Civil War he advanced to the rank of commander. In the campaigns against the White Guard armies of Aleksandr Kolchak Rokossovsky received Soviet Russia's highest military decoration, the Order of the Red Banner.


Marshal Rokossovsky (on black horse) and Marshal Zhukov during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.After the Civil War Rokossovsky studied at the Frunze Military Academy and became a senior cavalry commander in the Red Army. During the 1920s his division was stationed in Mongolia. In 1929 — by agreement with the Chinese government — he took part in defending the Chinese Eastern Railway against warlords.

In the early 1930s, Rokossovsky was among the first to realize the potential of armored assault. He advocated the creation of a strong armored core for the Red Army. His wide promotion of the idea brought him into conflict with many of the Old Guard commanders, especially Semyon Budenny, who still favored cavalry tactics. It was because of this, it would seem, that he was targeted during the purges.


<b>Great Purge</b>
Rokossovsky held senior commands until 1937, when he became caught up in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and accused of "connections with foreign intelligence". After interrogations that included torture resulting in nine missing teeth, three cracked ribs, the removal of his fingernails, and three mock shooting ceremonies, he was sent to a prison "Kresty" in Leningrad, where he remained until March 1940, when he was released without explanation, apparently due to preparation for World War II.[1] Rokossovsky first revived in the so-called "Villa of ecstasy" in the spa of Sochi on the coast of the Black Sea.[citation needed] After a brief talk with Stalin he was restored to the rank of a Corps Commander in the Kiev Military Region.


<b>World War II</b>

Rokossovsky in the uniform of a Marshal of the Soviet Union.When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 Rokossovsky became commander of the 16th Army stationed near Smolensk. During the bitter fighting in the winter of 1941 - 42 Rokossovsky played a key role in the defence of Moscow under Georgy Zhukov.

In early 1942 Rokossovsky was transferred to the Bryansk Front. He commanded the right flank of the Soviet forces as they fell back before the Germans towards the Don and Stalingrad in the summer of 1942. During the Battle of Stalingrad Rokossovsky, commanding the Don Front, led the northern wing of the Soviet counter-attack that encircled Paulus's Sixth Army and won the decisive victory of the Soviet-German war.

In 1943, after becoming commander of the Central Front, Rokossovsky successfully conducted defensive operations in the Kursk salient, and then led the counterattack west of Kursk which defeated the last major German offensive on the eastern front and allowed the Soviet armies to advance to Kiev. The Central Front was then renamed 1st Belorussian Front, which he commanded during the Soviet advance through Byelorussia (Belarus) and into Poland.

In a famous incident during the planning in 1944 of Operation Bagration, Rokossovsky conflicted with Stalin who demanded in accordance with Soviet war practice a single break-through of the German frontline. Rokossovsky held firm in his argument for two break-throughs. Stalin ordered Rokossovsky to "go and think it over" three times, but every time he returned and gave the same answer "Two break-throughs, Comrade Stalin, two break-throughs." After the third time Stalin remained silent, but walked over to Rokossovsky and put a hand on his shoulder. A tense moment followed as the whole room waited for Stalin to rip the epaulette from Rokossovsky's shoulder; instead, Stalin said "Your confidence speaks for your sound judgement," and ordered the attack to go forward according to Rokossovsky's plan.[citation needed] The battle was successful, and Rokossovsky's reputation was assured. After crushing German Army Group Centre in Belarus, Rokossovsky's armies reached the east bank of the Vistula opposite Warsaw by mid-1944. For these victories he gained the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

While Rokossovsky's forces stood stalled on the Vistula, the Warsaw Uprising (August - October, 1944) broke out in the city, led by the Polish Home Army (AK) on the orders of the Polish government in exile in London. Stalin ordered Rokossovsky to give the rising no assistance, orders which he obeyed. There has been much speculation about Rokossovsky's personal views on this decision.

In November 1944, Rokossovsky was transferred to the 2nd Belorussian Front, which advanced into East Prussia and then across northern Poland to the mouth of the Oder at Stettin (now Szczecin). At the end of April he linked up with British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's forces in northern Germany while the forces of Zhukov and Ivan Koniev captured Berlin.

Ivan Yefimovich Petrov (Russian: ???? ???????? ??????; September 18, 1896, Trubchevsk — April 7, 1958, Moscow) was a Russian and Soviet commander, Army General from 1944.

He began his military service in the Red Army in 1918. During World War II Petrov, a master of the defensive war, participated in the Battle of Sevastopol and was noted for heading the Separate Coastal Army in October 1941, July 1942 and in November 1943 - February 1944, 44th Army in August - October of 1942, Black Sea Army Group, North Caucasus Front, 2nd Belorussian Front, 4th Ukrainian Front, and several other units. In April - June of 1945 Petrov was a chief of the 1st Ukrainian Front Staff. On May 29, 1945 Petrov was awarded a title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The United States awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross in War Department General Order No. 3 of 1944.