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Battles and victories
Soviet military leader, military-political figure, Marshal Soviet Union (1935).
Tukhachevsky perfectly understood the nature of the Civil War and learned to achieve success in its conditions by imposing his will on the enemy and active offensive actions.
Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky was born on the Aleksandrovskoye estate, Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk province, into a noble family. The commander's childhood was spent in the Penza province, on the estate of his grandmother Sofia Valentinovna, located near the village of Vrazhskoye, Chembar district. Since childhood, Misha was interested in playing the violin, astronomy, invention and design, and was involved in Russian and French wrestling. Tukhachevsky studied at the 1st Penza gymnasium, later at the 10th Moscow gymnasium and at the 1st Moscow Empress Catherine II Cadet Corps, which he graduated in 1912. For excellent studies, the name of Tukhachevsky was listed on the marble plaque of the corps. That same year he entered the Alexander Military School. After graduating in 1914, he was promoted to second lieutenant of the guard with entry into the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment. Other representatives of the Tukhachevsky family had previously served in this regiment.
Literally a week after Tukhachevsky’s promotion to officer, the First World War began. The Semenovsky regiment was sent to East Prussia, and then reassigned to Warsaw. In battles, Tukhachevsky proved himself to be a brave officer. On February 19, 1915, near Warsaw, Tukhachevsky, who led the battle after the death of the commander, was captured. He was held captive together with future French President Charles de Gaulle. The young guards officer, thirsting for exploits and glory, was forced to remain inactive for several years. During his captivity, Tukhachevsky made five escape attempts. Only the last one was successful. In September 1917, he made his way to Switzerland, from where he came to France and, with the assistance of the Russian military agent in France, Count A.A. Ignatiev returned to Russia through Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. Tukhachevsky arrived in the reserve battalion of the Semenovsky regiment stationed in Petrograd, where he was elected company commander, and then demobilized and went to an estate near Penza.
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In the spring of 1918, Tukhachevsky arrived in Moscow, where he decided to link his future fate with the Red Army. Having missed, in fact, the entire world war, he could not boast of any awards or ranks that were awarded to the surviving fellow officers. Given Tukhachevsky’s morbid ambition, arrogance, posturing, his desire to “play a role”, imitate Napoleon, and his undoubted careerism, noted by his contemporaries, this turned out to be a significant factor influencing his further choice. Perhaps, not seeing any prospects for himself in the Whites, Tukhachevsky bet on the Reds - and he was right. Fate elevated him, a potentially hostile nobleman to the new government, a former monarchist, an officer of an elite guards regiment, to the top of the Soviet military-political Olympus for almost two decades. During the Civil War, Tukhachevsky was often driven by the desire to show his superiority to the old generals who led the white armies.
From a lecture by M.N. Tukhachevsky in 1919:We all see that our Russian generals failed to understand the civil war, failed to master its forms. Only a very few White Guard generals, capable and imbued with bourgeois class consciousness, rose to the occasion. The majority arrogantly declared that our civil war was not quite a war, just some kind of small war or commissar partisanship. However, despite such ominous statements, we see before us not a small war, but a large, systematic war, with almost millions of armies, imbued with a single idea and performing brilliant maneuvers. And in the ranks of this army, among its devoted commanders, born of the civil war, a certain doctrine of this war begins to take shape, and with it its theoretical justification...
Already on April 5, 1918, he joined the Bolshevik Party. Apparently, his career aspirations had an impact, because... neither at that time, nor ten or twenty years later, joining the party was still mandatory even for representatives of the highest command staff (it became such only after the Great Patriotic War). And in the future, Tukhachevsky, appropriately and inappropriately, demonstrated his devotion to party ideals. Former officers who joined the Bolshevik Party were such a rare occurrence that Tukhachevsky was immediately offered the post of representative of the military department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and a job in the Kremlin. It was necessary to inspect local military establishments, which gave Tukhachevsky insight into the nascent Red Army.
Commander Tukhachevsky
Artist E. Kleymiyakov
Soon, on May 27, a new responsible appointment followed - military commissar of the Moscow defense region, and on June 19, Tukhachevsky went to the Eastern Front at the disposal of front commander M.A. Muravyov to organize units of the Red Army into higher formations and lead them. On June 27, he accepted this post as commander of the 1st Army operating in the Middle Volga. During Muravyov's speech against the Reds that soon took place, Tukhachevsky was arrested by a rebel in Simbirsk and barely escaped execution as a Bolshevik. After Muravyov was killed on July 11, Tukhachevsky temporarily, until the arrival of I.I. Vatsetis, commanded the front.
It fell to Tukhachevsky and his comrades not only to create and strengthen the army, but also to reorganize it from disparate partisan formations into a regular unification. Tukhachevsky, who did not have military-administrative experience, relied on highly qualified cadres of old officers with higher military education. In the selection of personnel he showed himself to be a talented organizer. At the same time, he loved to be in battle formations, as if making up for what he was almost deprived of during the World War.
On September 12, Tukhachevsky’s troops took Simbirsk, the hometown of the Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin. In this regard, Tukhachevsky did not fail to send a congratulatory telegram to Lenin, who was wounded after the assassination attempt, stating that the capture of the city was the answer for one of Lenin’s wounds, and the second wound would be answered by the capture of Samara. Subsequently, victories followed one after another. Tukhachevsky took Syzran, the Whites retreated to the East.
We will shake Russia like a dirty carpet, and then we will shake the whole world... We will enter chaos and come out of it only by completely destroying civilization.
In connection with the growing tension in the South, Tukhachevsky was appointed assistant commander of the Southern Front, and at the front he led the 8th Army, operating near Voronezh against the Don Army. It is interesting that back in the spring of 1919, Tukhachevsky advocated offensive actions by the Reds not through the Don region, but through the Donbass to Rostov. As a result of a conflict with front commander V.M. Gittis Tukhachevsky asked to be transferred to another front.
He again found himself on the Eastern Front, now as the commander of the 5th Army, operating in the direction of the main attack of the Whites. Tukhachevsky successfully proved himself in the defeat of the Whites during the Buguruslan, Bugulma, Menzelinsk, Birsk, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk, and Omsk operations. As a result of a series of victories, the Whites from the Volga region were thrown back to Siberia. For the liberation of the Volga region and the Urals and successes in the Chelyabinsk operation, Tukhachevsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and at the end of 1919, following the results of the campaign, he was awarded an honorary golden weapon. The 27-year-old former second lieutenant defeated the troops of Admiral A.V. Kolchak.
Tukhachevsky's army had a powerful political composition - the largest number of communists were gathered here in comparison with other armies of the front. On the Eastern Front, Tukhachevsky collaborated with another genius in the highest positions of the Red Army - M.V. Frunze. At the same time, already at this time the obstinate character of the ambitious military leader manifested itself. Tukhachevsky, for example, came into conflict with former general A.A., who briefly commanded the front. Samoilo. As a result of Tukhachevsky’s alliance with members of the Front’s Revolutionary Military Council, who did not accept Samoilo (instead of the former commander S.S. Kamenev), the latter was recalled.
I am convinced that with good management, good staffs and good political forces, we can create a large army capable of great feats.
After the defeat of Kolchak, Tukhachevsky at the beginning of 1920 was again sent to the South, where he headed the Caucasian Front. His tasks included completing the defeat of the White armies of Southern Russia under the command of General A.I. Denikin. After the elimination of white resistance in the Caucasus, Tukhachevsky issued an order to the 11th Army, which was part of the front, to occupy Azerbaijan, which was done. However, at this time Tukhachevsky was sent to save Soviet Russia to a new site - to the Western Front, where the fight against the Poles was becoming increasingly intense.
Tukhachevsky was appointed to the post of commander of this front on April 28. By this time he had gained a reputation as one of the best Bolshevik commanders. The strongest specialists in the republic were concentrated on the front entrusted to the Tukhachevsky Front. General Staff, experienced command staff. The rapid offensive undertaken by Tukhachevsky led the Red Army from the Berezina to the Vistula in a month. In the first half of August 1920, Tukhachevsky’s units were actually under the walls of Warsaw, but there was not enough strength to capture the Polish capital.
Tukhachevsky’s military style was characterized by deep ramming strikes with the rapid introduction of reserves into battle (later Tukhachevsky became the developer of the theory of deep combat), which led to the depletion of troops and all sorts of surprises that there was nothing to counter. This approach was developed into the concept of sequential operations, in which enemy forces are sequentially depleted in successive battles. In practice, Tukhachevsky implemented this concept in the fight against Kolchak’s troops.
Consecutive operations will constitute, as it were, dismemberments of the same operation, but dispersed, due to the enemy’s retreat over a large area... Constant pursuit and pressure, associated with the increasing disorganization of the retreating, extremely increase the morale of the attacking troops, bringing it to a state capable of high heroism . On the contrary, even if discipline is maintained, the retreating person’s combat effectiveness is constantly decreasing.
M.N. Tukhachevsky. High command issues. M., 1924
Friendly cartoon. 1925
Tukhachevsky made repeated attempts (both against the Whites and the Poles), but attempts to encircle the enemy widely were not crowned with success. Contemporaries noted not only the deep intelligence of the young Soviet commander, but also his penchant for adventurous enterprises. In general, Tukhachevsky perfectly understood the nature of the Civil War and learned to achieve success in its conditions by imposing his will on the enemy and active offensive actions. In this regard, his adventurism sometimes had a beneficial effect on the results of operations. At the same time, Tukhachevsky always relied on highly qualified staff teams. The question of the leadership abilities of Tukhachevsky himself remains open. It is also unknown how he could have shown himself as a commander in a major war, which was radically different from the Civil War.
The end of the Civil War was marked for Tukhachevsky by the leadership of the liquidation of the Kronstadt uprising and the suppression of the uprising of the Tambov peasants (at the same time, asphyxiating gases were used to a limited extent, but not in the form of large-scale gas attacks destroying all living things, as appears from the experience of the First World War, but in the form of shelling with chemical shells, widely used in the Civil War by both Reds and Whites).
During the Civil War and especially after it, Tukhachevsky began to actively speak out in the military-scientific field. His books “Class War” and “Maneuver and Artillery” were published one after another. And here he worked closely with the country's leading military-scientific personnel. Thus, his closest collaborator was the famous military scientist V.K. Triandafillov. Tukhachevsky’s in-depth acquaintance with the military-scientific world is associated with the period of his leadership of the Military Academy of the Red Army.
Marshal of the Soviet Union
In 1922-1924. Tukhachevsky commanded the Western Front, and the party elite, bogged down in internal squabbles and struggles, was extremely wary of his intervention in the political life of the country. Tukhachevsky really had political ambitions. He was under covert surveillance and compromising material was collected. As a result, during the most intense period of confrontation between supporters of I.V. Stalin and L.D. Trotsky, Tukhachevsky turned out to be completely passive. In 1924 he became assistant chief of staff of the Red Army, and in 1925-1928. - Chief of Staff of the Red Army. Despite his busy schedule, Tukhachevsky also found time for military pedagogical work and gave lectures to academy students. In May 1928, he was commander of the troops of the Leningrad Military District.
In 1931, Tukhachevsky became Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR K.E. Voroshilov. On the initiative of Tukhachevsky, the army introduced new technology. The troops were rearmed and re-equipped with aircraft, tanks, and artillery. Tukhachevsky's support included such innovative developments for that time as airborne assaults, radar, jet weapons, missile technology, air defense, and torpedo-carrying aircraft. At the same time, Tukhachevsky was also characterized by excessive projectism, sometimes far from reality (it is enough to note that in 1919, according to an informed contemporary, he proposed to the Bolshevik leadership a project for introducing paganism in the country, and in 1930 he put forward an absurd program for an annual tank building standard in a country of 100,000 tanks by armoring tractors - in this way he counted on the practical implementation of the theory of deep operation).
As a supporter of the strategy of destruction, Tukhachevsky opposed the famous military scientist, former general A.A. Svechin, who served as the ideologist of the strategy of starvation. In the spirit of the times, this discussion turned into persecution of the scientist, headed by Tukhachevsky. The executed “Red Bonaparte” was by no means averse to bullying his opponents. Tukhachevsky’s opponent was also the future Marshal of the Soviet Union B.M. Shaposhnikov.
In November 1935, Tukhachevsky became Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1937, Tukhachevsky, on false charges of preparing a fascist military conspiracy against the leadership of the USSR, was arrested and executed (rehabilitated in 1957). The reason for the repressions was Tukhachevsky’s ambitions, which went beyond his official boundaries, his undoubted authority, leadership in the senior command and many years of close ties with other high-ranking military leaders, which threatened a military coup. At the same time, he, of course, was not any foreign spy.
As A.I., who knew him, rightly noted. Todorsky,Tukhachevsky was not destined to live to see the Great Patriotic War. But Tukhachevsky, together with its heroes, smashed the fascist armies. The enemies were attacked by the equipment that Tukhachevsky built together with the party and the people. Soldiers and commanders destroyed the enemy, relying on Soviet military art, to which Tukhachevsky made a great contribution.
Ganin A.V., Ph.D., Institute of Slavic Studies RAS
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- Enormous influence in military matters for a full 25 years
Kappel Vladimir Oskarovich
Perhaps he is the most talented commander of the entire Civil War, even if compared with the commanders of all its sides. A man of powerful military talent, fighting spirit and Christian noble qualities - a true White knight. Kappel's talent and personal qualities were noticed and respected even by his opponents. Author of many military operations and exploits - including the capture of Kazan, the Great Siberian Ice Campaign, etc. Many of his calculations, not assessed on time and missed through no fault of his own, later turned out to be the most correct, as the course of the Civil War showed.
Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich
Successfully commanded Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War. Among other things, he stopped the Germans near Moscow and took Berlin.
Suvorov Alexander Vasilievich
The great Russian commander, who did not suffer a single defeat in his military career (more than 60 battles), one of the founders of Russian military art.
Prince of Italy (1799), Count of Rymnik (1789), Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Generalissimo of the Russian Land and Land Forces naval forces, Field Marshal General of the Austrian and Sardinian troops, grandee of the Kingdom of Sardinia and prince of the royal blood (with the title "cousin of the king"), holder of all Russian orders of his time awarded to men, as well as many foreign military orders.
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich
Personally took part in the planning and implementation of ALL offensive and defensive operations of the Red Army in the period 1941 - 1945.
Skobelev Mikhail Dmitrievich
A man of great courage, an excellent tactician and organizer. M.D. Skobelev had strategic thinking, saw the situation both in real time and in the future
Prince Svyatoslav
Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich
A person who combines the body of knowledge of a natural scientist, a scientist and a great strategist.
Denikin Anton Ivanovich
Russian military leader, political and public figure, writer, memoirist, publicist and military documentarian.
Participant in the Russo-Japanese War. One of the most effective generals of the Russian Imperial Army during the First World War. Commander of the 4th Infantry "Iron" Brigade (1914-1916, from 1915 - deployed under his command to a division), 8th Army Corps (1916-1917). Lieutenant General of the General Staff (1916), commander of the Western and Southwestern Fronts (1917). An active participant in the military congresses of 1917, an opponent of the democratization of the army. He expressed support for the Kornilov speech, for which he was arrested by the Provisional Government, a participant in the Berdichev and Bykhov sittings of generals (1917).
One of the main leaders of the White movement during the Civil War, its leader in the South of Russia (1918-1920). He achieved the greatest military and political results among all the leaders of the White movement. Pioneer, one of the main organizers, and then commander of the Volunteer Army (1918-1919). Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (1919-1920), Deputy Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army Admiral Kolchak (1919-1920).
Since April 1920 - an emigrant, one of the main political figures of the Russian emigration. Author of the memoirs “Essays on the Russian Time of Troubles” (1921-1926) - a fundamental historical and biographical work about the Civil War in Russia, the memoirs “The Old Army” (1929-1931), the autobiographical story “The Path of the Russian Officer” (published in 1953) and a number of other works.
Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich
The only commander who carried out the order of Headquarters on June 22, 1941, counterattacked the Germans, drove them back in his sector and went on the offensive.
Alekseev Mikhail Vasilievich
Outstanding employee of the Russian Academy of the General Staff. Developer and implementer of the Galician operation - the first brilliant victory of the Russian army in the Great War.
Saved the troops of the North-Western Front from encirclement during the “Great Retreat” of 1915.
Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 1916-1917.
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in 1917
Developed and implemented strategic plans offensive operations 1916 - 1917
He continued to defend the need to preserve the Eastern Front after 1917 (the Volunteer Army is the basis of the new Eastern Front in the ongoing Great War).
Slandered and slandered in relation to various so-called. “Masonic military lodges”, “conspiracy of generals against the Sovereign”, etc., etc. - in terms of emigrant and modern historical journalism.
Kuznetsov Nikolay Gerasimovich
He made a great contribution to strengthening the fleet before the war; conducted a number of major exercises, initiated the opening of new maritime schools and maritime special schools (later Nakhimov schools). On the eve of Germany's surprise attack on the USSR, he took effective measures to increase the combat readiness of the fleets, and on the night of June 22, he gave the order to bring them to full combat readiness, which made it possible to avoid losses of ships and naval aviation.
Kornilov Lavr Georgievich
KORNILOV Lavr Georgievich (08/18/1870-04/31/1918) Colonel (02/1905). Major General (12/1912). Lieutenant General (08/26/1914). Infantry General (06/30/1917). Graduated from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School (1892) and with a gold medal from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1898). Officer at the headquarters of the Turkestan Military District, 1889-1904. Participant in the Russian-Japanese War 1904 - 1905: staff officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade (at its headquarters). During the retreat from Mukden, the brigade got surrounded. Having led the rearguard, he broke through the encirclement with a bayonet attack, ensuring freedom of defensive combat operations for the brigade. Military attaché in China, 04/01/1907 - 02/24/1911. Participant in the First World War: commander of the 48th Infantry Division of the 8th Army (General Brusilov). During the general retreat, the 48th Division was surrounded and General Kornilov, who was wounded, was captured on 04.1915 at the Duklinsky Pass (Carpathians); 08.1914-04.1915. Captured by the Austrians, 04.1915-06.1916. Dressed in the uniform of an Austrian soldier, he escaped from captivity on 06/1915. Commander of the 25th Rifle Corps, 06/1916-04/1917. Commander of the Petrograd Military District, 03-04/1917. Commander of the 8th Army, 04/24-07/8/1917. On 05/19/1917, by his order, he introduced the formation of the first volunteer “1st Strike force 8th Army" under the command of Captain Nezhentsev. Commander of the Southwestern Front...
Nevsky, Suvorov
Of course, the holy blessed prince Alexander Nevsky and Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov
Rurik Svyatoslav Igorevich
Year of birth 942 date of death 972 Expansion of state borders. 965 conquest of the Khazars, 963 march south to the Kuban region, capture of Tmutarakan, 969 conquest of the Volga Bulgars, 971 conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom, 968 founding of Pereyaslavets on the Danube (the new capital of Rus'), 969 defeat of the Pechenegs in the defense of Kyiv.
Monomakh Vladimir Vsevolodovich
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich
The largest figure in world history, whose life and government activities left a deep imprint not only on the fate of the Soviet people, but also on all humanity, will be the subject of careful study by historians for many more centuries. The historical and biographical feature of this personality is that she will never be consigned to oblivion.
During Stalin's tenure as Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Chairman of the State Defense Committee, our country was marked by victory in the Great Patriotic War, massive labor and front-line heroism, the transformation of the USSR into a superpower with significant scientific, military and industrial potential, and the strengthening of our country's geopolitical influence in the world.
Ten Stalinist strikes is the general name for a number of the largest offensive strategic operations in the Great Patriotic War, carried out in 1944 by the armed forces of the USSR. Along with other offensive operations, they made a decisive contribution to the victory of the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition over Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II.
Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich
Commander-in-Chief during the Patriotic War of 1812. One of the most famous and beloved military heroes by the people!
Uvarov Fedor Petrovich
At the age of 27 he was promoted to general. He took part in the campaigns of 1805-1807 and in the battles on the Danube in 1810. In 1812, he commanded the 1st Artillery Corps in the army of Barclay de Tolly, and subsequently the entire cavalry of the united armies.
Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich
Commander of the 62nd Army in Stalingrad.
Suvorov Alexander Vasilievich
He is a great commander who did not lose a single (!) battle, the founder of Russian military affairs, and fought battles with genius, regardless of their conditions.
Muravyov-Karssky Nikolai Nikolaevich
One of the most successful commanders of the mid-19th century in the Turkish direction.
Hero of the first capture of Kars (1828), leader of the second capture of Kars (the greatest success Crimean War, 1855, which made it possible to end the war without territorial losses for Russia).
Eremenko Andrey Ivanovich
Commander of the Stalingrad and South-Eastern Fronts. The fronts under his command in the summer and autumn of 1942 stopped the advance of the German 6th field and 4th tank armies towards Stalingrad.
In December 1942, the Stalingrad Front of General Eremenko stopped the tank offensive of General G. Hoth's group on Stalingrad, for the relief of the 6th Army of Paulus.
Svyatoslav Igorevich
I would like to propose the “candidacies” of Svyatoslav and his father, Igor, as the greatest commanders and political leaders of their time, I think that there is no point in listing to historians their services to the fatherland, I was unpleasantly surprised not to see their names on this list. Sincerely.
Brusilov Alexey Alekseevich
One of the best Russian generals of the First World War. In June 1916, troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of Adjutant General A.A. Brusilov, simultaneously striking in several directions, broke through the enemy’s deeply layered defenses and advanced 65 km. In military history, this operation was called the Brusilov breakthrough.
Rurikovich (Grozny) Ivan Vasilievich
In the diversity of perceptions of Ivan the Terrible, one often forgets about his unconditional talent and achievements as a commander. He personally led the capture of Kazan and organized military reform, leading a country that was simultaneously fighting 2-3 wars on different fronts.
Suvorov, Count Rymniksky, Prince of Italy Alexander Vasilievich
The greatest commander, master strategist, tactician and military theorist. Author of the book "The Science of Victory", Generalissimo of the Russian Army. The only one in the history of Russia who did not suffer a single defeat.
Khvorostinin Dmitry Ivanovich
A commander who had no defeats...
Svyatoslav Igorevich
Grand Duke of Novgorod, from 945 of Kiev. Son of Grand Duke Igor Rurikovich and Princess Olga. Svyatoslav became famous as great commander, whom N.M. Karamzin called “Alexander (Macedonian) of our ancient history.”
After the military campaigns of Svyatoslav Igorevich (965-972), the territory of the Russian land increased from the Volga region to the Caspian Sea, from the North Caucasus to the Black Sea region, from the Balkan Mountains to Byzantium. Defeated Khazaria and Volga Bulgaria, weakened and frightened Byzantine Empire, opened the way for trade between Rus' and eastern countries
Ushakov Fedor Fedorovich
The great Russian naval commander who won victories at Fedonisi, Kaliakria, at Cape Tendra and during the liberation of the islands of Malta (Ianian Islands) and Corfu. Discovered and introduced new tactics sea battle, with the abandonment of the linear formation of ships and showed the tactics of a “scattered formation” with an attack on the flagship of the enemy fleet. One of the founders of the Black Sea Fleet and its commander in 1790-1792.
Vorotynsky Mikhail Ivanovich
“Drafter of the statutes of the watchdog and border service” is, of course, good. For some reason, we have forgotten the Battle of YOUTH from July 29 to August 2, 1572. But it was precisely with this victory that Moscow’s right to many things was recognized. They recaptured a lot of things for the Ottomans, the thousands of destroyed Janissaries sobered them up, and unfortunately they also helped Europe. The Battle of YOUTH is very difficult to overestimate
Bobrok-Volynsky Dmitry Mikhailovich
Boyar and governor of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy. "Developer" of the tactics of the Battle of Kulikovo.
Loris-Melikov Mikhail Tarielovich
Known mainly as one of the minor characters in the story “Hadji Murad” by L.N. Tolstoy, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov went through all the Caucasian and Turkish campaigns of the second half of the mid-19th century.
Showed himself well during Caucasian War, during the Kars campaign of the Crimean War, Loris-Melikov led reconnaissance, and then successfully served as commander-in-chief during the difficult Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, winning a number of important victories over the united Turkish forces and capturing Kars for the third time, by which time considered impregnable.
Antonov Alexey Inokentevich
Chief strategist of the USSR in 1943-45, practically unknown to society
"Kutuzov" World War II
Humble and committed. Victorious. Author of all operations since the spring of 1943 and the victory itself. Others gained fame - Stalin and the front commanders.
Tsarevich and Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich
Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, the second son of Emperor Paul I, received the title of Tsarevich in 1799 for his participation in the Swiss campaign of A.V. Suvorov, and retained it until 1831. In the Battle of Austrlitz he commanded the guards reserve of the Russian Army, took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, and distinguished himself in the foreign campaigns of the Russian Army. For the “Battle of the Nations” at Leipzig in 1813 he received the “golden weapon” “For bravery!” Inspector General of the Russian Cavalry, since 1826 Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland.
Field Marshal General Gudovich Ivan Vasilievich
The assault on the Turkish fortress of Anapa on June 22, 1791. In terms of complexity and importance, it is only inferior to the assault on Izmail by A.V. Suvorov.
A 7,000-strong Russian detachment stormed Anapa, which was defended by a 25,000-strong Turkish garrison. At the same time, soon after the start of the assault, the Russian detachment was attacked from the mountains by 8,000 mounted highlanders and Turks, who attacked the Russian camp, but were unable to break into it, were repulsed in a fierce battle and pursued by the Russian cavalry.
The fierce battle for the fortress lasted over 5 hours. About 8,000 people from the Anapa garrison died, 13,532 defenders led by the commandant and Sheikh Mansur were taken prisoner. A small part (about 150 people) escaped on ships. Almost all the artillery was captured or destroyed (83 cannons and 12 mortars), 130 banners were taken. Gudovich sent a separate detachment from Anapa to the nearby Sudzhuk-Kale fortress (on the site of modern Novorossiysk), but upon his approach the garrison burned the fortress and fled to the mountains, abandoning 25 guns.
The losses of the Russian detachment were very high - 23 officers and 1,215 privates were killed, 71 officers and 2,401 privates were wounded (Sytin's Military Encyclopedia gives slightly lower data - 940 killed and 1,995 wounded). Gudovich was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree, all the officers of his detachment were awarded, and a special medal was established for the lower ranks.
Skopin-Shuisky Mikhail Vasilievich
In the conditions of the disintegration of the Russian state during the Time of Troubles, with minimal material and personnel resources, he created an army that defeated the Polish-Lithuanian interventionists and liberated most of the Russian state.
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich
Yudenich Nikolai Nikolaevich
One of the most successful generals in Russia during the First World War. The Erzurum and Sarakamysh operations carried out by him on the Caucasian front, carried out in extremely unfavorable conditions for Russian troops, and ending in victories, I believe, deserve to be included among the brightest victories of Russian weapons. In addition, Nikolai Nikolaevich stood out for his modesty and decency, lived and died as an honest Russian officer, and remained faithful to the oath to the end.
Rokhlin Lev Yakovlevich
He headed the 8th Guards Army Corps in Chechnya. Under his leadership, a number of districts of Grozny were captured, including the presidential palace. For participation in the Chechen campaign, he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, but refused to accept it, stating that “he has no moral right to receive this award for military operations on his own territory.” countries".
Suvorov Alexander Vasilievich
according to the only criterion - invincibility.
Makarov Stepan Osipovich
Russian oceanographer, polar explorer, shipbuilder, vice admiral. Developed the Russian semaphore alphabet. A worthy person, on the list of worthy ones!
Karyagin Pavel Mikhailovich
Colonel Karyagin's campaign against the Persians in 1805 does not resemble the real one military history. It looks like a prequel to "300 Spartans" (20,000 Persians, 500 Russians, gorges, bayonet attacks, "This is madness! - No, this is the 17th Jaeger Regiment!"). A golden, platinum page of Russian history, combining the carnage of madness with the highest tactical skill, amazing cunning and stunning Russian arrogance
His Serene Highness Prince Wittgenstein Peter Christianovich
For the defeat of the French units of Oudinot and MacDonald at Klyastitsy, thereby closing the road for the French army to St. Petersburg in 1812. Then in October 1812 he defeated the corps of Saint-Cyr at Polotsk. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian-Prussian armies in April-May 1813.
Yaroslav the Wise
Barclay de Tolly Mikhail Bogdanovich
In front of the Kazan Cathedral there are two statues of the saviors of the fatherland. Saving the army, exhausting the enemy, the Battle of Smolensk - this is more than enough.
Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich
Soldier, several wars (including World War I and World War II). passed the way to Marshal of the USSR and Poland. Military intellectual. did not resort to “obscene leadership”. He knew the subtleties of military tactics. practice, strategy and operational art.
Prince Monomakh Vladimir Vsevolodovich
The most remarkable of the Russian princes of the pre-Tatar period of our history, who left behind great fame and good memory.
Maksimov Evgeniy Yakovlevich
Russian hero of the Transvaal War. He was a volunteer in fraternal Serbia, participating in the Russian-Turkish war. At the beginning of the 20th century, the British began to wage war against the small people - the Boers. Eugene successfully fought against the invaders and in 1900 was appointed military general. Died in Russian Japanese war. In addition to his military career, he distinguished himself in the literary field.
Spiridov Grigory Andreevich
He became a sailor under Peter I, participated as an officer in the Russian-Turkish War (1735-1739), and ended the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) as a rear admiral. His naval and diplomatic talent reached its peak during the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774. In 1769 he led the first passage of the Russian fleet from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the difficulties of the transition (the admiral's son was among those who died from illness - his grave was recently found on the island of Menorca), he quickly established control over the Greek archipelago. The Battle of Chesme in June 1770 remained unsurpassed in terms of loss ratio: 11 Russians - 11 thousand Turks! On the island of Paros, the naval base of Auza was equipped with coastal batteries and its own Admiralty.
The Russian fleet left the Mediterranean Sea after the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace in July 1774. Greek Islands and the lands of the Levant, including Beirut, were returned to Turkey in exchange for territories in the Black Sea region. However, the activities of the Russian fleet in the Archipelago were not in vain and played a significant role in world naval history. Russia, having made a strategic maneuver with its fleet from one theater to another and achieved a number of high-profile victories over the enemy, for the first time made people talk about itself as a strong maritime power and an important player in European politics.
Bennigsen Leonty
An unjustly forgotten commander. Having won several battles against Napoleon and his marshals, he drew two battles with Napoleon and lost one battle. Participated in the Battle of Borodino. One of the contenders for the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army during the Patriotic War of 1812!
Alekseev Mikhail Vasilievich
One of the most talented Russian generals of the First World War. Hero of the Battle of Galicia in 1914, savior of the Northwestern Front from encirclement in 1915, chief of staff under Emperor Nicholas I.
General of Infantry (1914), Adjutant General (1916). Active participant in the White movement in the Civil War. One of the organizers of the Volunteer Army.
Baklanov Yakov Petrovich
The Cossack general, “the thunderstorm of the Caucasus,” Yakov Petrovich Baklanov, one of the most colorful heroes of the endless Caucasian War of the century before last, fits perfectly into the image of Russia familiar to the West. A gloomy two-meter hero, a tireless persecutor of highlanders and Poles, an enemy of political correctness and democracy in all its manifestations. But it was precisely these people who achieved the most difficult victory for the empire in the long-term confrontation with the inhabitants of the North Caucasus and the unkind local nature
Kazarsky Alexander Ivanovich
Captain-lieutenant. Participant in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-29. He distinguished himself during the capture of Anapa, then Varna, commanding the transport "Rival". After this, he was promoted to lieutenant commander and appointed captain of the brig Mercury. On May 14, 1829, the 18-gun brig Mercury was overtaken by two Turkish battleships Selimiye and Real Bey. Having accepted an unequal battle, the brig was able to immobilize both Turkish flagships, one of which contained the commander of the Ottoman fleet. Subsequently, an officer from the Real Bay wrote: “During the continuation of the battle, the commander of the Russian frigate (the notorious Raphael, which surrendered without a fight a few days earlier) told me that the captain of this brig would not surrender, and if he lost hope, then he would blow up the brig If in the great deeds of ancient and modern times there are feats of courage, then this act should overshadow all of them, and the name of this hero is worthy of being inscribed in gold letters on the Temple of Glory: he is called captain-lieutenant Kazarsky, and the brig is “Mercury”
Golovanov Alexander Evgenievich
He is the creator of Soviet aviation long range(ADD).
Units under the command of Golovanov bombed Berlin, Koenigsberg, Danzig and other cities in Germany, striking important strategic targets behind enemy lines.
Margelov Vasily Filippovich
Creator of modern airborne forces. When the BMD with its crew parachuted for the first time, its commander was his son. In my opinion, this fact speaks about such a wonderful person as V.F. Margelov, that's it. About his devotion to the Airborne Forces!
Denikin Anton Ivanovich
The commander under whose command white army With smaller forces, in 1.5 years she won victories over the Red Army and captured the North Caucasus, Crimea, Novorossia, Donbass, Ukraine, Don, part of the Volga region and the central black earth provinces of Russia. He retained the dignity of his Russian name during the Second World War, refusing to cooperate with the Nazis, despite his irreconcilably anti-Soviet position
Pokryshkin Alexander Ivanovich
Marshal of Aviation of the USSR, the first three times Hero of the Soviet Union, symbol of Victory over the Nazi Wehrmacht in the air, one of the most successful fighter pilots of the Great Patriotic War (WWII).
While participating in the air battles of the Great Patriotic War, he developed and tested in battles new tactics of air combat, which made it possible to seize the initiative in the air and ultimately defeat the fascist Luftwaffe. In fact, he created an entire school of WWII aces. Commanding the 9th Guards Air Division, he continued to personally participate in air battles, scoring 65 air victories throughout the entire period of the war.
Stessel Anatoly Mikhailovich
Commandant of Port Arthur during his heroic defense. The unprecedented ratio of losses of Russian and Japanese troops before the surrender of the fortress is 1:10.
Dokhturov Dmitry Sergeevich
Defense of Smolensk.
Command of the left flank on the Borodino field after Bagration was wounded.
Battle of Tarutino.
Yulaev Salavat
Commander of the Pugachev era (1773-1775). Together with Pugachev, he organized an uprising and tried to change the position of the peasants in society. He won several victories over the troops of Catherine II.
Platov Matvey Ivanovich
Military Ataman of the Don Cossack Army. He began active military service at the age of 13. A participant in several military campaigns, he is best known as the commander of Cossack troops during the Patriotic War of 1812 and during the subsequent Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army. Thanks to the successful actions of the Cossacks under his command, Napoleon’s saying went down in history:
- Happy is the commander who has Cossacks. If I had an army of only Cossacks, I would conquer all of Europe.
Biography
TUKHACHEVSKY Mikhail Nikolaevich (1893-1937). Soviet military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1935). Born in the Aleksandrovskoye estate, Smolensk province. Father - Tukhachevsky Nikolai Nikolaevich, hereditary nobleman; mother - Mavra Petrovna, a peasant woman. Mikhail graduated from high school graduating class Moscow Cadet Corps and Alexander Military School. In 1914, with the rank of second lieutenant of the Semenovsky regiment, he participated in the First World War. “Towards the end of his military career in the Russian army, Tukhachevsky came recognized hero, writes General A.I. Todor-sky.1 - I don’t remember meeting anyone else during the entire war who, like Tukhachevsky, received six military awards in six months. He received these awards for genuine valor, and not for his presence in the war. Among them are the Order of Anna IV degree with the inscription “For Bravery”, degrees with swords and a bow and II degree with swords; St. Vladimir degree with a sword and bow” (Marshal Tukhachevsky. M., 1963. P. 18).
In February 1915, Tukhachevsky was captured. In the fortress of Ingoltstadt (Bavaria) he was imprisoned together with Captain de Gaulle, the future president of France. In October 1917, Tukhachevsky escaped from enemy captivity (this was his fifth escape). After returning to Russia, Tukhachevsky was elected company commander and promoted to captain of the Semenovsky regiment and demobilized with this rank.
In 1918, with the assistance of V.V. Kuibyshev, joined the Red Army, and in the same year became a member of the RCP (b). During the Civil War, he successfully commanded armies on the Eastern and Southern fronts; was the commander of the Caucasian Front. In 1920, commanding the Western Front, he led the Soviet invasion of Poland, which ended in the defeat of the Red troops (“miracle on the Vistula”) due to the dedication of the Poles, miscalculations of the command of the Western Front, and inconsistency in the actions of the Western and Southwestern Fronts (see Berzin R.I.), assistance to Poland from French advisers and unfulfilled hopes for an uprising of the proletariat in Poland itself and Germany.2 (Pilsudski against Tukhachevsky. Two views on the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. M., 1991; Isserson G. The Fate of a Commander // Friendship of Peoples. 1988. No. 5). One should not think that if there had not been a delay in the transfer of the armies of the Southwestern Front, Warsaw would certainly have been taken. When analyzing the situation as a whole, it is necessary to take into account that behind Poland was the military and economic power of the Entente. Lenin called the failure of the Polish campaign a miscalculation in politics.
However, defenders of Stalin’s actions can cite the opinion of the French Colonel Loire, who, among other military advisers, was sent to save Poland. In the May issue of the Polish magazine Bellona for 1925, he wrote: “What would have happened to the Polish maneuver if Budyonny, with his entire Cavalry Army, had attacked the Polish troops counterattacking from Veprzha, not provided with anything from the south, and had not persisted in his desire to reap laurels, conducting useless military operations near Lvov?” And, answering this question, he continues: “The operation of the Polish troops would have suffered a complete collapse. It’s hard to even imagine what consequences this would have” (quoted from: Isserson G. The Fate of a Commander // Friendship of Peoples. 1988. No. 5).
In May 1920, Tukhachevsky was assigned to the General Staff. In 1921 - one of the leaders of the Red Army units during the suppression of the sailors' mutiny in Kronstadt, 3) commanded troops during the defeat of the anti-government peasant uprising of Antonov in the Tambov and Voronezh provinces. In peacetime, he is the head of the Military Academy of the Red Army. In 1922-1924. - Commander of the Western Front. In 1925-1928. - Chief of Staff of the Red Army (promoted to this position at the suggestion of M.V. Frunze). Since 1928 - head of the Leningrad Military District. Since 1931 - Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Chief of Arms of the Red Army; from 1934 - deputy, from 1936 - first deputy people's commissar of defense and head of the combat training department of the Red Army. On May 10, 1937, he was appointed commander of the Volga Military District. Tukhachevsky was repeatedly elected to leading party and Soviet bodies: he was a member of the Smolensk provincial committee, the Leningrad and Moscow regional party committees. At the XVII Party Congress he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee of all convocations.
In 1935, Tukhachevsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union; thus, he became the youngest of the five original Red Marshals.
During the Civil War, “for personal courage, broad initiative, energy, management and knowledge of the matter,” he was awarded a personalized Golden Weapon. In 1921 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, in 1933 - the Order of Lenin.
Tukhachevsky played a major role in the construction, reconstruction and rearmament of the Red Army modern technology, in the creation of air and armored forces. He was the initiator of the creation of airborne troops. He actively supported the research of scientists in the field of development of missile weapons, 4) radar and communications. Professor P. Oshchepkov testifies: “Speaking about the origins of radar in our country, I cannot help but pay tribute to the blessed memory of M.N. Tukhachevsky, who at the very early and difficult stage of our work boldly and decisively helped install this equipment” (Oshchepkov P.K. Life and Dream. M., 1984. P. 90). In the early 30s, on the initiative of Tukhachevsky, a wide network of specialized military academies was deployed in the USSR. On May 21, 1932, the Defense Commission under the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution on the creation of five academies: artillery, mechanization and motorization, military engineering, military chemical and communications. It was also decided to open a military transport academy and significantly expand the existing military academies. In 1935, the Military Economic Academy was formed, and in 1936 - the Academy of the General Staff (Tsalkovich I.M. Champion of the New // Marshal Tukhachevsky. Memoirs of friends and associates. M., 1965. P. 208). Tukhachevsky wrote more than 120 works, including 15 books and brochures and over 30 articles analyzing the operations of the world and civil wars, on issues of strategy and operational art, training and education of troops. He conceived a major three-volume work, “New Issues of War.” Tragic events prevented him from realizing this plan. Only the first volume was completed in rough form, excerpts from which were first published by the Military Historical Journal in 1962. “Reading them,” writes Marshal K.A. Meretskov, - you are directly amazed at the author’s insight” (Tam ok. p. 9).
Marshall G.K. Zhukov recalled: “At the post of First Deputy People’s Commissar of Defense M.N. Tukhachevsky led a large organizational, creative and scientific work. When meeting with him, I was captivated by his versatile knowledge of issues of military science. An intelligent, widely educated professional military man, he had an excellent understanding of both tactics and strategic issues. He well understood the role of the various types of our armed forces in modern wars and knew how to creatively approach any problem... In Tukhachevsky one could feel a giant of military thought, a star of the first magnitude in the galaxy of outstanding military leaders of the Red Army" (Zhukov G.K. Memoirs and Reflections. T 1. M., 1979. P. 222).
On May 22, 1937, Tukhachevsky was arrested on the direct orders of Stalin and his protege Yezhov, without the sanction of a prosecutor or a court order. The marshal was accused of leading an “anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization in the Red Army.” June 11, 1937 By the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Tukhachevsky was stripped of his military rank and sentenced to capital punishment. On June 12, 1937 he was shot.
The majority of the members of the Special Judicial Presence who tried Tukhachevsky and his comrades did not escape this tragic fate. Ya.I. fell victims of repression. Alksnis, I.P. Belov, V.K. Blucher, E.I. Goryachev, P.E. Dybenko, N.D. Kashirin (S.M. Budyonny, B.M. Shaposhnikov and V.V. Ulrikh survived).
Incredibly, almost the entire composition of the Main Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR was repressed. Of the 86 members, only 7 were not arrested in 1937-1941. This is I.R. Apanasenko, SM. Budyonny, K.E. Voroshilov, O.I. Gorodovikov, G.I. Kulik, A.V. Khrulev, B.M. Shaposhnikov. Kulik was repressed later.
With Stalin's sanction, the Marshal's wife Nina Evgenievna Grinevich (first exiled, then shot in 1941), brothers Alexander and Nikolai were subsequently physically destroyed. Four sisters were sent to camps, and two daughters, when they reached adulthood, were also arrested. Mother and sister Sofya Nikolaevna died in the camp. Three sisters - Olga, Elizaveta and Maria - lived to see rehabilitation (1957). Yu.I. also survived. Kuzmina is Tukhachevsky's common-law wife.
On January 31, 1957, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR overturned the verdict against Tukhachevsky and dismissed the case for lack of corpus delicti. In party terms, he was rehabilitated by the decision of the CPC under the CPSU Central Committee of February 27, 1957 (Rehabilitation. Political processes 30-50s. M., 1991. P. 305).
When making the decision on rehabilitation, it was taken into account that disinformation information from foreign intelligence services about Tukhachevsky and other military figures does not appear either in the investigative case or in the materials of the trial. No evidence was found that they participated in the “military affair.” No documents were also found in the secret Nazi archives confirming the existence of espionage ties between Soviet military leaders and the German military. 5) It was noted that the court did not require any documentary evidence necessary to assess the correctness of certain accusations, did not call any witnesses and did not involve experts in the consideration of the case. In addition, it became known about the widespread use of illegal investigative methods against those arrested. The former assistant to the head of the 5th department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR Z.M. testified about them back in 1938. Ushakov, who took part in the interrogations of Tukhachevsky, Yakir and Feldman. In the same testimony, Ushakov describes how he “obtained” testimony from Feldman about a military conspiracy involving Tukhachevsky and other convicts (Rehabilitation. Political processes of the 30-50s. M., 1991).
The researchers also came to the conclusion that no documents (the so-called “red folder”) with a description of the conspiracy, the names and signatures of the conspirators, allegedly received by the President of Czechoslovakia E. Benes from the German secret services and transferred to Stalin, did not exist and they did not appear at the trial ( Schellenberg W. The Labyrinth. New York, 1956; Kukushkin V. “The Case” of Tukhachevsky - a fake of the Nazi intelligence services // News of intelligence and counterintelligence. 1995. No. 7, 8; Sudoplatov P. The red folder - an invention of Schellenberg // Young Guard. 1995 No. 5). The only document discovered that mentions a conspiracy is a note in Japanese. To translate it into Russian, the NKVD officers brought in (who had been arrested shortly before as a Japanese spy) a prominent Japanese scholar, Kim. 6) As it became known, in his conclusion back in 1937 he indicated that the note was fabricated (Sokolov B. Mikhail Tukhachevsky: the life and death of the Red Marshal. Smolensk, 1999. P. 487).
In the 50s (after Stalin’s death), Chekist defector A. Orlov, on the pages of the American Life magazine, outlined his version of the cause of Tukhachevsky’s death. Orlov writes that back in 1937, from his close relative, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Z. Katsnelson, he learned about the plan for a military-political coup in the USSR in order to eliminate Stalin. The reason for the appearance of this plan was the discovery by NKVD employee Stein (also from Ukraine) in the archives of documents that allegedly Stalin was an agent of the Tsarist secret police before the revolution. Stein informed the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine V. Balitsky about his discovery, who in turn informed the commander of the Kyiv Military District I. Yakir and the leader of the Republican Communists S. Kosior. Soon the news reached Marshal Tukhachevsky. According to Orlov, the “Moscow trials” were a consequence of the fact that Stalin managed to outplay the conspirators (Orlov A. The Sensational Secret behind the Damnation of Stalin // Life. 1956. April 23). Let us note that in 1938 the security officers Katsnelson and Balitsky were repressed by Stalin, and Stein shot himself.
However, P. Sudoplatov rejects the version of a conspiracy. He writes: “... the charges against Tukhachevsky and other military leaders of the country were fabricated on the instructions of Stalin and Voroshilov... They preferred the version of an imaginary conspiracy because otherwise they would have had to admit that the victims of repression were actually their rivals in the struggle for power. Such recognition would harm the prestige of the ruling party" (P. Sudoplatov. Intelligence and the Kremlin. M., 1996. P. 100, 108).
There is another version according to which the Soviet military leadership, and above all Stalin, was a victim of provocation by the German intelligence services, which persistently spread rumors about a “conspiracy in the Red Army.” It must be said that some Soviet journalists and intelligence officers, in particular A. Klimov, who worked in Berlin, fell for this bait and conscientiously transmitted disinformation to Moscow. It is known that his letter to Mehlis, found in Stalin’s folder, played a sinister role in the Tukhachevsky case. According to Gestapo officer A. Nauex, R. Heydrich (Chief of the SD) believed that “if the matter succeeds, it will be the greatest disaster for Russia since the revolution” (Shchetinov Yu.A., Starkov B.A. Red Marshal. M., 1990. P. 283).
Many Western Sovietologists believe that Stalin decided to destroy the top leadership of the Red Army in 1937 in connection with a possible rapprochement with Germany. This policy would subsequently lead to the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939. However, the high command (especially people close to Marshal Tukhachevsky) always considered Germany their main enemy. There is no doubt that if such a rapprochement had begun, the military would have become an obstacle to Stalin’s plans (Deco A. The Tukhachevsky Case // People-mysteries of the 20th century. M., 1998. pp. 220-237). G.K. Zhukov recalled: “Back in the 30s, M.N. Tukhachevsky warned that our number one enemy is Germany, that it is intensively preparing for war and, of course, against the Soviet Union.”
It is safe to say that Tukhachevsky guessed Stalin’s true plans. Let us cite, in particular, a quote from the book of Marshal Lydia Nord’s friend: “I completely do not understand the Germanophilism of our comrade Dzhugashvili,” he said (Tukhachevsky. - Comp.), emphasizing his real surname. - At first I thought that he only had an ostentatious interest in Germany in order to show “his education”... But now I see that he is a hidden but fanatical admirer of Hitler... I’m not kidding... This is such hatred, from which is only one step away from love... Hitler has only to take a step towards Stalin... and our leader will rush with open arms to the fascist leader. Yesterday, when we spoke privately, Stalin justified Hitler’s repressions against the Jews, saying that Hitler removes from his path what prevents him from achieving his goal, and, from the point of view of his idea, Hitler is right. Hitler’s successes impress Joseph Vissarionovich too much, and if you look closely, he copies a lot from the Fuhrer” (Nord L.A. Memories of Tukhachevsky // Revival. Notebooks 63-68. Paris, 1957; quoted from: Karpov V. Executed Marshals M., 1999, pp. 32-33).
The leaders of Nazi Germany especially closely watched the unprecedented beating of their own military personnel in the USSR. During the trial of Tukhachevsky, R. Heydrich ordered the establishment of direct radiotelegraph communication between Berlin and Moscow. Subsequently, the Nazi leadership was regularly supplied with information about what was happening in the Red Army by the military attache in Moscow, General Kestring, who was considered the main military specialist on Russia. Similar messages from Moscow convinced Hitler of disabilities defense of the USSR. Having listened to the next report on the state of the Red Army on May 5, 1941, the Chief of the General Staff, General F. Halder, for example, wrote in his diary: “Russian officer corps makes a pitiful impression, it is much worse than in 1933. It will take Russia 20 years for the officer corps to reach the previous level...” (Halder F. Military Diary. T. 2. M., 1969. P. 504).
Let us give the point of view of Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky on the defeat of the military personnel by Stalin and Voroshilov in the late 30s, expressed by him in a conversation with K. Simonov: “What can we say about the consequences for the army of thirty-seventh - thirty-eighth? You say that without '37 there would have been no defeats in '41, but I will say more. Without '37, there might not have been a war at all in '41. In the fact that Hitler decided to start a war in 1941, a large role was played by the assessment of the degree of defeat of the military personnel that occurred in our country. But what can I say, when in 1939 I had to be on the commission during the transfer of the Leningrad Military District from Khozin 8) to Meretskov, there were a number of divisions commanded by captains, because everyone who was higher was completely arrested.”
Simonov K. Through the eyes of a man of my generation. Banner. 1988. No. 5. P. 81.
Source http://www.tonnel.ru/?l=gzl&uid=499
He was a bright, talented person and at the same time a complex, contradictory personality. Many books have been written by Tukhachevsky himself and many books have been written about Tukhachevsky. Let's try, based on these materials, to understand who this person really was?
The Tukhachevsky family dates back to the 13th century. One of the ancestors of this family gave rise to famous family Tolstykh. The Tukhachevskys were nobles of Polish origin, greatly impoverished and living on the Alexandrovsky estate of the Smolensk province. Mikhail Tukhachevsky's father, the only son of a poor widow, Nikolai Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky married the peasant woman Mavra Petrovna. They had 9 children: 5 daughters and 4 sons. Son Mikhail was born on February 16, 1893 and was the third child in the family. The boy learned to read early and read avidly. WITH early years he was drawn to music, asked to buy him a violin, and subsequently wrote: “Maybe I could become a professional violinist.” The family often staged home performances. Mikhail was their indispensable participant. He had literary and artistic abilities. Actually, he was engaged in literature all his life, but he did not intend to be a writer and all the 122 works known to us that he wrote are scientific works on a military theme.
Since childhood, he dreamed of being a military man, of being an officer, as his great-uncle, the general, bequeathed to him. Mikhail graduates from Moscow cadet corps and Alexander Military School with a gold medal. The First World War of 1914 finds him in the Semenovsky Guards Regiment, where he continues to serve during the war. For his bravery, the young officer Tukhachevsky was awarded many orders of the tsarist army from Anna 1st class to Vladimir 1st class. He is captured by the Germans and is in Germany (together with the French prisoner of war de Gaulle), from where he escapes and returns to Russia after the 1917 revolution.
Shocked by the failures of the Russian army in the war with Germany, Tukhachevsky became interested in the ideas of Marxism and made a choice towards the Bolsheviks. He associated the revival of Russia with the strengthening of its army, dreaming of eventually leading it. Since 1918 he has been a member of the Red Army. Possessing great talent and brilliant military abilities, he achieves major military successes. In 1920-21 he commanded the Eastern and Southern (Caucasian) fronts, where he defeated the armies of Kolchak and Denikin. The glory of the winner immediately puts him among the largest leaders of the Red Army during the Civil War. There were also failures, such as the defeat of the army led by Tukhachevsky on the Western Front in 1920.
However, Tukhachevsky’s military merits are highly valued and he is trusted to carry out such operations as the suppression of the rebellion of the Kronstadt sailors and the peasant rebellion under the leadership of Antonov in the Tambov region. The suppression of uprisings is distinguished by particular cruelty, huge losses “on both sides” and the use, for the first time in military practice, of a “gas attack” against the civilian population, which took place in the Tambov province. All this hardly makes the commander look good, but still, of all the Soviet commanders, he was the most erudite, had strategic thinking, and thought about creating a modern army.
After the Civil War, Tukhachevsky became the head of the Red Army Academy, and then the chief of staff of the Red Army. In the future, he was entrusted with such high positions as deputy. People's Commissar of Defense, Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Chief of Armament of the Red Army and its combat training. Such rapid advancement up the career ladder put Tukhachevsky between two fires: he became a stranger to the leadership of the Red Army, headed by Voroshilov and Budyonny, and had already become a stranger to the former tsarist officers who voluntarily went over to the side of the Red Army.
He was too much of a non-standard person, distinguished by independent thinking, and was a commander capable of making independent decisions. Tukhachevsky was involved in creating a new army with modern weapons, including tank units, aviation, and missile weapons. He was going to lead this army in the approaching war with Nazi Germany. But under the Stalinist regime such a person was not needed, he was doomed. In 1937, Tukhachevsky was arrested and executed. Of all the leaders of the Red Army, Tukhachevsky is by far the most outstanding personality. Three of the first five Soviet marshals were destroyed and Tukhachevsky was the first of them, the most outstanding, the most talented.
See in Wikipedia Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky
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Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky
(February 16, 1893 - June 12, 1937) - Soviet military leader, military leader of the Red Army during the Civil War, military theorist, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1935). He was repressed in 1937 due to the “military case”, rehabilitated in 1957.
Born into the family of an impoverished Smolensk hereditary nobleman Nikolai Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky, his mother was Mavra Petrovna, a peasant woman. The origin of the Tukhachevsky surname has not been reliably determined. Biographer of M. Tukhachevsky B.V. Sokolov reports that the origin of the Tukhachevsky family (from the group of alleged descendants of Indris) is shrouded in legends no less than the death of M. Tukhachevsky. The version about Tukhachevsky’s Polish origin has no documentary basis.
His childhood years were spent in the village of Vrazhskoye, Chembarsky district, Penza province (now Kamensky district) and in Penza. In 1904-1909 he studied at the 1st Penza Gymnasium. Graduated from the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps (1912).
In the Russian Imperial Army since 1912: after graduating from the cadet corps, he entered the Alexander Military School, which he graduated in 1914 in the top three in academic performance. At the end of his training, he chose to serve in the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, and after going through the necessary procedures (obtaining the consent of the regiment officers) of the Guard, Second Lieutenant Tukhachevsky in July 1914 was appointed as a junior officer in the 7th company of the 2nd battalion.
In the beginning First World War took part in battles with the Austrians and Germans as part of the 1st Guards Division on the Western Front. Participant of the Lublin, Ivangorod, Lomzhinsk operations. He was wounded, and for his heroism he was nominated five times to be awarded orders of various degrees (5 orders in six months). In a battle on February 19, 1915, near the village of Piaseczno near Lomza, his company was surrounded, and he himself was captured. At night, the Germans surrounded the positions of the 7th company and destroyed it almost completely. The company commander, Captain Veselago (an old soldier who volunteered in the Russo-Japanese War), fought fiercely and was killed. Later, when the Russians again recaptured the trenches captured by the Germans, at least twenty bayonet and gunshot wounds were counted on the captain’s body - and he was identified only by the St. George Cross. Tukhachevsky was captured alive. After four unsuccessful attempts to escape from captivity, he was sent to a camp for incorrigible fugitives in Ingolstadt, where he met Charles de Gaulle. In September 1917, he made his fifth escape on August 3, 1917, which became successful, and on September 18 he managed to cross the border into Switzerland. In October 1917 he returned to Russia through France, England, Norway and Sweden. He was re-enlisted in the Semenovsky regiment as a company commander, and in January 1918 he received leave as an escapee from captivity.
Civil War
He voluntarily joined the Red Army in March 1918 and worked in the Military Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. He joined the RCP(b) in the early spring of 1918 and was appointed military commissar of the Moscow defense region.
In June 1918, he was appointed commander of the newly created 1st Army of the Eastern Front. He was almost shot during the July mutiny raised by the commander of the Eastern Front, M. A. Muravyov. In August, he commanded the 1st Soviet Army, which attempted to take Simbirsk, occupied by the Whites, and in a fierce battle on August 27 (14) - 30 (17) on the approaches to the city, he was defeated by the units of Colonel of the General Staff V.O. Kappel, as a result of which 1 The Soviet army was forced to retreat 80 versts west of Simbirsk. At the beginning of September, he prepared and carried out a successful operation with the army to capture Simbirsk, in which he showed his leadership qualities for the first time. Military historians note “a deeply thought-out plan of the operation, the bold and rapid concentration of the main forces of the army in the decisive direction, the timely delivery of tasks to the troops, as well as their decisive, skillful and proactive actions.” For the first time in the Civil War, one regiment (5th Kursk Simbirsk Division) was transported to the concentration area in vehicles.
As in subsequent army and front-line operations, Tukhachevsky demonstrated “the skillful use of decisive forms of maneuver during the operation, courage and swiftness of action, the correct choice of the direction of the main attack and concentration on it superior forces and funds."
It should be noted, however, that the Simbirsk operation was part of the general offensive of the Eastern Front of 1918-1919 of the Red Army and began only after the start of the Kazan operation of 1918, which had the goal of capturing Kazan, which was defended by the best troops of the People's Army KOMUCH, including the Kappel brigade. After V.O. Kappel and his units returned from near Kazan, the Simbirsk division of the Reds was thrown back beyond the Volga. But Kappel failed to return Simbirsk, and the approach of the Right Bank Group of the Fifth Army and the Volga Military Flotilla of the Red Army allowed the Reds to cross the Volga again and go on the offensive.
In parallel with the completion of the Simbirsk operation, the Syzran-Samara operation unfolded, in which Tukhachevsky’s 1st Army participated and as a result of which Samara was taken (the city itself was taken by units of the 1st Samara Infantry Division of the Red Army).
In December 1918, Lenin identified the south as the main direction of the war, and Tukhachevsky was appointed assistant commander of the Southern Front (SF) (listed as commander of the 1st Army until January 4), which by this time was already actively leading the offensive (from November 3, 1918), and from January 24, 1919 - commander of the 8th Army of the Southern Fleet, which included the Inzen Rifle Division, previously part of the 1st Army. The troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army advanced to the line of the Don and Manych rivers, but the White Don Army was not defeated, as some believe - as a result of disagreements between Commander-in-Chief Vatsetis and Army Commander Tukhachevsky, on the one hand, and the front commander Gittis (commissars A.L. Kolegaev, G. Ya. Sokolnikov and I. I. Khodorovsky), on the other. Tukhachevsky left the post of commander of the 8th Army on March 15, 1919.
In March 1919, the army of Admiral Kolchak went on the offensive in the east. General Khanzhin's Western Army defeated the 5th Army and broke through the center of the Red Army's Eastern Front.
On April 5, Tukhachevsky took command of the 5th Army. The commanders of the army's rifle divisions were Chapaev (25th Infantry Division) and Eikhe (26th Infantry Division). As part of the general counteroffensive of the Eastern Front, the 5th Army switched from retreat to offensive, carried out the Buguruslan Operation of 1919 together with the Turkestan Army on April 28 - May 13 and defeated the group of General Woitsekhovsky. Subsequently, the 5th Army ensured the Belebey operation of the Turkestan army and the Sarapulo-Votkinsk operation of the 2nd army. In June, the 5th Army carried out the Bir operation against the superior forces of the Whites and ensured the Red Army's access to the Southern Urals.
At the end of June and beginning of July, the 5th Army was ordered to carry out the main blow in the offensive of the Eastern Front. Tukhachevsky carried out the Zlatoust operation, as a result of which the attempts of the White Western Army to gain a foothold along the Ural ridge were thwarted. Military historian N. E. Kakurin draws attention to the skillful consideration and use of local conditions, the bold and original grouping of forces by the command of the 5th Army when constructing an operation plan on an army scale. The operation was based on surprise, all documents were developed personally by the army commander and brought to the staff of the headquarters only what directly concerned them. As a result of two weeks of fighting, Zlatoust was taken, the 5th Army took three thousand prisoners, its losses amounted to less than 200 people killed, wounded and missing.
It should be noted that during the operation, the 26th Infantry Division, after a quick march along the Yuryuzan valley in the area of the village of Nasibash, found itself in a semi-encirclement and was forced to defend in this position for 3 days. The threat to the 26th was lifted with the approach of the 27th Infantry Division.
Then the 5th Army carried out the Chelyabinsk operation. During its implementation, the White command decided to deliberately retreat to lure the 5th Army into encirclement and defeat it. To solve this problem, strike groups were created within the White Western Army under the command of Woitsekhovsky and Kappel. On July 24, the 27th Infantry Division of the 5th Army took Chelyabinsk. After this, the White command began to carry out its plan, and the units of Woitsekhovsky and Kappel surrounded Chelyabinsk along with the Red units that entered it. The Reds managed to save Chelyabinsk by mobilizing local workers. The situation was corrected after the arrival of units of the 5th Infantry Division and the 35th Infantry Division of the 5th Army and the attack of the 21st Infantry Division of the 3rd Army, directed by order of the commander of the Red Eastern Front M.V. Frunze to bypass the Voitsekhovsky group. As a result, the white troops were defeated. For this operation, Tukhachevsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
After this, the Eastern Front of the Reds with the forces of the 5th Army of Tukhachevsky and the 3rd Army began the Peter and Paul Operation. Initially, the troops of the 5th Army crossed the Tobol River and advanced 130-180 km in 10 days, but the White troops launched a counter-offensive and tried to encircle the 5th Army, which was forced to retreat back beyond the Tobol. Only after the troops were replenished were the Reds able to resume the offensive and take Petropavlovsk.
After this, the Red offensive actually took on the character of a pursuit, and it was carried out by the vanguard units of cavalry and infantry mounted on sleighs. The Kolchak government abandoned the defense of Omsk and evacuated to the east; as a result, the 30,000-strong garrison of Omsk surrendered the city to the 27th Red Division, which made a forced march of 100 km, without a fight.
For the victory over Kolchak, Tukhachevsky was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Weapon.
On February 4, 1920, Tukhachevsky was appointed commander of the Caucasian Front, created specifically to complete the defeat of General Denikin’s Volunteer Army and capture the North Caucasus before the war with Poland began. By the time Tukhachevsky was appointed, the troops of the Caucasian Front had already carried out the Don-Manych operation, all of the tasks of which were not completed, but the troops took their starting positions for the next stage of the North Caucasus operation. In the front line, the Reds were somewhat inferior to the Whites in strength and means, therefore, when planning the Tikhoretsk offensive operation, forces were massed in the direction of the main attack. A feature of the planning of the operation was also the delivery of a series of successive strikes, coordinated by target, place and time. In turn, General Denikin was also preparing an offensive to capture Rostov and Novocherkassk. Initially, the troops of the Caucasian Front went on the offensive without waiting for the concentration of the 1st Cavalry Army, as a result of which the troops that had occupied the bridgehead behind Manych were practically driven back. As a result of the offensive of the Volunteer Corps on February 20, the Whites captured Rostov and Nakhichevan, which, according to Denikin, “caused an explosion of exaggerated hopes in Yekaterinodar and Novorossiysk... However, the movement to the north could not develop, because the enemy was already deep in our rear - to Tikhoretskaya."
After the Strike Group of the 10th Army broke through the White defenses, the front commander ordered the 1st Cavalry Army to be brought into the breakthrough to build on the success on Tikhoretskaya. On March 1, the Volunteer Corps left Rostov, and the White armies began to retreat to the Kuban River. The success of the Tikhoretsk operation made it possible to move on to the Kuban-Novorossiysk operation, during which on March 17, the 9th Army of the Caucasian Front under the command of I.P. Uborevich captured Yekaterinodar, crossed the Kuban and captured Novorossiysk on March 27. "The main result of the North Caucasus strategic offensive operation was the final defeat of the main grouping of the Armed Forces of southern Russia." According to Denikin, “the state education of the south has collapsed.”
On March 20, 1920, Commander-in-Chief S. S. Kamenev reported to V. I. Lenin that it was planned to appoint M. N. Tukhachevsky as commander of the Western Front, “who skillfully and decisively carried out the last operations to defeat the armies of General Denikin,” and on March 26, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic noted, that "The Western Front is currently the most important front of the Republic."
Soviet-Polish War of 1920
On April 25, 1920, the Polish South-Eastern Front went on the offensive in Ukraine against the Soviet South-Western Front (SWF) (commander A. I. Egorov, member of the Revolutionary Military Council I. V. Stalin), on May 6 the Poles occupied Kyiv. On April 28, the Red Army High Command scheduled the offensive of the Western Front for May 14, before the completion of all preparations, in order to provide immediate assistance to the retreating Southwestern Front. Tukhachevsky took command of the Western Front on April 29. During the offensive against the Polish North-Eastern Front, the right-flank 15th Army of A.I. Kork occupied the so-called area. The Smolensk Gate south of Polotsk, however, due to the lack of reserves, this success was not developed. In the center, the 16th Army crossed the Berezina, but by May 27 a Polish counterattack forced it to retreat. The unsuccessful outcome of the May front-line operation was a consequence of underestimating the enemy's forces, who had concentrated large forces to prepare their offensive against the Western Front. At the same time, the offensive of the Western Front forced the Polish command to transfer two and a half divisions from its South-Eastern Front, thereby weakening the offensive in Ukraine.
As a result of the counter-offensive of the Soviet SWF that began on May 26, the Polish armies of the SWF retreated almost to their original position before the April offensive, and part of the forces from Belarus were transferred to Ukraine with the weakening of the SWF. Taking this into account, Tukhachevsky decided to strike the first blow in the July operation with maximum forces. On July 4, the Western Front went on the offensive, on the right flank the 4th Army broke through the Polish defenses, and the 3rd Cavalry Corps of G. D. Gai (military commissar A. M. Postnov) was introduced into the breakthrough, creating a threat of encirclement of the Polish 1st Army . On July 11, units of the Red 16th Army took Minsk; from July 12, all front armies began pursuing the enemy; Vilna, Grodno, Baranovichi, and Pinsk were taken. During the July operation of the Western Front, the main forces of the Polish North-Eastern Front suffered a heavy defeat. In turn, the SWF defeated the Polish South-Eastern Front in July, and its armies occupied Western Ukraine.
At this stage of the Polish campaign, military decisions were completely subordinated to the political will of the leadership of the RSFSR. Having received a note from the British Foreign Minister Lord Curzon dated July 11 with a proposal for a truce on the line Grodno - Brest-Litovsk - Rava Russkaya (the ethnographic borders of Poland determined by the Paris Peace Conference of 1919), Lenin regards it as an attempt to “snatch victory from our hands” and demands "furiously accelerating the offensive against Poland." On July 22, Polish Foreign Minister Sapieha sent a radiogram to the Soviet government proposing an immediate truce. However, the successful offensive of the fronts gave rise to expectations in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the complete defeat of Poland. Commander-in-Chief S.S. Kamenev sets the Western Front the task of capturing Warsaw no later than August 12. At the same time, at the request of the RVS of the Southwestern Front, the Commander-in-Chief's directive transferred its main attack from Brest-Litovsk to the Lvov direction, that is, the fronts were supposed to attack in diverging directions.
While planning the Warsaw operation, Tukhachevsky abandoned the frontal main attack on Warsaw. Assuming that the main Polish forces were retreating north of the capital, he launched the main blow in this direction in order to defeat the enemy northwest of Warsaw. At the same time, the left flank of the front was poorly covered.
The decision to attack was made on August 8. At the same time, Tukhachevsky proposed creating a temporary operational point to control the 1st Cavalry and 12th armies, transferred to the subordination of the Polar Fleet from the Southwestern Front by decision of the Politburo on August 2. These troops, as well as the 14th Army, were intended to reinforce the weak Mozyr Group and the 16th Army, sent south of Warsaw, with the further goal of encircling the Polish capital from the south. On August 11, a final agreement was reached on the immediate turn of these armies from Lvov to the Lublin direction. The command of the Southwestern Front stated that it was only able to familiarize itself with the directive on August 13 due to distortions in the encryption. August 14 Commander-in-Chief S.S. Kamenev demands the transfer of troops immediately. The RVS of the Southwestern Front replies that they are already involved in battles near Lvov and it is impossible to turn them to the north. In his memoirs, Budyonny would later point out that in fact the 1st Cavalry at that time was only moving towards Lvov and starting battles with the retreating enemy rearguards. The 1st Cavalry obeyed the order to turn north only on August 21, and the 12th Army did not carry it out at all. By this time, Pilsudski, who launched an offensive on August 16 against the left flank of the Western Fleet and the end-to-end of the Western Fleet and Southwestern Fleet, was already reaching the Ostroleka-Lomza-Bialystok line.
Marshal J. Pilsudski prepared the Polish counter-offensive from the border of the river. Wieprz, where he concentrated the striking forces of his Middle Front. The decision to launch a counteroffensive was made on August 6. On August 8, the 3rd Polish Army was withdrawn from near Lvov to the concentration area. On August 14, the 5th Army of General V. Sikorsky (future prime minister) launched a counterattack against the 4th Army of the Western Front (A.D. Shuvaev) and defeated it. On August 16, the Middle Front launched a counter-offensive against the left flank of the Western Front and on the very first day defeated the Mozyr group covering it, which did not even have time to inform the front headquarters about the Polish offensive. On August 17, Tukhachevsky ordered his northern armies to begin withdrawing, but the retreat became disorderly. Some of the Polar Front troops were surrounded and captured or interned in East Prussia. The Western Front suffered a serious defeat and by October retreated to Minsk. On October 12, 1920, the Soviet-Polish truce came into force, and in March 1921 a peace was concluded, according to which Poland retained the Western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. The presence of the Red Army in the border areas, including Minsk, was limited.
Like Lenin, Stalin and Kamenev, Tukhachevsky was an opponent of the stop on the Curzon Line and a supporter of the march on Warsaw, sharing the illusions of the Bolshevik leadership about the revolutionary upsurge in Poland with the appearance of the Red Army there. From a military point of view, the front-line Warsaw operation was doomed when the Commander-in-Chief made a decision to attack in divergent directions. The 27-year-old commander’s own decisions exacerbated the Commander-in-Chief’s strategic mistake. Under other conditions, a brilliant maneuver to deeply envelop Warsaw from the north-west could lead to the defeat of the enemy. However, front-line intelligence could neither detect the absence of the main Polish forces north of Warsaw, nor confirm the transfer of divisions fighting against the Soviet Southwestern Front to Wieprz. Thus, Tukhachevsky made risky decisions without having sufficient information about the enemy. In addition, unlike the battles of the Civil War, in the Warsaw operation Tukhachevsky’s troops were confronted by a more stable and morally stronger enemy. In August, it was the Soviet troops who demonstrated instability.
The defeat of the Western Front in the Warsaw operation and disputes about the responsibility of the RVS of the Southwestern Front for its outcome, according to many researchers, influenced the fate of M. N. Tukhachevsky in 1937.
Suppression of anti-Soviet uprisings
In November 1920, Tukhachevsky commanded the troops of the Western Front in an operation to defeat the detachments of the People's Volunteer Army of General Bulak-Balakhovich who had invaded the territory of Belarus from Poland.
On March 5, 1921, Tukhachevsky was appointed commander of the 7th Army, aimed at suppressing the uprising of the Kronstadt garrison. By March 18, the uprising was suppressed.
Suppression of peasant anti-Soviet uprisings
In 1921, the RSFSR was engulfed in anti-Soviet uprisings, the largest of which was in European Russia There was a peasant uprising in the Tambov province. Considering the Tambov rebellion as a serious danger, the Politburo of the Central Committee at the beginning of May 1921 appointed Tukhachevsky commander of the troops of the Tambov district with the task of completely suppressing it as soon as possible. According to the plan developed by Tukhachevsky, the uprising was largely suppressed by the end of July 1921.
From Tukhachevsky’s Order No. 0116 of June 12, 1921:
I ORDER:
1. Clean the forests where the bandits are hiding with poisonous gases, accurately calculate so that the cloud of suffocating gases spreads throughout the forest, destroying everything that was hidden in it.
2. The artillery inspector should immediately provide the required number of cylinders with poisonous gases and the necessary specialists to the field.
3. The commander of combat areas must persistently and energetically carry out this order.
4. Report the measures taken.
Commander of the troops Tukhachevsky,
Chief of Staff of the General Staff Kakurin.
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the procedure for purges in bandit-minded volosts and villages:
N 116, Tambov June 23, 1921
The experience of the first combat site shows great suitability for quickly clearing known areas of banditry using the following cleaning method. The most gangster-minded volosts are identified, and representatives of the political commission, special department, RVT department and command go there, along with units assigned to carry out the purge. Upon arrival at the place, the volost is cordoned off, 60 - 100 of the most prominent hostages are taken and a state of siege is introduced. Exit and entry from the volost must be prohibited during the operation. After this, a full volost meeting is convened, at which orders No. 130 and 171 by the Polnkom of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee are read and the written verdict for this volost. Residents are given a two-hour period to hand over bandits and weapons, as well as bandit families, and the population is informed, that in case of refusal to give the mentioned information, the taken hostages will be shot in two hours. If the population has not indicated the bandits and has not given up weapons after the expiration of the 2-hour period, the gathering gathers a second time and the taken hostages are shot in front of the population, after which new hostages are taken and those gathered It is proposed to hand over the bandits and weapons to the gathering a second time. Those who wish to do this stand separately, are divided into hundreds, and each hundred is passed through for questioning through an interrogation commission [of] representatives of the special department of the RVT. Everyone must testify, without making excuses of ignorance. If they persist, new executions are carried out etc. Based on the development of the material obtained from the surveys, expeditionary detachments are created with the obligatory participation in them of the persons who provided the information and other local residents, [who] are sent to catch the bandits. At the end of the purge, the state of siege is lifted, the Revolution is established, and the militia is installed. The present General Commissar of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee orders to accept for unswerving leadership and execution.
Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko Commander of the troops M. Tukhachevsky Pre-gubernia executive committee Lavrov
RGVA. F.235. Op.2. D.13. L.25. Certified copy.
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the taking and execution of hostages in the event of the destruction of bridges:
N 189, Tambov July 9, 1921
The defeated gangs hide in the forests and take out their impotent anger on the local population, burning bridges, damaging dams and other national property. In order to protect the bridges, the Polnikom of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee orders: 1. Immediately take at least five hostages from the population of villages near which important bridges are located, who should be immediately shot if the bridge is damaged. 2. Local residents, under the leadership of the revolutionary committees, organize the defense of bridges from bandit raids, and also make the population obligated to repair destroyed bridges no later than within 24 hours. 3. This order should be widely distributed throughout all villages and villages.
Pre-Regimental Committee of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko
Commandtroops Tukhachevsky
Pre-Provincial Executive Committee Lavrov
RGVA. F.235. Op.2. D.13. L.27. Certified copy. In the same case (L.23) the original text of the order was preserved with editing by M. N. Tukhachevsky dated July 7, 1921 TsDNITO. F.382. Op.1. D.231. L.25. Copy.
In 1921, the use of chemical weapons in war was not a military crime: the Geneva Protocol (1925) prohibiting its use was ratified by the USSR in 1928. There is an opinion that the use of chemical weapons itself was limited to a few gas shellings with a negligible number of shells filled with a tactical mixture based on chloropicrin, gas attacks were not carried out due to the lack of trained personnel and that no gas poisoners were found.
Work on reforming the Red Army
From July 25, 1921, Tukhachevsky was the head of the Military Academy of the Red Army, from January 1922 to March 1924, he was again the commander of the Western Front. After the conflict between Tukhachevsky and the party committee of the Polar Front, the Chief of Staff of the Red Army M.V. Frunze appointed him as his deputy, and in November 1925, after the death of Frunze, Tukhachevsky became the Chief of Staff of the Red Army.
On December 26, 1926, Tukhachevsky, Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, stated the absence of an army and logistics in the country in the report "Defense of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics":
"3. If the development of hostilities in the first period of the war is favorable for the bloc [potential opponents in the West], its forces may grow significantly, which, in connection with the “Western European rear,” may create an insurmountable threat for us... 6. Our meager material combat mobilization reserves are barely enough for the first period of the war. In the future, our situation will worsen (especially under blockade conditions). 7. The Red Army will fulfill the tasks of defending the USSR only under the condition of high mobilization readiness of the armed forces, railway transport and industry. 8. Neither the Red Army nor The country is not ready for war"
As a result of conflicts with the People's Commissar of Military Affairs K.E. Voroshilov, he submitted a report on his dismissal from office. From May 1928 to June 1931 - commander of the Leningrad Military District. In 1931 he was appointed chief of armaments of the Red Army, then deputy. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Deputy. People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs (from March 15, 1934 - People's Commissar of Defense). In February 1933 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, in November 1935 Tukhachevsky was awarded the highest military rank - Marshal of the Soviet Union (among the first five marshals - Blucher, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Egorov), and in April 1936 he was appointed 1st deputy People's Commissar of Defense
In all positions, Tukhachevsky considered his main task to be preparing the Red Army for a future war, allowing for the militarization of the USSR economy. In January 1930, he presented Voroshilov with a report on the reorganization of the Armed Forces, which contained proposals to increase the number of divisions to 250, on the development of artillery, aviation, tank forces and the basics of their use. The calculations given in the report, based on the experience of Germany and France in the First World War, contained, for example, the production of one hundred thousand tanks per year. Stalin did not approve of Tukhachevsky's proposals, preferring the modernization of industry to the mass construction of tanks of the 1929 model. He insisted on the use of dual-use equipment (ground-anti-aircraft artillery, armored tractors), on the wholesale replacement of all artillery with dynamo-reactive (recoilless rifles).
Tukhachevsky constantly worked to increase the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, he personally conducted major maneuvers of the army and navy and, analyzing their results, proposed practical measures to improve command and control, demanded that the troops be taught what is required in war. He devoted a lot of time to military scientific work. “Tukhachevsky wrote more than 120 works on issues of strategy, operational art, tactics, education and training of troops... he expressed a number of very important theoretical positions.”
Tukhachevsky believed that, unlike the First World War, aviation and tanks ceased to be an auxiliary means of conducting infantry-artillery combat and saw “the opportunity, through the massive introduction of tanks, to change the methods of combat and operations, ... the ability to create for the enemy sudden conditions for the development of an operation through these innovations." He proposed “a completely new approach to planning the entire weapons system, organizations, tactics and training of troops. Underestimation of these capabilities could cause even greater shocks and defeats in a future war.”
Tukhachevsky developed the theory of deep combat, the theory of continuous operations in one strategic direction; already in 1931 he spoke about the actions of mechanized formations. Tukhachevsky is a supporter of the offensive strategy; he defended unity of command, independence and initiative of the smallest units and criticized “waiting for orders”; he considered chemical weapons as a full-fledged means of warfare (apparently, based on the experience of the First World War). He critically assessed the role of battleships in a future war and positively assessed the role of aircraft carriers.
Tukhachevsky "back in November 1932 achieved the start of work on the construction of liquid fuel rocket engines, and in September 1933 he achieved the creation of the Jet Research Institute, which was engaged in the development of rocket weapons in the USSR."
Tukhachevsky closely followed the development of military thought in England, France, Germany, highly valued the developments of Fuller, Liddell Hart and de Gaulle, noting at the same time that their ideas were not accepted by the official military doctrines of England and France. Although, due to his official position, Tukhachevsky took part in military cooperation between the USSR and Germany in the period from 1922 to 1933 and in 1932 attended large maneuvers in Germany.
At the same time, the initiatives in artillery were not very successful; large amounts of money were spent on unpromising weapons. Thus, the fascination with semi-handicraft dynamo-rocket guns led nowhere. Only after the war were acceptable designs developed, but they received a narrow scope of application.
In January 1936, Tukhachevsky participated in the funeral as part of the Soviet delegation English king George V in London.
Confrontation in the command of the Red Army
Tukhachevsky's activities in reforming the armed forces and his views on preparing the army for a future war met resistance and opposition in the People's Commissariat of Defense. For various reasons, Marshals Voroshilov, Budyonny, Egorov, and army commanders Shaposhnikov, Dybenko, Belov treated Tukhachevsky with hostility. In turn, a number of military leaders (Tukhachevsky, Gamarnik, Uborevich, Yakir) developed a sharply critical attitude towards Voroshilov’s activities as People’s Commissar of Defense. Marshal Zhukov told the writer Simonov:
It must be said that Voroshilov, the then People's Commissar, was an incompetent person in this role. He remained an amateur in military matters to the end and never knew them deeply and seriously... And practically a significant part of the work in the People's Commissariat at that time rested with Tukhachevsky, who really was a military specialist. They had clashes with Voroshilov and generally had hostile relations. Voroshilov did not like Tukhachevsky very much... During the development of the charter, I remember such an episode... Tukhachevsky, as the chairman of the commission on the charter, reported to Voroshilov as the People's Commissar. I was present at this. And Voroshilov, on some point... began to express dissatisfaction and propose something that did not go to the point. Tukhachevsky, after listening to him, said in his usual calm voice:
- Comrade People's Commissar, the commission cannot accept your amendments.
- Why? - asked Voroshilov.
- Because your amendments are incompetent, Comrade People's Commissar.
Relations between the two groups worsened in May 1936; Voroshilov's opponents raised the question of replacing Voroshilov as People's Commissar to Stalin.
Tukhachevsky and his group, in the struggle for influence on Stalin, fell for his bait. During frequent meetings with Stalin, Tukhachevsky criticized Voroshilov, Stalin encouraged this criticism, calling it “constructive,” and liked to discuss options for new appointments and removals... The materials of Tukhachevsky’s case contain various kinds of documentary evidence regarding plans for reshuffling in the country’s military leadership.
According to one version, the accusations against Tukhachevsky were based on a “red folder” containing evidence of Tukhachevsky’s secret contacts with the German General Staff, partially fabricated by the Nazi intelligence services and transferred to Stalin through the President of Czechoslovakia Benes. This is mentioned in Douglas Gregory's book "Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. Recruitment Conversations."
Schellenberg also mentions the transfer of incriminating evidence on Tukhachevsky, saying that very little was fabricated there (all documents were prepared in 4 days), mainly to discredit the German General Staff. However, a version has been expressed that this was organized by Stalin himself with a dual purpose - to weaken the German General Staff and to gain a pretext for fighting Tukhachevsky “from the outside.” See Walter Schellenberg - "Memoirs" (Labyrinth)
The criminal case against Tukhachevsky was based entirely on his own confessions, and there were no references to specific incriminating facts received from abroad. If such documents existed, then I, as the deputy chief of intelligence, who oversaw the German direction on the eve of the war, would probably have seen them or known about their existence.
Arrest and execution
Stalin took the side of Voroshilov, who was absolutely devoted to him, and already in August 1936, the first arrests of military leaders followed as part of the Great Purge of the Armed Forces: corps commanders V.M. Primakov and V.K. Putna were arrested. On May 10, 1937, Tukhachevsky was transferred from the post of first deputy people's commissar of defense to the post of commander of the Volga Military District. On May 22 he was arrested in Kuibyshev, on May 24 he was transported to Moscow, and on May 26, after confrontations with Primakov, Putna and Feldman, he gave his first confession.
During the preliminary investigation, Tukhachevsky pleaded guilty to preparing a military conspiracy in the Red Army, the purpose of which was the violent overthrow of the government and the establishment of a military dictatorship in the USSR. To realize success, it was planned to prepare for the defeat of the Red Army in a future war with Germany and, possibly, Japan. Tukhachevsky also admitted that they, as well as other participants in the conspiracy, were transferred to German intelligence with information constituting a state secret about the number and places of concentration of the Red Army in the border areas.
By a court decision, the defendants were found guilty of committing crimes under Articles 58-1 "b" 58-3 58-4 58-6 and 59-9 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR
June 5... Stalin discusses the issue of a conspiracy with Molotov, Kaganovich and Yezhov. It was decided to select several individuals from a large group of senior command personnel arrested in May 1937 for the trial, combining them into one group case. ... On June 7, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov and USSR Prosecutor Vyshinsky presented Stalin with a version of the indictment in the case. The conversation took place in the presence of Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov. After reviewing and making changes and amendments to it by Stalin, the text of the indictment acquired its final form. On June 10 (according to other sources, June 11), 1937 ... the plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR ... decided to form a Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR to consider the case, consisting of presiding officer V. V. Ulrich and members Ya. I. Alksnis, V K. Blucher, S. M. Budyonny, B. M. Shaposhnikov, I. P. Belov, P. E. Dybenko, N. D. Kashirin and E. I. Goryacheva.
On June 11, 1937, the case accusing Marshal of the Soviet Union Tukhachevsky, 1st-rank army commanders Uborevich and Yakir, 2nd-rank army commander Kork, corps commanders Feldman, Eideman, Primakov and Putna of espionage, treason and preparation of terrorist acts was considered behind closed doors court hearing without the participation of defense lawyers and without the right to appeal the verdict.
Ulrich informed I.V. Stalin about the progress of the trial. Ulrich told me about this. He said that there were instructions from Stalin to apply capital punishment to all defendants - execution.
I. M. Zaryanov, court secretary
At 23:35 the verdict was announced - all eight were sentenced to death. Immediately after this, Tukhachevsky and the rest of the accused were shot in the basement of the building of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Whether this happened before or after midnight is not known for sure, so the date of Tukhachevsky’s death can be indicated as either June 11 or June 12. According to the recollections of one of the executioners, Tukhachevsky allegedly managed to exclaim: “Now you are not shooting at us, but at the Red Army!”
The trial in the Tukhachevsky case marked the beginning of mass repressions in the Red Army in 1937-1938.
Family
First wife -
In the Aleksandrovskoye estate, Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk province (now Safonovsky district, Smolensk region) in a noble family.
In 1914, he graduated from the Alexander Military School in the top ten best graduates, and became an officer in the Semenovsky Guards Regiment. He took part in the First World War with the rank of second lieutenant and was repeatedly awarded for personal bravery. In February 1915, during the Prasnysz operation on the North-Western Front, he was captured near Lomza. In 1917, after several unsuccessful attempts, he fled from Germany to Russia.
After the October Revolution, he went over to the side of the Soviet government, and in 1918 he joined the Bolshevik Party. He worked in the military department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). From May 1918 - military commissar of defense of the Moscow region, from June of the same year he commanded the First Army of the Eastern Front. Conducted a series of successful offensive operations against the People's Army of the Constituent Assembly Committee and the Czechoslovak Corps.
In December 1918 - January 1919 - assistant commander of the Southern Front. In January-March 1919 - commander of the 8th Army of the Southern Front. From April to November - commander of the 5th Army, which participated in the counter-offensive of the Eastern Front, in the Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk and other operations to liberate the Urals and Siberia from the troops of Alexander Kolchak.
In January-April 1920 - commander of the Caucasian Front; under his leadership the Egorlyk and North Caucasus operations were carried out. In 1920, during the Soviet-Polish War, he commanded the Western Front, defeated from the White Poles near Warsaw.
In March 1921, he suppressed the assault on the rebellious Kronstadt, where the sailors of the Baltic Front rebelled against the monopoly power of the Bolsheviks; in 1921, he was appointed commander of the troops of the Tambov province, which carried out the task of finally eliminating the mass peasant uprising.
After the war, Tukhachevsky was appointed head of the Academy of the General Staff, which under him was renamed Military Academy Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (now the Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Ground Forces "Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), where, on behalf of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR), he carried out educational and administrative reforms.
From January 1922 to April 1924 - commander of the Western Front. Assistant, and from 1925 to 1928 - chief of staff of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), member of the Commission for the Training of the Red Army. From 1924 to 1929, as the chief director of strategy for all military higher educational institutions of the Red Army, he exercised general management of the teaching of strategic disciplines. He took part in the military reform of 1924-1925. Since May 1928 - Commander of the Leningrad Military District. Since 1931 - Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, head of armaments of the Red Army, since 1934 - Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, since 1936 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and head of the combat training department.
Tukhachevsky participated in the technical re-equipment of the Soviet army, the development of new types and branches of troops - aviation, mechanized and airborne troops, the navy, and in the training of command personnel. He was one of the initiators of the creation of a number of military academies. As a military leader and theorist, he paid attention to predicting the nature of a future war and developing the military doctrine of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky took part in the work of the commission (chaired by Kliment Voroshilov), which made up the military department of the Bolshoi Soviet encyclopedia. He was a member of the editorial boards of a number of military scientific journals. More than 40 military theoretical works came from his pen.
In 1930, testimony was received from some military personnel close to Tukhachevsky about his affiliation with the right opposition.
In 1937, Tukhachevsky was removed from his post as deputy people's commissar of defense and appointed to the post of commander of the Volga Military District.
Arrested on May 22, 1937, declared the head of an extensive military-fascist conspiracy in the Red Army. He was convicted on June 11, 1937 and sentenced to capital punishment - execution. The sentence was carried out on June 12, 1937.
In 1957, Mikhail Tukhachevsky was rehabilitated for lack of evidence of a crime.
For military distinctions in the tsarist army he was awarded the Order of Anna II, III and IV degrees, Stanislav II and III degrees, Vladimir IV degrees.
In the Red Army he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1919), Honorary Revolutionary Weapon (1919), and the Order of Lenin (1933). In 1935, Tukhachevsky was awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky (February 4 (16), 1893 - June 12, 1937) - came from a noble but impoverished noble family. After graduating from military school in 1914, he immediately found himself at the front First World War and in February 1915 he was captured by the Germans. After four unsuccessful escape attempts, Mikhail Nikolaevich was imprisoned in the Ingolstadt fortress. He was there in the same cell with the future president of France Charles de Gaulle, who characterized the Red Marshal as a moral nihilist and anti-Semite.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky during the Civil War
In 1917, Tukhachevsky still managed to escape from captivity. In September he returned to Russia. Being an extremely ambitious man, after the October Revolution Tukhachevsky joined Bolsheviks, hoping to quickly rise in the service of the new, “proletarian” government.
Mikhail Nikolaevich's first actions in the civil war were not particularly successful. In battles on the Volga he suffered a number of defeats from anti-communist detachments Kappel. However, in 1919, the military people's commissar Trotsky put Tukhachevsky at the head of the 5th Red Army. The young army commander played a prominent role in the fight against weakened forces Kolchak in Siberia.
His military career continued in the south. In February 1920, Tukhachevsky pressed Denikin’s retreating forces to the Black Sea, but the Whites managed to put the remnants of the army on ships in Novorossiysk and continue the war from Crimea.
In 1920, Tukhachevsky led the Bolshevik push into Poland, declaring to his troops that the ultimate goal of the campaign would be to spread world revolution throughout Europe. In an unusually daring and rapid movement to the west, he initially achieved stunning success, plundering and ruining everything along the way. However, the retreating Polish troops overcame the initial panic. Tukhachevsky recklessly did not take care of either providing the rear or maintaining proper communications between his troops and the other Red Army ( Egorova and Stalin), operating further south. As a result, his forces suffered a heavy defeat from Jozef Piłsudski near Warsaw. The war ended unfavorably for the RSFSR Peace of Riga 1921. From these events the mutual hostility between Tukhachevsky and Stalin began.
In 1921-1922, Tukhachevsky brutally suppressed two famous uprisings against the Bolsheviks: the Kronstadt (March 1921) and Antonovskoe in the Tambov region. Like most other Red commanders, Mikhail Nikolaevich did not know pity; he took many hostages, then executing them without trial. In the battles with Antonov, he widely used poisonous gases against peasants driven to despair by food surplus authorities.
NKVD defector Alexander Orlov later claimed that Tukhachevsky had accidentally found documents from the tsarist secret police, which incriminated Stalin in collaboration with them. According to Orlov, Tukhachevsky planned, using these materials, to stage a coup, but Stalin managed to get ahead of him and execute him. This version, however, is unlikely. Stalin attacked the military not because they possessed some mythical evidence against him, but during the struggle for sole power. After the execution of Tukhachevsky, orders followed for the arrest and execution of thousands more Soviet officers. During the Great Terror, right on the eve of the war with Germany, the Red Army suffered horrific losses at the hands of the Kremlin leader.
The personality and character of Mikhail Tukhachevsky are well depicted in the story “On the Edges” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Marshal Georgy Zhukov, in his old age, recalls in this story how he participated under the leadership of Tukhachevsky in suppressing the uprising of Tambov peasants. Solzhenitsyn cites the texts of Mikhail Nikolayevich’s orders on the capture of families of rebels and simply suspicious ones, on the persecution of “enemies of Soviet power” with poisonous gases.
