Commander-in-Chief of the 62nd Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. Yaroslav ognev
He is one of the creators of the Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. It was he, the commander of the 62nd Army, who in September 1942 received the task of defending Stalingrad. Not today, in connection with this task, another phrase was added - "at any cost". The price of Victory really turned out to be terribly high. Several years later, Chuikov wrote about it himself - in his memoirs, which he called succinctly and honestly - "The Beginning of the Path". In the 1970s, they will be released under a different title - "Battle of the Century". In any case, the memoirs are strikingly different from many other memoirs that came out in those years. Censorship and politeness were unable to "creep out" the vividness of Chuikov's memory. In this memory, there is a place not only for the "headquarters" war through the eyes of the commander-62. Although Vasily Ivanovich's staff was alive ...
“By the evening of September 12, we arrived at the ferry in Krasnaya Sloboda. The T-34 tank is loaded onto the motor ferry, the second tank is being prepared for loading. My car is not allowed. I had to show the documents of the commander of the 62nd Army.
The deputy commander of a tank corps for the technical part introduced myself to me.
I asked him to outline the situation in his part.
“By the evening yesterday,” he reported, “there were about forty tanks in the corps, of which only half were on the move, the rest were knocked out, but used as fixed firing points.
Our ferry goes round the sandy spit of Golodny Island from the north and heads to the central pier. Occasionally, shells explode on the water. The fire is not aimed. Not dangerous. We are approaching the shore. From a distance you can see how, when our ferry approaches, the pier is filled with people. The wounded are carried out of cracks, craters and shelters, people with bundles and suitcases appear. All of them, before the ferry arrived, escaped the fire in cracks, pits, bomb craters.
Dried streaks of dirt on their sooty faces, tears mingling with dust. Children, exhausted by thirst and hunger, reach out to the water with their little hands ... The heart contracts, a lump of bitterness rises to the throat. "
Of course, a peasant son, Chuikov knew the price of Victory well. And, perhaps, only a peasant's son could carry out the order - to hold the City, the battle for which daily grind companies, battalions, regiments. Here he writes about the tragic September 1942: “In the atmosphere of those days, one could say“ time is blood ”; for the lost time will have to pay with the blood of our people. " He accepted the army when its units in the city were cut off from the main forces of the front, and the Germans had already reached the Volga. This 62nd had to fight for every house in Stalingrad. "Pavlov's House" is also the 62nd Army ...
Today we read about Commander Chuikov and his understanding of fighting at any cost: “The army, under the command of V. I. Chuikov, became famous for the heroic six-month defense of Stalingrad in street battles in a completely destroyed city, fighting on isolated bridgeheads on the banks of the wide Volga.
In Stalingrad, V.I. Chuikov introduces close combat tactics. Our and German trenches are located at a grenade throw distance. This makes it difficult for the enemy's aviation and artillery, they are simply afraid to hit their own. Despite the fact that Paulus's superiority in manpower is obvious, Soviet troops constantly counterattack, and mostly at night. This makes it possible to recapture the positions left by the day. For the Red Army, the battles in Stalingrad were the first serious battles in the city. The emergence of special assault groups is also associated with the name of V.I. Chuikov. They were the first to suddenly burst into houses, and used underground communications to move. The Germans did not understand when and, most importantly, where to expect a counterattack from. "
The soldiers loved him. They believed Chuikov. His instructions were followed: “Break into the house together with a grenade. The grenade is in front, you follow it, so go through the whole house. " Since Stalingrad, Chuikov was called: General Storm!
He really was in his place. Chuikov was brought to this place not only by the instinct and experience of his superiors. Let's say “politically correct”: fate itself kept the future hero of Stalingrad. Soldier's destiny! “During the flight on July 23, 1942, Chuikov's life almost ended ahead of time. In the area of the settlement Surovikino U-2 was attacked by a German plane. No weapons were installed on the U-2, and the pilot had to use all his skill to evade enemy attacks. In the end, the maneuvers came to an end at the very ground. The U-2 just hit the ground and fell apart. By a lucky coincidence, both the pilot and Chuikov escaped with only bruises, and the German pilot, most likely, decided that the job was done and flew away. "
From the memoirs of Marshal Chuikov's son, Alexander Vasilyevich: “He said:“ I stood with a clenched fist, and there was a desire to cross myself. And I feel that I can’t unclench my fingers, I can’t fold them for the sign of the cross, they were convulsed. And he crossed himself with his fist. " Until the Victory, he was baptized with his fist. " Once, after the death of Marshal, the son was sorting through his documents. In my membership card I found a note written in my father's hand: “Oh, the mighty one! Turn night into day, and the earth into a flower garden. Everything is difficult for me with light soda and help me. " A soldier's prayer of a general nicknamed Sturm ...
After Stalingrad, the 62nd Army will become the 8th Guards Army. The commander himself for the defense of the City will be nominated for the title of Hero Soviet Union... The show will be changed at the last moment. The Hero's stars will come to him later - in the 44th and 45th. For Stalingrad, Chuikov will receive the Order of Suvorov, I degree.
Until the end of the war, he will remain the commander of his army, "Stalingrad". Under his command, the 8th Guards will liberate the Soviet Ukraine and Belarus, and cleanse Poland of fascism. In 1945, Berlin will be taken by storm. At the command post of Colonel-General Chuikov, on May 2, 1945, the head of the Berlin garrison, General Weidling, will sign the surrender of the German troops and surrender - with the remnants of the garrison.
In July 1981, the former commander of the 62nd Army, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of the USSR, the former head of the Civil Defense of the USSR, personal pensioner of allied significance Marshal of the Soviet Union Chuikov wrote to the Central Committee of the CPSU: a request: after my death, bury the ashes on the Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad, where my command post was organized by me on September 12, 1942 ... From that place you can hear the roar of the Volga waters, the volleys of guns and the pain of the Stalingrad ruins, there are buried thousands of soldiers whom I commanded. "
He will be gone in a few months, on March 18, 1982. Chuikov will be buried at Mamayev Kurgan - next to the fallen soldiers and commanders of the Stalingrad 62nd Army. The whole great City will come to say goodbye to Vasily Ivanovich ...
The 62nd Army was formed on July 10, 1942 on the basis of the former 7th Reserve Army. Soon it was included in the Stalingrad Front. Initially, it was headed by General Vladimir Kolpakchi, who participated with it in fierce battles for the Don, on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. But the exhausted, bloodless 62nd Army inevitably retreated to the Volga. In early September, the question of replenishing it with fresh forces arose sharply, as well as the appointment of a new commander of the army.
The command post of the 62nd army: chief of staff of the army Krylov, commander of the army Chuikov, member of the Military Council Gurov, commander of the 13th Guards. SD Rodimtsev. Stalingrad, December 1942.Vasily Chuikov was then deputy commander of the 64th Army, Major General Stepan Shumilov. Nikita Khrushchev, a member of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front, recalled in his memoirs about his appointment as commander of the 62nd Army:
“By this time I had already formed a very good impression of Chuikov. We called Stalin. He asked: "Whom do you recommend to appoint to the 62nd army, which will be directly in the city?" I say: “Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. He showed himself very well as the commander of the detachment, which he himself organized. I think he will continue to be a good organizer and a good army commander. " Stalin replied: “Okay, appoint. Let's approve it. "
On September 12, the 42nd General Chuikov was summoned to a meeting of the Military Council of the Stalingrad and South-Eastern Fronts, to Eremenko and Khrushchev. There Nikita Khrushchev read out the order of the Military Council on the imposition of the defense of Stalingrad on the 62nd Army from September 12 and on the appointment of Chuikov as its commander. Vasily Ivanovich replied: “I understand the task very well, it will be completed. I swear: either I'll die in Stalingrad, or I'll suck it! "
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
By this time, a 43-year-old general Chuikov, a native of the peasants of the Tula province, had gone through a large school of life. At the age of 12, he already started to work for hire.
Vasily Chuikov joined the Red Army from the first days of its formation. In the 30s, Vasily Ivanovich (for some reason, he was called everywhere from his youth, although in general in the Red Army, the address by his patronymic was not accepted) successfully graduated military academy them. Frunze. Then he took part in the liberation campaign of the Red Army in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.
During the Finnish winter campaign of 1939-1940. Chuikov was already in command of the army. From December 40th to April 42nd Vasily Chuikov was in the post of military attaché in China under the commander-in-chief of the army of this country Chiang Kai-shek. In those days, the Chinese army was waging a war of liberation against the aggression of Japan, which seized Manchuria and a number of other regions of northeastern China. Chuikov, thanks to his high qualities as a scout and military diplomat, was able to provide considerable advisory assistance to the Chinese troops, who repulsed the Japanese offensive on all fronts in 1941.
But General Chuikov, who was closely following the events unfolding on the Soviet-German front, rushed to his homeland to join the fight against the Nazi invasion. Thanks to numerous requests in the spring of 19422, he was appointed commander of the 1st Reserve Army, stationed in the region of Tula and Ryazan. And then, at the beginning of July 1942, Vasily Ivanovich was sent to the very thick of the war - near Stalingrad.
Either in the form of a simple soldier - in a quilted jacket and earflaps, then in a general's uniform, dressed in an overcoat and a hat, often Chuikov, accompanied only by his adjutant, appeared in the most dangerous areas of the city's defense. He bypassed trenches, dugouts, firing points, thus bringing confidence to the ranks of the city's defenders.
The commander of the 62nd Army, Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov at the forefront of the defense, 1942
Contrary to outdated provisions, Chuikov, summarizing his experience of street battles for Stalingrad, introduced new tactical methods of warfare into the troops headed by him, previously unknown. So, for example, he came up with the idea of organizing small assault groups for hand-to-hand combat on city streets and in buildings that played an important role in the defense of Stalingrad.
Monument to Vasily Chuikov on the street named after him in the hero city of Volgograd. Photo: volfoto.ru
Chuikov himself later recalled this, the most difficult and brightest segment of his combat biography: “If I had gone beyond the Volga, I would have been shot on the other side. And they would have the right to do this, since there was no land beyond the Volga for us. "
But Chuikov, along with thousands of soldiers and officers, defended Stalingrad. So Vasily Ivanovich justified his oath, given to him when he assumed the post of commander of the 62nd Army in September 1942. And his appearance is not accidentally captured in the sculpture by Evgeny Vuchetich "To Stand to the Death!" on the Mamaev Kurgan.
Volgograd. Memorial at Mamayev Kurgan. Sculptures "Stand to the Death" and "Motherland Calls!" © Anton Agarkov / Strana.ru
Taking into account the tasks to be solved, the peculiarities of the conduct of hostilities by the sides, the spatial and temporal scale, as well as the results, the Battle of Stalingrad includes two periods: defensive - from July 17 to November 18, 1942; offensive - from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943
The strategic defensive operation in the Stalingrad direction lasted 125 days and nights and included two stages. The first stage is the conduct of defensive combat operations by the front forces on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12). The second stage is the conduct of defensive actions to hold Stalingrad (September 13 - November 18, 1942).
The German command inflicted the main blow with the forces of the 6th Army in the direction of Stalingrad along the shortest path through the great bend of the Don from the west and southwest, just in the defense zones of the 62nd (commander - major general, from August 3 - lieutenant general , from September 6 - major general, from September 10 - lieutenant general) and 64th (commander - lieutenant general V.I. Chuikov, from August 4 - lieutenant general) armies. The operational initiative was in the hands of the German command with an almost double superiority in manpower and equipment.
Defensive hostilities by front forces on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12)
The first stage of the operation began on July 17, 1942, in the great bend of the Don, with combat contact between units of the 62nd Army and the forward detachments of German troops. Fierce fighting ensued. The enemy had to deploy five out of fourteen divisions and spend six days to approach the main defense zone of the Stalingrad Front troops. However, under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, Soviet troops were forced to retreat to new, poorly equipped or even unequipped lines. But even under these conditions, they inflicted significant losses on the enemy.
By the end of July, the situation on the Stalingrad direction continued to remain very tense. German troops deeply embraced both flanks of the 62nd Army, reached the Don in the Nizhne-Chirskaya area, where the 64th Army held the defenses, and created a threat of a breakthrough to Stalingrad from the southwest.
In connection with the increased width of the defense zone (about 700 km) by the decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the Stalingrad Front, which was commanded by the Lieutenant General from July 23, was divided on August 5 into the Stalingrad and South-Eastern fronts. To achieve closer cooperation between the troops of both fronts, from August 9, the leadership of the defense of Stalingrad was united in the same hands, in connection with which the Stalingrad Front was subordinated to the commander of the troops of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel-General.
By mid-November, the advance of the German troops was halted along the entire front. The enemy was forced to finally go over to the defensive. This was the end of the strategic defensive operation of the Battle of Stalingrad. The troops of the Stalingrad, South-Eastern and Don fronts fulfilled their tasks, holding back a powerful enemy offensive in the Stalingrad direction, creating the preconditions for a counteroffensive.
During the defensive battles, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses. In the struggle for Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 700,000 killed and wounded, over 2,000 guns and mortars, over 1,000 tanks and assault guns, and over 1,400 combat and transport aircraft. Instead of a non-stop advance towards the Volga, enemy troops were drawn into protracted, exhausting battles in the Stalingrad region. The plan of the German command for the summer of 1942 was thwarted. At the same time, Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in personnel - 644 thousand people, of which 324 thousand people are irrecoverable, 320 thousand sanitary people. Armament losses amounted to: about 1400 tanks, more than 12 thousand guns and mortars, and more than 2 thousand aircraft.
Soviet troops continued their offensive
On July 17, 1942, on the border of the Chir and Tsimla rivers, the advanced detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with the vanguards of the 6th German army. Interacting with the aviation of the 8th Air Army (Major General of Aviation T. T. Khryukin), they stubbornly resisted the enemy, who, in order to break their resistance, had to deploy 5 out of 13 divisions and spend 5 days fighting them. In the end, German troops shot down the forward detachments from their positions and approached the main defense zone of the Stalingrad Front troops. This is how the Battle of Stalingrad began.
Resistance Soviet troops forced the Nazi command to strengthen the 6th Army. By July 22, it had 18 divisions, numbering 250 thousand combat personnel, about 740 tanks, 7.5 thousand guns and mortars. The troops of the 6th Army supported up to 1200 aircraft. As a result, the balance of forces increased even more in favor of the enemy. For example, in tanks, he now had a two-fold superiority. By July 22, the troops of the Stalingrad Front had 16 divisions (187,000 men, 360 tanks, 7,900 guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft).
At dawn on July 23, the enemy's northern strike grouping went over to the offensive, and on July 25, the enemy's southern strike forces went over to the offensive. Using superiority in forces and air supremacy in the air, the Germans broke through the defenses on the right flank of the 62nd Army and by the end of the day on July 24 reached the Don in the Golubinsky area. As a result, up to three Soviet divisions were surrounded. The enemy also managed to push the troops of the right flank of the 64th Army. A critical situation developed for the troops of the Stalingrad Front. Both flanks of the 62nd Army were deeply engulfed by the enemy, and his exit to the Don created a real threat of a breakthrough by the Nazi troops to Stalingrad.
By the end of July, the Germans pushed the Soviet troops back across the Don. The defense line stretched for hundreds of kilometers from north to south along the Don. To break through the defenses along the river, the Germans had to use, in addition to their 2nd army, the armies of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometers from Stalingrad, and 4th Panzer, south of it, turned north to help take the city. To the south, Army Group South (A) continued to deepen further into the Caucasus, but its advance slowed down. Army Group South A was too far south to provide support for Army Group South B in the north.
On July 28, 1942, People's Commissar for Defense, JV Stalin, turned to the Red Army with order No. 227, in which he demanded to strengthen resistance and stop the enemy's offensive at all costs. The most severe measures were envisaged for those who showed cowardice and cowardice in battle. Practical measures were outlined to strengthen the morale and discipline of the troops. “It's time to end the retreat,” the order noted. - No step back!" This slogan embodied the essence of Order No. 227. Commanders and political workers were tasked with bringing to the consciousness of every soldier the demands of this order.
The stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command on July 31 to turn the 4th Panzer Army (Colonel-General G. Goth) from the Caucasian direction to Stalingrad. On August 2, its advanced units approached Kotelnikovsky. In this regard, a direct threat of an enemy breakthrough to the city from the southwest was created. Fighting unfolded on the southwestern approaches to it. To strengthen the defense of Stalingrad, by the decision of the front commander, the 57th Army was deployed on the southern face of the outer defensive circuit. The 51st Army was transferred to the Stalingrad Front (Major General T.K. Kolomiets, from October 7 - Major General N.I. Trufanov).
The situation in the zone of the 62nd Army was difficult. On August 7-9, the enemy pushed back its troops across the Don River, and surrounded four divisions west of Kalach. Soviet soldiers fought in the encirclement until August 14, and then in small groups began to break through the encirclement. Three divisions of the 1st Guards Army (Major General K.S. Moskalenko, from September 28, Major General I.M.Chistyakov) that came up from the Headquarters Reserve, struck a counterattack on the enemy troops and stopped their further advance.
Thus, the plan of the Germans - to break through to Stalingrad with a swift blow on the move - was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops in the great bend of the Don and their active defense on the southwestern approaches to the city. In three weeks of the offensive, the enemy was able to advance only 60-80 km. Based on the assessment of the situation, the Nazi command made significant adjustments to its plan.
On August 19, Nazi troops resumed their offensive, striking in the general direction of Stalingrad. On August 22, the 6th German army crossed the Don and captured on its eastern bank, in the Peskovatka area, a 45 km wide bridgehead, on which six divisions were concentrated. On August 23, the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, near the village of Rynok, and cut off the 62nd Army from the rest of the forces of the Stalingrad Front. On the eve of the enemy aviation struck a massive blow at Stalingrad from the air, making about 2 thousand sorties. As a result, the city suffered terrible destruction - entire neighborhoods were turned into ruins or simply wiped off the face of the earth.
On September 13, the enemy launched an offensive along the entire front, trying to seize Stalingrad by storm. The Soviet troops failed to contain his powerful onslaught. They were forced to retreat to the city, on the streets of which fierce fighting ensued.
At the end of August and September, Soviet troops conducted a series of counterattacks in the southwestern direction to cut off the formations of the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps, which had broken through to the Volga. When inflicting counterattacks, Soviet troops had to close the breakthrough of the Germans in the section of the station Kotluban, Rossoshka and eliminate the so-called "land bridge". At the cost of enormous losses, the Soviet troops were able to advance only a few kilometers.
Soviet submachine gunners during street fighting on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
The captured camels are used by the German army in Stalingrad as a draft force.
Evacuation of nurseries and kindergartens from Stalingrad.
German dive bomber Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" (Ju.87 Stuka) in the sky over Stalingrad.
Romanian prisoners of war taken prisoner near the village of Raspopinskaya near the town of Kalach.
Soldiers and commanders of the 298th Infantry Division at Stalingrad.
Women are digging trenches in the area of the Don River.
The commander of the 6th Army, Colonel-General of the Wehrmacht F. Paulus with members of his staff during the battles at Stalingrad.
Ore-freighter of the 578th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht Hans Eckle in a combat position in a trench between the Don and the Volga.
The command staff of the 2nd company of the 178th rifle regiment of the NKVD troops of the USSR for special protection important enterprises industry on the Mamaev Kurgan.
Armor-piercers G.S. Barennik and Ya.V. Sheptytsky with a PTRD-41 in a combat position in a trench during the battles for Stalingrad.
A German soldier writes a letter in the basement of a house in Stalingrad.
Militia from among the workers of the Stalingrad plant "Red October", sniper Pyotr Alekseevich Goncharov (1903 - 1944), armed with a personal sniper rifle SVT-40 at a firing position near Stalingrad. In the battles for Stalingrad, he destroyed about 50 enemy soldiers.
Armored boats of the Volga flotilla are firing at the positions of German troops in Stalingrad.
Wehrmacht armored personnel carriers in the steppe near Stalingrad.
A convoy of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht is crossing the bridge over the Don.
The Wehrmacht infantry and the StuG III self-propelled guns move through the Soviet village shortly after the Don crossing.
Ore-freighter of the 578th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht Hans Eckle in a combat position between the Don and the Volga.
The driver works on the engine of a ZIS-5 car near Stalingrad.
German machine gunners change position north of Stalingrad.
German soldiers with an MG-34 machine gun and a 50mm leGrW36 mortar in positions on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
A Soviet prisoner of war helps soldiers of the 369th Wehrmacht regiment to disassemble a wrecked car in Stalingrad.
Soviet soldiers in positions in the trenches near Stalingrad.
German self-propelled gun StuG III at the ruins of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.
Former houses on the outskirts of the city of Serafimovich, destroyed by German troops.
Cameraman Valentin Orlyankin filming a panorama of Stalingrad from the boat.
Red Army soldiers, brought from the other side of the river, walk along the banks of the Volga in Stalingrad.
Soldiers of the Wehrmacht's 578th Infantry Regiment halt during the offensive on Stalingrad.
German officers confer at a crossroads during the attack on Stalingrad.
German self-propelled guns StuG III with soldiers on armor moving along Kurskaya Street in Stalingrad.
Soviet pillbox on the territory occupied by German troops near Stalingrad.
View of the cemetery destroyed during the battles in Stalingrad.
A resident of Stalingrad stokes the stove of a destroyed house in the occupied southern part of the city.
A resident of the occupied region of Stalingrad prepares food at the site of a destroyed house.
View from a German plane to the fires in the destroyed Stalingrad.
German tank Pz.Kpfw. III, knocked out at Stalingrad.
Soviet sappers are building a crossing over the Volga.
Red Army men in battle on railroad near Stalingrad.
A German soldier walks past a damaged and burning Soviet T-60 tank during the offensive on Stalingrad.
Red Army artillerymen at the F-22-USV gun on Stalingrad street.
A column of Red Army soldiers is passing by the Central Department Store of Stalingrad.
The artillerymen of the guards unit of the Red Army are crossing the Volga in A-3 landing boats.
Calculation of the German SPAAG Sd.Kfz. 10/4 prepares to open fire at Stalingrad.
The sculptural composition and the graves of German soldiers near the building of the 7th hospital in Stalingrad.
Soviet machine gunners of the Stalingrad Front by the river.
Soviet fighters repel the attacks of German troops rushing to Stalingrad.
Soviet mortars change positions at Stalingrad.
Red Army soldiers run at the barbed wire during the battles in Stalingrad.
Soviet infantry in battle on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
A group of Soviet servicemen in the steppe near Stalingrad.
The crew of the Soviet 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K changes position during the battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
Soviet units after landing on the banks of the Volga at Stalingrad.
Soviet soldiers are firing from the lathing of the glass roof of one of the factory workshops in Stalingrad.
Soviet submachine gunners in battle on the street of Stalingrad.
Red Army soldiers in battle at a burning house in Stalingrad.
Destroyed Soviet BM-8-24 multiple launch rocket launcher on the chassis of a T-60 tank near Stalingrad.
Destroyed houses in the part of Stalingrad occupied by German troops.
Soviet soldiers move through the ruins of a destroyed building in Stalingrad.
A woman with a knot in the ashes in Stalingrad.
The calculation of the Soviet 50-mm company mortar changes position in the workers' settlement near Stalingrad.
View from the Soviet hideout in Stalingrad.
A fallen Soviet soldier on the banks of the Volga near Stalingrad.
During the Great Patriotic War the talent of a whole galaxy of outstanding Soviet military leaders was brightly revealed - Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivana Koneva and many others.
In this series, a special place is occupied by Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov... Fate was destined for him to be in the very epicenter of the crucial battle of the war - the Battle of Stalingrad.
The biography of Vasily Chuikov is an example of the implementation of the principle "who was nobody, he will become everything." He was born on February 12, 1900 in the Moscow region, in Serebryanye Prudy, into a poor peasant family, whose main wealth were children - as many as 13.
At the age of 7, Vasya was sent to a parish school, after four classes of which he "went into the people" - went to work in Petrograd. At the age of 12, he was already working as a master's apprentice in a spur workshop.
In September 1917, at the height of the war, the workshop was closed, and Vasily's older brothers, who served in the Baltic Fleet, advised him to volunteer for the navy. So in the fall of 1917, Vasily Chuikov became a cabin boy of the training and mine detachment of the Baltic Fleet.
The October Revolution did not put before the young sailor a choice with whom he was. Chuikova was brought into the ranks of the Bolsheviks by his entire short life.
Two orders and four wounds
In 1918, a student at the 1st Moscow Military Instructor Courses, Chuikov, had already suppressed a counter-revolutionary rebellion in the capital. And then the difficult situation at the front forced the command to send cadets into the heat of battles.
At the age of 19, Vasily Chuikov replaced the regiment commander wounded in battle and fought in this position until 1921.
During the Civil War, he was wounded four times, awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner, a personalized gold watch and a gold weapon.
After the end of the Civil War, she studied at the Military Academy, then studied at the special Oriental faculty.
In 1927, Chuikov was sent as a military adviser to China. After two years of work, he returns to the USSR, where he continues to constantly study the most advanced trends in modern military art.
Chuikov passes the posts of brigade commander, commander rifle corps, participates in the Polish campaign and the Soviet-Finnish war.
From China to Stalingrad
In 1940, Chuikov, who was promoted to lieutenant general, was appointed to the post of Soviet military attaché to the Chinese army, Chiang Kai-shek.
Before Chuikov stood the most difficult task- to unite the forces of the warring communists and supporters of the Kuomintang for a joint struggle against the Japanese militarists. After joining the Second world war Chiang Kai-shek's USA begins to focus on American aid, which makes Chuikov's mission impractical.
General Chuikov himself was only glad of this recall - he had long sought to be sent to the active army.
However, for a start, Chuikov is sent to Tula, where he is engaged in the formation of a reserve army. In early July, the reserve army is sent to the area of the great Don bend, to the Stalingrad front.
Before the appointment of the commander of the army, Chuikov actually fulfills his functions, and then leads the group of the 64th army, leading the defense in the southern sector.
Nobody knows Chuikov in business - neither his own, nor the Germans. And he carefully studies the actions of the enemy, looking for weak points, while the victorious step of the Nazis in the summer of 1942 plunges some into real panic.
RIA Novosti / Georgy Zelma
Master of surprises
Chuikov notes that German generals prefer to act according to templates that have already brought success, and any non-standard retaliatory actions unsettle them.
Later, Vasily Ivanovich wrote: "To observe the enemy, to study his strengths and weaknesses, to know his habits is to fight him with open eyes, to catch his mistakes and not expose your weak points to a dangerous blow."
Meanwhile, our troops had plenty of weaknesses. The enemy had an advantage not only in experience, but also in technology and in radio communications. In these conditions, putting the Germans in an uncomfortable position is an almost impossible task.
Chuikov, however, coped with it. At dawn, the Soviet artillery suddenly struck a powerful blow at the enemy, who was preparing for an offensive. The Germans, having suffered sensitive losses, took countermeasures, but the next time "greetings from Chuikov" did not arrive in the morning, but before sunset, when the actions of the German aviation were paralyzed.
The general bribed his soldiers with personal courage. In July 1942, Chuikov flew to determine the position of the troops on a U-2 aircraft. Suddenly, a German fighter that had come out of nowhere chased the Soviet intelligence officer. The pursuit ended with the fall of the U-2, however, both Chuikov and the pilot, unlike the plane, survived and continued the war.
Vasily Chuikov. 1942 year. Photo: RIA Novosti / Oleg Knorring
With a cane and gloves
The command nevertheless looked at Chuikov with suspicion. The experience of working as a military attaché taught him diplomacy and correct behavior, which seemed pretentious to some at the front. Member of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front and future Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev considered the general haughty and endowed with bourgeois habits - Chuikov allegedly walked with a stack (thin cane) and in white gloves.
As for the stack, it was simply more convenient for Chuikov to walk with it, since old wounds were worried and the cane served as an additional support.
And they took bandages on their hands for white gloves. The fact is that during the Battle of Stalingrad, the general developed severe eczema from nervous strain, and he needed daily dressings.
However, sidelong glances faded away pretty quickly. Chuikov proved himself from the best side, and it was he who was entrusted with the defense of the city blocks of Stalingrad in September 1942.
Chuikov vs. Paulus: a duel in Stalingrad
On September 12, 1942, Vasily Chuikov was appointed commander of the 62nd Army with an order to keep Stalingrad at all costs.
The position of the 62nd Army at that time was very difficult - it was cut off from the rest of the front forces and was forced to defend Stalingrad, being pressed against the Volga.
Chuikov knew how to make the most of the resources at his disposal and find non-trivial solutions.
In order to minimize the effectiveness of enemy aviation, the positions of the Soviet units were pulled close to the Germans - so much so that the bombing caused damage to the German units.
The headquarters were also pulled up to the front line - Chuikov insisted that the fighters in these conditions must constantly see their commanders, understand that they are not left to their fate. The rank and file were often seen in the trenches on the front lines and the army commander himself.
It was Chuikov who found the most effective tactics in the conditions of street battles - they began to be conducted mainly not by the forces of line units, but by specially created assault groups, which were given sappers, anti-tank weapons, a large number of Garnet. The assault groups acted unexpectedly for the enemy, inflicting heavy damage on him.
The general taught his subordinates that a completely passive defense leads to defeat, so the soldiers of the 62nd Army exhausted the Nazis with constant counterattacks, suddenly repulsing buildings that had just been occupied by the Nazis with great difficulty and losses.
Chuikov noted the importance of the actions of snipers in the conditions of street battles, and the enemy suffered heavy losses from the actions of Soviet sniper groups.
Friedrich Paulus, a brilliant commander, commander of the 6th German Army, did not manage to find the keys to the "defense of Chuikov". The Nazis were firmly stuck in the destroyed quarters of Stalingrad.
Marshal Vasily Chuikov. Photo: RIA Novosti / G. Weil
Impossible is possible
The 62nd Army also took part in the Soviet counteroffensive, which ended in the complete defeat of the Nazi group.
In April 1943, the 62nd Army received the honorary title of the 8th Guards Army for courage and heroism in the defense of Stalingrad. Vasily Chuikov himself was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but in the end he was awarded the Order of Suvorov I degree.
Vasily Chuikov remained commander of the 8th Guards Army until the very end of the war. He continued to find extraordinary and non-standard solutions - during the assault on Zaporozhye, General Chuikov initiated a unique night attack by the forces of three combined-arms armies, tank and mechanized corps, which ended in complete success.
It is difficult to list all the military triumphs of Chuikov at the final stage of the war; it is worth dwelling only on the main ones. During the Vistula-Oder operation, Chuikov's guards seized the Magnushevsky bridgehead with swift actions, which ensured the further development of the offensive.
Sometimes Chuikov did the impossible at all: the 8th Guards Army simultaneously took the Polish city of Poznan and participated in the capture of the Kyustrinsky bridgehead on the western bank of the Oder.
Berlin surrendered to Chuikov
During the Berlin operation, the 8th Guards Army operated in the main direction of the strike of the 1st Belorussian Front. Chuikov's soldiers broke through the enemy's defenses on the Seelow Heights and burst into the Nazi capital.
In Berlin, the Stalingrad experience came in very handy - the newly formed assault groups destroyed the last lines of the German defense.
On May 2, 1945, the last commander of the Berlin defense, General Weidling, arrived at the command post of General Chuikov and signed the surrender of the Berlin garrison.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Chuikov was awarded twice - in March 1944 for heroism and courage shown in the battles for the liberation of Southern Ukraine, and in April 1945 - for heroism and courage shown during the Vistula-Oder operation.
Until 1953, Chuikov remained in Germany, holding various positions in the command of the group of Soviet troops, including the post of head of the Soviet military administration in Germany.
In 1955, Vasily Chuikov was awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1960 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the ground forces - the highest post in his military career. It was in this position that Chuikov was one of the military leaders of the secret operation "Anadyr" - the delivery of Soviet missiles with atomic weapons to Cuba.
Marshal's testament
Marshal Chuikov retired in 1972, but until his last days the army remained the main business of his life.
Vasily Ivanovich was an honorary citizen of two cities with which he was closely linked by the war - Volgograd and Berlin. In the united Germany, they hastened to forget about Chuikov - he was stripped of the title of honorary citizen of the German capital in September 1992. Volgograd never forgot the name of the general, whose soldiers defended him in 1942, as the main city and the commander himself never forgot.
In July 1981, Marshal Chuikov sent a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which said: “Feeling the end of my life approaching, I, in full consciousness, make a request: after my death, bury the ashes on the Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad, where my command post ... From that place you can hear the roar of the Volga waters, volleys of guns and the pain of Stalingrad ruins, there are buried thousands of soldiers whom I commanded ... "
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov died on March 18, 1982. His last will was fulfilled - the hero of the Battle of Stalingrad was buried on the Mamayev Kurgan, at the foot of the Motherland Monument, next to his comrades in arms.
