In the thirties, the Stalinist leadership carried out a mass purge of the command staff of the Red Army. Much has been written about this period, repressions against party leaders and military leaders have long been considered the main reason for the series of defeats in the initial period of the war.
General Gorbatov spent almost two and a half years in the camps, from October 1938 to March 1941. The reason for the arrest was the courage shown in a dispute with the NKVD investigators who accused his friend of treason. The brigade commander, deputy commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps, was deprived of all government awards and turned into a disenfranchised slave of the Gulag, who was in the prison hierarchy below the criminals. Thieves and murderers mocked the honored order bearer, not forgetting to recall how the state, which he was called to defend, treated him.
They could have shot him, but for some reason they did not. Apparently, the most daring and talented commanders were reserved in reserve. They forced to torment, but did not kill Rokossovsky. General Gorbatov drank dashing.
He survived, and before the war he was released and reinstated. The time of hard trials was drawing near. In June 1941, the value of competent and courageous commanders was higher than scammers and lackeys.
General Gorbatov retained his best human qualities; Kolyma did not break him. Having gone through all the stages of a military career, starting from the rank and file, he appreciated the soldier and tried to fight so that the funeral had to be sent as little as possible. It was not easy, it was often argued. How the objections to the authorities could end, the commander knew all too well.
During the fighting in the North Donets, one of these disputes led to the removal from office. Failure to carry out a meaningless order could have led to more tragic consequences, but the Battle of Kursk began, and General Gorbatov was again needed.
In those cases when it was required to take the initiative and take responsibility, this commander did not hesitate. His decisions were correct, he acted decisively, not fearing bossy anger.
In 1944, a delegation of home front workers, Donetsk miners visited the army. They told the command about the difficulties that arose in the liberated territories, and that the lack of fastening wood interferes with the full-fledged mining of coal . General Alexander Gorbatov gave the order to send a train of orphaned logs to the rear from Poland. The consequences of this act could be the most sad, but then JV Stalin himself stood up for the decisive commander. He figured out the results of the investigation, and closed the case, rock-drilling at the same time: "Gorbatov’s grave will be corrected ..."
People who served under the leadership of this wonderful commander became infected with directness and honesty from him. An elderly nurse, assigned to the general in order to treat his spine damaged in the camp, admitted that she was required to report on all conversations of the commander of the 3rd Army. An unpleasant explanation took place with the Supreme himself, after which a too zealous special officer, a recruiter of informants, went to the front line.
In April 1945, General Gorbatov led his army to Berlin itself. An unvarnished biography is set out in his book Years and Wars. Notes of the commander, "written after the war. Life turned out to be difficult, but honest, which the fate of the Russian soldier should be.