Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov - hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General. Born on January 3, 1894 in the Perm province, in the village of Ust-Usolka. By nationality - Russian. From 1912 to 1915 worked as an accountant in the office of the Solikamsk Zemstvo Council. He was a member of the CPSU (b), joining the party in the twenty-eighth year.
Education
Kuznetsov Vasily graduated from two classes in elementary school. Then four more in the city school of Solikamsk. A little later he entered the Kazan school of ensigns, which he graduated in 1916. In 1920, he studied at the courses of the command staff "Shot". Then he entered the Frunze Military Academy. After World War II, Vasily Ivanovich graduated from special courses at the Higher Military Academy. Voroshilov.
Military service
Vasily Kuznetsov went into the army at the call in the spring of 1915. At first he was an ordinary in the reserve regiment. Then he got to the front. After completing the courses, the ensign received the rank of junior officer and returned to the army.
Civil War
V.I. Kuznetsov joined the Red Army in 1918. During the Civil War, he was first a company commander, then a battalion and a rifle regiment. After the end of hostilities he headed the regiment, division, corps and Vitebsk army group. In the fall of 1938, Vasily Kuznetsov received membership in the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union. He was promoted to commander, and in 1940 became a lieutenant general.
During World War II
In 1939, he commanded the 3rd Army, which participated in the Polish campaign. At the beginning of the Second World War, Kuznetsov’s army was surrounded by Grodno. The army left the “ring” in July 1941 in the Rogachev area thanks to the skillful command of Kuznetsov despite fierce battles. In August, Vasily Ivanovich led the Twenty-first Army, first of the Central and then of the South-Western Fronts.
Then Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov led the Fifty-eighth Army. But at the same time, according to the recollections of his son (who followed in the footsteps of his father and later became a colonel), he ended up in the hospital. Near Moscow at that time there was a very tense situation. The formation of an additional First Shock Army began urgently. Kuznetsova was not on the list of applicants for her commander, the leadership did not consider his candidacy at all. But Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin thought differently and called Vasily Ivanovich to him directly from the hospital. He announced the delivery of the First Shock Army under his leadership.
She participated in battles on the Western Moscow Front. She took part in offensive operations and counterattack. Under the leadership of Kuznetsov, the First Shock Army distinguished itself in the Demyan operation, when it was able to close the encirclement ring around the enemy group.
Since 1942, Vasily Kuznetsov led the Sixty-third Army on the Don and Stalingrad Fronts. For a long time held back the enemy near Stalingrad. From the end of autumn, the forty-second year, Kuznetsov was appointed deputy commander of the South-Western Front, and since December, the First Guards Army was transferred under his leadership, which was later renamed the Third Ukrainian. In the spring of 1943, Kuznetsov Vasily Ivanovich was promoted to colonel general. Since December of the same year he replaced the commander of the First Baltic Front. Member of the offensive Nevelsk-Gorodok operation. After successfully completing the task assigned to Kuznetsov, he received the Third Shock Army under his command.
Post-war time
In the post-war period, Kuznetsov V.I., Colonel General, remained the commander of the Third Shock Army in the occupation forces. Since 1948, he chaired the Central Committee of DOSARM (later DOSAAF). With the fifty-third year he was appointed commander of the army of the Volga region. From the fifty-seventh year he worked in the main apparatus of the Ministry of Defense. In 1960, he resigned. Kuznetsov Vasily Ivanovich, general, was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union of the second and fourth convocations. He died on June 20, 1964. He was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Awards and memory
For the competent leadership of the troops in the Berlin operation, courage and bravery, Colonel-General V.I. Kuznetsov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics on May 29, 1945.
Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov rose to the rank of colonel general. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (two), Suvorov (first and second degree) and the Red Banner (five). Received several domestic and foreign medals. He was awarded overseas orders. Two Polish: Virtuti Military of the third degree and the Grunwald Cross of the third art .; one French: Legion of Honor to the degree of commander.
Kuznetsov Vasily Ivanovich set busts in Moscow and Sergiev Posad. The general’s name is the square in the Dmitrovsky district, in the city of Yakhroma, the boulevard in Sergiev Posad, the streets in Solikamsk, Moscow, and the school in Dmitrov.