Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich - Soviet military leader. He was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Malinovsky commanded the troops of the South-West, South, Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts. People's hero of Yugoslavia.
A family
The biography of Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky begins in Odessa. It was in this city that the future Marshal of the USSR was born on November 22, 1898 . Malinovsky’s mother, Varvara Nikolaevna, Ukrainian by nationality, was an employee. Her son was born out of wedlock. The alleged father, Bunin Yakov Ivanovich, worked in the Odessa police department. But only mother brought up Rodion Yakovlevich. Already from childhood, he was accustomed to work, as a teenager he worked in a haberdashery store.
The beginning of the war. First wounds and rewards
As soon as the First World War began, Rodion Yakovlevich persuaded the soldiers to take him on the echelon. And he was enrolled in the machine gun team of the 64th division of the 256th Elisavetgrad regiment with a cart carrier. True, there was a small incident. In the metric where the name of the father was to be written, there was a dash. The senior clerk wondered how to write down his middle name, and suggested "Varvarovich" - on behalf of his mother. So Malinowski was listed. Subsequently, he still changed his middle name.
In 1915 he was seriously wounded near Smorgon. Fragments from the shell hit Rodion Yakovlevich in the back and leg. After this wound, he received his first award - the St. George Cross of the fourth degree and the rank of corporal.
In the years 1915-1916. Rodion Yakovlevich was in the Kazan hospital for treatment. Then he went to fight on the Western Front. In April 1917 he was wounded again and received two fighting crosses as a reward. In the same year he was again wounded in the arm in La Curtin. After two months of treatment, he worked for a while at the quarries. Then he volunteered for the Foreign Legion.
Civil War
When Rodion Yakovlevich, the future Marshal Malinovsky, returned to Russia in 1919, he was almost shot by the Red Army, discovering books in French in his possession. An ordinary postcard with a view of the Potemkin stairs in Odessa helped to avoid death. He took her with him before going to the front.
Malinowski was able not only to list all the buildings painted on a postcard, but also to describe the history of each of them. After he managed to avoid being shot, he joined the Red Army and fought in the Civil War in the 27th division against Kolchak.
Military career
When the Civil War ended, Rodion Yakovlevich went to the school of command personnel and successfully graduated from it. He was appointed commander of the machine-gun platoon, then - the team, assistant commander of the rifle battalion. In 1930 he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze.
Malinovsky was appointed chief of staff of the cavalry regiment, an officer of the Belarusian and North Caucasian military districts and chief of staff of the cavalry corps, then - the army of the "Western". From 1937 to 1938, already with the rank of colonel, Rodion Yakovlevich served as military adviser in Spain. He had the pseudonym "Malino" and greatly assisted the republican command.
For his service, he received two orders as a reward : the Red Banner and Lenin. In 1938, Malinovsky was awarded the rank of brigade commander. Since 1939, he began teaching at the Academy. Frunze.
The beginning of World War II
In 1941, he was appointed commander of the 48th corps of shooters in the military district of Odessa, in the city of Balti. There he found the Great Patriotic War. Malinovsky, with parts of the corps, had to keep the defense from the Germans. Despite the fact that the enemy was superior in numbers, the fighters held on heroically, not departing from the state border near the Prut River. But the forces were unequal, the corps had to retreat near Nikolaev. So he was trapped. But thanks to General Malinovsky, the corps was withdrawn from the environment. Moreover, while continuing to retreat to the east, the soldiers were able to inflict tangible damage to the Nazi troops. As a result, the future Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky received the rank of lieutenant general. Then he was appointed commander of the 6th Army and the Southern Front.
Defeat and demotion
However, victories were not always won. In the winter of 1942, the Germans were driven back from Kharkov for 100 kilometers. But already in the spring, the enemy launched devastating blows against Soviet troops. Due to defeat during the Kharkov operation, Stalin removed Malinovsky from command of the front and appointed (with a decrease in rank) to command the 66th Army.
The role of Malinowski in the Battle of Stalingrad
In the fall of 1942, Malinovsky was appointed deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. And a month later he led the troops of the Second Guard Army. He managed to prove himself on the best side, after which Stalin returned him to his former post - the commander of the Southern Front.
The fact is that the German General Manstein with his troops struck Stalingrad in order to break through the encirclement of the 6th Army of F. Paulus. Soviet general Vasilevsky tried to prove to Stalin that Malinovsky’s army was very necessary as an aid.
But there was no time to wait for an answer. Future Marshal Malinovsky, Rodion Yakovlevich, independently deployed his troops and put them in combat positions. This played a huge role in the victory during the Kotelnikov operation. And, accordingly, in the battle of Stalingrad.
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky: biography and awards of the Marshal
Thanks to many successful military operations, Southern Ukraine and Donbass were liberated from the Germans. In the spring of 1944, Malinovsky was able to free Odessa as well. As a result, he was awarded the rank of army general. Then he was transferred to command the Second Ukrainian Front. After the defeat of the German army "Southern Ukraine" Romania broke off the alliance with Germany and declared war on it.
For active hostilities and numerous victories, heroism and courage, Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky received this high rank in September 1944. After there were many hard and exhausting battles. One of them is at Budapest. But the German army of 200 thousand people was still destroyed. And after the Vienna operation, Malinovsky was awarded the Order of Victory.
He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union after World War II, for service in the Far East. During the Soviet-Japanese war, commanded the Transbaikal Front. Breaking through the Gobi Desert, he and his army ended up in the center of Manchuria. And he completed the complete encirclement of the enemy. Thanks to this, the Japanese were completely defeated.
Post-war years
After the war ended, Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky remained in the Far East as commander of the Trans-Baikal-Amur Military District. Since 1947, he became the Commander-in-Chief there. Since 1953 he was appointed to command the Far Eastern Military District.
In 1956 - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR G. Zhukov. And at the same time the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Soviet Union. In 1957, took office as Minister of Defense of the USSR. On it, Marshal Malinovsky remained until his death. He made a huge contribution to strengthening the military power of the USSR, as well as to the rearmament of the army.
Personal life
Rodion Yakovlevich has four children. The first son, Robert, became a doctor of technical sciences. The second, Edward, is a music teacher. And the third (reception), German, is a colonel. And the fourth is the daughter Natalya. She became not only a candidate of philological sciences, but also a member of the Writers' Union.
Interesting Facts
During the service of Malinovsky in the Russian expeditionary force in France, he was several times under investigation. At first he was charged with stealing two horses. But Malinowski was acquitted, since the animals were found.
The second time he was accused as the organizer of card games at the outpost. But this case has remained pending, as hostilities intensified. The third time he was convicted of collective drunkenness. Moreover, at that time he was one of the commanders. Malinovsky was sentenced to corporal punishment, but freed from them as the bearer of the cross of St. George.
Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich is the only Soviet military commander who wrote memoirs about the First World Soldiers of Russia. But there was a ban on the publication of such publications. To get around him, Rodion Yakovlevich changed his name in his memoirs and became Ivan Varvarovich Grinko in a book.
He was also the only commander of the Great Patriotic War who was fluent in several foreign languages, in particular Spanish and French.
The death of Malinowski
Marshal Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich died of a serious illness in 1967, March 31. At that time he was already in Moscow. After death, he is cremated, and his remains rest on the Red Square of the capital, near the Kremlin wall.