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Rodion Malinovsky | |
|---|---|
Родион Малиновский | |
(2).jpg) Malinovsky in 1958 | |
| Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 26 October 1957 – 31 March 1967 | |
| President | Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev |
| Preceded by | Georgy Zhukov |
| Succeeded by | Andrei Grechko |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1898-11-23)23 November 1898 |
| Died | 31 March 1967(1967-03-31) (aged 68) Moscow,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1926–1967) |
| Spouse(s) | Larisa (1925–1946), Raisa (1946–1967) |
| Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union (2) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
|
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service | 1914–1967 |
| Rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944–1967) |
| Commands | Southern Front 66th Army 2nd Guards Army Southwestern Front 3rd Ukrainian Front 2nd Ukrainian Front Transbaikal Military District Far Eastern Military District |
| Battles/wars | |
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (Russian:Родио́н Я́ковлевич Малино́вский;Ukrainian:Родіо́н Я́кович Малино́вський,romanized: Rodion Yakovych Malynovskyi; 23 November [O.S. 11 November] 1898 – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander andMarshal of the Soviet Union. He served asMinister of Defence of the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1967, during which he oversaw the strengthening of the Soviet Army.
Born to an impoverished Ukrainian household inOdessa, Malinovsky volunteered for theImperial Russian Army during theFirst World War and served with distinction in both theGerman Front and theWestern Front. He was serving in theRussian Legion in France on the outbreak of theOctober Revolution, after which he returned to Russia and joined the Red Army in theRussian Civil War. After graduating from theFrunze Military Academy, Malinovsky volunteered to fight on theRepublican side during theSpanish Civil War, where he again served with great distinction and was later awarded theOrder of Lenin and theOrder of the Red Banner in recognition of his service.
Malinovsky emerged as one of the few competent Soviet generals in the opening phase of theGerman invasion. He played a crucial role in the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in December 1942, and helped drive German troops out of Ukraine following theDnieper–Carpathian offensive. He then commanded the Soviet drive into the Balkans, forcing Romania to switch to theAllies side, for which he was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union byJoseph Stalin. He further took part in the liberation of Budapest,Vienna andPrague, cementing Soviet military supremacy in Central Europe. After theGerman surrender in May 1945, Malinovsky was transferred to theFar East, where he defeated the JapaneseKwantung Army in theSoviet invasion of Manchuria. He received the Soviet Union's highest distinction, the titleHero of the Soviet Union, as a reward.
After the war, Malinovsky remained in the Far East and held a succession of important commands. After Stalin's death,Nikita Khrushchev recalled Malinovsky to Moscow and named him commander-in-chief of theSoviet Ground Forces. In 1957, he replaced the oustedGeorgy Zhukov as Minister of Defence, a position he served until his death. Malinovsky was a strong advocate for the importance ofconventional forces, and maintained a delicate balance with Khrushchev's missile-based approach regarding Soviet military policy. He retained considerable autonomy in military affairs following the fall of Khrushchev in 1964. Malinovsky died in March 1967 frompancreatic cancer, and is remembered as one of the most important military leaders in Russian and Soviet history.
AUkrainian, Malinovsky was born inOdessa to a single mother, after his father either died or abandoned the family. The ethnic background of his father is disputed. Some claim he was aKaraite Jew;[1] however, others claim he was descended from a noble family in theTambov Governorate.[2] Malinovsky's mother soon left the city for the rural areas ofSouthern Russia, and married. Her husband, apoverty-stricken peasant, refused to adopt her son and expelled him when Malinovsky was only 13 years old. The homeless boy survived by working as a farmhand, and eventually received shelter from his aunt's family in Odessa, where he worked as an errand boy in a general store.After the start ofWorld War I in July 1914, Malinovsky, who was only 15 years old at the time (too young for military service), hid on the military train heading for theGerman front, but was discovered. He nevertheless convinced the commanding officers to enlist him as a volunteer, and served in amachine-gun detachment in thefrontline trenches. In October 1915, as a reward for repelling a German attack, he received his first military award, theCross of St. George of the 4th class, and was promoted to the rank ofcorporal. Soon afterwards, he was badly wounded and spent several months in the hospital.
After his recovery, he was sent toFrance in 1916 as a member of theWestern FrontRussian Expeditionary Corps. Malinovsky fought in a hotly contested sector of the front nearFort Brion and was promoted tosergeant. He suffered a serious wound in his left arm, and received a decoration from the French government. After theBolshevik Revolution in Russia, the French government disbanded some Russian units, but others were transferred to a newly created unit called theRussian Legion, which was attached to the Moroccan Division. Malinovsky fought against theGermans until the end of the war. During this time, he was awarded the FrenchCroix de guerre and promoted tosenior NCO.
He returned to Odessa in 1919, where he joined theRed Army in theCivil War against theWhite Army and fought with distinction inSiberia. He remained in the army after the end of the conflict, studying in the training school for the junior commanders, and rose to commander of a rifle battalion. In 1926, he became a member of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union, membership of which was a prerequisite for promotion in the military.[citation needed]
In 1927, Malinovsky was sent to study at the eliteFrunze Military Academy. He graduated in 1930, and during the next seven years he rose to theChief of Staff of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, where his commander wasSemyon Timoshenko (a protégé ofJoseph Stalin).
After the start of theSpanish Civil War in 1936, Malinovsky volunteered to fight for theRepublicans against the right-wing nationalists of GeneralFrancisco Franco and theirItalian andGerman allies. He participated in planning and directing several main operations. In 1938, he returned toMoscow, being awarded the top Soviet decorations, theOrder of Lenin and theOrder of the Red Banner, in recognition of his service in Spain; he was appointed a senior lecturer at theFrunze Military Academy.
In the spring of 1941, Timoshenko, who then served thePeople's Commissar for Defence, was alarmed by the massive German military buildup on the Soviet borders, as theWehrmacht was secretly preparing forOperation Barbarossa. In order to strengthen the Red Army field command, he dispatched some of the top officers from the military academies to the field units. Malinovsky was promoted toMajor General, and took command over the freshly raised48th Rifle Corps,9th Army in theOdessa Military District. A week prior to the start of the war, Malinovsky deployed his corps close to theRomanian border.
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, with the Red Army suffering enormous defeats and losing hundreds of thousands of troops in German encirclements, Malinovsky emerged a competent general. His corps of three partly formed rifle divisions faced GermanBlitzkrieg along the line of thePrut River. While, as a rule, Red Army generals would lead their forces from behind the frontline, Malinovsky went to the crucial sectors of the battles to be with his soldiers and encourage them. Unable to stop the Wehrmacht, Malinovsky had to retreat along theBlack Sea shore, while frustrating enemy attempts to encircle his troops. The Germans succeeded in cornering his corps inNikolaev, but Malinovsky breached their ring and retreated toDnipropetrovsk.
In August, he was promoted to Chief of Staff of the badly battered6th Army, and soon replaced its commander. He halted the German advance in his section of the front and was promoted toLieutenant General. After the retreat of the Red Army to theDonbas, Malinovsky commanded a joint operation of the 6th and 12th armies, managing to drive the Wehrmacht out of the region. In December 1941, Malinovsky received command of theSouthern Front, consisting of three weak field armies and two division-sized cavalry corps. They were short of manpower and equipment, but Malinovsky managed to push deep into the defenses of the Germans, who, after 6 months of fighting, were suffering from fatigue and shortages as well.
On 12 May 1942, Malinovsky and theSouthwestern Front, under the overall command of Timoshenko, launched a joint attack in theSecond Battle of Kharkov pushing the Germans back 100 kilometres (62 mi). Timoshenko overestimated the Red Army's offensive capabilities and suffered a heavy defeat. Although Stalin, in spite of opposition by his top military advisers, supported the ill-fated Kharkov attack, he became suspicious that Malinovsky had intentionally failed his troops (he feared that Malinovsky had established and kept connections with foreign interests during his World War I stay in France). In July 1942, the Southern Front was taken out of combat, its units and staff were transferred to theNorth Caucasian Front as aDon Operational Group under the command of Malinovsky (who also became Front's deputy commander). Stalin ordered Malinovsky to stop the intrusion of the GermanArmy Group A towardsRostov-on-Don and the vital oilfields ofCaucasus; the Germans had a sizeable technical superiority over Malinovsky, and cut through his weak defenses. As a consequence,Stavka disbanded the Don Operational Group in September.
The Red Army was hard-pressed by Germans in theBattle of Stalingrad, and Stalin entrusted Malinovsky with the command of the hastily formed66th Army to hold positions north-east of Stalingrad. At the same time Stalin orderedNikita Khrushchev, who served as his top political officer in Stalingrad, to "keep an eye" on Malinovsky.[citation needed]
The 66th Army had no combat experience, but this was the first time in the war Malinovsky had commanded a unit that was near full strength in both troops and equipment. In September and October 1942, he went on the offensive. His territorial gains were marginal, but he denied the Germans an opportunity to encircle Stalingrad from the north, and, slowed down, they decided to push into the city. Later that month, Stavka dispatched Malinovsky to theVoronezh Front as its deputy commander; in December 1942, he was sent back toStalingrad. There the Red Army achieved its greatest success to that point in the war: on 22 November the Red Army fronts encircled theGerman Sixth Army. The GermanArmy Group Don, commanded by Field MarshalErich von Manstein, gathered itsPanzer troops in the town ofKotelnikovo 150 kilometres (93 mi) west of Stalingrad and launched a desperate counterattack to save the Sixth Army.
Malinovsky led the powerfulSoviet Second Guards Army againstHoth. In vicious fighting he forced the Germans to retreat, breached deeply echeloned and well-prepared German defenses, and destroyed the Kotelnikovo army grouping. It was the first World War II large-scale clash of armor to be lost by Germany. Malinovsky's victory sealed the fate of 250,000 German and otherAxis Powers soldiers trapped in the Stalingrad pocket. Stalin promoted Malinovsky to colonel general, and awarded him with the highest Soviet decoration for outstanding generalship — theOrder of Suvorov of the 1st degree.
In February 1943, Malinovsky resumed his command of Southern Front, and in less than two weeks he expelled Manstein from Rostov-on-Don, opening the road to Ukraine to the Red Army. In March 1943, Stalin elevated him to rank ofArmy General and gave him command of Southwestern Front, tasked to drive German troops away from the industrially richDonbas. Through a sudden attack in mid-October, Malinovsky managed to surprise a large German force in the region's key city ofZaporizhia and captured it. The campaign split German forces in the South and isolated German forces inCrimea from the rest of the GermanEastern Front.
On 20 October, the Southwestern Front was renamed3rd Ukrainian Front. From December 1943 to April 1944, Malinovsky smashed the GermanArmy Group South, andliberated much of the southernUkraine, includingKherson,Nikolaev and his home city of Odessa. By that time, according to Khrushchev's opinion, Stalin grew much more confident of Malinovsky's loyalty.
In May 1944, Malinovsky was transferred to the2nd Ukrainian Front. He expelled the Germans from the remaining Soviet territory and participated in an unsuccessful invasion of theBalkans (thefirst Jassy–Kishinev Offensive) together with MarshalIvan Konev and Army GeneralFyodor Tolbukhin (who received Malinovsky's former command over the smaller 3rd Ukrainian Front). However, during thesecond Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in late August and early September 1944, Malinovsky unleashed a highly successful Soviet version of theBlitzkrieg. Together with Tolbukhin, he destroyed or captured some 215,000 German,[3] and 200,000 Romanian troops,[4] forcing Romania to overthrow pro-GermanConducătorIon Antonescu, and switch from the Axis to theAllies camp (seeRomania during World War II). A triumphant Stalin recalled Malinovsky to Moscow, and on 10 September 1944 made himMarshal of the Soviet Union. Malinovsky was also nominal head of theAllied Commission in Romania (represented byVladislav Petrovich Vinogradov).[5]
He continued his offensive drive, crossed theSouthern Carpathians intoTransylvania (enteringHungarian-ruledNorthern Transylvania), and on 20 October 1944, capturedDebrecen, defended by a large Axis force. His troops were tired after several months of combat and needed to be replenished and resupplied, but Stalin ordered Malinovsky totake the Hungarian capital Budapest, in order to open the road to Vienna and take Vienna before theWestern Allies. With the help of Tolbukhin and the RomanianFirst andFourth armies, Malinovsky carried out Stalin's order, and facedAdolf Hitler's determination to defend Budapest at any cost. The Germans and their HungarianArrow Cross Party allies tried to turn Budapest into a "German Stalingrad"; Hitler engaged the bulk of his Panzer troops (among them sixWaffen SS divisions and five army Panzer divisions; one-fourth of the Wehrmacht's armor[citation needed]), weakening German forces fighting the Red Army inPoland andPrussia, as well as those engaging the Western Allies on theRhine. Malinovsky's strategic and operational skills enabled him to overcome his troops' weakness and to conquer Budapest on 13 February 1945, following an exceptionally harsh battle. He captured 70,000 prisoners. Continuing his drive westward, Malinovsky routed Germans in Slovakia, liberatedBratislava, on 4 April 1945 captured Vienna, and finally, on 26 April 1945 freedBrno, second largest city in Czechoslovakia.
These new victories established the Soviet's supremacy over theDanubian heartland of Europe. In return, Stalin rewarded him with the highest Soviet military decoration of the period, theOrder of Victory. Malinovsky ended his campaign in Europe with the liberation ofBrno in theCzech lands, observing a jubilant meeting of his and American advance forces.
After theGerman surrender in May 1945, Malinovsky was transferred to theRussian Far East, where he was placed in command of theTransbaikal Front. In August 1945, he led his forces during the last Soviet offensive of the war under the overall command ofAleksandr Vasilevsky. Vasilevsky's forces invadedManchuria, which was under the occupation of the 700,000 strongJapaneseKwantung Army and crushed the Japanese in ten days. Malinovsky was awarded the Soviet Union's greatest honor, the order of aHero of the Soviet Union, and was appointed a member of theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union by Stalin himself. Following the Japanese surrender, Malinovsky was made supreme commander of theFar Eastern Military District. During theSoviet occupation of North Korea, Malinovsky was an influential figure in the establishment and training of theKorean People's Army, and continued to provide support for them during the early phases of theKorean War.
After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev became the Soviet leader and, during theDe-Stalinization process and the consolidation of his power in theKremlin, he promoted Malinovsky to Commander-in-Chief of theSoviet Ground Forces and First Deputy toMinister of Defense MarshalGeorgy Zhukov. To confirm Malinovsky's high status in the Soviet Party-state hierarchy, he was selected a full member of the Communist Party Central Committee. In October 1957, Khrushchev, who had grown apprehensive of Zhukov's political ambitions, ousted him and entrusted his post as minister to Malinovsky, who served in this position until his death. Although a personal friend of Khrushchev, Malinovsky maintained his independent position regarding military affairs. Khrushchev and several members of the Soviet military establishment were convinced that future wars would be won bynuclear missile attack. They advocated main investment to the development of the missiles and a drastic reduction of conventional forces. Malinovsky supported the adoption of strategic nuclear missiles, but saw them as a useful deterrent of war, rather than as a main weapon within it. He developed the concept of a broad based military and vigorously argued that while the nature of war had changed, the decisive factor would still be astanding army proficient in modern military technology and capable of conquering and controlling the enemy's territory. Soviet military policy during these years was a compromise between the views of Malinovsky and of Khrushchev.[citation needed]
TheCuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe, alienated Malinovsky. Following the crisis, he publicly demanded in army publications for the military to be given a greater say in formulating Soviet strategic policy. The army's discontent with Khrushchev encouraged a coup within the Party, which resulted in the removal of Khrushchev from power in October 1964.[citation needed] The new Party leadership accepted Malinovsky's demand for an autonomous and professional military establishment, as well as his concept of balanced development of the armed forces.[citation needed]
In a meeting inRomania in November 1964, between USSR and Chinese delegations, Malinovsky worsened Sino-Soviet relations, already deeply frayed in theSino-Soviet split. Historian Daniel Leese noted that improvement of the relations "that had seemed possible after Khrushchev's fall evaporated" as they became more elusive after an allegedly drunken Malinovsky approached Chinese MarshalHe Long, member of the Chinese delegation to Moscow, and asked when China would finally eliminateMao Zedong in the manner in which theCPSU eliminated Khrushchev, "we‘ve already got rid of Khrushchev, you should get rid of Mao Zedong." Outraged, He Long reported the incident toPremier of ChinaZhou Enlai, who in turn, reported the incident to Soviet PremierLeonid Brezhnev. China refused to accept the Soviet Union's apology.[6][7][8]
Malinovsky was a staunch opponent of U.S. involvement in theVietnam War, accusing the Americans of waging a "murderous war against the Vietnamese people".[9] In response to escalating U.S. aggression, Malinovsky called for a major Soviet military buildup. He also criticized China's involvement in the war, accusing the Chinese government of obstructing Soviet aid toNorth Vietnam.[10]
Malinovsky died frompancreatic cancer on 31 March 1967. He was honoured with a state funeral and cremated. His urn was placed in theKremlin Wall Necropolis. The government gave his name to the leading SovietMilitary Academy of Tank Troops in Moscow and to the10th Guards Uralsko-Lvovskaya Tank Division. Malinovsky continued to be regarded as one of the most important military leaders in the history ofRussia even after thedissolution of the Soviet Union.
 | Cross of St. George, 3rd class |
 | Cross of St. George, 4th class |
 | Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (8 September 1945, 22 November 1958) |
 | Order of Victory (No. 8, 26 April 1945) |
 | Order of Lenin, five times (17 July 1937, 6 November 1941, 21 February 1945, 8 September 1945, 22 November 1958) |
 | Order of the Red Banner, three times (22 October 1937, 3 November 1944, 15 November 1950) |
 | Order of Suvorov, 1st class, twice (January 28, 1943 March 19, 1944) |
 | Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (17 September 1943) |
 | Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad" |
 | Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" |
 | Medal "For the Defence of Odessa" |
 | Medal "For the Capture of Budapest" |
 | Medal "For the Capture of Vienna" |
 | Medal "For the Victory over Japan" |
 | Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" |
 | Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" |
 | Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" |
 | Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" |
 | Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" |
 | Medal "25 Years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (Mongolia, 1946) |
 | Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, 1961) |
 | Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia, 1945) |
 | Medal "For Victory over Japan" (Mongolia, 1946) |
 | Order of the People's Hero (Yugoslavia, 27 May 1964) |
 | GoldenOrder of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia, 1956) |
 | Order of the White Lion, 1st class (Czechoslovakia, 1945) |
_BAR.svg) | Military Order of the White Lion, 1st class (Czechoslovakia, 1945) |
 | Czechoslovak War Cross (Czechoslovakia, 1945) |
 | Medal "In Commemoration of theBattle of Dukla Pass (Czechoslovakia, 1959) |
 | Medal "25 Years of the Slovak National Uprising" (Czechoslovakia, 1965) |
 | Chief Commander,Legion of Merit (USA, 1946) |
 | Grand Officer of theLegion d'Honneur (France, 1945) |
 | Croix de guerre (France, 1916) |
 | Croix de guerre (France, 1945) |
 | Order of the Defense of the Fatherland, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Classes (Romania, all in 1950) |
 | Medal "For the Liberation From the Fascist Yoke" (Romania, 1950) |
_1class_BAR.svg) | Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, 1st class (Hungarian Republic, 1947) |
 | Order of the Hungarian Merit, twice (1950 and 1965) |
 | Order of the Hungarian Freedom (1946) |
 | Star of the Republic of Indonesia, 2nd Class (Indonesia, 1963) |
 | The Grand Meritorious Military Order, 1st Class (Indonesia, 1962) |
 | Medal "20 Years of the Bulgarian People's Army" (1964) |
 | Order of the Resplendent Banner, 1st class (China, 1946) |
 | Medal of Sino-Soviet Friendship (China, 1956) |
 | Order of Military Merit, 1st Class (Morocco, 1965) |
 | Order of the National Flag, 1st class (North Korea, 1948)[citation needed] |
 | Medal for the Liberation of Korea (1948) |
? | Commemorative Order "40th Anniversary Of Fatherland Liberation War Victory" (North Korea, 1985, posthumous) |
 | Medal "Brotherhood in Arms", 1st class (East Germany, 1966) |
? | Cross of Independence (Mexico, 1964) |
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| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of Defence of Soviet Union 1957–1967 | Succeeded by |
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| People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs (1917–1934) |
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| People's Commissars for Defence (1934–1946) |
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| People's Commissars for the Navy (1937–1946) |
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| People's Commissar for the Armed Forces (1946) | ||
| Ministers of the Armed Forces (1946–1950) |
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| Minister of War (1950–1953) | ||
| Ministers of the Navy (1950–1953) |
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| Ministers of Defence (1953–1992) |
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