Vasily Chuikov, twice Hero Soviet Union, was one of the most famous military leaders of the Great Patriotic War. His army defended Stalingrad. At his command post the surrender of Nazi Germany was signed.
Spur master
The future Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was born on February 12, 1900 in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, Venevsky district, Tula province. Vasily had seven brothers and four sisters, so early childhood he was accustomed to work. All the children worked tirelessly, but there was still not enough means of subsistence.
When Vasily was 12 years old, he went to Petrograd to earn money, became an apprentice in a spur workshop, and mastered the profession of a mechanic. With the outbreak of the First World War, all adult men went to the front, leaving only children and old people to work in the workshop. Demand for spurs was inconsistent - technical progress made itself felt, so in 1917 Vasily Chuikov decided to volunteer for the front and became a cabin boy in the Kronstadt mine training detachment.
Hero of the Civil
Chuikov approved the revolution, in 1918 he became a cadet at the first Moscow military instruction courses of the Red Army, and took part in the suppression of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion in July 1918. Vasily Chuikov also proved himself in the Civil War. Having started participating in battles as a company assistant, at the age of 19 he already commanded a rifle regiment, fought in the Eastern, Southern and Western fronts, during the war he was wounded four times, was twice awarded the order Red Banner, was awarded a personalized gold weapon and a gold watch.
Diplomat
Vasily Chuikov was well-educated, he graduated Military Academy named after Frunze, took courses in mechanization and motorization at this academy, and brilliantly studied at the Oriental Faculty, which allowed him to make not only a military, but also a diplomatic career.
He had to practice his diplomatic skills on one of the most difficult sections of the diplomatic front - in China. From 1940 to 1942, Vasily Chuikov was a military attaché under the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army, Chiang Kai-shek. China at that time not only struggled with Japanese aggression, but also experienced internal strife - between the army of the Chinese Communist Party, commanded by Mao Zedong, and the army of Cha Kai-shek. Thanks to his versatile talents in military, diplomatic and intelligence matters, Chuikov managed to change the situation in China and help create a united front in the Middle Kingdom that protected the Far Eastern borders of the USSR from Japanese aggressors.
Terrible war
Even before serving as military attaché under Chiang Kai-shek, Vasily Chuikov, as commander of the 9th Army, participated in liberation campaign the Red Army in 1939 and in the Finnish War, which he later called the most terrible military campaign in which he had the opportunity to take part. According to the marshal’s recollections, reinforcements were brought to the front from Southern Ukraine. Recruits who could not even stand on skis had to fight with experienced Finnish units.
Chuikov recalled that because of large quantity gangrenous and frostbitten around the infirmaries in Finnish war There was such a stench that it spread for several kilometers.
General Assault
Vasily Chuikov earned the fame of one of the best military leaders of the Great Patriotic War during Battle of Stalingrad. At the head of first the 64th and then the 62nd army, Vasily Chuikov did not allow further progress fascist troops to the east.
On September 12, 1942, he was given the combat mission to defend the city. Chuikov coped with the task. He personally took part in the battles and more than once flew reconnaissance missions in preparation for combat operations. During one of these flights, the U-2 plane in which the general was traveling was attacked by a German pilot. The U-2 had no weapons and had to maneuver to avoid enemy attacks. As a result, the plane collided with the ground and broke up. It was only by miracle that both the pilot and Vasily Chuikov survived.
During the battles for Stalingrad, Vasily Chuikov introduced close combat tactics. He is credited with creating the first mobile phones assault groups. They consisted of a maximum of 50 people, they included snipers, sappers, chemists, and engineers. Much attention Vasily Chuikov paid attention to the manifestation of personal initiative by each soldier; he insisted that Stalingrad could not be surrendered until at least one soviet soldier alive Chuikov took it upon himself to move away from templates in the art of war and won.
Hero
Vasily Chuikov with his 8th Army reached Berlin and took part in the liberation of Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Odessa. At his command post in May 1945, General Helmut Weidling signed a surrender and surrendered along with the remnants of the garrison into captivity.
Vasily Chuikov was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, after the war he held high positions, was Commander-in-Chief Ground forces USSR and until his resignation in 1972 - the head Civil Defense USSR. The famous military leader died on March 18, 1982.
According to the will, Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was buried in 1982 on Mamayev Kurgan.
On the battlefields and in the labyrinths of the secret war
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov- the same age as the century, the son of a peasant from the village of Serebryanye Prudy, Tula province. About himself he writes: “My ancestors are earth workers. And if I were drafted into the tsarist army, my highest rank would be soldier or sailor, like my four older brothers. But at the beginning of 1918, I volunteered to join the Red Army to defend my native Fatherland of workers and peasants. Participant Civil War, from the age of 19 he commanded a regiment".
According to Nikolai Vladimirovich Chuikov, the commander’s grandson, “if you remember the number of wounds that my grandfather received in the Civil War, he cut himself very harshly. And he climbed into the thick of it. One day, during a snowfall, they ran into a white column. They look - there are officers all around, and let’s chop them down. He also has a mark from a saber on his forehead; apparently, he removed his head in time, and the wound is quite deep. And he was shot. His toughness, I believe, was brought up in Serebryanye Prudy. She came from his father, Ivan Ionovich who was a groom Count Sheremetev. Mother, Elizaveta Fedorovna, the believer, the elder of St. Nicholas Church, was also very a persistent person- after all, you had to have the courage to go to the Kremlin in 1936 and ask not to destroy the church. And the son is a brigade commander... I made my way to an appointment with Stalin, then with Kalinin. And her request was granted. Ivan Ionovich, to be honest, didn’t really go to church - he was known as a fist fighter. When I came to Serebryanye Prudy as a child, my aunt told me Nyura Kabanova who was married to Peter Chuikov: “There are fist fights at Maslenitsa, at the neighbor’s, Baba Liza’s (Elizaveta Fedorovna. - A.V.), her husband dragged himself from his fists, holding his stomach - Vanchai, he says, Ionovsky hit me with a pound of his fist, I need to lie down on the stove. And by morning he died. Ivan Ionovich knocked him out with one blow. They tried not to go out with him directly - they fell, grabbed him by his felt boots to hinder his movements, but you couldn’t hit him when he was lying down. So he jumped out of these felt boots and ran barefoot across the ice of the Sturgeon River, across the bridge - and waved again. He was a terrible person in this regard.” And for war this is what is needed - brave, desperate, daring, who can look death in the eye without flinching. Chuikov and the Chuikovites are very strong warriors. And even though the grandfather took risks, he and his units practically did not retreat. He kept moving forward. And the losses were less than others, and the tasks were completed.”
In 1922, Vasily Chuikov, who already had two Orders of the Red Banner, entered the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, continuing his studies at the Chinese department of the Eastern Faculty of the same academy where intelligence officers were trained. In his book Mission to China he writes: "We, Soviet commanders, under the leadership of the great Lenin, defeated the troops White Guard generals and repelled the campaigns of foreign interventionists, considered it an honor to take part in the national liberation movement of the Chinese people... Crammed Chinese characters, painstakingly studied Chinese history, traditions and customs.”
Scout Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Chuikov went on his first business trip to China in 1926. He later recalled: “Siberia was familiar to me from my combat youth. There, in the fight against Kolchak, I received baptism of fire and in the battles near Buguruslan he became a regiment commander. The campaign against the troops of Kolchak and other generals was harsh tsarist army. Now peaceful platforms flashed outside the carriage window. Towns and villages have healed their fiery wounds. The trains were running - although with frequent lateness, but no longer according to the Civil War schedule. In 1919, our regiment moved by rail from Kurgan to Moscow for more than a month.”
It is from these Kurgan steppes that our family of Vedyaevs comes. In my memories Alexey Dmitrievich Vedyaev writes: “In 1918–1919, the situation in the Trans-Urals was difficult... In the area of Presnovka, Kazanka, Lopatok, Bolshe-Kureinoye, Malo-Kureinoye (the family of my great-grandfather, the blacksmith Dmitry Vedyaev, lived in this village. - A.V.) the 5th fought rifle division consisting of the 1st and 3rd brigades, six regiments. The commander of the 43rd regiment was V.I. Chuikov, who then commanded the 62nd Army at Stalingrad. There were battles with with varying success. Kolchak’s men in Bolshe-Kureinoy shot the priest and burned many houses, believing that the Red Army soldiers were hiding in the church. ...In memory of those battles there are obelisks in Bolshe-Kureinoye and near Lake Kislye. IN Patriotic War, near Rzhev, in this 5th Red Banner rifle division, renamed the 44th Guards, I also had a chance to fight, and under the command of V.I. Chuikov - in Ukraine, Moldova as part of the 8th Guards Army. The ways of the Lord are mysterious."
After Stalingrad, Chuikov’s 62nd Army, renamed the 8th Guards Army, liberated Donbass, Right Bank Ukraine and Odessa, Polish Lublin, crossed the Vistula and Oder, stormed the Seelow Heights - the gateway to Berlin. Chuikov’s guardsmen, having 200 days of fighting experience in the completely destroyed Stalingrad, skillfully fought street battles in Berlin. It was at Chuikov’s command post that on May 2, 1945, the head of the Berlin garrison, artillery general Helmut Weidling, capitulated, also trying to organize the defense of the city, fighting for every house.
But he didn't succeed. But Chuikov survived in Stalingrad - which means he was stronger both as a commander and as a person.
“Chuikov felt the essence of every battle,” tells general — Colonel Anatoly Grigorievich Merezhko, V years wars served assistant boss operational department headquarters 62— th army . - He was persistent and stubborn... Chuikov embodied all the traits that are traditionally attributed to Russians - as the song says: “Walk like that, shoot like that.” For him, war was his life's work. He had irrepressible energy that infected everyone around him: from commanders to soldiers. If Chuikov’s character had been different, we would not have been able to hold Stalingrad.”
The first blow of the Germans rushing to the Volga was taken on August 2, 1942 by the security officers. In his memoirs, Marshal Chuikov writes: "To the soldiers of the 10th division Internal troops NKVD Colonel A.A. Sarajevo had to be the first defenders of Stalingrad, and they passed this most difficult test with honor, courageously and selflessly fought with superior forces enemy until the arrival of units and formations of the 62nd Army."
Of the 7,568 fighters of the 10th NKVD division, about 200 people remained alive. During the night from September 14 to 15, the combined detachment of the state security captain Ivan Timofeevich Petrakov- two incomplete platoons of fighters of the 10th NKVD division and UNKVD workers, with a total number of 90 people - essentially saved Stalingrad for the last frontier at the very crossing, repelling attacks of an entire battalion of German infantry on a narrow strip of shore. Thanks to this, the 13th was able to cross from the left bank and enter into battle. guards division major general Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev.
Both the security officers of Alexander Saraev and the guards of Alexander Rodimtsev were part of the 62nd Army of Vasily Chuikov. Therefore, one can imagine their bewilderment after the publication of the book “The Gulag Archipelago” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
“When I read in Pravda,” writes marshal , - that in our days there was a person who attributes the victory at Stalingrad to the penal battalions, did not believe his eyes... I repeat again: during the Stalingrad epic in Soviet Army there were no penal companies or other penal units. Among the Stalingrad fighters there was not a single penalty fighter. On behalf of the living and dead Stalingraders in battle, on behalf of their fathers and mothers, wives and children, I accuse you, A. Solzhenitsyn, as a dishonest liar and slanderer of the heroes of Stalingrad, our army and our people.”
In fact, the backbone of armies Stalingrad Front were not penal officers, but paratroopers. In 1941, 10 airborne corps (airborne corps), each numbering up to 10 thousand people, were formed. But due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in southern section front they were reorganized into rifle divisions (GKO Decree of July 29, 1942). They immediately received guards ranks and numbers from 32 to 41. Eight of them were sent to Stalingrad.
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. Stalingrad, 1942
The personnel of these divisions for a long time continued to wear Airborne uniform. Many commanders had jackets with fur collars instead of overcoats and high fur boots instead of felt boots. All guardsmen, including officers, continued to wear fins intended for use as “sling cutters”.
Thus, the 5th Airborne Division, withdrawn to reserve in March 1942 VGK rates, was replenished with personnel trained under the Airborne Forces program, and in early August was reorganized into the 39th Guards Rifle Division, which was under the command of Major General Stepan Guryev As part of the 62nd Army, she fought in the southwestern direction, and then in Stalingrad itself on the territory of the Red October plant. The 35th Guards Rifle Division (formerly the 8th Airborne Division) also fought on the near approaches to Stalingrad, and then in the city itself. The division's guards are among the first defenders of the Stalingrad elevator.
It was the paratroopers who cemented the ranks of the defenders of Stalingrad, and among them was my grandfather - Andrey Dmitrievich Vedyaev, who fought in Stalingrad as part of the 36th Guards Rifle Division (formerly 9th Airborne Division). Grandfather “despite his explosive character and liberties... was not noticed in any violations of discipline, - writes about him my father . - Apparently, he knew how to control himself, was brave and resourceful, knew and loved his service well, and found satisfaction in it. They decided that Andrei Dmitrievich Vedyaev should be sent to the enemy’s rear as a company commander in the interests of the cause, and they appointed him to this position.”.
Commander of the 8th Guards Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov puts combat mission. 1944
The guardsmen of Major General Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev who is his first Gold Star He received Hero (No. 45) back in Spain. His son Ilya Alexandrovich, with whom we were recently in the homeland of Marshal Chuikov in Serebryanye Prudy, says: “In the Rodimtsev family, the name Chuikov was always pronounced with special love. The first time Vasily Ivanovich and my father met was in Stalingrad. On the night of September 15, 1942, the 13th Guards Division, commanded by my father, crossed into the burning Stalingrad. For the first day and a half, my father could not even get to the headquarters of the 62nd Army, because the Germans were right next to the Volga. The fighters immediately entered the battle to oust the Germans from the city center and ensure the passage of further units. By the evening of September 15, at the headquarters of the 62nd Army near Mamayev Kurgan, Rodimtsev reported to Chuikov that he had arrived with his division. Vasily Ivanovich asked: “Did you understand the situation in Stalingrad? What are you going to do? My father replied: “I am a communist and I will not leave Stalingrad.” Vasily Ivanovich liked this answer, because a few days before, on September 12, when Chuikov was appointed army commander, the front commander asked him the same question Andrey Eremenko. Chuikov replied that we cannot and will not give up Stalingrad. Thus began the Stalingrad epic. My father was in Stalingrad for 140 days and nights, and never left for the left bank. Chuikov had many divisions in his army, and everyone fought with dignity. However, Vasily Ivanovich himself, remembering his commanders, always singled out three: Alexander Rodimtsev, Ivan Lyudnikov and Viktor Zholudev. After the war, my father met Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov many times, their friendship lasted for the rest of his life. When my father passed away in 1977, Vasily Ivanovich came to our family, remembered Stalingrad and uttered the following words: “It’s hard to say how all this would have ended if it weren’t for the 13th division, which last hours saved the city." Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov is a very large figure. A person was needed for the soldiers to follow. The soldiers could only believe in the commander, about whom they knew that he was with them, that he was nearby. This was precisely the formula of Army Commander Chuikov: “The commander must be with the soldier.” All participants in the Battle of Stalingrad unanimously remember that their commander, their division commanders were always among them: they saw them at the crossing, in the ruins of the houses they defended, in their trenches. Subsequently, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus asked Chuikov: “Mr. General, where was your command post?. Chuikov replied: “On Mamayev Kurgan.” Paulus paused and said: “You know, intelligence reported to me, but I didn’t believe it.”.
But the Germans believed Soviet intelligence, which, during the KGB operation “Monastery”, transmitted misinformation to the Abwehr that the Red Army would go on the offensive not near Stalingrad, but near Rzhev. It was conveyed by the agent “Heine” embedded in the Abwehr, who was then abandoned by the Germans to Moscow under the pseudonym Max. According to legend, in Moscow he was assigned to the General Staff as a liaison officer. His image was partially depicted by Oleg Dahl in the film “Omega Option” (1975).
In his memoirs “Special Operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin. 1930–1950" Head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov(in the film he plays under the name Simakov Evgeniy Evstigneev) writes: “On November 4, 1942, “Heine” - “Max” reported that the Red Army would strike the Germans on November 15 not near Stalingrad, but in the North Caucasus and near Rzhev. The Germans were expecting an attack near Rzhev and repelled it. But the encirclement of the Paulus group at Stalingrad came as a complete surprise to them. Unaware of this radio game, Zhukov paid a heavy price - thousands and thousands of our soldiers under his command were killed in the offensive near Rzhev. In his memoirs he admits that the outcome of this offensive operation was unsatisfactory. But he never found out that the Germans were warned about our offensive in the Rzhev direction, which is why they sent so many troops there.”
Vasily Chuikov (sitting) and Naum Eitingon (standing on the right). Residency in Harbin. Late 1920s
Sudoplatov's deputy was a senior major of state security Nahum Eitingon, at one time invited to central office Cheka itself Felix Dzerzhinsky. Just like Chuikov, he graduated from the Eastern Faculty of the Military Academy and in 1927–1929 was a resident of the INO ( foreign intelligence) OGPU in China under the guise of the position of vice-consul of the USSR in Harbin. At the same time, Vasily Chuikov also worked in Harbin under the IV (intelligence) Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. In 1928, his daughter Ninel was born in Harbin. In the book “At the Ultimate Height,” which was written by the son and daughter of General Eitingon, there is unique photo, made in Harbin. In the photo there are three people playing chess. Two of them are Chuikov and Eitingon.
At that time, the task of the Soviet residencies in China included military assistance Chinese Communist Party, including the supply of weapons, since by the fall of 1927 the commander-in-chief of the Chinese revolutionary army Chiang Kai-shek carried out a counter-revolutionary coup. “Due to the nature of my work, I traveled a lot around the country,” writes Chuikov V his book « Mission V China ". - I have traveled almost the entire Northern and South China, learned to speak Chinese quite fluently".
Working from illegal positions under the name Karpov, he interacts with a group of militant agents Khristofor Salnyn. Advisor for military intelligence the group included Bulgarian Ivan (“Vanko”) Vinarov, later minister People's Republic Bulgaria. On June 4, 1928, Eitingon and Salnyn's group blew up a train carrying the pro-Japanese dictator of Northern China and Manchuria Zhang Zuolin (Huangutun Incident).
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek sits in the center. To his left is the chief military adviser Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. China, 1941
In 1928 Chiang Kai-shek managed to unite all of China under his rule and strengthen his influence in Manchuria. On May 27, 1929, Chinese police destroyed the Soviet Consulate General in Harbin, arresting 80 people and seizing documentation. Chuikov returned to Vladivostok in a roundabout way through Japan and was sent to Khabarovsk, where the Special Far Eastern Army was being formed to repel the aggression of the Chinese, supported by Russian white emigrants and Western powers. " Us, owning Chinese tongue And knowledgeable situation V China, seconded To headquarters army"- writes Chuikov. During the liquidation of the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway, he was next to the army commander Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher and became the head of the 1st (intelligence) Department of the army headquarters. The group of Salnyn and Vinarov also took part in reconnaissance and sabotage operations against the Chinese.
In 1932, Chuikov was demoted: he was transferred to head the Advanced Courses for Intelligence Commanders at the IV Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters to Zagoryanka. The reason was a conflict with a member of the Army Military Council. According to Nikolai Vladimirovich Chuikov, at one of the anniversaries he said something offensive to his grandfather and immediately received a slap in the face. " Chuikova saved combat past - hero Civil wars, Yes And peasant origin. But The main thing - Lord his saved, How would keeping For more important missions" After graduating from the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army in 1936, he participated in the Polish Liberation Campaign (1939) and Soviet-Finnish war(1939–1940) already at the rank of army commander.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov among the soldiers. Germany, 1945
Eitingon, meanwhile, under the name of General Kotov, visited Spain as deputy resident of the NKVD for partisan operations, including sabotage on railways, and in 1940 he led Operation Duck to eliminate worst enemy Soviet power Leon Trotsky. In 1941, he became Sudoplatov’s deputy and, together with Vanko Vinarov went to Turkey for liquidation German Ambassador Franz von Papen. In the same year, Chuikov was sent to China as the chief military adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek with the task of organizing a united front against Japan. As a result of all these actions, neither Türkiye nor Japan dared to attack the USSR.
“When I went to Taiwan,” says Nikolai Vladimirovich Chuikov, “I had special interest called their archive. Before that, I tried to find at least something about Chuikov in Nanjing and Chongqing. But there's nothing there. And the President of Taiwan gave me Chiang Kai-shek’s diary for 1941–1942. His notes confirm that Chuikov did indeed press hard on Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong to unite against Japan rather than engage in civil strife. Here, for example, is an entry dated June 30, 1941:
民国三十年六月30
晚公为德苏战事，约俄总顾问崔克夫来见先予以慰问，并对该国正在进行之战事表示关怀之意，继告之谓俄在远东应先与中国合力解决倭寇，然后再以全力西向对德，如此则俄在东方地位可以安全，而对德亦可进退自如矣，最后并请转告其军政当局中国决尽力相助也。
In the evening, he invited the chief adviser to the USSR, Chuikov, to discuss the war between Germany and the USSR. First he inquired about his health and the situation at the fronts, then he said that Russia must first fight together with China against the Japanese in the east, and then fight the Germans with all its might in the west... In conclusion, he asked to tell the government of the USSR that China would provide him with all possible support.
In the morning he returned to Chongqing and met with the chief military adviser and military attache of the USSR, Chuikov.
Chuikov. Today I received information that the enemy’s high command, in order to implement the plan for an offensive to the south, decided to assemble 17 divisions and regiments, many air forces and naval forces on the islands in the South China Sea. I am afraid that the enemy is spreading such information not in order to go south... but is planning to attack Central and Northern China. In addition, the day before yesterday enemy planes quietly attacked Sichuan province. Their goal is to determine the dislocation Chinese army in the interior provinces rather than its bombing.
Chiang Kai-shek. I think that in the spring the enemy will launch an attack on Central and Northern China.
Chuikov. Yesterday I learned that there were clashes between your troops. What's happening? I need to report to our Generalissimo.
Chiang Kai-shek. This matter still needs to be sorted out.
Chuikov. When I left, our Generalissimo told me that I should support Chairman Chiang Kai-shek. Now your country is threatened by the Japanese. The army must unite under your leadership. None internal conflicts unacceptable... I heard that there are 70,000 people involved in the conflict. Both sides suffer losses, the army commander and chief of staff are captured. I ask you to send people as quickly as possible and sort it out on the spot.
Chiang Kai-shek. As soon as I receive a report from the front, I will send a person to you.
Chuikov. Thank you very much for today's meeting and conversation. I wish you good health. And I hope that the army and people will unite under your wise leadership and resist the Japanese aggressors.
Chan Kaishi. I wish you good health!”
Marshals of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution socialist revolution, 1967
"The problem was - continues Nikolay Vladimirovich , - that Mao did not follow the orders of the commander-in-chief - Chiang Kai-shek. It seems to me that Chiang Kai-shek was tired of this, and the column of the 4th Army, which formed the basis of the Red Army of China, was hit. Its commander Ye Ting was sent to prison, 10 thousand communists were shot. Mao was planning to retaliate. These events put Chuikov's mission in jeopardy. He came to Chiang Kai-shek - he shrugged his shoulders, saying that he did not give such orders. Then the grandfather tried to find out this question at the boss's General Staff. Chuikov’s character was explosive, and in a raised voice, he threw a palace vase at him, threatening that if this happened again, then there would be no more help from the USSR. The threats worked - Chiang Kai-shek was afraid that we would remove all military advisers and stop military-technical assistance. Grandfather also managed to contact Georgiy Dimitrov, and he put pressure on Mao through the Comintern. As a result, Chuikov resolved this situation. Returning from China, he reported to Stalin that the task had been completed: it was possible to unite the efforts of the CPC and the Kuomintang, the 4th and 8th armies. That is why the Japanese did not attack us, but began bombing Pearl Harbor. But if the Japanese invaded the USSR, and at the level of Siberia and the Urals, where we evacuated industry, it would be a nightmare.”
- Nikolai Vladimirovich, what were the features of Chuikov’s tactics in Stalingrad?
- Chuikov, being a professional intelligence officer, noticed that the Germans were attacking in a rather formulaic manner. At the same time, the scheme of their attack was clearly worked out. First, aircraft take off and begin bombing. Then the artillery turns on, and works mainly on the first echelon, and not on the second. The tanks begin to move, and infantry marches under their cover. But if this scheme is broken, their attack will choke. Grandfather noticed that where our trenches came close to the German ones, the Germans did not bomb. And their main trump card was aviation. Chuikov's idea was simple - reduce the distance to 50 m before throwing a grenade. Thus, they knocked out the main trump card - aviation and artillery. The task was to keep this distance all the time, to penetrate the Germans. And then the use of small reconnaissance and sabotage groups (RDG), the capture and retention of individual buildings - such as, for example, Pavlov’s house. The Germans burst into the city on a whim, marching in tank columns almost with harmonicas. And bang! first car, bang! the last one - and let's shoot, burn with Molotov cocktails. Like the Chechens in Grozny recently. And be sure to counterattack and conduct an active defense. Grandfather realized that the Germans most dislike hand-to-hand combat and night battle. They are comfortable people - they fought from dawn, as expected. They press us towards the Volga during the day, and we counterattack them at night and actually push us back to our original positions or even further. That is, it turned out to be a kind of swing. Separately, snipers. I studied at a military school according to the combat regulations that Chuikov developed. The actions of these small RDGs are clearly spelled out there. They are given the order to advance. You run in dashes, two fighters from the firing sector take over to cover you. You ran to the doors - first a grenade flies there, then a burst of fire, then a dash. And again - a grenade, a burst, a dash.
- Subsequently, this tactic was used by the special forces of the KGB of the USSR, for example, the Zenit and Grom groups during the capture of Amin’s palace in Kabul.
- It is no coincidence that my grandfather was awarded highest award KGB of the USSR - the sign “Honorary State Security Officer”.
- By the way, after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, both Chuikov and Eitingon were awarded the highest military orders: Lieutenant General Chuikov - the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, and Major General Eitingon - the Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree. Captain Demyanov (agent "Heine"), already awarded by the Germans Iron Cross, received the Order of the Red Star...
- Grandfather always said that everyone who passed through Stalingrad is a hero. That’s why Zhukov took Chuikov to himself, because the 8th guards army transferred to the 1st Belorussian Front all the way from the south of Ukraine and from Moldova. Because he needed a man whose soldiers could skillfully take bastions, a “general of assault.”
- And Vasily Ivanovich himself was an example of courage and perseverance, never leaving Stalingrad or going to the left bank.
“It even happened that the artillery was hammering, they came running to the headquarters: “Comrade commander, the Germans broke through there.” And he sits quietly and plays chess with his adjutant. After all, he imagines the situation: “Have you broken through?” And he gives the command to bring in such and such a battalion. Or redeploy part of the regiment and deploy artillery fire. At the same time, no fear, no fuss. For 200 days he washed himself only in parts. Once I went to the bank of the Volga to go to the bathhouse, and saw soldiers watching. He turned around and back, so that no one would think anything. In general, I don’t know how my grandfather was able to hold Stalingrad. At that time, if they had offered someone to take his place, they wouldn’t have agreed very much. Because, consider yourself to be certain death. It is still a bit of a miracle that he managed to survive there and hold on.
In July 1981, Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov wrote a letter to the CPSU Central Committee: “Feeling the approaching end of my life, in full consciousness I make a request: after my death, bury my ashes on the Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad... From that place you can hear the roar of the Volga waters, volleys of guns and the pain of the Stalingrad ruins, thousands of soldiers whom I commanded are buried there...
