It is believed that of the 83 generals of the Red Army who were captured by the Nazis, the fate of only one remains unknown - divisional commissar Seraphim Nikolaev. In fact, it turns out that there is no reliable information about at least 10 more captured senior commanders. German historians write one thing about them, ours write another, and the data differ radically. But what is the data, they still haven’t accurately counted how many of them there were, captured generals - either 83 people, or 72?
Official data says that 26 Soviet generals died in German captivity - some died of illness, some were killed by guards in a rash manner, others were shot. Seven who betrayed the oath were hanged in the so-called Vlasov case. Another 17 people were shot on the basis of Headquarters order No. 270 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions.” At least with them everything is more or less clear. What about the others? What happened to the others?
Who collaborated with the Germans - General Mishutin or his double?
Perhaps the most controversial among historians is the fate of Major General Pavel Semyonovich Mishutin, the hero of the battles for Khalkhin Gol. The Great Patriotic War found him in Belarus - Mishutin commanded a rifle division. One day the general disappeared without a trace, along with several officers. It was believed that they died, but in 1954 the Americans provided information that Mishutin occupied a high position in one of the Western intelligence services and allegedly worked in Frankfurt.
German historians have a version that Mishutin collaborated with Vlasov, and after the war he was recruited by the commander of the American 7th Army, General Patch. But Soviet historians put forward a different version of the fate of General Mishutin: he really was captured and died. A.
The idea of a double came to the mind of General Ernst-August Köstring, who was responsible for the formation of “native” military units. He was struck by the external similarity between the Soviet general and his subordinate, Colonel Paul Malgren. At first, Koestring tried to persuade Mishutin to go over to the side of the Germans, but, making sure that our general did not intend to trade his homeland, he tried to resort to blackmail. Having ordered Malgren to be made up, he showed him to Mishutin in the uniform of a Soviet general without insignia and shoulder straps (this episode is given in the Soviet collection of memoirs “The Chekists Tell,” published in 1976). By the way, Malgren spoke Russian well, so it was quite easy to carry out the forgery.
There is also no clarity on the fate of the commander of the Ural Military District, Lieutenant General Philip Ershakov. At the beginning of the war, the district was transformed into the 22nd Army and sent into the thick of it, to the Western Front.
In August 1941, Ershakov’s army was virtually defeated near Smolensk, but the general survived. And, strangely enough, he was not court-martialed, but was entrusted with command of the 20th Army. A month later, the Germans smashed this army to smithereens near Vyazma - and again Ershakov survived. But the future fate of the general raises many questions. Soviet historians defend the version that Ershakov died in the Hammelburg concentration camp less than a year after his capture, citing the camp memory book. But there is no evidence that it was General Ershakov who was held in Hammelburg.
Two generals: such similar fates and such different endings
If there is no clarity at all about the fates of Mishutin and Ershakov, then the biographies of army commanders Ponedelin and Potapov are more or less known. And yet, there are still a lot of secrets and unsolved mysteries in these biographies. During the war, five of our army commanders were captured - among them were Ponedelin and Potapov. By order of Headquarters No. 270 of August 16, 1941, Pavel Ponedelin was declared a malicious deserter and sentenced to death in absentia.
It is known that until the end of April 1945, the general was kept in a German concentration camp. And then things get weird. The camp where the general was kept was liberated by American troops. Ponedelin was offered to serve in the US Army, but he refused, and on May 3 he was handed over to the Soviet side. It would seem that the sentence has not been overturned; Ponedelin should be shot. Instead, the general is released and goes to Moscow. For six months, the general cheerfully “washes” his victory and his unexpected liberation in the capital’s restaurants. No one even thinks of detaining him and carrying out the current sentence.
Ponedelin was arrested just before the New Year holidays, December 30, 1945. He spends four and a half years in Lefortovo, to put it mildly, in gentle conditions (there is information that food was brought to the general from the restaurant). And on August 25, 1950, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the general to capital punishment, and he was shot that same day. Strange, isn't it?
The fate of Major General of the Tank Forces Mikhail Potapov looks no less strange. The commander of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front was captured in the fall of 1941 under circumstances similar to the capture of Ponedelin. Just like Ponedelin, Potapov stayed in German camps until April 1945. And then - a completely different fate. If Ponedelin is released on all four sides, then Potapov is taken under arrest to Moscow, to Stalin.
And - lo and behold! – Stalin gives the order to reinstate the general in service. Moreover, Potapov was awarded another title, and in 1947 he graduated from higher courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff. Potapov rose to the rank of Colonel General - even his personal meeting with Hitler and rumors that the Red commander, while in captivity, allegedly “consulted” the German command, did not hinder his career growth.
The traitor to the Motherland turned out to be a scout carrying out a combat mission
The fates of some captured generals are so exciting that they could become scenarios for action adventure films. The commander of the 36th Rifle Corps, Major General Pavel Sysoev, was captured near Zhitomir in the summer of 1941 while trying to escape the encirclement. The general escaped from captivity, acquired the uniform and documents of a private, but he was caught again, although they never recognized him as a military leader. After running around concentration camps, in August 1943, the general escaped again, assembled a partisan detachment and beat the Nazis. Less than a year later, the partisan hero was summoned to Moscow, where he was arrested; Sysoev spent six months behind bars. After the war, the general was reinstated in the service and, having completed the highest academic courses at the General Staff, retired and began teaching.
The chief of staff of the 6th Rifle Corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, Boris Richter, was a career officer in the tsarist army, a nobleman who voluntarily went over to the side of the Red Army. Richter not only successfully survived various personnel purges, but also received the rank of major general in 1940. And then - war and captivity.
In Soviet times, the official version of the future life of General Richter said: in 1942, under the name Rudayev, he headed the Abwehr reconnaissance and sabotage school in Warsaw, and on this basis, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death in absentia.
In August 1945, he was allegedly detained and shot, but... it turned out that Richter was not shot at all, but disappeared without a trace in the last days of the war. Archival data declassified several years ago indicate that Major General Boris Richter carried out a Soviet intelligence mission in the German rear, and after the war he continued to fulfill his duty to the Motherland, being in the close circle of the German General Gehlen, the founding father of the West German intelligence services.
Friedrich Paulus
Field Marshal General, commander of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht.
Captured near Stalingrad on January 31, 1943 .
Sixtus von Arnom
Lieutenant General, commander of the 113th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured near Stalingrad.
Constantin Britescu
Brigadier General, commander of the Romanian 1st Cavalry Division. Captured near Stalingrad.
Hans Hans Wultz
Major General, Chief of Artillery of the 4th Artillery Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 30, 1943.
Walter Geitz
Colonel General, commander of the 8th Army Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. One of the most loyal officers to the Reich. Captured near Stalingrad. Died in captivity in 1944.
Alexander Maximilian von Daniels
Lieutenant General, commander of the 376th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured in Stalingrad on January 29, 1943. Vice-chairman of the Union of German Officers, created from prisoners of war in September 1943.
Heinrich Anton Debois
Lieutenant General, commander of the 44th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 28, 1943.
Romulus Dimitriou
Brigadier General of the Romanian Army, commander of the 20th Infantry Division.
Captured near Stalingrad.
Moritz von Drebwehr
Major General, commander of the 297th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht.
Captured near Stalingrad.
Heinrich Dusseldorf
Oberefreytor, clerk of the headquarters of the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht. Served as a translator. Died in 2001.
Walter Alexander von Seydlitz-Kurzbach
General of Artillery, commander of the 51st Army Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 31, 1943. He was one of the supporters of an unauthorized breakout from encirclement. Chairman of the Union of German Officers.
Otto von Corfes
Lieutenant General, commander of the 295th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 31, 1943.
Martin Wilhelm Lattman
Lieutenant General, commander of the 389th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured in Stalingrad on February 1, 1943.
Hans Georg Leiser
Lieutenant General, commander of the 29th Motorized Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 31, 1943.
Arno Richard von Lenski
Major General, commander of the 24th Panzer Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on February 2, 1943.
Erich Albert Magnus
Major General, commander of the 389th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on February 1, 1943.
Max Karl Pfeffer
Lieutenant General of Artillery, commander of the 4th Army Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured near Stalingrad.
Otto-Carl Wilhelm Repoldi
Brigadier general of the medical service, head of the sanitary service of the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht. Captured at Stalingrad on January 28, 1943.
Karl Rodenburg
Lieutenant General, commander of the 76th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured near Stalingrad.
Fritz Georg Roske
Major General, commander of the 71st Infantry Division of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht, commander of the southern group of German troops in Stalingrad. Captured on January 31, 1943.
Ulrich Fasel
Major General, Chief of Artillery of the 51st Army Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht.
Werner Schlömmer
Lieutenant General, commander of the 14th Tank Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. Captured near Stalingrad.
Arthur Schmidt
Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. One of the most loyal officers to the Reich. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, in October 1955 he returned to Hamburg, where he lived in recent years.
Karl Strecker
Colonel General, commander of the 11th Army Corps of the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht, commander of the northern group of German forces in Stalingrad. Captured in the Stalingrad area on February 2, 1943.
During World War II, 5,740,000 Soviet prisoners of war passed through the crucible of German captivity. Moreover, only about 1 million were in concentration camps by the end of the war. The German lists of the dead showed a figure of about 2 million. Of the remaining number, 818,000 collaborated with the Germans, 473,000 were killed in camps in Germany and Poland, 273,000 died and about half a million were killed en route, 67,000 soldiers and officers escaped. According to statistics, two out of three Soviet prisoners of war died in German captivity. The first year of the war was especially terrible in this regard. Of the 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Germans during the first six months of the war, about 2 million were dead or exterminated by January 1942. The mass extermination of Soviet prisoners of war even exceeded the rate of reprisals against Jews during the peak of the anti-Semitic campaign in Germany.
Surprisingly, the architect of the genocide was not a member of the SS or even a representative of the Nazi Party, but just an elderly general who had been in military service since 1905. This is Infantry General Hermann Reinecke, who headed the department of prisoners of war losses in the German army. Even before the start of Operation Barbarossa, Reinecke made a proposal to isolate Jewish prisoners of war and transfer them into the hands of the SS for “special processing.” Later, as a judge of the "people's court", he sentenced hundreds of German Jews to the gallows.
83 (according to other sources - 72) generals of the Red Army were captured by the Germans, mainly in 1941–1942. Among the prisoners of war were several army commanders and dozens of corps and division commanders. The vast majority of them remained faithful to the oath, and only a few agreed to cooperate with the enemy. Of these, 26 (23) people died for various reasons: shot, killed by camp guards, died from disease. The rest were deported to the Soviet Union after the Victory. Of the latter, 32 people were repressed (7 were hanged in the Vlasov case, 17 were shot on the basis of Headquarters order No. 270 of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions”) and for “wrong” behavior in captivity 8 generals were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The remaining 25 people were acquitted after more than six months of verification, but then gradually transferred to the reserve.
Many of the fates of those Soviet generals who were captured by Germans are still unknown. Here are just a few examples.
Today, the fate of Major General Bogdanov, who commanded the 48th Infantry Division, which was destroyed in the first days of the war as a result of the Germans advancing from the border to Riga, remains a mystery. In captivity, Bogdanov joined the Gil-Rodinov brigade, which was formed by the Germans from representatives of Eastern European nationalities to carry out anti-partisan tasks. Lieutenant Colonel Gil-Rodinov himself was the chief of staff of the 29th Infantry Division before his capture. Bogdanov took the position of chief of counterintelligence. In August 1943, the brigade's soldiers killed all German officers and went over to the side of the partisans. Gil-Rodinov was later killed while fighting on the side of the Soviet troops. The fate of Bogdanov, who went over to the side of the partisans, is unknown.
Major General Dobrozerdov headed the 7th Rifle Corps, which in August 1941 was tasked with stopping the advance of the German 1st Panzer Group to the Zhitomir region. The corps' counterattack failed, partially contributing to the Germans' encirclement of the Southwestern Front near Kiev. Dobrozerdov survived and was soon appointed chief of staff of the 37th Army. This was the period when, on the left bank of the Dnieper, the Soviet command regrouped the scattered forces of the Southwestern Front. In this leapfrog and confusion, Dobrozerdov was captured. The 37th Army itself was disbanded at the end of September and then re-established under the command of Lopatin for the defense of Rostov. Dobrozerdov withstood all the horrors of captivity and returned to his homeland after the war. His further fate is unknown.
Lieutenant General Ershakov was, in the full sense, one of those who were lucky enough to survive Stalin’s repressions. In the summer of 1938, at the height of the purge process, he became commander of the Ural Military District. In the first days of the war, the district was transformed into the 22nd Army, which became one of three armies sent to the very thick of the battles - to the Western Front. At the beginning of July, the 22nd Army was unable to stop the advance of the German 3rd Panzer Group towards Vitebsk and was completely destroyed in August. However, Ershakov managed to escape. In September 1941, he took command of the 20th Army, which was defeated in the Battle of Smolensk. At the same time, under unknown circumstances, Ershakov himself was captured. He returned from captivity, but his further fate is unknown.
The fate of Major General Mishutin is full of secrets and mysteries. He was born in 1900, took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he commanded a rifle division in Belarus. There he disappeared without a trace during the fighting (a fate shared by thousands of Soviet soldiers). In 1954, former allies informed Moscow that Mishutin held a high position in one of the Western intelligence services and worked in Frankfurt. According to the presented version, the general first joined Vlasov, and in the last days of the war he was recruited by General Patch, commander of the American 7th Army, and became a Western agent. Another story, presented by the Russian writer Tamaev, seems more realistic, according to which an NKVD officer who investigated the fate of General Mishutin proved that Mishutin was shot by the Germans for refusing to cooperate, and his name was used by a completely different person who was recruiting prisoners of war into the Vlasov army. At the same time, the documents on the Vlasov movement do not contain any information about Mishutin, and the Soviet authorities, through their agents among prisoners of war, from interrogations of Vlasov and his accomplices after the war, would undoubtedly have established the actual fate of General Mishutin. In addition, if Mishutin died as a hero, then it is not clear why there is no information about him in Soviet publications on the history of Khalkhin Gol. From all of the above it follows that the fate of this man still remains a mystery.
At the beginning of the war, Lieutenant General Muzychenko commanded the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. The army included two huge mechanized corps, on which the Soviet command had high hopes (they, unfortunately, did not come true). The 6th Army managed to provide strong resistance to the enemy during the defense of Lvov. Subsequently, the 6th Army fought in the area of the cities of Brody and Berdichev, where, as a result of poorly coordinated actions and lack of air support, it was defeated. On July 25, the 6th Army was transferred to the Southern Front and destroyed in the Uman pocket. General Muzychenko was also captured at the same time. He passed through captivity, but was not reinstated. It should be noted that Stalin’s attitude towards the generals who fought on the Southern Front and were captured there was harsher than towards the generals captured on other fronts.
Major General Ogurtsov commanded the 10th Tank Division, which was part of the 15th Mechanized Corps of the Southwestern Front. The defeat of the division as part of the “Volsky group” south of Kyiv decided the fate of this city. Ogurtsov was captured, but managed to escape while being transported from Zamosc to Hammelsburg. He joined a group of partisans in Poland, led by Manzhevidze. On October 28, 1942, he died in battle on Polish territory.
Major General of Tank Forces Potapov was one of five army commanders whom the Germans captured during the war. Potapov distinguished himself in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, where he commanded the Southern Group. At the beginning of the war, he commanded the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front. This association fought, perhaps, better than others until Stalin made the decision to shift the “center of attention” to Kyiv. On September 20, 1941, during fierce battles near Poltava, Potapov was captured. There is information that Hitler himself talked to Potapov, trying to convince him to go over to the side of the Germans, but the Soviet general flatly refused. After his release, Potapov was awarded the Order of Lenin, and later promoted to the rank of colonel general. Then he was appointed to the post of first deputy commander of the Odessa and Carpathian military districts. His obituary was signed by all representatives of the high command, which included several marshals. The obituary, naturally, said nothing about his captivity and stay in German camps.
The last general (and one of two Air Force generals) captured by the Germans was Aviation Major General Polbin, commander of the 6th Guards Bomber Corps, which supported the activities of the 6th Army, which surrounded Breslau in February 1945. He was wounded, captured and killed. Only later did the Germans establish the identity of this man. His fate was completely typical of everyone who was captured in the last months of the war.
Division Commissioner Rykov was one of two high-ranking commissars captured by the Germans. The second person of the same rank captured by the Germans was the commissar of the brigade, Zhilenkov, who managed to hide his identity and who later joined the Vlasov movement. Rykov joined the Red Army in 1928 and by the beginning of the war was commissar of the military district. In July 1941, he was appointed one of two commissars assigned to the Southwestern Front. The second was Burmistenko, a representative of the Ukrainian Communist Party. During the breakthrough from the Kyiv cauldron, Burmistenko, and with him the front commander Kirponos and the chief of staff Tupikov, were killed, and Rykov was wounded and captured. Hitler's order required the immediate destruction of all captured commissars, even if this meant eliminating "important sources of information." Therefore, the Germans tortured Rykov to death.
Major General Susoev, commander of the 36th Rifle Corps, was captured by the Germans dressed in the uniform of an ordinary soldier. He managed to escape, after which he joined an armed gang of Ukrainian nationalists, and then went over to the side of the pro-Soviet Ukrainian partisans, led by the famous Fedorov. He refused to return to Moscow, preferring to remain with the partisans. After the liberation of Ukraine, Susoev returned to Moscow, where he was rehabilitated.
Air Major General Thor, who commanded the 62nd Air Division, was a first-class military pilot. In September 1941, while commander of a long-range aviation division, he was shot down and wounded while conducting ground combat. He went through many German camps and actively participated in the resistance movement of Soviet prisoners in Hammelsburg. The fact, of course, did not escape the attention of the Gestapo. In December 1942, Thor was transported to Flussenberg, where he was shot in January 1943.
Major General Vishnevsky was captured less than two weeks after he assumed command of the 32nd Army. At the beginning of October 1941, this army was abandoned near Smolensk, where within a few days it was completely destroyed by the enemy. This happened at a time when Stalin was assessing the likelihood of military defeat and planning to move to Kuibyshev, which, however, did not prevent him from issuing an order for the destruction of a number of senior officers who were shot on July 22, 1941. Among them: the commander of the Western Front, Army General Pavlov; Chief of Staff of this front, Major General Klimovskikh; the chief of communications of the same front, Major General Grigoriev; Commander of the 4th Army, Major General Korobkov. Vishnevsky withstood all the horrors of German captivity and returned to his homeland. However, his further fate is unknown.
In general, it is interesting to compare the scale of losses of Soviet and German generals.
416 Soviet generals and admirals died or died during the 46 and a half months of war.
Data on the enemy appeared already in 1957, when a study by Foltmann and Müller-Witten was published in Berlin. The dynamics of deaths among Wehrmacht generals was as follows. Only a few people died in 1941–1942. In 1943–1945, 553 generals and admirals were captured, of which over 70 percent were captured on the Soviet-German front. These same years accounted for the vast majority of deaths among senior officers of the Third Reich.
The total losses of the German generals are twice the number of killed Soviet senior officers: 963 versus 416. Moreover, in certain categories the excess was significantly greater. For example, as a result of accidents, two and a half times more German generals died, 3.2 times more went missing, and eight times more died in captivity than Soviet generals. Finally, 110 German generals committed suicide, which is an order of magnitude more than the same cases in the ranks of the Soviet army. Which speaks to the catastrophic decline in the morale of Hitler’s generals towards the end of the war.
Generals who died in captivity during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, but did not repeat the “feat” of General Vlasov
Major General Alaverdov Christopher Nikolaevich.
Born on May 25, 1895 in the village of Ogbin in Armenia in a peasant family. Labored. Didn't finish school, self-taught. In 1914 he was mobilized into the tsarist army, until 1917 he participated in the 1st World War as a private, non-commissioned officer, and second lieutenant.
Since February 1918 - voluntarily in the Red Army. Participant in the Civil War: in 1918, as a private in the Kuban against Kaledin’s troops; in 1919 in Ukraine as a platoon commander of an Armenian regiment against the Germans and Skoropadsky’s troops. He was wounded in the head. In 1920-1921, on the Eastern Front, he was a squadron commander and commander of the 2nd Petrograd Regiment against Kolchak’s troops; in 1921-1924 in Ukraine, commander of a cavalry regiment of the 9th Cavalry Division against Makhno and other gangs. He studied at the Kyiv United Military School for two years, and then fought in Tajikistan for another year as the chief of staff of a cavalry regiment against the Basmachi. In this position, he served another four years in the Moscow Military District and two years as a regiment commander of the 2nd Armenian Cavalry Division in the Transcaucasian Military District. In 1935, Alaverdov graduated from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, for a year he commanded a Cossack cavalry regiment in the Kuban, and then for two years he was a student at the Military Academy of the General Staff and for another three years he taught at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. From February 1940 he became commander of the 113th Infantry Division of the Belarusian Special Military District. On June 5, 1940, Alaverdov was awarded the rank of major general. From March 21, 1940, he was a brigade commander, and from February 22, 1938, a colonel. From the end of 1939 until March 1940, the division took part in the war with Finland, then returned to its district.
From June 22, 1941, Alaverdov, at the head of his division, participated in the border battle on the South-Western Front, then in the Kyiv defensive operation. Together with other front troops, the division was surrounded by superior enemy tank forces. While trying to escape the encirclement, Alaverdov and a group of commanders and fighters came across an ambush by significant Nazi forces. A firefight ensued. Alaverdov fired back with a machine gun, then with a pistol, but was still captured. He was taken to Germany, to the Hammelburg camp. He immediately began conducting anti-fascist agitation among prisoners of war, calling for action against the cruel regime of the camp. For this he was transferred to Nuremberg prison. But even here Alaverdov continued his campaigning, repeatedly saying that he was convinced of the victory of the Red Army. At the end of 1942, the Nazis took him out of his cell and shot him. General Alaverdov was awarded the orders: 2 Red Banners (1938 and 1940), Red Banner of Labor (1938).
Major General of Technical Troops Baranov Sergei Vasilievich.
Born on April 2, 1897 in the village of Sistovo, Leningrad Region, into a working-class family. He graduated from the 6th grade vocational school in St. Petersburg and in -1917 - the school for warrant officers.
From July 23, 1918 - in the Red Army, he worked in the military registration and enlistment office. In 1919-1921 - on the fronts of the Civil War as a platoon commander and head of battery communications. In 1923 he graduated from the infantry command school. Until 1930, he commanded transport units, then completed advanced training courses for command personnel. He commanded a rifle battalion for two years. In 1933 he graduated from the school of tank technicians and for six years commanded a battalion of cadets there. Since 1939 - commander of the 48th motor transport brigade. In 1940 - assistant inspector general of the armored department of the Red Army. On June 4, 1940, Baranov was awarded the rank of major general. He was a brigade commander from September 11, 1939, a colonel from April 4, 1938. From March 11, 1941, he commanded the 212th motorized rifle division in the Belarusian Special Military District, and entered into battle with it on the very first day of the Great Patriotic War in the Western front. The division, under pressure from large tank forces, retreated to the old border. Here it was surrounded east of Minsk and suffered heavy losses. While trying to escape the encirclement, General Baranov was wounded and captured in mid-July.
He was in a German hospital in Grodno, and after recovery - in the Zamosc prisoner of war camp in Poland. In February 1942, he fell ill with typhus here and died from exhaustion. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1919).
Major General Danilov Sergey Evlampievich.
Born on September 5, 1895 in the village of Nechaevka, Yaroslavl region, in a peasant family. In 1915 he graduated from the Moscow Real School, and in 1916 from the Alekseevsky Military School of the Tsarist Army. He took part in the battles of the 1st World War as a company commander and lieutenant.
In July 1918, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. Participant in the Civil War: in 1919 - on the Northern Front as a company commander against Yudenich’s troops; in 1920 on the Western Front as a battalion commander and assistant regiment commander against the White Poles. Was injured. Until 1930 he commanded a rifle battalion. Then he worked in the combat training department of the Belarusian Military District. In 1933 he graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy and in 1934 became the head of the tactics department at the Military Academy of Communications. In 1938-1939 he was an assistant division commander, and then commander of the 280th Infantry Division of the 50th Army. On June 4, 1940, Danilov was awarded the rank of major general. He was a colonel since August 27, 1938.
From August 1941, he took part in battles on Bryansk, then on the Western Front, in the battle of Moscow. In March 1942, during the Rzhev-Vyazemsk operation, Danilov's division was surrounded by the enemy east of Rzhev. While escaping from encirclement in one of the battles, Danilov was wounded and, together with a group of commanders of his headquarters, captured. He lay in a German hospital, then was taken to Germany to the Flessenburg camp. For refusing to cooperate with the Nazis, he was transferred to Nuremberg prison.
From chronic malnutrition, illness and frequent beatings, he died on March 1, 1944 and was burned in a crematorium. General Danilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1938).
Lieutenant General Ershakov Philip Afanasyevich.
Born in October 1893 in the village of Taganka, Smolensk region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a rural school and worked on his father's farm. In 1912 he was drafted into the tsarist army and took part in the 1st World War. In 1916 he graduated from the regimental training team and became a senior non-commissioned officer.
In 1918 he joined the Red Army. Participant of the Civil War in 1918-1920 on the South-Western and Southern Fronts as a platoon, company, and battalion commander. Until 1924 he was assistant regiment commander. He graduated from the higher command courses "Vystrel" and from 1924 to 1930 commanded a rifle regiment. For two years he was an assistant, and from 1932 - commander of a rifle division. In 1934, in a special group of senior commanders, he graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, then again commanded a division for two years, and then a corps for two years. In 1938, Ershakov became deputy commander of the troops of the Ural Military District, and at the end of the year, commander this district. On June 4, 1940, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
Since September 1941, on the Western Front, General Ershakov commanded the 20th Army, participated in the Battle of Smolensk and in the Vyazemsk defensive operation. At the beginning of October, during this operation, his army, along with other armies of the front, was surrounded by the enemy. On October 10, 1941, while escaping from encirclement, Ershakov was captured after a firefight. He was taken to Germany, to the Hammelburg camp.
Ershakov refused all offers from the Nazis to cooperate with them. He was subjected to systematic beatings, from which he died in July 1942.
General Ershakov was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner (1919, 1920).
Major General Zusmanovich Grigory Moiseevich.
Born on June 29, 1889 in the village of Khortitsa, Dnepropetrovsk region, in the family of a craftsman. He graduated from the 4th grade of a rural school. For five years he worked at a steam mill. He served in the tsarist army from 1910 to 1917. Since 1914, he participated in the 1st World War as a senior non-commissioned officer.
In December 1917 he joined the Red Guard, in February 1918 - the Red Army. He took part in the Civil War: in 1918, as the head of a detachment in Ukraine against the Germans and white gangs, then on the Eastern Front as the head of food supplies for the army against the Czech formations and Kolchak’s troops. In 1919, on the Southern Front - the head of the 47th Infantry Division of the 12th Army, and later the head of the 2nd Tula Infantry Division, he fought against Denikin's troops. In 1920 he was military commissar of the Oryol Military District. In 1921-1922 - the Dagestan Republic, and until 1925 - the Stavropol Territory and the Don District.
In 1926, Zusmanovich completed advanced training courses for senior command personnel at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy and worked as a military commissar of the Karachay Republic for two years. From 1928 to 1935 he was commander and commissar of the 2nd Ukrainian Convoy Division of the Ukrainian Military District. Then for two years he commanded the 45th Infantry Division in the Kiev Military District, being at the same time the commandant of the Novograd-Volyn fortified area. In 1937-1940 he served in the Transcaucasian Military District as chief of logistics and chief of supply for the district. On June 4, 1940, Zusmanovich was awarded the rank of major general. Before that, from June 1937, he was a division commander.
He worked for a year as a senior teacher and assistant to the head of the quartermaster academy, and in September 1941 he became deputy commander for logistics of the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. During the Kyiv defensive operation, the army was surrounded. The troops received orders to leave the encirclement in separate groups. Zusmanovich brought one out for them. Army control was restored, it received divisions from the Southern Front and Headquarters reserves. Zusmanovich remained the head of the army's logistics and participated in the Donbass and Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya offensive operations of the Southwestern Front. In the Battle of Kharkov in May 1942, the army, along with the rest of the front troops, was surrounded east of Krasnograd. This time, Zusmanovich failed to escape the encirclement. In a firefight with the group he led, he was wounded in the leg and could not move. While lying down he fired back with a pistol, but several German soldiers fell on him and took him prisoner.
He was in a hospital in the Polish city of Kholm, then in a prisoner of war camp there. In July 1942 he was taken to Germany, to the Hammelburg camp.
For refusing to cooperate with the Nazis, he was transferred to Nuremberg prison and then to Weißenburg fortress. He died from exhaustion and continuous beatings in July 1944. General Zusmanovich was awarded the orders of the Red Banner (1924) and the Red Banner of Labor of Ukraine (1932).
Lieutenant General Karbyshev Dmitry Mikhailovich.
Born on October 27, 1880 in Omsk in the family of a military official. He graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and in 1900 from the Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg. Served in the military. In 1911 he graduated from the Military Engineering Academy. Participated in the 1st World War as a lieutenant colonel.
In February 1918, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. Participant in the Civil War: in 1918-1920 on the Eastern Front as head of defensive construction and chief of army engineers; in 1921 on the Southern Front - deputy head of the front engineering service. Until 1924 he served in the military development department of the Red Army, then as a teacher at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, and from 1936 at the Military Academy of the General Staff. Author of over 100 scientific works, professor (1938), Doctor of Military Sciences (1941). On June 4, 1940, Karbyshev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Before that, from February 22, 1938, he was a division commander.
In June 1941, Karbyshev conducted an inspection of defensive structures in the Belarusian Special Military District. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he retreated to the east along with the troops and in July was surrounded in Western Belarus. Coming out of it, on August 8, he was seriously wounded in battle and captured. He was treated in a German hospital. Then he was sent to the Zamosc camp in Poland. He repeatedly refused to go into the service of the Nazis and cooperate with them. Conducted anti-fascist underground work among prisoners of war.
He passed through the camps of Hammelburg, Nuremberg, and Lublin, where he was systematically beaten. On February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen camp on the parade ground, he was tied to a post and, while being doused with water, was frozen to death.
General Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the Title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1946), he was awarded the orders of Lenin (1946), Red Banner (1940), Red Star (1938). Monuments to him were erected in Mauthausen and in Karbyshev’s homeland in Omsk.
Major General Kuleshov Andrey Danilovich.
Born on August 11, 1893 in the village of Semenkovo, Moscow Region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a 4-year zemstvo school and worked on his father’s farm. In 1914 - mobilized into the tsarist army, until 1917 he participated in the 1st World War as a private and non-commissioned officer.
Since February 1918 - in the Red Army. In 1918-1922 he fought on the fronts of the Civil War as a commissar of a regiment, brigade and division. Then he served as commander of a rifle regiment for two years, then studied at the higher command courses of the Red Army for a year. From 1925 to 1933 he was commander of a rifle division, then for three years he was a student at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. After graduating from the academy, he commanded a division for another year, and from 1937, a special rifle corps. In 1938, he was arrested and spent a year in prison under investigation, after which he was dismissed from the Red Army. In 1940, he was rehabilitated, reinstated in the army and appointed senior lecturer at the Military Academy of the General Staff. On June 4, 1940, he was awarded the rank of major general.
At the beginning of 1941, Kuleshov was appointed commander of the 64th Rifle Corps of the North Caucasus Military District, and with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, deputy commander of the 38th Army of the Southwestern Front. He took part in the defense on the Dnieper and in the Kyiv defensive operation. In December 1941, Kuleshov was appointed commander of the 175th Infantry Division of the 28th Army.
After the Battle of Kharkov in 1942, during the retreat of troops to the east, enemy tanks in the area of the village of Ilyushevka near Olkhovatka on the Chernaya Kalitva River on July 13, 1942 broke through the division’s battle formations and attacked its command post. In a firefight, Kuleshov was captured.
From continuous beatings and hunger in the spring of 1944 he died in the Flessenburg concentration camp. General Kuleshov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1922).
Major General Kulikov Konstantin Efimovich.
Born on May 18, 1896 in the village of Vitomovo, Tver Region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a 4-grade rural school and worked on his father’s farm. From 1914 to 1917 he participated in the 1st World War as a soldier and non-commissioned officer.
In 1917 he joined the Red Guard detachment of the Moscow Railway. Since April 1918 - in the Red Army. Until 1920 - on the fronts of the Civil War as a platoon, company, and battalion commander. The next two years - assistant regiment commander. Then he graduated from the infantry school and until 1927 was an assistant regiment commander for economic affairs. In 1928 he graduated from the higher command courses “Vystrel”, after which he was an assistant division commander for two years. In 1931-1937 he commanded a rifle regiment. In 1938, as commander of the 39th Infantry Division, he took part in battles with the Japanese on Lake Khasan. He was arrested, but after a year-long investigation he was released for lack of evidence of a crime. In 1939 - appointed head of the Dnepropetrovsk advanced training courses for command personnel. On June 5, 1940, Kulikov was awarded the rank of major general. He was a brigade commander from February 17, 1938, and a colonel from February 17, 1936.
In March 1941, Kulikov was appointed commander of the 196th Infantry Division of the Odessa Military District. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, as part of the 9th Army of the Southern Front, he participated in the border battle, in defensive battles on the Dniester, Southern Bug and Dnieper. On September 15, when the enemy broke through into the depths of our defense, the division was surrounded, and Kulikov was captured.
At first he was in a prisoner of war camp in Vladimir-Volynsky, from there he was taken to Germany to the Hammelburg camp, and at the end of 1942 to the Flessenburg camp, where he died of hunger and beatings.
General Kulikov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1938).
Major General Pyotr Grigorievich Makarov.
Born on June 29, 1898 in the village of Kudiyarovka, Tula region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a parish school and worked as a farm laborer and laborer. From February 1917 he served as a private in the tsarist army.
In October 1918, he joined the Red Army upon conscription. From 1919 to 1922 - on the fronts of the Civil War: in 1919, as a platoon commander of the 11th Cavalry Division of the 1st Cavalry Army in battles against Denikin's troops. In 1920, he was a squadron commander of the same division against Wrangel's troops. In 1921-1922 - in Ukraine, commander of the 13th cavalry regiment of the 1st cavalry brigade of the 1st Cavalry Army against Makhno and other gangs. Until 1931 he commanded various cavalry units, then until 1937 he was the chief of staff of a cavalry regiment, then for a year he was a regiment commander and another year he was an assistant commander of the 6th Cavalry Division of the Belarusian Special Military District. In 1939, Makarov became the commander of this division. On June 9, 1940, he was awarded the rank of major general. From October 31, 1938, he was a brigade commander, and from January 5, 1937, a colonel.
In March 1941, Makarov became deputy commander of the 11th Mechanized Corps. On the second day of the Great Patriotic War on the Western Front, the corps, together with two other corps, took part in a counterattack against the enemy in the Grodno direction. Despite stubborn fighting, the front troops failed to stop the enemy, and with the permission of Headquarters, they began to retreat to Minsk. But the Nazi tank forces moved faster - and the 11th Mechanized Corps, along with other formations of the 3rd and 10th Armies, found themselves surrounded east of Minsk. On July 8, while trying to fight his way out of encirclement, General Makarov was captured.
He was stationed in the Zamosc camp in Poland, then in Germany in the Hammelburg camps and, from December 1942, in the Flessenburg camps. From overwork, beatings and hunger he fell ill with tuberculosis. In the fall of 1943, he was stoned to death by the Nazis.
General Makarov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1930).
Major General Nikitin Ivan Semenovich.
Born in 1897 in the village of Dubrovka, Oryol region, in the family of an employee. He graduated from elementary school and worked as a clerk. From 1916 to 1917 he served in the tsarist army. Participated in the 1st World War.
In the Red Army - since June 1918. He graduated from cavalry courses and until 1922, as a platoon, squadron, and cavalry regiment commander on various fronts, he participated in the Civil War. Until 1924 he commanded a regiment and a brigade. In 1927 he graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, then was chief of staff for six years and commander of a cavalry division for three years. In 1937-1938 he was under investigation, but the case was dropped due to the lack of evidence of a crime. Since 1938, Nikitin was a senior teacher at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, and in 1940 he was appointed commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps of the Belarusian Special Military District. On June 4, 1940, he was awarded the rank of major general.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the corps took part in the border battle on the Western Front, and in July 1941 it was surrounded by the enemy. When trying to break out of it to the east, after a stubborn battle, Nikitin was captured. He was taken to Germany to the Hammelburg camp.
He repeatedly rejected the Nazis’ offers to cooperate with them and convinced the prisoners of the victory of the Red Army. In April 1942, he was taken from the camp and shot.
General Nikitin was awarded two Orders of the Red Star (1937 and 1941).
Major General Novikov Petr Georgievich.
Born on December 18, 1907 in the village of Luch in Tatarstan in a peasant family. He graduated from a rural school and primary school.
In 1923, he voluntarily joined the Red Army, becoming a cadet at the Kazan Higher Infantry School. After graduation, he commanded various rifle units until 1937. In 1937-1938, he fought as a battalion commander in Spain on the side of the Republican Army. Upon his return, he commanded a rifle regiment, including in 1939-1940 during the war with Finland. In May 1940, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division. On June 4, 1940, he was awarded the rank of major general.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he fought on the Southern Front. In October 1941, he became commander of the 109th Infantry Division of the Primorsky Army, which defended Sevastopol. The stubborn defense lasted until July 4, 1942. On this day, General Novikov, among the last defenders of the city, was captured at Cape Chersonese.
He was sent to Germany and remained in the Hammelburg camp until the end of the year. Then transferred to the Flessenburg camp. Due to the cruel regime, hunger, and beatings, he became very thin. Without any reason, he was killed by camp guards in August 1944.
General Novikov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1940).
Major General Novikov Timofey Yakovlevich.
Born on September 7, 1900 in the village of Zagorye, Tver Region, into a peasant family. He graduated from a rural school and a 4-grade teachers' seminary. In 1917-1918 he served as a private in the tsarist army.
Since July 1918 in the Red Army. Participant in the Civil War: in 1919-1920 on the Western Front as a detachment commander, against the troops of Denikin and the White Poles; in March 1921, as a cadet at an infantry school, he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion. Until 1932 he commanded rifle units. Then for five years he was assistant and chief of the operations department of the division headquarters. For two more years he worked as head of the intelligence department of the corps headquarters. For three years he commanded the 406th Infantry Regiment of the 124th Infantry Division.
On June 22, 1941, he entered into battle with the Nazis. Participated in a border battle. The division was surrounded, but Novikov managed to withdraw 2 thousand people from the encirclement on July 25, 1941 to the location of the 5th Army with a roundabout maneuver, first to the enemy rear, and then to the front line. At the same time, on July 5 he was wounded in the leg. From October 1941, he commanded the 1st Guards Motorized Rifle Division on the Western Front. On January 10, 1942, Novikov was awarded the rank of major general. He was a colonel since November 28, 1940.
In January 1942, he became commander of the 222nd Infantry Division. During the Rzhev-Sychevsk operation, the division, having taken the lead, was surrounded by the enemy. Novikov organized a breakthrough, but was blocked by the Nazis at the observation post and, after a short firefight, was captured on August 15, 1942.
He was stationed in the Nuremberg camp, and from February 1945 in the Weißenburg fortress. In April 1945 he was transferred to the Floessenburg camp, where he died of exhaustion.
General Novikov was awarded the Order of Lenin (1942).
Major General Presnyakov Ivan Andreevich.
Born in 1893 in the village of Gridino, Nizhny Novgorod region. He graduated from a teachers' seminary and worked for hire. In 1914 he was drafted into the tsarist army and took part in the 1st World War. In 1915 he graduated from the school of warrant officers, in 1917 - from the military school.
In the Red Army from 1918 he was an employee of the military registration and enlistment office. In 1919-1921, he commanded a company, battalion and regiment on the fronts of the Civil War. For two years he was the chief of reconnaissance of a brigade, then for six years he commanded a rifle regiment. In 1929 he graduated from the higher command courses “Vystrel”. Then Presnyakov taught at the Omsk Infantry School for five years. In 1934-1938 he headed the military department of the Moscow Institute of Physical Education, and for the next two years he served as a senior assistant inspector of the Red Army infantry. In 1940, he was head of the combat training department of the Moscow Military District. On June 4, 1940, Presnyakov was awarded the rank of major general.
In May 1941, he was appointed commander of the 5th Infantry Division of the Kyiv Special Military District. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War met with this division. During the border battle, the division was surrounded by large enemy forces and suffered heavy losses. When leaving the encirclement, Presnyakov was ambushed by the Nazis at the end of July and, after a short fire resistance, was captured.
He was stationed in the Zamosc camp in Poland. Then in Nuremberg prison in Germany. Here, on January 5, 1943, he was shot by the Nazis for pro-Soviet agitation.
When people talk about Soviet military leaders of the Great Patriotic War, they most often remember Zhukov, Rokossovsky, and Konev. While honoring them, we almost forgot the Soviet generals who made a huge contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany.
1.Arm Commander Remezov is an ordinary Great Russian.
In 1941, the Red Army abandoned city after city. Rare counter-offensives by our troops did not change the oppressive feeling of impending disaster. However, on the 161st day of the war - November 29, 1941, the elite German troops of the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler tank brigade were driven out of the largest southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Stalin telegraphed congratulations to senior officers taking part in this battle, including the commander of the 56th division, Fyodor Remezov. It is known about this man that he was an ordinary Soviet general and called himself not a Russian, but a Great Russian. He was also appointed to the post of commander of the 56th on the personal order of Stalin, who appreciated Fyodor Nikitich’s ability, without losing composure, to conduct a stubborn defense against the advancing Germans, who were significantly superior in strength. For example, his decision, strange at first glance, with the forces of the 188th Cavalry Regiment to attack German armored vehicles in the area of the Koshkin station (near Taganrog) on October 17, 1941, which made it possible to withdraw the cadets of the Rostov Infantry School and parts of the 31st Division from a crushing blow. While the Germans were chasing the light cavalry, running into fiery ambushes, the 56th Army received the necessary respite and was saved from the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler tanks that broke through the defenses. Subsequently, Remezov’s bloodless fighters, together with soldiers of the 9th Army, liberated Rostov, despite Hitler’s categorical order not to surrender the city. This was the first major victory of the Red Army over the Nazis.
2. Vasily Arkhipov – tamer of the “royal tigers”<к сожалению не нашел фото>.
By the beginning of the war with the Germans, Vasily Arkhipov had successful combat experience with the Finns, as well as the Order of the Red Banner for breaking through the Mannerheim Line and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for personally destroying four enemy tanks. In general, according to many military men who knew Vasily Sergeevich well, at first glance he accurately assessed the capabilities of German armored vehicles, even if they were new products of the fascist military-industrial complex. Thus, in the battle for the Sandomierz bridgehead in the summer of 1944, his 53rd Tank Brigade met the “Royal Tigers” for the first time. The brigade commander decided to attack the steel monster in his command tank in order to inspire his subordinates by personal example. Using the high maneuverability of his vehicle, he several times walked into the side of the “sluggish and slow beast” and opened fire. Only after the third hit did the “German” burst into flames. Soon his tank crews captured three more “royal tigers”. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Arkhipov, about whom his colleagues said “doesn’t drown in water, doesn’t burn in fire,” became a general on April 20, 1945.
3. Rodimtsev: “But pasaran.”
Alexander Rodimtsev in Spain was known as Camarados Pavlito, who fought in 1936-1937 with Franco's Falangists. For the defense of the university city near Madrid, he received the first gold star of a hero of the Soviet Union. During the war against the Nazis, he was known as the general who turned the tide of the Battle of Stalingrad. According to Zhukov, Rodimtsev’s guards literally at the last moment struck the Germans who had come ashore on the Volga. Later, recalling these days, Rodimtsev wrote: “On that day, when our division approached the left bank of the Volga, the Nazis took Mamayev Kurgan. They took it because for every one of our fighters there were ten fascists advancing, for every one of our tanks there were ten enemy tanks, for every “Yak” or “Il” that took off there were ten “Messerschmitts” or “Junkers”... the Germans knew how to fight, especially in such numerical and technical superiority." Rodimtsev did not have such forces, but his well-trained soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, also known as the Airborne Forces formation, fighting in the minority, turned fascist Hoth tanks into scrap metal and killed a significant number of German soldiers of Paulus’s 6th Army in hand-to-hand urban battles . As in Spain, in Stalingrad Rodimtsev repeatedly said: “but pasaran, the Nazis will not pass.”
4. Alexander Gorbatov - enemy of Beria<к сожалению не смог загрузить фото>.
Former non-commissioned officer of the tsarist army Alexander Gorbatov, who was awarded the rank of major general in December 1941, was one of those who were not afraid to conflict with his superiors. For example, in December 1941, he told his immediate commander Kirill Moskalenko that it was stupid to throw our regiments into a frontal attack on the Germans if there was no objective need for this. He responded harshly to the abuse, declaring that he would not allow himself to be insulted. And this after three years of imprisonment in Kolyma, where he was transferred as an “enemy of the people” under the notorious 58th article. When Stalin was informed about this incident, he grinned and said: “Only the grave will correct the hunchback.” Gorbatov also entered into a dispute with Georgy Zhukov regarding the attack on Orel in the summer of 1943, demanding not to attack from the existing bridgehead, but to cross the Zushi River in another place. At first Zhukov was categorically against it, but, on reflection, he realized that Gorbatov was right. It is known that Lavrenty Beria had a negative attitude towards the general and even considered the stubborn man his personal enemy. Indeed, many did not like Gorbatov’s independent judgments. For example, after carrying out a number of brilliant operations, including the East Prussian one, Alexander Gorbatov unexpectedly spoke out against the assault on Berlin, proposing to begin a siege. He motivated his decision by the fact that the “Krauts” would surrender anyway, but this would save the lives of many of our soldiers who went through the entire war.
5. Mikhail Naumov: lieutenant who became a general.
Finding himself in occupied territory in the summer of 1941, wounded senior lieutenant Mikhail Naumov began his war against the invaders. At first he was a private in the partisan detachment of the Chervony district of the Sumy region (in January 1942), but after fifteen months he was awarded the rank of major general. Thus, he became one of the youngest senior officers, and also had an incredible and one-of-a-kind military career. However, such a high rank corresponded to the size of the partisan unit led by Naumov. This happened after the famous 65-day raid stretching almost 2,400 kilometers across Ukraine to Belarusian Polesie, as a result of which the German rear was pretty bled dry.
