General Georgy Fedorovich Zakharov is one of the most educated military leaders of the Red Army. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, he already had vast experience in serving and participating in battles. He commanded companies, battalions, regiments, fronts, armies and military districts. We will tell about how the battle path of the Soviet military leader developed in the article.
Early years
Georgy Zakharov was born on 1897-23-04 in the village of Shilovo, Saratov province. His parents were poor peasants, the family consisted of thirteen people. When George was eleven years old, his father took him to Saratov to study at Sunday school. In parallel with this, the boy worked either as an apprentice at a nail factory, or as a packer in a warehouse, or as an assistant in a tailor and shoe workshop. So passed the childhood and youth of the future general.
Zakharov entered the military service in 1915. A year later he graduated from the school of ensigns. He was a participant in the First World War: with the rank of second lieutenant, he fought on the Western Front and led a half company.
Interwar period
When Georgy Fedorovich returned to Saratov, he was appointed to command a partisan detachment, and then sent to the Ural front. From August 1919, he fought on the Eastern Front with the White Guards, led a rifle company. In 1920 he graduated from infantry courses in Saratov. In the Urals, in one of the battles, he received a rather serious wound and was forced to undergo long-term treatment. After recovering, he went to Vladikavkaz to command a rifle battalion there.
In 1922, Zakharov was seconded to Moscow to study at the Shot courses. He graduated from them in the first category and in 1923 was appointed battalion commander. He was in this position for a short time, after which he began to lead a regiment of cadets of the Military Kremlin School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Once Georgy Fedorovich was summoned by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself and began to take a detailed interest in how the students live.
In 1929, Zakharov was appointed commander-commissar of a regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Division and in the same period entered the Military Academy of the Red Army for an evening course. Upon graduation in 1933, he was promoted to deputy commander of a rifle division. Since March of the same year at the Military Engineering Academy. Kuibyshev headed the department of tactical and technical management, from May 1935 - the department of engineering support for battles. In 1936, Zakharov was promoted to the rank of major, at the same time he was appointed chief of staff of the Leningrad Rifle Corps.
In 1937, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent Georgy Fedorovichstudy at the Military Academy of the General Staff. Upon graduation in 1939, he received the rank of colonel and became head of the headquarters of the Ural Military District. He remained in this position until the outbreak of World War II. In June 1940, Zakharov was promoted to the rank of major general.
During the Second World War
When the war began, Georgy Fedorovich headed the headquarters of the twenty-second army. Marshal A. Eremenko in his memoirs spoke of him as a very strong-willed person, but rude and quick-tempered. Since August 1941, General Zakharov was the chief of staff of the Bryansk Front, and since October - the commander of the troops of the same front.
In December 1941, he was appointed deputy commander of the Western Front, then he led the headquarters of the North Caucasian and Stalingrad fronts. According to General S. Ivanov, Georgy Fedorovich was a stern person and gravitated more not to staff work, but to team work.
In October 1942 - February 1943. General Zakharov was the deputy commander of the troops of the Southern and Stalingrad fronts. Colleagues spoke of him as a smart military leader who did not emphasize his influence, did not infringe on the pride of the soldiers and skillfully suggested if the wrong decisions were made.
Since February 1943, Georgy Fedorovich was in the position of commander of the fifty-first army of the Southern Front. As a commander, he took part in the Mius operation. Then he managed the second guards army of the same front, and from July 1944 he moved to the second Belorussian front, where he was commander of the troops. Zakharov was at the head of the front during the Belorussianand Lomza-Ruzhanskaya offensive operations. At the end of July 1944, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army.
From November 1944, the commander commanded the Fourth Guards Army. Lieutenant General I. Anoshin spoke of Georgy Fedorovich as a self-confident person, not without talent and abilities. From April 1945, Zakharov became deputy commander of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, and in this position he met with victory.
Post-war years
After the war, Georgy Fedorovich commanded the troops of the East Siberian and South Ural military districts. In 1950-1953 was the head of the "Shot" courses. Then he headed the Main Directorate for the Training of Ground Forces. In 1950-1954. was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
General Zakharov died on 1957-26-01 in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in the capital, the grave is decorated with a sculptural composition. His wife, Maria Pavlovna, rests with Georgy Fedorovich.
Awards
Georgy Fedorovich went a long way in battle and was awarded many orders and medals. He is the owner of the Order of Lenin; three orders of Suvorov, two of which are of the first degree, and one is of the second; four orders of the Red Banner. In January 1943, the commander was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, first degree. He also has the Order of B. Khmelnitsky of the first degree.
Memory
In May 1975, one of the squares of Sevastopol was named after Zakharov. In 1944, during the liberation of the city from the Nazis, Georgy Fedorovich, with the rank of lieutenant general, commanded the secondguards army. The opponents planned to strike at the northern side of Sevastopol and the Perekop Isthmus, but our soldiers, led by Zakharov, managed to break through the fortifications at Perekop and be the first to reach the northern side. As a result of the competent leadership of the army, the fighting ended with the liberation of the city.
Zakharov Square in Sevastopol is located in the Nakhimovsky district, near the passenger pier. Until 1975, it was called Severnaya, and until 1934 it bore the name of O. Schmidt, the leader of the Chelyuskin icebreaker expedition.
In April 2010, the Republic of Belarus issued a commemorative coin in honor of Georgy Zakharov and the Second Belorussian Front. The banknote depicts a portrait of the general.
