Interestingly, Alexander Vasilevsky, a marshal of the Soviet Union and one of the most significant military leaders of the USSR, could not imagine in his youth that he would make such a dizzying career. His contribution to the long-awaited victory over Nazi Germany was truly enormous: in the most difficult years for the Soviet state, he headed the General Staff, developing major military operations and coordinating their implementation.
Childhood and youth
Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich, according to the metrics, was born in 1895, September 16 (old style). However, he always believed that he was born a day later, namely on the holiday of Faith, Hope and Love, significant for all Christians, celebrated according to the new style on September 30th. The fact is that on this day his mother was born, whom he loved very much. Maybe that's why he named this date in his memoirs.
Vasilevsky Alexander is a native of the village of Novaya Golchikha (Kineshma district). His father, Mikhail Alexandrovich, served as a psalmist atNikolsky Edinoverie Church, and his mother, Sokolova Nadezhda Ivanovna, was the daughter of a clergyman from the neighboring village of Uglets. Alexander grew up in a large family with eight children. He was the fourth child.
In 1897, the family moved to the village of Novopokrovskoe, where Alexander Mikhailovich's father became a priest of the newly built Ascension Church of the same faith. The future marshal received his primary education at a parochial school, in 1909 he successfully graduated from a religious school in Kineshma, and then entered the Kostroma Seminary.
Becoming a student, in the same year he took part in the All-Russian student strike, which opposed the ban on entering institutes and universities. For this protest, he and several of his comrades were expelled from Kostroma by the authorities. He was able to return to studies only after a few months, when some of the requirements of the seminarians were satisfied.
Choice of profession
According to Vasilevsky himself, the career of a priest was not interesting to him, since he dreamed of working on the land and wanted to become a land surveyor or an agronomist. But plans changed dramatically when the First World War began.
Slogans about the defense of the Motherland then captured most of the young people, Vasilevsky Alexander and his comrades were no exception. In order to graduate from the seminary a year earlier, he and several of his classmates passed the final exams as an external student, after which they entered the Alekseevsky Military School.
BWorld War I years
Already in May 1915, after an accelerated course of study that lasted only four months, he received the rank of ensign and was sent to the front. Thus began the military biography of Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich, the future Marshal of the Soviet Union. At first he served in one of the spare parts, and a few months later he ended up on the South-Western Front, where he became a half-company commander in the Novokhopersky regiment. For good service, Vasilevsky was soon promoted to company commander, which was later recognized as the best in the regiment.
In the spring of 1916, together with his soldiers, he participated in the notorious Brusilov breakthrough. Then the Russian army suffered heavy losses not only among the personnel, but also among the officers. So, he was appointed battalion commander with the rank of staff captain. Being under Ajud-Nou (Romania), Alexander Vasilevsky learned about the October Revolution that had taken place in Russia. After some deliberation, in November 1917, he decides to leave the service for a while and goes on vacation.
Civil War
At the end of December of the same year, Vasilevsky received a notification that, on the basis of the principle of electing commanders in force at that time, he was elected by the soldiers of his 409th regiment, which at that time was part of the Romanian Front and was under the command of General Shcherbachev. This man was an ardent supporter of the Central Rada, which advocated the independence of Ukraine. In this regard, the military department of Kineshma advised Vasilevsky no longerto return to his native regiment. Before being drafted into the Red Army, while living in his parents' house, he was engaged in agriculture, and then for some time worked as a teacher in two elementary schools in the Novosilsky district (Tula province).
In the spring of 1919, Vasilevsky Alexander was sent to the 4th battalion as a platoon instructor, and literally a month later he was appointed commander of a detachment of a hundred people and sent to Efremovsky district (Tula province) to fight banditry and to provide assistance in surplus appraisal.
In the summer of the same year, he was transferred to Tula, where a new rifle division was just being formed. By that time, the Southern Front, together with the troops of General Denikin, was rapidly approaching the city. Vasilevsky was appointed commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment. However, he and his soldiers did not have to engage in battle with Denikin, because the Southern Front did not reach Tula, but stopped near Kromy and Orel.
War with the White Poles
At the end of 1919, the Tula division was sent to the Western Front, where the fight against the invaders was already underway. Here Alexander Vasilevsky becomes an assistant to the regiment commander and, as part of the 15th Army, shoulder to shoulder with his soldiers, bravely fights against the White Poles. In July of the same year, he was transferred back to the regiment where he once served. Some time later, Vasilevsky takes part in the hostilities against the Polish army, deployed near Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
At this time, Alexander Mikhailovich first had a conflict with his superiors. The fact is that the brigade commander O. I. Kalnin ordered him to take command of the regiment, which had already randomly retreated to no one knows where. The order had to be executed in a very short time, and, according to Vasilevsky himself, this was simply impossible to do. As a result of the conflict that arose, he almost fell under the tribunal, but everything was resolved successfully, and he was only first demoted, and then the order of the brigade commander was completely canceled.
Joining the Party
After the end of the civil war, Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich, whose brief biography is presented in this article, took part in the liquidation of the Bulak-Balakhovich detachment, and also fought banditry in the territory of the Smolensk province. Over the next ten years, he successfully commanded three regiments at the same time, which are part of the 48th Infantry Division, stationed in Tver.
In 1927 he took tactical shooting courses, and a year later one of his regiments distinguished himself in exercises, which was noted by an inspection group specially created for this purpose. At the district maneuvers in 1930, his soldiers also performed well, receiving excellent marks and taking first place among numerous applicants
It can be assumed that it was these successes that largely determined his early transfer to work at the headquarters. Due to the fact that A. M. Vasilevsky began to occupy higher military positions, his entry into the Communist Party became simply necessary. He submitted an application to the Politburo. It was considered in a short time, and Alexander Mikhailovich became a candidate memberparties. However, in connection with the purges of 1933-1936. he will be accepted into the party only a few years later, in 1938, when he will work in the General Staff.
Important negotiations
In 1937, Vasilevsky received a new appointment - the head of one of the departments of the General Staff. In 1939, he took another position - deputy head of the Operations Directorate. In this post, he was involved in the development of the first version of military operations against Finland, which was later rejected by Stalin himself. Vasilevsky Alexander was one of the representatives of the USSR who participated in the negotiations, as well as the signing of peace agreements with the Finns. In addition, he was present at the demarcation of the new border between the two countries.
In 1940, as a result of numerous personnel changes in the General Staff and the People's Commissariat of Defense, he became deputy head of the Operational Directorate and received the rank of division commander. In April of the same year, he took part in the development of a plan regarding possible military operations against Germany. On November 9, A. M. Vasilevsky, as part of the Kremlin delegation headed by Vyacheslav Molotov, travels to Berlin for negotiations with the German government.
Beginning of the Great Patriotic War
From the first days of the war, Major General Vasilevsky took an active part in the management and development of military plans to protect our Motherland. As you know, Alexander Mikhailovich was one of the key figures involved in organizing the defense of the capital of the Soviet state and the counteroffensive that followed.
BIn October and November 1941, when the military situation near Moscow was not in our favor and the General Staff was evacuated, Vasilevsky headed the task force that provided full service to the Headquarters. Its main duty was to quickly and objectively assess all events taking place at the front, develop strategic directives and plans, maintain strict control over their implementation, prepare and then form reserves, and also provide the troops with everything necessary.
Battle of Stalingrad
At the beginning of the war, A. M. Vasilevsky happened to replace the ill Chief of the General Staff Shaposhnikov several times and develop various military operations. In June 1942, he was already officially appointed to this position. As a representative of the Headquarters, from July 23 to August 26, he was at the front and coordinated the joint actions of various military formations at the defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad.
His contribution to the development and improvement of military art at that time was truly enormous. While Zhukov fought on the Western Front, Vasilevsky successfully completed the counteroffensive near Stalingrad. After that, he was transferred to the southwest, where Soviet troops repelled the attacks of the Manstein group. Unfortunately, in a short article it is impossible to list all the merits of Alexander Mikhailovich during the Second World War, and, as history shows, there were many of them.
Alexander Vasilevsky: personal life
His firsthis wife was Serafima Nikolaevna Voronova. In this marriage, in 1924, his son Yuri was born. At that time, the Vasilevsky family lived in Tver. In 1931, Alexander Mikhailovich was transferred to Moscow, where he met Ekaterina Saburova, his future second wife. He never told anyone about their first meeting, since at that time he was still married. After 3 years, he left the family and married Ekaterina, who had already completed stenographers' courses. A year later, they had a son, who was named Igor.
I must say that the family has always been a significant support for the Soviet commander, especially during the Great Patriotic War. Needless to say, the military biography of Alexander Vasilevsky and the position of Chief of the General Staff assumed colossal moral and physical stress? In addition, numerous sleepless nights began to affect, since it is known that JV Stalin worked at this particular time of day, which he also demanded from his entourage.
Life is like a powder keg
The selfless love of his wife, of course, supported Vasilevsky, but none of those close to the Soviet government could live in peace. The constant stress from the unknown, what will happen tomorrow with him and his family, greatly depressed the marshal.
One day in 1944, he called his youngest son to a conversation, from which it became clear that Alexander Mikhailovich wanted to say goodbye. And this was not a surprise, since the lives of everyone who was surrounded by Stalin literally hung in the balance. It is known that in Volynskoye, at the Vasilevsky family's state dacha, allservants, including the hostess sister, the cook and even the nanny, were employees of the NKVD.
Peacetime
After the victory over Nazi Germany from March 1946 to November 1948, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky was both Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of the USSR Armed Forces. From 1949 to 1953, he held ministerial positions in the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.
After the death of I. V. Stalin, the marshal's career moved up and down. In 1953-1956. he performed the duties of the first deputy minister of defense, after which he himself asked to be relieved of his post. Less than five months later, Vasilevsky was again returned to his former place of work. At the end of 1957, he was dismissed for he alth reasons, and then returned again for the umpteenth time.
Alexander Vasilevsky died (see photo above) on December 5, 1977. Almost all of his life and work was entirely aimed at serving the Motherland, therefore, according to the tradition that developed in the Soviet Union, he was buried near the wall of the Moscow Kremlin.
