Ivan Konev - Marshall of the Soviet Union December 28, 1896 – 21 May 1973 A famous Russian Commander who retook much of western Russia from the German Army and was responsible for putting down the Hungarian rising of 1956. Konev also played a large part in the taking of Berlin.When young, he worked as a lumberjack and had scant education. Conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1916, he was demobilized,returned home and joined the Red Army in 1919. Kliment Voroshilov, a crony of Stalin, brought Konev along and was helpful to his career - especially during the purges. Konev was commander of the 19th Army (Russian Army equal to roughly a western corps) on June 22,1941 and fought delaying actions via Smolensk to Moscow. He commanded the Kalinin Front (Equal to a western army) from October 1941,and was active in the first winter offensive and promoted Colonel General. For the rest of the war he held front level commands. A master of ‘maskirovka’ : deception, Konev camouflaged defense lines, gun emplacements, minefields, dummy airfields, supply dumps, and other deceptions that in part caused the Germans to seriously underestimate the depth of Soviet defensive positions at Kursk. In January/February 1944 he commanded Red Army formations at the Cherkassy/Korsun pocket that saw German forces escape shredded - unable to fight and having to be replenished over extended periods. Konev openly boasted of his killing of thousands of German prisoners of war:The cavalry finally finished them off. We let the Cossacks cut up as long as they wished. They even hacked off the hands of those who raised them to surrender the Marshal recounted with a smile. In February 1944, Stalin made Konev a Marshall of the Soviet Union. Konev, according to Berias son, had wicked little eyes, a shaven head that looked like a pumpkin and an expression full of self-conceit.” By July 1944, he reached the Vistula River and later Slovakia. Together with Marshal Georgi Zhukov, Konev attacked in a huge winter offensive reaching German Silesia via Krakow which he left undamaged. Konev beat Zhukov to the outskirts of Berlin, but Stalin gave Zhukov rights to taking the city, an action engaging Konev and creating lasting resentment. His forces linked up with American troops at Torgau. After the war: Head of Soviet occupation troops in Germany, Commander of Soviet Ground Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister,Postwar Stalin, paranoid over self perceived threats from famous Marshals posted Konev to Commander Carpathian District. As Commander in Chief Armed Forces - Warsaw Pact he helped suppress the Hungarian uprising. A popular figure until his death, Konev married twice and is buried in the Kremlin Wall.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:15:03 +0000
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