Marshal Egorov AI: biography, history, photo

Alexander Egorov was born on October 25, 1883 in the small town of Buzuluk. He was the youngest, fourth child in an ordinary family. Nothing foreshadowed that the boy would make an amazing career and in a completely different country become a marshal of the Red Army. And yet it happened.

Education

The future marshal Egorov from childhood dreamed of a military career (moreover, his father was an officer). In 1902 the young man entered the Kazan infantry school of the Junkers. Learning was easy for a young man. The program included mathematics, Russian language, chemistry, physics, God's law, drafting, a foreign language (Egorov chose French). There were also special military items: general tactics, military history, topography, military administration, artillery, many practical exercises, etc. In the workshops, the Junkers learned the basics of the weapons business.

Soviet Marshal Yegorov was an outstanding cadre military officer of the Tsarist School. For the years of his studies at the Kazan School, dramatic events took place: the Russo-Japanese War and the first revolution that began after the Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg. Internal fermentation in the empire could not but affect the mood of the cadets. The school was divided into two groups: monarchists and oppositionists. The next mug was joined by the future marshal Yegorov. Many years later, in his autobiography, he noted that since 1904 he shared the views of the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

World War I

Egorov's studies ended in April 1905, when he was promoted to lieutenant and went to serve in the 13th Grenadier Life Guards Regiment of Erivan. The career of the officer was developing successfully. Her turn turned upside down after the outbreak of the First World War. In the rank of captain, the future Marshal Yegorov received baptism of fire in the Battle of Galicia on the South-Western Front. The first attack with his participation took place on August 13, 1914 in the battle of Busk. The bayonet battle ended with the ousting of two enemy's mouth.

Unlike many other officers, Yegorov tried to protect his soldiers. He did not like desperate and groundless heroism, the only result of which could be a useless death. In just one year of the war, the captain received four awards. Later, they were joined by others: the Order of St. Stanislaus 2 nd degree, as well as the honorary St. George's weapon.

But there were other "awards", which were awarded to the future Marshal Yegorov. The military's biography would be incomplete without mentioning several wounds. In August 1914, two weeks after the start of military operations in the vicinity of Logovitsa, the officer received a rifle bullet that hit the shin. The wounded person left the hospital ahead of schedule. In April 1915 near the village of Zarinis Egorova was heavily concussed by the explosion of the projectile. At that time, he did not stay in the hospital. Then two more concussions followed. The unconscious officer was evacuated to the rear. He still returned to the front line, despite the lame appearance.

In May 1916, Yegorov was made captain and for the first time in the war sent to the rear. The commander became the commander of the 4th Battalion and the 196th Infantry Regiment, located in Tver.

Towards a revolution

At the end of 1916 a new appointment followed. Egorov began commanding the 132nd Infantry Bendery Regiment, which held a position on the Western Dvina. At that time Alexander Ilyich was already a lieutenant colonel. In this rank he met the February Revolution. The front was especially sensitive to the news from the rear. The army was tired of fighting and shedding blood in a protracted and unpromising war.

Many soldiers and officers have hoped to get into politics, expecting that the new authorities will quickly lead the country to peace. Marshal Yegorov was not yet an exception. The commander (after the February Revolution) formally joined the Socialist-Revolutionaries. It is curious that in the Soviet era Georgy Zhukov in his letter to Voroshilov recalled how in the autumn of 1917 Alexander Egorov publicly called Vladimir Lenin an adventurer and a German spy.

Going to the Red Army

With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the country was on the verge of the Civil War. In December 1917, Yegorov came to Petrograd and joined the Red Army. As an experienced officer, he began to work in the commission for demobilization and the acceptance of new personnel. At this stage of his career, Yegorov was the right-hand man of the head of the military department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Abel Yenukidze. The old Bolshevik (in the party since 1898) highly valued the ability and vigor of the young colonel.

In the spring of 1918, Egorov not only directed the work of the commission for re-certification (through it, for example, a talented and ambitious tsarist officer, Mikhail Tukhachevsky - another of the first five marshals of the USSR), but also negotiated with the Germans to exchange prisoners. He also constantly contacted representatives of the Red Cross.

At the head of the 9th Army

August 31, 1918 the future Marshal of the USSR Yegorov filed a petition with a request to send him to the army that fought on the fronts of the Civil War. The day before this episode, the Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan committed an unsuccessful attempt on Lenin. A shot near the Mikhelson plant led to the beginning of terror against her party. Egorov himself broke with the SRs in July, and the field joined the RCP (B.). He was fortunate to "change course" shortly before membership in the Socialist-Revolutionaries could end in disgrace and death. However, the Socialist Revolutionary military aukknulos him much later, when in the 30th Stalin began a total purge in the Red Army.

In August 1918, Yegorov was appointed commander of the 9th Army, acting on the Southern Front. She was on the Kamyshin-Novokhopersk plot and repulsed General Krasnov's blows. While the officer was receiving a long-awaited appointment, the White cut the Balashov Railway. With such an unimportant state of affairs, the future marshal Yegorov collided. The military's biography was already full of very different operations on the fronts of the First World War, so the commander, without a trace of confusion, began to restore the status quo.

The main task of Yegorov was a complete reorganization of the 9th Army. In a short time, thanks to his own energy and perseverance, he managed to create from this formation a new combat-worth large force. Active activities began on the Sebryakovsky and Filonov tracks. Thanks to the help of the 9th Army, the defenders of Tsaritsyn were able to defend this strategically important city.

Save Tsaritsyn

In October the army commander became seriously ill, and he had to stay in the hospital for two months. In the ward he adopted a new appointment. The 10th Army became a new tactical unit, headed by Marshal Yegorov. The ranks succeeded one after another, but at each new place the military invariably spread his own maximum. Now he faced a new serious task - to save Tsaritsin, once again in the hands of whites.

On December 19, 1918, the cured Yegorov went to the front. While the army commander lay in the hospital, his place was temporarily occupied by Nikolai Khudyakov (also later shot). In Tsaritsyn things were extremely bad. Not a single enterprise operated (except the gun factory). The city party organization mobilized 5,000 people, but human forces still did not suffice. The fighting was right on the outskirts. Railroad tracks, streets and factories were constantly being shelled. On January 19, 1919, the White Guards attempted to cross the Volga along the ice and thereby finally encircle the city.

Egorov began to organize a counterattack. The key role in it was played by the cavalry division under the command of Boris Dumenko. On January 22, a raid began, the main purpose of which was to break through the front and walk along the White lines. In the first battle near the village of Straight Balka, the Reds defeated five enemy cavalry regiments. I managed to break into Davydovka. On January 28, Marshal Egorov arrived there. The awards that he received in the tsarist era were completely deserved. He managed to achieve a turning point in the battle for Tsaritsyn. In Davydovka Yegorov saw Budenny, who replaced Dumenko, who was seriously ill.

Wounding and returning to service

On April 4, 1919, Lenin sent a telegram to Yegorov, in which he congratulated the heroes of the 10th Army on the successes in the winter campaign. Meanwhile, in the south, Denikin's army became more active, and in the east, Kolchak's forces began their offensive. These maneuvers almost nullified the results of the Red Army under Tsaritsyn. In May 1919, in the next battle on the bank of the Sal river, the future marshal of the USSR Yegorov (together with Dumenko) was seriously wounded and for some time was out of order. Nevertheless, the army on that day managed to achieve victory. For this success, the army commander received the highest at the time military award of the Bolsheviks - the Order of the Red Banner.

For several weeks Egorov lay in the hospitals of Saratov and Moscow. In July, he returned to the front and headed the 14th Army. Then in October 1919 - January 1920, Alexander Ilyich served as commander of the Southern Front. He was appointed at the most intense moment of the Civil War. The whites were closer to Moscow than ever before. On October 13 they occupied the Eagle. The headquarters of the Southern Front was at that time located in Serpukhov outside Moscow. The situation was extremely serious. The loss of Moscow could lead to the final defeat of the Bolsheviks.

At the head of the Southern Front

Despite everything, Marshal Yegorov Alexander Ilyich did not drop his hands. At the initiative of Lenin, he carried out the transfer from the Western Front of the Latvian Infantry Division, the infantry brigade Pavlov, the Primakov Cavalry Brigade, as well as some other parts of the RVS. From this hodge-podge the command created a special shock group. She was to be the gravedigger of White's success.

A multi-day battle began at Kromy and Eagle. The 13th, 14th armies and the shock group smashed the corps of Alexandrov Kutepov. Thus Denikin's advance was thwarted. Meanwhile, another shock group under the command of Budyonny on the Voronezh direction defeated a few more white horse corps. On October 25, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front sent a telegram to Lenin, in which it was reported about the long-awaited victory over the main bulwark of the counter-revolution. The message was signed by Yegorov and Stalin.

On December 12, the Red Army liberated Kharkov, and on the 16th - Kiev. In January 1920 Rostov was cleared of whites. So the forces of the Southern Front fulfilled their mission and defeated the Volunteer Army of Denikin. Undoubtedly, Alexander Egorov made a huge contribution to this success. Marshal later wrote detailed memories of the days of defeats and victories on the fronts of the Civil War.

In Petrograd

In early 1921, Yegorov was elected deputy of the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party. In April, he became commander of the Petrograd Military District. In this position, the military remained until September 1921. In Petrograd, Yegorov had to deal primarily with the consequences of the Kronstadt mutiny. The sailors rebelled right during the Tenth Congress. For the Bolsheviks, it was a painful blow. Egorov began to reorganize party political work in the military units.

Also, the commander fought against the famine that tormented Petrograd. Being in the actual border strip, he formed new border guards (separately for the Finnish and Latvian-Estonian border). Then came the reassignment - first to the Western Front, then to the Caucasian Red Banner Army.

Peaceful years

In 1931, Alexander Ilyich was appointed Chief of Staff of the Red Army. In this position he became one of the first five marshals. The higher rank in the Red Army was given to Egorov for a reason. During the Civil War he became a true All-Union hero. Alexander Ilyich belonged to a galaxy of generals who forged victory in the bloody struggle against the whites.

As head of the Red Army headquarters in peacetime, Yegorov led a great work on developing a plan for the technical reconstruction of the armed forces. The problem of modernization has sharply risen in the early 30's. At the same time, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR instructed the Headquarters of the Red Army to begin rearmament and reconstruction. A report on the results of this strategically important work was prepared by a group of selected specialists. The staff was headed by Marshal Yegorov.

The wife of the military Galina Tseshkovskaya supported her husband at every stage of his life (they were married back in the tsarist times). The period of his stay at the Red Army headquarters was no exception. In this position Egorov remained record long. His entire career consisted of constant moves and a change of activities. He remained Chief of Staff until 1935, when he became Chief of the General Staff.

Opal and doom

In May 1937, Marshal of the Soviet Union Egorov was removed from the post of Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army (in his place came Boris Shaposhnikov). Alexander Ilyich became deputy to the People's Commissar of Defense. In 1937, reshuffles in the army took on a mass character. Soon it became clear that they were the prologue of terrible purges in the Red Army. In the heat of the political situation in Europe (in Germany the Nazis came to power, the bourgeois countries surrendered their positions, the Old World inevitably approached a big war) Stalin decided to clean up the Red Army.

The main blow fell on those who made their careers during the Civil War. In the 30th these people occupied key posts in the Red Army. Their attitude toward Stalin was not uniform. The heroes of "citizen" were the same age as Koba, they had the moral right to consider him first among equals. Stalin was building a dictatorship. Such a proud and independent army frightened him. Stalin's black lists included Marshal Yegorov. The "family" of the old Bolsheviks, who shared trenches during the Civil War, has remained in the past. First, a public criticism of the leader fell to Egorov's side. Then came the real opal.

The fate of the marshal in the last year of his life was typical for the victims of Stalin's terror. Egorov was systematically rearranged to new, all the less noticeable and important posts. In January 1938, he actually ended up in exile. Egorov was sent to command the Transcaucasian Military District. It was a typical move of Stalin. For example, Tukhachevsky was just sent to the Volga region shortly before the execution.

While Yegorov was taking matters in the Caucasus, the last clouds were gathering over him in Moscow. On February 8, 1938, his wife Galina Tseshkovskaya was arrested. Marshal Yegorov's wife became a natural victim of terror. As a rule, the NKVD first of all took on the relatives of a high-ranking person, on whom a black mark appeared.

On February 21, Marshal Yegorov was summoned to Moscow. My wife was already arrested, but this misfortune was only the beginning of the destruction of the military family. Alexander Ilyich was detained in the capital on March 27. He was sent to the Lubyanka. There is an unconfirmed legend that in July 1938 the People's Commissar of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs Yezhov handed Stalin another firing squad. There were 139 names in this paper. Stalin agreed with the execution of 138, but at the same time struck out the name of Yegorov. For historians remained unknown, what was the reason for this decision. Anyway, but Marshal Egorov, whose photo ceased to appear in newspaper publications, lived in detention for another six months.

On February 22, 1939, the Supreme Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR announced a verdict in the military case. Marshal was accused of organizing a military conspiracy and espionage. The court found Yegorov guilty. The marshal was shot the next day. It was February 23 - Day of the Red Army and Navy.

Together with Egorov, many professionals turned their heads. On the site of this cohort of the high command of the Red Army, a gaping emptiness was formed. The consequences of the purges in the army affected very soon. Already in 1941 the Great Patriotic War began. It was then that the country felt the lack of trained personnel. Almost the entire commanding staff was recruited from the unskilled and unready population. Stalin, in an attack of paranoid fear, who shot all the colors of his army, was left without personnel reserves. The result of such a turn was the colossal losses at the first stage of the Great Patriotic War. Throughout the confrontation with the Third Reich, the Red Army was sorely lacking in the capabilities and experience of Alexander Egorov.