Rodion Malinovsky is a Soviet military leader and statesman. The commander of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union was twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, was a People’s hero of Yugoslavia. He occupied the post of Minister of Defense of the USSR from 1957 to 1967.
During the Great Patriotic War, Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky commanded the South-West, South, Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts. The only one of all the military leaders of that period, Malinovsky was fluent in several foreign languages.
The beginning of the way
Marshal's biography began in Odessa on November 10 (22). He was born in 1898. The boy was raised by one mother. From an early age, the child is accustomed to work. The teenager worked in a haberdashery store. With the outbreak of World War I, Rodion persuaded him to take him to the front.
The guy was assigned to the machine gun team as an ammunition carrier. In 1915, Malinovsky near Smorgon was seriously wounded. After him, the hero was found by the first award, the St. George Cross. A corporal rank was added to it. Almost two years took treatment at the hospital, and then the young man went to the Western Front.
After being wounded in April 1917, he was awarded two combat crosses. Then, in La Curtin, he was injured again and was out of action for two months. Rodion then volunteered for the Foreign Legion. The future marshal returned in 1919. He joined the Red Army, took part in the Civil War.
In the ranks of the 27th division, Malinovsky fought against Kolchak. After the end of hostilities, Rodion Yakovlevich successfully graduated from high school. A graduate was appointed to command a machine-gun platoon, then a team. The future marshal was visited by the assistant commander of the rifle battalion.
After completing training at the Frunze Malinovsky Military Academy, the chief of staff of the cavalry regiment was appointed. An officer of the Belorussian and North Caucasian military districts headed the headquarters of the cavalry corps, then the “Western” army in 1930. From 1937 to 1938 the colonel served as military adviser in Spain.
New battles
For providing assistance to the republican command, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner. In 1938 received the rank of brigade commander. The following year, Malinovsky began teaching at the Frunze Academy.
In 1941 World War II, Rodion Yakovlevich was appointed commander of the 48th Rifle Corps in the Odessa Military District in the city of Balti. He met the beginning of World War II there, holding a defense with parts of the corps. The fighters did not depart from the state border near the Prut River, despite their superior enemy forces. However, a retreat was inevitable.
The troops retreated to Nikolaev. Malinovsky led the corps out of the encirclement. When retreating to the east, the soldiers inflicted a lot of damage to the enemy troops. For skillful actions, Malinovsky was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. He was appointed to command the 6th Army and the Southern Front.
The enemy was thrown back from Kharkov in the winter of 1942, but in the spring powerful blows were inflicted on Soviet troops. The Kharkov operation was lost, and Malinovsky led the 66th army, but was demoted. In the fall of 1942 he was appointed deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. A month later, the future marshal led the Second Guards Army.
He managed to regain his former rank and position of commander of the Southern Front for his invaluable contribution to the defeat of the enemy forces near Stalingrad. Help was necessary for the troops of Vasilevsky during the Kotelnikovsky operation.
Awards
Successful hostilities allowed the liberation of Donbass and southern Ukraine. In the spring of 1944 Odessa was liberated. Malinovsky received the rank of army general. He led the Second Ukrainian Front. When the enemy army "Southern Ukraine" was defeated, Romania entered the war against Germany.
For heroism and skillful military operations, numerous victories and courage, Malinowski received the title of Marshal in September 1944. Under his leadership, the two hundred thousand enemy army was defeated near Budapest.
For the Vienna operation, the marshal was awarded the Order of Victory. After serving in the Far East, after the end of the war, he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the Russo-Japanese War he commanded the Transbaikal Front. After breaking through the Gobi desert, the troops found themselves in the center of Manchuria, completing the complete encirclement of the enemy.
The defeat of the enemy was complete. Marshal remained to command the Trans-Baikal-Amur military circle. He became Commander-in-Chief there in 1947. From 1953 he headed the Far Eastern Military District, in 18956 he became Deputy Minister of Defense of the country Zhukov and Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Soviet Union. Since 1957 he became Minister of Defense. Under him, the military power of the country significantly increased, and the army was rearmament.
