Alexander Sukhomlin

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Alexander Sukhomlin
10th Guards Army (1943-1944)
Battles/warsRussian Civil War
World War II
  • Battle of Smolensk (1943)
AwardsOrder of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner

Alexander Vasilievich Sukhomlin (Russian: Александр Васильевич Сухомлин; 5 November [O.S. 23 October] 1900 – 7 October 1970) was a Soviet military commander, reaching the rank of lieutenant general in the Red Army.

Biography

Sukhomlin was born in a village in the

M. V. Frunze Military Academy. He served as head of the faculty's training department at Frunze Military Academy and then as commissioner for the academy's preparatory course from 1931 to 1933. In 1936 he was appointed an assistant army inspector for the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army. In 1937 he became the course director at the Soviet General Staff Academy after graduating from that institution in October 1936. In February 1941 he was named an assistant professor.[1]

When

Leningrad. In September he was chosen as acting chief of staff for the 54th Army, part of the Leningrad Front.[1] In January 1942 he briefly assumed command of the 8th Army on the Volkhov Front before taking command of the 54th Army, recovering from the Soviet loss in the Battle of Lyuban. He led the army in February 1943 during Operation Polar Star, an unsuccessful attempt to lift the blockade of Leningrad. His role was to attack toward Tosno and link up with the 55th Army attacking from Krasny Bor.[2] Sukhomlin was demoted to deputy commander of the army for his failure. In March he was named assistant commander of the Volkhov Front and in June he became chief of staff of the 5th Army on the Western Front.[1]

In August 1943 Sukhomlin became chief of staff of the

Operation Suvorov, an attempt to liberate Smolensk.[3] Under Sukhomlin the 10th Guards broke through the right flank of the German IX Army Corps of 4th Army west of Yelnya on September 15 and then advanced on Smolensk from the southwest.[4] The troops under his command earned distinction for their performance during the operation.[1]

In February 1944 Sukhomlin became the deputy chief of the

People's Republic of China and served as senior military adviser to the head of the PLA military academy. In May 1959 he was seconded to the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces and in June he was seconded to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union for research work. In August 1960 he returned to the General Staff military academy as a senior lecturer in the Department of Strategy. He retired from active service in June 1963.[1]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e [1]; on encyclopedia.mil.ru
  2. ^ Glantz, pp. 412-14
  3. ^ Forczyk, p. 13
  4. ^ ibid, p. 76-77

References

  • "Сухомлин Александр Васильевич" [Sukhomlin, Alexander Vasilievich]. Military Biographical Dictionary (in Russian).
    Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
    . Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  • Forczyk, Robert (2019). Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. .
  • Glantz, David (2011). After Stalingrad: The Red Army's Winter Offensive 1942-1943. Solihull, UK: Helion and Company. .