Ivan Bagramyan
Ivan Bagramyan | |
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Russian SFSR, Soviet Union | |
Buried | |
Years of service | 1915–1970 |
Rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars |
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Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union, twice
Order of the Red Banner, Thrice Order of Lenin, seven times Marshal's Star |
Signature |
Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan,[n 1] also known as Hovhannes Khachaturi Baghramyan[n 2][n 3] (2 December [O.S. 20 November] 1897 – 21 September 1982), was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union of Armenian origin.
During
Bagramyan's experience in military planning as a chief of staff allowed him to distinguish himself as a capable commander in the early stages of the Soviet counter-offensives against
He did not immediately join the
Early life
Ivan Bagramyan was born in Yelisavetpol (modern
Graduating in 1912, Bagramyan, whom everyone affectionately called Vanya, followed his father and his brothers in a path in rail work, attending the three-year railway technical institute located in
World War I
Bagramyan was well aware of the military situation at the
His opportunity came on 16 September 1915, when he was accepted as a volunteer in the Russian army. He was assigned to the 116th Reserve Battalion and sent to
Learning about the exploits of the men in the outfit, the chief of staff of the regiment, General Pavel Melik-Shahnazarian, advised Bagramyan to return to Tiflis to enroll in the Praporshchik Military Academy.[10] But in order to attend the school, Bagramyan needed to satisfy the academy's requirement of having completed school at a gymnasium. This did not deter him and, after preparing for the courses in Armavir, he passed his exams and began attending the academy on 13 February 1917. He graduated in June 1917[1] and was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Regiment, stationed near Lake Urmia. But with the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government in the midst of the October Revolution of 1917, his unit was demobilized.[11]
With the creation of the newly established
Interwar years
Three years after the toppling of the Provisional Government by the
As life in Armenia grew relatively more stable under Soviet rule, Bagramyan sought to locate a woman he had met several years earlier, Tamara Hamayakovna. Tamara, who was at this time living in Nakhichevan with her family, had been married to an Armenian officer who had been killed during the Turkish-Armenian War, leaving her with their one-year-old son, Movses. Bagramyan visited her and the two decided to get married at the end of 1922. In addition to their son Movses, who went on to become a painter, they had a daughter, Margarit, who later became a doctor. Tamara remained at Bagramyan's side until her death in 1973.[16]
In 1923, Bagramyan was appointed commander of the Alexandropol Cavalry Regiment, a position he held until 1931. Two years later, Bagramyan graduated from the Leningrad Cavalry School and, in 1934, from the
In 1940, when General Zhukov was promoted to commander of the
World War II
Ukraine
In June 1941,
On the morning of 22 June, he was tasked with the overseeing of a transfer of a military convoy to
Bagramyan was then appointed chief of staff to Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and along with future Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, then a political officer, coordinated the fighting around Rostov.[19] In his memoirs, Khrushchev described Bagramyan as a "very precise person who reported on everything just as it was. How many troops we had, their positions, and the general situation."[25]
Khrushchev went on to detail an account where Marshal Semyon Budyonny, sent by the chief of the operations department from Moscow as a representative of Stavka, arrived in Kiev to preside over Bagramyan's court-martial.[26] Bagramyan protested vigorously and said that if his competence was in question, then he should instead be given a field unit to command. To Bagramyan's incredulity, Budyonny went on to attempt to convince him to agree to his execution. Khrushchev remarked that the argument was sparked arbitrarily and had taken place after an "abundant feast with cognac" and that "in those days we didn't take that kind of conversation seriously."[27] According to him, at the time, however, the Soviet military was especially suspicious of the men in its ranks, itself judging that there were "enemies of the people...everywhere, especially the Red Army."[28]
Bagramyan was instrumental in the planning of two Soviet counter-offensives against the Germans, including the
While Soviet forces were initially successful in
The 16th Army
Though he had never led a fighting unit prior to the war, he was given his first command of an army in the Western Front as his superiors, and particularly Marshal Zhukov were impressed with his skills and capabilities as a staff officer.
With the rest of the Eastern Front battles almost entirely focused on Stalingrad and the Germans' attempts to advance into the Caucasus, the 16th Army was not called up to action until February 1943. By then, the German 6th Army besieged in Stalingrad had been encircled and surrendered. The 16th Army at the time was composed of four divisions and one infantry brigade and in light of the new offensive, Bagramyan's force was given two extra divisions, an infantry brigade, four tank brigades and several artillery regiments.[35]
Kursk
As the battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point of the war, German forces reorganized for a new offensive in the summer of 1943 to attack the Soviet held
Bagramyan's
Ultimately, it was the Germans who took the initiative by launching
Belarus
With the end of operations in Kursk, the Soviets began a series of offensives on various fronts to push the Germans out of the occupied Soviet republics. In October 1943, Bagramyan's 11th Guards Army was transferred to the Second Baltic Front which was concentrated on the retaking of
Stalin would allow him to retain the 11th Guards and suggested that Colonel-General
In the winter of 1943, his forces advanced forward towards the Belarusian city of
On 2 April 1944 Stalin granted Bagramyan's request to relieve the troops of the Front from offensive duties. However, German forces took advantage of the lull to mount an operation against
Bagration called for the First, Second and Third Belorussian and the First Baltic Fronts to engulf Army Group Center. Bagramyan was tasked with attacking the forces in the pocket, cross the
Although Bagramyan found it acceptable to sustain heavy casualties (as did all the commanders of the Red Army), he was disturbed with the immense loss of life sustained by his forces.[44] He attempted to reduce those levels primarily by maintaining the element of surprise in operations. In his preparations for Bagration, he planned for the 43rd Army to move through the more geographically difficult swamps and marshlands to Army Group North's right flank. This maneuver would thus take North by surprise since it expected the Soviet offensive to move through more suitable terrain.[45] He proved correct, as in early June 1944, the 43rd achieved success in its attack. Commander of the 43rd Army, General Afanasy Beloborodov, wrote that during the offensive they apprehended a German general who stated that German forces had been blindsided by the attacking forces.[45]
As Bagramyan pushed towards Vitebsk, his forces were aided by the same Belorussian
The Baltics
With the overall success of Soviet forces in Bagration, his Front was expanded by three armies (although he ceded the 4th Shock Army to Second Baltic), the 39th Army (previously under the command of Third Belorussian), the 51st and the 2nd Guards Armies.[45] The First Baltic Front was ordered by Stavka to move westward in order to stop Army Group North's remaining forces from escaping to Germany. Despite this, Bagramyan inferred that since many of the general orders were being issued to the Wehrmacht by Hitler, rather than the General Staff, and surmised that while there was a possibility that they would confront them in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas, he felt the more likely location would be Riga.[45] He spoke with Vasilevsky, who agreed to change the plans if his theory and intuition proved correct.[45]
As the First Baltic began moving towards Lithuania and into eastern Latvia, it became clear that Army Group North would attempt to outflank Bagramyan's forces near Daugavpils, as he had previously predicted. Vasilevsky, keeping his promise, appealed to Stalin to allow Bagramyan to move to Daugavpils but he refused.[47] Vasilevsky in turn, took it upon his own initiative and gave Bagramyan the go ahead. However, with the loss of 4th Shock Army, Bagramyan was left shortchanged since his promised 39th Army had not only not arrived but was composed of only seven divisions (in comparison to 4th Shock's ten). Feeling that time was being lost, he pressed on with the units he had.[48]
By 9 July, his ground forces had made significant gains in cutting off a vital road that connected Kaunas to Daugavpils. Taking advantage of this, Bagramyan worked with other Front commanders to attack the rear guard of Army Group Center but poor coordination between the units led a stall in the advance.[49] At this time, Bagramyan realized that German forces were most probably not going to easily retreat from the Baltics and so further advances towards Kaunas would be pointless. He proposed to Stavka to launch a full-scale offensive towards Riga but the former rejected his plans, stating that the armies of Second and Third Baltic Fronts would have already pushed Army Group Center to Prussia by the time of the offensive. He attempted to convince them otherwise, citing the numerically deficient forces in the two Fronts, but was rebuffed and ordered to drive towards a road connecting the Lithuanian city of Šiauliai to Riga, resulting in its capture in late July.[50]
With its capture, he persuaded Vasilevsky to allow his forces to move towards Riga, receiving a formal go-ahead by Stavka in a directive on 29 July. On 30 July, his forces finally reached the seaside city of
In early 1945, Bagramyan's army, under the overall command of Vasilievsky, took part in the advance into
Career after World War II
After the war, Bagramyan remained in command of the
On 2 June 1958, he was again appointed Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR - Head of Rear Services of the USSR Ministry of Defence (later - Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR - Head of
He spent much of his time writing articles in military journals on Soviet strategic operations and most notably, co-authored the six-volume work on Soviet involvement during World War II, The Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War (1941–1945).[7] In August 1967, Bagramyan accompanied General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Premier Alexei Kosygin to North Vietnam, where they met with Vietnamese leaders to arrange the transfer of arms and supplies in advance of the Tet Offensive.[51]
Bagramyan retired on 25 April 1968, and was transferred to the post of General Inspector in the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defence of the USSR.[19] In 1971, he completed the first volume of his memoirs in This is How the War Began, and in 1977 the second volume, Thus We Went to Victory, was published. Among the numerous points he noted in the second volume was an analysis of the Red Army's costly offensives in the early stages of the war:
There is no point in hiding that before the war we mostly learned to attack, and did not pay enough attention to such an important manoeuvre as retreat. Now we have paid for this. It turned out that the commanders and the staff were not sufficiently prepared to prepare and execute the retreat manoeuvre. Now, in the second week of war, we had in fact to learn from the beginning the most difficult art – the art of the execution of retreat.[52]
In 1979, another book of Bagramyan titled My Memoirs was published and was based on the first and second volumes. A large portion of the book was dedicated to the Armenian issues including the territories of Western Armenia, massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman invasion of Armenia and the
Marshal Bagramyan was awarded numerous Soviet and foreign orders and medals for his service, including two Orders of the
After the death of Marshal
Honours and awards
- Soviet Union
- Foreign
Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1st class, twice (Bulgaria) | |
Medal of Sino-Soviet Friendship (China) | |
Medal "For Strengthening Friendship in Arms", Golden degree (Czechoslovakia)[56] | |
Order of Karl Marx (East Germany)[56][failed verification] | |
Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia)[56] | |
Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia) | |
Medal "30 years of the Victory in Khalkhin-Gol" (Mongolia)[56] | |
Medal "50 Years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (Mongolia)[56] | |
Medal "30 Years of Victory over Militaristic Japan" (Mongolia)[56] | |
Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Army" (Mongolia)[56] | |
Order of Polonia Restituta, 5th class, twice (Poland)[56] | |
Brotherhood of Arms Medal (Poland) |
Notes
- ^ Armenian: Հովհաննես Քրիստափորի Բաղրամյան; Russian: Ива́н Христофо́рович Баграмя́н
- ^ Armenian: Հովհաննես Խաչատուրի (alternatively, Քրիստափորի, Kristapori) Բաղրամյան; Russian: Оване́с Хачату́рович Баграмя́н
- ^ Pronunciation: Bagramyan's name is most commonly written in English as Bagramyan or Bagramian. However, the Armenian transcription of his name is Baghramyan. This is primarily due to Western sources that used his memoirs, which were published in Russian, transliterated the Russified form of his last name, which omits the letters -gh in its pronunciation. The Armenian pronunciation is [hɔvhɑˈnɛs χɑtʃʰɑtuˈɾi bɑʁɾɑmˈjɑn]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Баграмян. Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- ^ a b c Jukes, p. 25.
- Time. 4 October 1982. Retrieved 2 May 2007.
- ^ Barkhudaryants, Makar (1996) Artsakh. Yerevan, Amaras. pp. 11, 13.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, p. 9.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Armenian) Khaleian, Ye. M. s.v. "Baghramyan, Hovhannes Khachaturi," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. 2, 1976, p. 258.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, pp. 13–16.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, p. 16.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, p. 32.
- ^ a b Salisbury, p. 112.
- ^ (in Russian) Победа.py Generals of Victory – Marshal Bagramyan Archived 27 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 8 April 2007.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, pp. 37–44.
- ^ Mnatsakanian, p. 47.
- ISBN 978-0393333411.
- ISBN 9781571818829
- ^ a b c d e f g Баграмян Иван Христофорович. Ministry of Defence (Russia).
- ^ ISBN 978-0300078121.
- ^ a b Jukes, p. 26
- ^ Salisbury, p. 71.
- ^ Salisbury, p. 73.
- ISBN 978-5-4444-3046-0
- ^ Khrushchev, p. 322.
- ^ Khrushchev, p. 321
- ^ Khrushchev, pp. 321–322.
- ^ Khrushchev, p. 317.
- ^ Jukes, pp. 26–27.
- ^ (in Armenian) Baghramyan, Hovhannes. Ayspes e sksvel paterazme [This is How the War Began], trans. from Russian. Yerevan, 1975, pp. 116–117.
- ISBN 978-0-393-32484-6
- ISBN 0-312-16360-6.
- ^ a b Jukes, p. 27.
- ISBN 1-85532-478-4
- ^ Jukes, pp. 27–28.
- ISBN 0-306-81150-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g Jukes, p. 28.
- ISBN 978-0306813993
- ^ Erickson, p. 76.
- ^ Time. pp. 25–26. Archived from the originalon 30 September 2007. Retrieved 7 January 2007.
- ^ a b Jukes, p. 29.
- OCLC 753624520.
- ^ Erickson, p. 221
- ^ Erickson, p. 225
- ^ a b c d e f g Jukes, p. 30.
- ^ a b Erickson, p. 228.
- ^ a b Jukes, p. 31.
- ^ Erickson, p. 311
- ^ Erickson, p. 312
- ^ Erickson, p. 315.
- ISBN 9780887020414
- ISBN 90-286-0335-2.
- ^ Bagramyan, I. (1979) Мои воспоминания [My Memoirs]. Aiastan.
- New York Times. 24 September 1982. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
- ^ Medal of Marshal Baghramyan. Ministry of Defence of Armenia
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Ufarkin, Nikolai. "Ива́н Христофо́рович Баграмя́н". www.warheroes.ru. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
Bibliography
- Erickson, John (1999). The Road to Berlin: Stalin's War with Germany. Vol. 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300078138.
- Jukes, Geoffrey (2001). "Ivan Khristoferovich Bagramyan". In Shukman, Harold (ed.). Stalin's Generals. Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1842125137.
- Khrushchev, Nikita (2005). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Vol. 1: Commissar (1918–1945). Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0271023328.
- Mnatsakanian, A. N. (1978). Marshal Baghramyan: Kyanki yev gortsuneutyan urvagits [Marshal Baghramyan: An Outline of His Life and Work] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing.
- Salisbury, Harrison E. (2003). The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. Cambridge: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306812989.
Memoirs
- (in Russian) Part I: Bagramyan, Ivan Kh. Tak nachilas' voina [This is How the War Began]. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1971.
- (in Russian) Part II: Bagramyan, Ivan Kh. Tak shli my k pobede [Thus We Went to Victory]. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1977.