Kuzma Trubnikov

Kuzma Trubnikov
Kuzma Trubnikov
	10th Guards Army (1943)
Battles/wars	World War I; Russian Civil War; World War II Roslavl–Novozybkov Offensive; Battle of Bryansk; Battle of Moscow; Battles of Rzhev; Battle of Stalingrad; Battle of Smolensk (1943); East Prussian Offensive; East Pomeranian Offensive; Battle of Berlin;
Awards	Cross of St. George; Order of Saint Anna; Order of Lenin; Order of the Red Banner

Kuzma Petrovich Trubnikov (

colonel-general in the Red Army

.

Early life, World War I, and Russian Civil War

Trubnikov was born in a small village in

Cross of St. George (earning the title "Full Cavalier of Saint George") as well as the Order of Saint Anna, 4th class. In early 1918 Trubnikov was demobilized having reached the rank of lieutenant.^[1]

Volunteering for the

Sudzha. From October to November he was involved in the Orel–Kursk operation, a decisive Soviet victory in which the Red Army regained the initiative. During the Polish–Soviet War he commanded a regiment and then the 20th and 19th brigades of the 7th Division. In the autumn of 1920 he fought against Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz near Ovruch and then against the anarchist army of Nestor Makhno near Zolotonosha.^[1]

Interwar period

After the civil war he continued to serve in the 7th Rifle Division as commander of the 19th Rifle Regiment, stationed in the

25th Chapayev Rifle Division, named after its first commander, Vasily Chapayev. In 1935 he became the division commander.^[1]

During this time Trubnikov was under investigation by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. This investigation was during a widespread purge of the Red Army, part of the Great Purge, where officers of the former Imperial army especially came under suspicion. He was arrested in June 1938 but released in February 1940.^[2] After his release he served as an instructor at the Vystrel course.^[1]

World War II

A month after

167th Infantry Division, but the 258th Division was able to escape and prevent the complete destruction of the army.^[3] The division then helped stop Guderian's Second Panzer Army at Tula, on the southern flank of the German assault on Moscow. After the successful defensive operation the original strength of the 258th Infantry Division was less than 10 percent.^[4] In November Trubnikov was assigned command of the 217th Rifle Division, also part of 50th Army.^[1]

In January 1942 Trubnikov led the division in the Soviet counteroffensive in the Moscow area, helping to liberate

Stalingrad. In October, at Rokossovsky's request, Trubnikov became deputy commander of the Don Front. He participated in the organization and management of troops in the Battle of Stalingrad and the destruction of the encircled German 6th Army. Trubnikov led the armies on the Don Front's right wing, including the 57th, 67th and 64th armies.^[1]

In February 1943 Trubnikov again served as deputy commander to Rokossovsky on the

Operation Suvorov, an attempt to liberate Smolensk that summer. In early August Trubnikov's army tried several times to break through the German XII Army Corps, but reinforcements from the 9th Army prevented any advance.^[6] During the first phrase of the operation the 10th Guards suffered 30 percent casualties and its most elite unit, the 65th Guards Rifle Division, was almost annihilated, having lost 75 percent of its personnel in just seven days.^[7] On September 10 Trubnikov was relieved of command and replaced with Alexander Sukhomlin. He would hold no more major commands for the rest of the war.^[8]

In December 1943 he was appointed assistant commander of the

East Pomeranian Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin.^[1]

Later life

At the

Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 Trubnikov led the consolidated regiment of the 2nd Belorussian Front. After the war, he continued as deputy commander of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front until August 1945, when he became deputy commander-in-chief of the Northern Group of Forces stationed in Poland. In January 1951 he was retired due to illness. He died on January 16, 1974, and is buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.^[1]

Awards and decorations

Russian Empire

	Cross of St. George, all four-classes (Full Cavalier)
	Order of Saint Anna, 4th class
	St. George Medal, all four-classes (Full Cavalier)
	Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812"
	Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the Reign of the House of Romanov"
	Medal "In Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Naval Battle of Gangut"

Soviet Union

	Order of Lenin, twice (21 February 1945, 29 May 1945)
	Order of the Red Banner, five times (1921, 2 January 1942, 4 February 1943, 3 November 1944, 20 June 1949)
	Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (10 April 1945)
	Order of Suvorov, 2nd class (23 August 1944)
	Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class (28 September 1943)
	Order of the Red Star (22 February 1938)
	Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad" (22 December 1942)
	Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" (1 May 1944)
	Medal "For the Capture of Königsberg" (9 June 1945)
	Medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw" (9 June 1945)
	Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (9 May 1945)
	Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (7 May 1965)
	Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (5 November 1969)
	Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (22 February 1938)
	Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" (22 February 1948)
	Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (18 December 1957)
	Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (22 December 1967)
	Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" (30 September 1947)

Foreign

	Croix de guerre (Belgium)
	Médaille militaire (France)
	Commander's Cross of the Virtuti Militari (Poland)
	Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class (Poland)
	Medal "For Oder, Neisse and the Baltic" (Poland)
	Medal "For Warsaw 1939-1945" (Poland)
	Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 (Poland)