Mikhail Kirponos
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Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos | |
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Colonel General | |
Commands held | Leningrad Military District Kiev Military District Southwestern Front |
Battles/wars | World War I Russian Civil War Winter War World War II |
Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin Order of the Patriotic War |
Signature |
Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos (
Early life
Kirponos was born in a poor peasant family and worked as a forester. He was conscripted in 1915 and took part in
In 1927 he graduated from the
On 21 March 1940, he was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions during the Soviet-Finnish War. He became commander of the Leningrad Military District the same year.
World War II
In February 1941 he was assigned commander of the
Disposition of forces for the Southwestern Front and considerable terrain advantages also favored Kirponos in comparison to his counterparts in
Shortly thereafter, Zhukov himself showed up at Southwestern Front headquarters at
That Zhukov and Kirponos were at odds about the offensive made things worse with Kirponos issuing a general order to cease the offensive on 27 June, because he wanted to make his front line shorter, "so as to prevent the enemy tank groupings from penetrating into the rear of the 6th and 26th Armies", according to H. Baghramyan.[4] This order was quickly countermanded by Zhukov who ordered the attack resumed, an order that was promptly refused on the "personal responsibility" of the commander of the 9th Mechanized Corps, Konstantin Rokossovsky, leaving the commander of the 8th Mechanized Corps unaware that he was engaging alone.[5]
Despite these difficulties, and the eventual loss of the great majority of the tanks involved in the fight, the German command was taken off guard,
In the Army Group South sector, heavy fighting continues on the right flank of Panzer Group 1. The Russian 8th Tank Corps has effected a deep penetration of our front and is now in the rear of the 11th Panzer Division. This penetration has seriously disrupted our rear areas between Brody and Dubno. The enemy is threatening Dubno from the southwest ... the enemy also has several separate tank groups acting in the rear of Panzer Group 1, which are managing to cover considerable distances.
— General Franz Halder, diary[5]
Even though the Southwestern Front did comparatively better than the other front commands in the frontier battles and generally remained organised and kept some operational initiative, Nikita Khrushchev noted that Zhukov said "I am afraid your commander (Kirponos) here is pretty weak".[6] Zhukov was soon forced to return to Moscow due to the dangerous situation developing along the Bialystok–Minsk–Smolensk axis, and the Southwestern Front and the new Southern Front created from the Odessa Military District, were put under the umbrella of the "Southwestern Direction" commanded by Marshal Semyon Budyonny, a long time Stalin associate, in mid July, with disastrous results in the Battle of Uman.[7]
The Southwestern Front fought the
In December 2022 the (Mikhail) Kirponos street in
Notes
- ^ a b (in Ukrainian) A monument to Soviet military leader Mikhail Kirponos was dismantled in Kyiv, Lb.ua (26 October 2023)
- ^ (in Ukrainian) Sickles and hammers on the Kyiv City State Administration, a monument to the "orthodox Stalinist": decommunization, which (does not) take place in Kyiv, Suspilne (29 June 2023)
- ISBN 978-0-7603-3434-8.
- ^ Ryabyshev, D.I. (19 September 2002). "On the Role of the 8th Mechanized Corps in the June 1941 counteroffensive mounted by the South-Western Front". The Russian Battlefield. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- ^ a b Ryabyshev 2002.
- ^ Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich (1971). Talbott, Strobe (ed.). Khrushchev Remembers. Vol. 1. André Deutsch.
- ^ Seaton, Albert (1993). The Russo-German War, 1941-1945. Presidio. p. 139.
- ^ Dehtiarenko
- Ukrayinska Pravda(in Ukrainian). Retrieved 8 December 2022.
- ^ Ukrayinska Pravda(in Ukrainian). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
References
- Mikhail Kirponos at Warheroes.ru
- The truth about the death of General M. P. Kirponos, Voenno-istoricheskiĭ zhurnal, 1964. № 9, ISSN 0042-9058
- Serhiy Dehtiarenko, "To the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, debts of our memories", Zerkalo Nedeli (The Mirror Weekly), June 16–22, 2001. in Russian, in Ukrainian.
- Afrikan Stenin, "The feat of arms and the tragedy of the front commander", Zerkalo Nedeli (The Mirror Weekly), June 16–22, 2001. in Russian, in Ukrainian