Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Timoshenko | |
---|---|
Семён Тимошенко | |
2nd People's Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Union | |
In office 7 May 1940 – 19 July 1941 | |
Leader | Joseph Stalin |
Premier | Vyacheslav Molotov Joseph Stalin |
Preceded by | Kliment Voroshilov |
Succeeded by | Joseph Stalin |
Personal details | |
Born | Orman, Belorussian Military District | 18 February 1895
Battles/wars |
|
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko (Russian: Семен Константинович Тимошенко; Ukrainian: Семен Костянтинович Тимошенко, Semen Kostyantynovych Tymoshenko) (18 February [O.S. 6 February] 1895 – 31 March 1970) was a Soviet military commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and one of the most prominent Red Army commanders during the Second World War.
Born to a Ukrainian family in
On the outbreak of the
After the war, Timoshenko held commands in several Soviet military districts until his effective retirement in 1960. He died in 1970 at the age of 75.
Early life
Born in Orman in the Akkerman uezd, Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Furmanivka, Odesa Oblast, Ukraine),[1] to an ethnic Ukrainian family.[2][3]
Military career
First World War
In 1914, he was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire and served as a
Russian Civil War
During the
The 1930s
By the end of the civil and
World War II: The Winter War
In January 1940, Timoshenko took charge of the Soviet armies fighting
British historian John Erickson has written:
Although by no means a military intellectual, Timoshenko had at least passed through the higher command courses of the Red Army and was a fully trained 'commander-commissar'. During the critical period of the military purge, Stalin had used Timoshenko as a military district commander who could hold key appointments while their incumbents were liquidated or exiled.[8]
Timoshenko was a competent but traditionalist military commander who nonetheless saw the urgent need to modernise the Red Army if, as expected, it was to fight a war against
In June 1940, Timoshenko ordered the formation of the Baltic Military District in the occupied Baltic states.
World War II
1941–1942
In the weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Timoshenko and Zhukov were worried by reports that German planes were crossing the Soviet border at least 10 times a day, and on 13 June, they asked Stalin for permission to put the troops on the western border on high alert, but were overruled because Stalin was convinced that there would be no German invasion before spring 1942.[10]
General Ivan Boldin, deputy commander on the western front, recounted in memoirs published 20 years later that early in the morning of the invasion, on 22 June, when several towns in Belarus, including Grodno, were being bombed, aircraft destroyed on the ground, troops were being strafed, and German paratroopers were landing behind Red Army lines, Timoshenko rang him with an instruction that "no action is to be taken against the Germans without our knowledge ... Comrade Stalin has forbidden to open artillery fire against the Germans".[11]
On 23 June, Timoshenko was named chairman of
In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive (the Second Battle of Kharkov) which was the first Soviet attempt to gain initiative in the springtime war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offensive, encircling Timoshenko's armies, and turning the battle into a major Soviet defeat.
The fact that he was the most senior Soviet army officer with a front line command during most of the first year after the German invasion turned Timoshenko, briefly, into an international celebrity, lionised in the US and UK in particular as a supposed military genius. According to an account written later in the war:
Marshal Timoshenko flared up like a shooting star of unusual brightness against a sky that was more than commonly dark, and faded just as swiftly and unexpectedly. From June 1941 to about July 1942, so famous was he that foreigners, notably the Welsh and Irish, attempted to inch under his halo by finding their blood in him. The Welsh said that Timothy Jenkins was the Marshal's ancestor who had migrated to Russia to work as a mechanic and marry a Ukrainian girl. The Hibernians told a similar story about a certain Tim O'Shenko. In June 1942, an American humorist wrote: "I am waiting to hear from the Poles, the Czechs, the Brazilians and the Greeks. Everybody wants to be a winner." But just then, Marshal Timoshenko began his descent from glory.[15]
General Georgy Zhukov's success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko.[citation needed] On 22 July 1942, Stalin replaced Timoshenko with Vasily Gordov as Commander of the Stalingrad Front due to his failures up to that point in the war,[16] making him Chairman of the High Command. He was called back into service as overall commander of the Northwestern Front between October 1942 and March 1943.[17]
1943–1945
Nonetheless, Timoshenko continued active military action in the later phase of the war. From March 1943, he was appointed as a representative of STAVKA to coordinated the actions of a number of fronts. He took part in the development and conduct of some operations. From March to June 1943 Timoshenko coordinated the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts during the battles at the Leningrad sector. By December 1943 he coordinate the North Caucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet, oversaw the liberation of the North Caucasus and Novorossiysk, the landing operation in Kerch Peninsula, paving the way for the liberation of Crimea later. From February to June 1944 he oversaw the actions of 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts, including the Starorussko-Novorzhevskaya operation. From August 1944 until the end of the war he coordinate the actions of 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts.[18]
Timoshenko was awarded his first Order of Suvorov, 1st class due to the achievements in the Caucasus and the bridgehead in Crimea.
In 1945, Timoshenko attended the Yalta Conference. A rumor started in the western press that Stalin had attacked Timoshenko, but was later disproved.[citation needed]
Between 15 August 1945 and 15 September 1945, Timoshenko traveled alone to review the
Postwar and death
After the war, Timoshenko was reappointed commander of the Baranovichi Military District (
Timoshenko died at Moscow on 31 March 1970 at the age of 75. He was honoured with a state funeral and was cremated on 3 April. The urn containing his ashes was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Assessment
Timoshenko was highly praised by his contemporary Marshal Georgy Zhukov. During a discussion with Stalin in 1941, Zhukov praised Timoshenko's conducts at Smolensk sector, claimed that he had done everything he could and gained the trust of the soldiers.[23] After the war, Zhukov repeated his praise during an interview with Konstantin Simonov, claimed that Timoshenko was a strong-willed, educated and experienced military man. He was removed from the frontline duty not because of his capability, but mainly because people were upset with his defeat at Kharkov and Timoshenko himself did not attempt to curry favour with his superior.[24]
General A.P. Pokrovsky, also in an interview with Simonov, gave a more multidimensional assessment of Timoshenko. Pokrovsky praised Timoshenko as a well-trained, hard-working commander and was proficient in military matters. However, Timoshenko had a deep distrust of the personnel of STAVKA, therefore he also worked with a separated group of trusted associates and double-checked the data gathered by both the STAVKA group and his own group. Pokrovsky commented that Timoshenko's method was "abnormal" although his desire for accurate information was reasonable.[25] Sergei Shtemenko in his memoirs also recounted Timoshenko's hostile attitude towards High Command's personnels including Shtemenko himself, however their mutual relationship finally improved after some times working together.
There was a Marshala Tymoshenko Street in (the capital of Ukraine) Kyiv's Obolonskyi District.[26] On 27 October 2022 the Kyiv City Council renamed this street to Levko Lukianenko Street.[26]
In popular culture
During the war with Poland,
Savitsky, the commander of the Sixth Division, rose when he saw me, and I was taken aback by the beauty of his gigantic body. He rose - his breeches purple, his crimson cap cocked to one side, his medals pinned to his chest - splitting the hut in two like a banner splitting the sky. He smelled of perfume and the nauseating coolness of soap. His long legs looked like two girls wedged to their shoulders in riding boots.[28]
In Babel's The Story of a Horse - originally 'Timoshenko and Melnikov', 'Savitsky' is described as having been removed from his command, and living with a Cossack woman, and is accused of having taken a white stallion that belonged a rival officer, who tries in vain to get it back.
In the Warner Bros. cartoon, Russian Rhapsody, a caricature of Adolf Hitler referred to Timoshenko as "that Irish general, Tim O'Shenko."
Awards
Russian Empire
Cross of St. George , 2nd, 3rd and 4th class
|
Soviet Union
- Honorary revolutionary weapon—a sword with a nominal Order of the Red Banner (28 November 1920)
Foreign awards
Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory" (Czechoslovakia) | |
Golden Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia) | |
Medal "30 Years of Victory in the Khalkhin-Gol" (Mongolia) |
References
Citations
- ^ Маршал Тимошенко: непростой и противоречивый жизненный путь. grad.ua
- ^ ISBN 1317475941
- ^ "Тимошенко Семён Константинович". warheroes.ru.
- ^ a b c d Glantz & House 2009, p. 41.
- ^ Axelrod & Kingston 2007, p. 813.
- ^ Erickson 1999, p. 15.
- ISBN 978-0-712-60694-3.
- ^ Erickson 1999, pp. 96, 107.
- ^ Neidell, Indy; Olsson, Spartacus (13 June 2020). "Finland and France Join Hitler - WW2 - 094 - June 13 1941". YouTube. TimeGhost History. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-297-84626-0.
- ^ Werth, Alexander (1965). Russia At War, 1941-1945. London: Pan. pp. 154–55.
- ISBN 978-0-16-080081-8.
- ISBN 0-75381-766-7.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "113 - Martial Law in Moscow, but is the Cavalry coming? - WW2 - October 24, 1941". YouTube.
- ^ Parry, Albert (1944). Russian Cavalcade, a Military Record. New York: Ives Washburn Inc. p. 222. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD E1 - The 6th Army Strikes!". YouTube.
- ^ "Biography of Marshal of Soviet Union Semen Konstantinovich Timoshenko - (Семен Константинович Тимошенко) (1895 – 1970), Soviet Union". generals.dk.
- ^ Тимошенко насіння Костянтиновича біографія коротко. Семен Костянтинович Тимошенко: біографія Маршал Тимошенко у роки Великої Вітчизняної
- ^ https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560612223/?backurl=/heroes/?last_name=%D0%A2%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE&first_name=%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD&middle_name=%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87&group=all&types=pamyat_commander:nagrady_nagrad_doc:nagrady_uchet_kartoteka:nagrady_ubilein_kartoteka:potery_vpp:potery_doneseniya_o_poteryah:potery_gospitali:potery_utochenie_poter:potery_spiski_zahoroneniy:potery_voennoplen:potery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov:potery_kartotek
- ^ Тимошенко: уничтожение «Южной Украины» Об этом сообщает "Рамблер". Далее: https://news.rambler.ru/other/41742911/
- ^ https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560603642/?backurl=/heroes/?last_name=%D0%A2%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE&first_name=%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD&middle_name=%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87&group=all&types=pamyat_commander:nagrady_nagrad_doc:nagrady_uchet_kartoteka:nagrady_ubilein_kartoteka:potery_vpp:potery_doneseniya_o_poteryah:potery_gospitali:potery_utochenie_poter:potery_spiski_zahoroneniy:potery_voennoplen:potery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov:potery_kartoteki&page=1&static_hash=723218fe0db377be03092ee28da66428
- ^ Primo Levi, If This Is a Man—The Truce (Abacus, 2013), p. 350.
- ^ Жуков Г К. Воспоминания и размышления. В 2 т. — М.: Олма-Пресс, 2002.
- ^ Симонов К. М. Глазами человека моего поколения. Размышления о И. В. Сталине. — М., АПН, 1989. — С.386-387.
- ^ Записал Константин Симонов. Беседа с бывшим начальником штаба Западного и Третьего Белорусского фронтов генерал-полковником Покровским Александром Петровичем. Предисловие и публикация Л. Лазарева // Октябрь. — 1990. No. 5.
- ^ Radio Free Europe(in Ukrainian). 22 February 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ISBN 978-1-59558-056-6.
- ISBN 0-330-49031-1.
- ^ "Тимошенко Семён Константинович".
General sources
- Axelrod, Alan; Kingston, Jack A. (2007). Encyclopedia of World War II. Vol. 1. H W Fowler. ISBN 978-0-8160-6022-1.
- Erickson, John (1999). The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War with Germany. Vol. 1. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07812-9. (1975, 2003)
- Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (2009). To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April–August 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1630-5.