Marshal Konev: biography, photo, personal life, family

Marshal Konev is one of the most famous people of the 20th century. The famous Soviet commander made an invaluable contribution to the Victory. Under his leadership, many strategically important operations of the Great Patriotic War were being developed. His name is known to every person in the post-Soviet space. "Marshal Konev: a brief biography" is mandatory for reading for all students of military academies.

Youth

Marshal Konev was born on December 28, 1897 in the Vologda province. Ivan's family consisted of simple peasants. The future commander graduated from the school and already from the adolescence worked on forest work. He combined this hard work with teaching and self-development. At the age of 19, Ivan was drafted into the army. At first he studied at the Moscow Academy. A year later he was sent to the West to take part in battles against German and Austro-Hungarian troops. Thus began the military career of a great man.

In the battles on the Southwestern Front, where the future Marshal Konev was serving, the Russian troops suffered huge losses. During the first two years of the First World War, the coalition of the forces of the Triple Alliance advanced hundreds of kilometers, almost reaching the Dnieper. One of the most famous events on this site is the Brusilovsky breakthrough. After a series of major defeats, the emperor ordered an offensive operation in the Lutsk region. This was part of the overall plan of the Entente. The operation began in late spring 1916 and ended in the fall with a major defeat of the Austro-Hungarian forces. The future Marshal Konev took a direct part in the breakthrough.

After the war

Ivan was demobilized in the winter of 1918. Growing up in a peasant family, he perfectly saw the inequality between the workers and the bourgeoisie in the Russian Empire. Therefore, immediately after his arrival, he joined the Bolshevik Party. The experience gained on the battlefields of the First World War allowed him to become a commissioner in Nikolsk. He participated in the civil war, mainly in the East. There the detachments of the Red Army soldiers entrusted to him fought with parts of the "whites" and the Japanese.

When planning operations, the future Marshal Konev showed himself as an outstanding commander. He perfectly coped with the tasks and often took the initiative. In addition to military merit, he distinguished himself in the construction of a new state.

Marshal Konev: biography. The interwar period

Ivan was devoted to the ideas of communism. His comrades in the Party always listened to him. He participated in the 10th Congress of the Workers 'and Peasants' Party. There it was decided to storm Kronstadt, where the rebels settled. After the end of the civil war and the stabilization of the situation in the country, Konev devotes himself entirely to the art of war. He is studying at the Higher Military Academy. There he is transferred to a special group.

Taking into account the combat experience, already in 1935 Ivan became division commander. He is sent to Mongolia, where he is until the early 40-ies. During the service in the East, Konev reads a lot and studies all the subtleties of the army command. About his first wife, little is known. They met during the Civil War. The wounded Konev immediately fell in love with the young Anna and soon they got married. Contemporaries associate this event with the youth of Ivan. In the civil war, feelings were filled with young Red Army men, so field marriages were by no means a rarity. Lovers lived together for 20 years, after which they parted. For many, this was a surprise.

On the personal life of the commander, his colleagues did not dare to talk, if Marshal Konev was near. The family was for him a refuge, a quiet quay in which he could rest after the hard times of the war, and which took him almost half his life. Anna loved open receptions and noisy feasts. Therefore, many historians believe that this is what caused the breakup of the union.

The Beginning of the Great Patriotic War

In 1941, Marshal Konev became Lieutenant-General of the Red Army. The 19th division entrusted to him immediately after the formation was sent to the south. At this time, the Nazis swiftly broke through the territory of Belarus. The main lines of defense were located beyond the Dnieper, near the western borders of the USSR, since the main blow was expected there. A sudden invasion through the seemingly impassable swampy terrain of Belarus caused panic in the ranks of the Red Army. Therefore, the experienced Konev was poisoned to the Western Front to strengthen the group of troops.

In mid-July, Vitebsk fell. A huge number of servicemen were surrounded. Then the chief of the Nazi General Staff, Halder, reported that the war against Russia had been won in two weeks. In his opinion, further resistance can not be stopped by the Wehrmacht.

The failure of the defense near Vyazma

The Third Reich aimed at Moscow. Smolensk stood on the way of the Germans. The fighting for the city lasted more than two months. A well-prepared enemy advanced in three directions. The hastily forming parts of the Soviet army did not have time to repulse the offensive. As a result of the fighting, several divisions got into the "boilers". Marshal Ivan Konev Stepanovich as a member of the 19th Army was also surrounded.

After losing communication, the command believed that the commander was killed or taken prisoner. But Ivan Stepanovich managed to organize a withdrawal and withdrew the headquarters, as well as the regiment of communication to their own. His actions during the Smolensk battle were approved by Stalin himself. So soon Konev was appointed Commander of the Western Front.

The most complex operations

It so happened that the Soviet units, who took part in the most unsuccessful operations, were invariably commanded by Marshal Konev. Biography of the commander has a huge number of difficult periods. But it was three years of the Second World War that became a real test for Konev.

In the autumn the Germans reached the line of defense in front of Moscow. Here commanded Konev. A group of German armies "Center" dealt a cutting blow, and more than half a million people were in the "cauldron" near Vyazma. This defeat is the largest in the entire war. On the orders of Stalin, a special group was formed to deal with the incident. For some time, Konev was in danger of being shot. Then Zhukov saved him. After the Vyazma tragedy, the Germans came close to the capital of the USSR. And it was only through the efforts of the rapidly redeployed units of the Red Army and their hastily armed militia that they managed to repulse their attack. Konev participated in the development of the Kalinin operation.

After that, under the leadership of Ivan Stepanovich, another notorious Rzhev operation was conducted, where the Red Army was confronted by Nazi forces under the command of the genius of defense, the Model.

The offensive of the Red Army

After a series of failures, Konev was removed from his post as commander of the front. But a year later he showed himself in the most massive tank battle in the history of mankind - the Battle of the Kursk Bulge. Further, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konev headed the offensive in Lviv direction. For his services to the Motherland, he was awarded the title Hero of the USSR.

In 1944, Konev liberated Prague and other territories of Europe, occupied by the Reich. He managed to quickly drive the Germans out of Silesia, where the Nazis intended to destroy the industrial regions of Poland. For special successes in offensive operations, Konev was awarded for the second time the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Children of the Marshal

The daughter of Marshal Konev released a series of memories of his father after his death. There she brought little-known facts from the personal life of the commander. Also in the text were excerpts from the memoirs of Marshal Konev himself. The collection is also of historical value, since it indirectly reveals the secrets of planning the most important operations of the Great Patriotic War. The children of Marshal Konev lived mainly in Moscow. Helium's son was also a soldier.