Marshal Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich: biography, awards and interesting facts

Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich - Soviet military commander. He was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War Malinovsky commanded the troops of the South-Western, Southern, Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts. People's hero of Yugoslavia.

A family

Biography of Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky begins in Odessa. It was in this city on November 22, 1898, that the future marshal of the USSR was born . Malinovsky's mother, Varvara Nikolaevna, a Ukrainian by nationality, was a hired worker. Her son was born out of wedlock. The alleged father, Bunin Yakov Ivanovich, worked in the police department of Odessa. But Rodion Yakovlevich was brought up only by his mother. Since childhood he has got used to work, the teenager worked in haberdashery shop.

The beginning of the war. The first injuries and rewards

As soon as the First World War began, Rodion Yakovlevich persuaded the soldiers to take him to the train. And he was enlisted in the machine-gun team of the 64th Division of the 256th Elisavetgrad Regiment with a carrier of cartridges. True, there was a small incident. In the metric, where the name of the father should have been written, there was a dash. The senior clerk thought about how to write down his patronymic, and suggested Varvarovich, after his mother's name. So Malinovsky and was listed. Subsequently, he nevertheless changed his patronymic.

In 1915, he was seriously wounded near Smorgon. Shards from the projectile hit Rodion Yakovlevich in the back and leg. After this injury, he received his first award - George's cross of the fourth degree and the title of corporal.

In the years 1915-1916. Rodion Yakovlevich was in the Kazan hospital for treatment. Then he went to fight on the Western Front. In April 1917, he was again wounded and received two battle crosses as a reward. In the same year he was again wounded in his arm at La Curtina. After a two-month treatment, he worked for a while in the quarries. Then he volunteered for the Foreign Legion.

Civil War

When in 1919 Rodion Yakovlevich, the future marshal Malinovsky, returned to Russia, he was almost shot by the Red Army men, discovering books from him in French. Avoid death helped an ordinary postcard with a view of the Potemkin Stairs in Odessa. He took it with him before leaving for the front.

Malinovsky was able not only to list all the buildings painted on the postcard, but also to describe the history of each of them. After he managed to escape the shooting, he joined the Red Army and fought in the Civil War in the 27th Division against Kolchak.

Military career

When the Civil War ended, Rodion Yakovlevich went to the school of nachs and successfully graduated. He was appointed commander of a machine-gun platoon, then - a team, an assistant commander of a rifle battalion. In 1930 he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze.

Malinovsky was appointed chief of staff of the cavalry regiment, an officer of the Byelorussian and North Caucasian military districts and the chief of staff of the cavalry corps, then the "Western" army. From 1937 to 1938, already in the rank of colonel, Rodion Yakovlevich served as military adviser in Spain. He had the pseudonym "Malino" and rendered great assistance to the republican command.

For his service was awarded two orders: the Red Banner and Lenin. In 1938 Malinovsky was awarded the rank of brigade commander. Since 1939, he began teaching at the Academy. Frunze.

The Beginning of the Great Patriotic War

In 1941 he was appointed commander of the 48th Corps of Riflemen in the military district of Odessa, in the city of Beltsy. There he was caught by the Great Patriotic War. Malinowski with the corps had to keep the defenses from the Germans. Despite the fact that the enemy was outnumbered, the fighters held heroically, without departing from the state border near the Prut River. But the forces were unequal, the corps had to retreat under the city of Nikolaev. So he was trapped. But thanks to General Malinovsky, the corps was withdrawn from the encirclement. And, continuing to retreat to the east, the soldiers were able to inflict appreciable damage to the Hitlerite troops. As a result, the future Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was promoted to lieutenant-general. Then he was appointed commander of the 6th Army and the Southern Front.

Defeat and demotion

However, victories were not always won. In the winter of 1942 the Germans were driven back from Kharkov by 100 kilometers. But in the spring the enemy dealt a crushing blow to the Soviet troops. Because of the defeat during the Kharkov operation, Stalin removed Malinovsky from the command of the front and appointed (with a demotion) to command the 66th Army.

The role of Malinowski in the Battle of Stalingrad

In the fall of 1942, Malinovsky was appointed deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. A month later he led the troops of the Second Guards Army. He managed to prove himself on the best side, after which Stalin returned him to his former post-commander of the Southern Front.

The fact is that the German General Manstein with his troops struck Stalingrad in order to break through the encirclement around the 6th Army of F. Paulus. Soviet General Vasilevsky tried to prove to Stalin that the army of Malinovsky as a help is very necessary.

But there was no time to wait for an answer. The future marshal Malinovsky, Rodion Yakovlevich, independently deployed his troops and put them in combat positions. This played a huge role in the victory during the Kotelnikovsky operation. And, accordingly, in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky: biography and awards marshal

Thanks to many successful military operations, South Ukraine and the Donbas were freed from the Germans. In the spring of 1944, Malinovsky was able to liberate Odessa. As a result, he was awarded the rank of army general. Then he was transferred to command the Second Ukrainian Front. After the defeat of the German army, "Southern Ukraine", Romania broke off its alliance with Germany and declared war on it.

For active military actions and numerous victories, heroism and courage, Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky received this high title in September 1944. After it was a lot of heavy and exhausting battles. One of them is in Budapest. But the German army in 200 thousand people still destroyed. And after the Vienna operation, Malinovsky was awarded the Order of Victory.

He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union after the Great Patriotic War, for his service in the Far East. During the Soviet-Japanese War, he commanded the Trans-Baikal Front. Having broken through the Gobi desert, he was with the army in the center of Manchuria. And he completed the complete encirclement of the enemy. Due to this, the Japanese were completely routed.

Postwar years

After the end of the war, Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky remained in the Far East as commander of the Trans-Baikal-Amur Military District. Since 1947 he became Commander-in-Chief there. Since 1953 he was appointed to command the Far Eastern Military District.

In 1956 - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR G. Zhukov. And simultaneously the Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of the Soviet Union. In 1957, he assumed the post of Minister of Defense of the USSR. On it, Marshal Malinovsky remained until his death. He made a great contribution to the strengthening of the military power of the USSR, as well as to the rearmament of the army.

Personal life

Rodion Yakovlevich has four children. The first son, Robert, became a doctor of technical sciences. The second, Edward, is a music teacher. And the third (receptionist), Herman, is a colonel. And the fourth - daughter Natalia. She became not only a candidate of philological sciences, but also a member of the Writers' Union.

Interesting Facts

During the service of Malinowski in the Russian Expeditionary Force in France several times fell under investigation. First he was charged with stealing two horses. But Malinovsky was acquitted, since the animals were found.

The second time he was accused as the organizer of card games at the outpost. But this case remained unresolved, as the fighting intensified. The third time he was convicted of collective drunkenness. Moreover, he was one of the commanders at the time. Malinovsky was sentenced to corporal punishment, but was released from them as the bearer of the St. George Cross.

Malinowski Rodion Yakovlevich - the only Soviet military leader who wrote memoirs of the First World "Soldiers of Russia." But there was a ban on the publication of such publications. To get around it, Rodion Yakovlevich changed the name in his memoirs and became in the book by Ivan Varvarovich Grinko.

He was also the only warlord of the Great Patriotic War who was fluent in several foreign languages, in particular Spanish and French.

The death of Malinovsky

Marshal Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich died of a serious illness in 1967, on March 31. At that time he was already in Moscow. After death, cremated, and his ashes rest on the Red Square of the capital, near the Kremlin wall.