In the article "The most famous Russian" graduates "of the French Foreign Legion. Zinovy Peshkov "we talked about the fate of the godson of AM Gorky, whose bright and eventful life Louis Aragon called" one of the strangest biographies of this senseless world. " Now let's talk to Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, who, after returning home after serving in France, became a Marshal, twice Hero of the Soviet Union and Minister of Defense of the USSR.
Rodion Malinovsky in World War I
Rodion Malinovsky was an illegitimate child born in Odessa on November 22, 1898. Malinovsky himself always wrote in his questionnaires: “I don’t know my father”. Let's believe our hero and will not waste time on all sorts of gossip about the circumstances of his birth.
In 1914, a 16-year-old teenager fled to the front and, attributing extra years to himself, achieved enrollment as a carrier of cartridges in the machine-gun team of the 256th Elisavetgrad Infantry Regiment, then became a heavy machine gunner and a machine gun commander.
It should be said that machine guns were considered at that time almost a superweapon, machine gun teams were on a special account, and the position of machine gun commander was quite prestigious. And no one was surprised by the lines of the famous poem by Joseph Ballock (which is often attributed to Kipling):
“There is a clear answer to every question:
We have maxim, they don’t have it.”
In March 1915, for repelling a cavalry attack, he received the rank of corporal (according to eyewitnesses, he destroyed about 50 enemy soldiers) and St. George's Cross, IV degree, in October of the same year he was seriously wounded. After recovering, he ended up in France as part of the 1st brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force.
Recall that during World War I, four brigades of the Russian Expeditionary Force fought outside of Russia: the First and Third fought on the Western Front in France, the Second and Fourth - on the Thessaloniki front.
In April 1917, during the "Nivelle Offensive" in the area of the fort, Brimont Malinovsky was seriously wounded, after which his arm was almost amputated, and had to be treated for a long time.
He did not participate in the September uprising of his brigade in the La Courtine camp (he was mentioned in the article "Russian Volunteers of the French Foreign Legion"), because he was at that time in the hospital. Faced with the dilemma of joining the Foreign Legion or being exiled to North Africa, he chose the legion. But which one?
Legionary
From January to November 1918, Rodion Malinovsky fought in the so-called "Russian Legion of Honor", which was part of the famous Moroccan division: he began as a machine gun commander, rose to the rank of sergeant, was awarded the French order "Croix de Guer".
The question remains controversial: was the Russian Legion of Honor a part of the French Foreign Legion? Or was it a separate combat unit of the Moroccan Division (which included units of the Foreign Legion, Zouaves, Tyraliers and Spahi)? Different authors answer this question in different ways. Some believe that the Russian legion did belong to the Zouavsky (!) Regiment of the Moroccan division. That is, formally, Rodion Malinovsky was a Zouave for several months! But where, then, are the Zouave jackets, harem pants and fezs in the photo below?
The fact is that back in 1915, the shape of the Zouaves underwent significant changes: they were dressed in uniforms of mustard color or khaki color.
But on the Marseilles photograph of the "legion of honor" (look at it again), we see legionnaires in white caps - to the side of the passing Russian soldiers. Who are they? Maybe the commanders?
In general, opinions are different, but it should be borne in mind that after Russia left the war, the allies did not trust the Russians (to put it mildly), they did not consider them full partners, and therefore it is not clear who represented the "Legion of Honor" could not be an independent unit. Moreover, the French did not call this detachment either Russian (or Russian) or "legion of honor." For them, it was a “legion of Russian volunteers” (Legion Russe des volontaires): you must agree, “Russian” is one thing, but “Russian volunteers” is quite another, the difference is huge. But were the Russian “volunteers” the Zouaves or legionnaires?
According to French law, foreign volunteers could not serve in the regular units of the army of this country. After Russia left the war, the soldiers and officers of the brigades of the Russian Expeditionary Force turned into citizens of a neutral foreign state who had no right to fight at the front as allies. Therefore, these brigades were disbanded, and their servicemen, who refused to officially enlist in the Foreign Legion, were sent to rear services - despite the fact that they were very much needed at the front. The legion of Russian volunteers could not be an exception - this is a combat unit of one of the units of the French army. But which one?
The Zouaves at that time were the elite formations of the French army, serving in their regiments was considered an honor that still had to be earned. And therefore, the "legion of Russian volunteers" could not be Zuava. Logic pushes us to the conclusion that this unit was, after all, a “national combat unit” of the Foreign Legion - like the Circassian squadrons of the Levant, which were described in the article “Russian Volunteers of the French Foreign Legion”.
With the Moroccan division, Russian legionnaires fought in Lorraine, Alsace, Saar, after the conclusion of the Armistice of Compiegne in November 1918, they were part of the allied occupying forces in the city of Worms (southwestern Germany).
Homecoming
In 1919, in order to return to Russia, Malinovsky joined the Russian sanitary detachment, which he left immediately upon arrival in Vladivostok. In Siberia, he was detained by the "reds" who, finding French orders and papers in a foreign language with him, almost shot him as a spy. But, fortunately, a native of Odessa was in this detachment. After conducting the "exam", he assured everyone that the detainee was not lying, in front of them was a native of Odessa.
Reaching Omsk, Malinovsky joined the 27th Red Army division, fought against Kolchak's troops: at first he commanded a platoon, rose to the rank of battalion commander.
After the end of the Civil War, he studied at the school for junior command personnel, and then at the Frunze Military Academy. In 1926 he joined the CPSU (b). For some time he was the chief of staff of the cavalry corps, commanded by Semyon Timoshenko, the future marshal.
In 1937-1938. under the pseudonym colonel (colonel) Malino was in Spain, for fighting against the Francoists he was awarded two orders - Lenin and the Red Banner of the Battle, which in those days the Soviet government was not scattered at all.
Returning from Spain, Malinovsky taught for some time at the Military Academy.
In June 1940 he was promoted to the rank of major general. He met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War as commander of the 48th Rifle Corps, which is part of the Odessa Military District.
Rodion Malinovsky during the Great Patriotic War
Already in August 1941, Malinovsky was at the head of the 6th Army, and in December, with the rank of lieutenant general (assigned on November 9), he became commander of the Southern Front. His troops, in cooperation with the Southwestern Front (commanded by F. Kostenko) in the winter of 1942 (January 18-31) carried out the Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya offensive operation.
According to the plan of the Headquarters, the troops of these fronts were to liberate Kharkov, Donbass and reach the Dnieper near Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk.
The task was set extremely ambitious, but the forces to solve all the tasks were clearly insufficient.
A better position was at the Southwestern Front, whose troops had one and a half superiority over the enemy in manpower and tanks (which, nevertheless, is clearly not enough for an offensive). But the number of artillery pieces was three times less. The armies of the Southern Front did not have such an insignificant advantage - in any of the indicators. It was not possible to surround and destroy the German armies, but they were driven back from Kharkov by 100 km. In addition, quite significant trophies were captured. Among them were 658 guns, 40 tanks and armored vehicles, 843 machine guns, 331 mortars, 6013 vehicles, 573 motorcycles, 23 radio stations, 430 wagons with ammunition and military cargo, 8 echelons with various household items, 24 military depots. Among the trophies were 2,800 horses: yes, contrary to popular belief that World War II was a "war of machines", the German army then used more horses than during World War I - as a draft force, of course.
A new offensive on Kharkov, launched by the forces of the Southwestern Front (the Southern Front was supposed to provide the right flank of the advancing troops) on May 18, 1942, as you know, ended in disaster.
In general, 1942 turned out to be very difficult for the USSR: there was still a defeat in the Crimea, the 2nd Shock Army died on the Volkhov Front, there were no successes in the central direction. In the south, the 4th Panzer Army of Herman Goth reached Voronezh, on the streets of which a kind of rehearsal of the Battle of Stalingrad unfolded (and the left-bank part of the city remained with the Soviet troops). From there the Germans turned south to Rostov, which was taken at about 5 am on 25 July. And the 6th army of Paulus moved to Stalingrad. On July 28, Stalin signed the famous order No. 227 ("Not a step back").
Rodion Malinovsky in the Battle of Stalingrad
After the defeats of the spring and summer of 1942, the demoted Malinovsky was at the head of the 66th Army, which in September-October acted against Paulus's troops north of Stalingrad.
Meanwhile, Stalin, remembering that it was Malinovsky who warned of the threat of encirclement near Rostov (and even withdrew troops from this city, without waiting for an official order), in October appointed him deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. Then Malinovsky was at the head of the 2nd Guards Army, which did not allow a breakthrough of the blockade of the Paulus army surrounded in Stalingrad and played a huge role in the final defeat of this group of German troops.
On December 12, 1942, the army group of Colonel-General Goth struck in the direction of Stalingrad from Kotelnikov. By the 19th, the Germans almost broke through the positions of the Soviet troops - and faced the 2nd Army of Malinovsky. The oncoming battles continued until December 25 and ended with the retreat of the German troops that had suffered heavy losses to their original positions. It was then that the events described in the novel Hot Snow by Y. Bondarev took place near the Verkhne-Kumsky farm.
Malinovsky was awarded the Order of Suvorov I degree for leadership of this operation (called Kotelnikovskaya).
Way to the West
On February 12, 1943, Rodion Malinovsky, already a colonel-general, was again appointed commander of the Southern Front, which struck a series of attacks on the troops of the German Army Group South (his opponent here was Field Marshal Manstein) and liberated Rostov-on-Don. In March of the same year, Malinovsky was transferred to the Southwestern Front (the future 3rd Ukrainian), and in April he was promoted to General of the Army. Subsequently, his troops liberated Donbass and southern Ukraine.
On October 10-14, 1943, he led the famous night assault on Zaporozhye (in which three armies and two corps took part): 31 units of the Soviet Army have since become known as Zaporozhye.
Further, the troops of Malinovsky liberated Odessa and Nikolaev (the beginning of the "Third Stalinist strike", which ended with the liberation of the Crimea). In May 1944, Malinovsky was appointed commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, in this position he remained until the end of hostilities in Europe.
Seventh Stalinist strike
On August 20, 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front, commanded by Malinovsky, and the 3rd Ukrainian Front (commanded by F. Tolbukhin) began the Jassy-Kishinev operation - sometimes called the "Seventh Stalinist Strike", as well as the "Jassy-Kishinev Cannes".
By August 23, King Mihai I and the most sober-minded politicians in Bucharest realized the scale of the disaster. Conductor (and Prime Minister) Yon Antonescu and his loyal generals were arrested, the new Romanian government announced its withdrawal from the war and demanded that Germany withdraw its troops from the country. The answer was immediate: on August 24, German aircraft attacked Bucharest, the German army began to occupy the country.
Having declared war on Germany, the new authorities turned to the Soviet Union for help, which was forced to send 50 divisions out of 84 that participated in the Iassy-Kishinev operation to Romania. However, the remaining combat formations were enough to finish off the German troops that were in the "cauldron" east of the Prut River by August 27. The enemy divisions located west of this river surrendered on the 29th.
It should be said that, despite the declared "truce" with the USSR, some Romanian divisions continued to fight the Red Army until August 29 and laid down their arms at the same time as the Germans - when they were completely surrounded and the situation became absolutely hopeless. Subsequently, the 1st and 4th Romanian armies acted as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front of Malinovsky, the 3rd Romanian army fought against the Red Army on the side of Germany.
A total of 208,600 German and Romanian soldiers and officers were captured. On August 31, Soviet soldiers entered Bucharest.
Another important consequence of the Jassy-Kishinev operation was the evacuation of German troops from Bulgaria, it was now almost impossible to supply and support them.
On September 10, 1944, Rodion Malinovsky was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Heavy fighting in Hungary
Now Soviet troops threatened the most loyal ally of Nazi Germany - Hungary, whose troops continued to fight, despite the obvious outcome of this war for everyone, and the engineering plants and oil enterprises of Nagykanizsa worked for the glory of the Reich.
Currently, there is evidence that Hitler, in private conversations, expressed considerations that Hungary is more important for Germany than Berlin, and that this country should be defended to the last opportunity. Of particular importance was Budapest, which housed nearly 80% of Hungary's engineering plants.
On August 29, 1944, the Prime Minister of Hungary, General Lakotos, openly announced the need for negotiations with the United States, Great Britain and the USSR, but the country's regent, Admiral Horthy, was guided only by the Western allies, to whom he offered surrender on condition that Soviet troops were not allowed to enter Hungary. Unable to achieve success, he was forced to begin negotiations with Stalin and on September 15 announced an armistice with the USSR.
As a result, under the leadership of "Hitler's favorite saboteur" Otto Skorzeny, a coup d'etat (Operation Panzerfaust) was organized in Budapest on October 15. Horthy's son Miklos Jr. was also kidnapped, and recently the all-powerful Hungarian dictator "exchanged his signature for his son's life." The leader of the Arrow Cross nationalist party F. Salashi came to power in the country, who issued an order to mobilize all men aged 12 to 70 (!) Into the army and remained loyal to Germany until March 28, 1945, when he fled to Austria.
In 1944, the aristocrat Paul Nagy-Bocha Sharqozy also fled from Hungary, who later signed a five-year contract with the legion and served in Algeria - as you probably guessed, this is the father of the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
At the end of December 1944, a powerless Provisional National Government was created in Debrecen, which on January 20, 1945 concluded an armistice agreement with the USSR, and then even “declared war” on Germany. However, in fact, fighting on Hungarian territory lasted from the end of September 1944 to April 4, 1945, for about six months. Hungary was defended by 37 of the best German divisions (about 400 thousand people), including 13 tank divisions (up to 50-60 tanks per kilometer). The Germans had not been able to create such a concentration of armored vehicles in one place during the entire war.
And in the advancing Soviet troops there was only one tank army - the 6th Guards. In addition, two Romanian armies (which were part of the Malinovsky front) and one Bulgarian (near Tolbukhin) were by no means eager to fight.
The battle for Budapest was especially fierce, which began on December 29, 1944 after the Soviet envoys were killed there. Only on January 18, 1945, Pest was taken, on February 13 - Buda.
And after the fall of Budapest, in March, the Soviet troops had to repel the German offensive at Lake Balaton (the last defensive operation of the Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War).
In the battle for Budapest alone, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts lost 80,000 soldiers and officers and 2,000 tanks and self-propelled guns. All in all, more than 200 thousand Soviet soldiers died in Hungary.
The last ruler of Nazi Hungary, F. Salashi, among other "feats", had time to order the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews and Gypsies who still survived. He was hanged in Budapest on March 12, 1946. But the "victim of the Germans" M. Horthy, despite the protests of Yugoslavia, escaped trial and after the end of the war he lived freely in Portugal for another 13 years. In 1993, his remains were reburied in the family crypt in the cemetery of the village of Kenderes (east of Budapest). Hungarian Prime Minister J. Antall called him then "a faithful patriot who never imposed his will on the government that did not resort to dictatorial methods."
Liberation of Czechoslovakia and Austria
Already on March 25, Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front began the Bratislava-Brnovo operation, which lasted until May 5, and during which his troops advanced 200 km, liberating Slovakia. On April 22, a few days before the end of the war, the commander of the 27th Rifle Corps subordinate to Malinovsky, Major General E. Alekhin, was mortally wounded.
After that, the 2nd Ukrainian Front moved towards Prague (the troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts also took part in the operation). In these last battles, Soviet troops lost 11 2654 people killed, Czech rebels - 1694 people.
Other formations of the 2nd Ukrainian Front from March 16 to April 15, 1945 took part in the Vienna offensive. The breakthrough of the boats of the Danube military flotilla (part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front) to the Imperial Bridge in the center of Vienna and the landing of the troops that captured this bridge (April 11, 1945) impressed even the stiff British. Later, King George VI awarded the commander of the flotilla, Rear Admiral G. N. Kholostyakov, with the Trafalgar Cross (he was the first foreigner to receive this award).
After decommissioning, this armored boat was found in a parking lot in Ryazan, repaired and installed on the Yeisk spit on May 8, 1975:
The inscription on the plaque reads:
“Yeisk patriot guards armored boat. Built with funds raised by residents of the city and region. The battle path began on 20.12.1944 in the Red Banner Danube Flotilla. Under the command of Guards Lieutenant Balev B. F. participated in the liberation of Messrs. Budapest, Komarno and ended the fighting in the city of Vienna."
At the head of the Trans-Baikal Front
But World War II was still going on. In August 1945, the Trans-Baikal Front under the command of Malinovsky passed through the Gobi Desert and the Big Khingan mountain pass, in 5 days advancing 250-400 km deep into the enemy's territory and making the position of the Kwantung Army absolutely hopeless.
The Trans-Baikal Front, which included the Soviet-Mongolian cavalry-mechanized group, began its offensive from the territory of Mongolia in the direction of Mukden and Changchun. The greatest resistance was met on its way by the 36th Army advancing on the left flank, which from August 9 to 18 attacked the Japanese Fortified Region near the city of Hailar.
The troops of the 39th Army, having overcome the Big Khingan Pass, stormed the Khalun-Arshan fortified area (about 40 kilometers along the front and was up to 6 kilometers deep).
On August 13, the formations of this army broke through into Central Manchuria.
On August 14, the emperor of Japan decided to surrender, but the order to end resistance to the Kwantung Army was not given, and it continued to fight with Soviet troops until August 19. And in Central Manchuria, some parts of the Japanese resisted until the end of August 1945.
In March 1956, Malinovsky was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, from October 25, 1957 until the end of his life, he served as Minister of Defense.
The list of R. Ya. Malinovsky's awards is more than impressive.
In 1958, he was twice Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of 12 Soviet orders (in addition to the Order of Victory No. 8, awarded on April 26, 1945, he has five Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov I degree, the Order of Kutuzov I degree) and 9 medals.
In addition, he had the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia and was awarded orders (21) and medals (9) of twelve foreign countries: France, USA, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Indonesia, Morocco and Mexico. Among them are the title of Grand Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France and the Order of the Legion of Honor of the degree of the Commander-in-Chief of the United States.
After the death of R. Ya. Malinovsky (March 31, 1967), his ashes were buried at the Kremlin wall.
In the next articles we will continue our story about the French Foreign Legion: we will talk about its history from World War I to the present day.
