Konev hero of the Soviet Union short biography. Konev Ivan Stepanovich

05.03.2020

Konev Ivan Stepanovich
16(28).12.1897–27.06.1973

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Was born in Vologda region in the village of Lodeino in a peasant family. In 1916 he was drafted into the army. After graduating from the training team, he served as a junior non-commissioned officer art. division, was sent to the Southwestern Front. He joined the Red Army in 1918, took part in the battles against the troops of Admiral Kolchak, Ataman Semenov, and the Japanese. He was the commissioner of the armored train "Grozny", after which the brigades and divisions. In 1921 he took part in the storming of Kronstadt. In 1934 he graduated from the Academy. Frunze, commanded a regiment, division, corps, 2nd Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army (1938–1940).

During the Great Patriotic War under the pseudonyms Stepin and Kievsky he commanded the fronts and the army. He took part in 1941 in the battles of Smolensk and Kalinin, in the defense of Moscow in 1941–1942. During the Kursk operation, together with the army of General N.F. Vatutin on the Belgorod-Kharkov bridgehead destroyed the enemy. On August 5, 1943, troops led by Konev liberated the city of Belgorod, and in this honor Moscow gave its first salutes in honor of the victories. On August 24, Kharkov was taken by Konev's troops. After that, the breakthrough of the "Eastern Wall" on the Dnieper was realized.

In 1944, near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, the enemy staged something similar to "New Stalingrad" - they managed to surround and destroy 10 divisions, as well as 1 brigade of General V. Stemmeran, who was also killed on the battlefield.

On February 20, 1944, Konev received the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union; on March 26, 1944, the army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, having driven out the enemy, was the first to reach the state border.

In July-August, under the command of Konev, it was possible to destroy the Northern Ukraine Army Group under the leadership of Field Marshal E. von Manstein during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. The name of Marshal Konev is directly related to the outstanding victories of the Red Army in the last stages of the war in the Vistula-Oder, Berlin, and Prague operations. During the Berlin operation, Konev's troops reached the river. Elbe at Torgau and met with the American military General O. Bradley. On May 9, 1945, the defeat of Field Marshal Scherner near Prague was completed. The highest orders of the "White Lion" of the 1st class and the "Czechoslovak Military Cross of 1939" were given to Konev for the liberation of Prague as awards. Moscow saluted 57 times in honor of his outstanding victories. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, Konev was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces and the first Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the States Parties to the Warsaw Pact (1956–1960).

Marshal I. S. Konev was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he is a hero of Czechoslovakia and the Mongolian People's Republic. His bronze bust is installed in his homeland in the village of Lodeino.

two Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/1/1945),
7 orders of Lenin,
Order "Victory" (03/30/1945),
order of the October Revolution,
3 Orders of the Red Banner,
2 orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
2 orders of Kutuzov 1st degree,
order Red Star,
a total of 17 orders and 10 medals;
honorary nominal weapon - a saber with the Golden Emblem of the USSR (1968),
24 foreign awards (including 13 foreign orders).

V.A. Egorshin, Field Marshals and Marshals. M., 2000

Konev Ivan Stepanovich

Born on December 16 (December 28), 1897 in the village of Lodeyno, Podosinovsky District, Kirov Region, in a peasant family, Russian by nationality. In 1912 he graduated from the zemstvo school, in 1926 he took advanced training courses for senior officers at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze, and in 1934 he graduated from the special faculty of the same academy.

He served in the Soviet Army from August 1918 to June 1919 as military commissar of the Nikolsky district military commissariat of the Northern Territory, was a commissar of an armored train, then a brigade commander and a division commander, in November 1922 he became chief of the army headquarters, after which from August 1924 1925, he took the post of corps commander, and from September 1925 he headed a rifle division. During the certification of 1926, it was indicated that Konev showed initiative, was energetic, and also a determined commander. The military, as well as the general outlook, is not very bad.

From July 1926 to March 1930, he served as commander of the military commissar of the regiment, after which, from March 1930 to March 1931, he was assistant and acting commander of a rifle division, then from March 1931 to December 1932. was a division commander. And in December 1934 he served as commander of a rifle division.

In the certification conducted in 1936, it was especially noted that Konev, after graduating from the academy, had a very satisfactory military training, holding the post of division commander, has good skills, as evidenced by the maneuvers of 1936. Character - firm and persistent. From September 1937 to September 1938, Konev served as commander of a special rifle corps, then until June 1940 he commanded an army, after which he led the troops of the Trans-Baikal, then the North Caucasian military districts.

During the Great Patriotic War from June to October 1941 he was commander of the 19th Army, for one month he served as deputy commander of the Western Front. From November 1941 to August 1942 he commanded the troops of the Kalinin Front. In February 1943 he headed the Western Front, from March to June 1943 the North-Western Front, from June 1943 to May 1944 he was the commander of the Steppe Front, as well as the 1st Ukrainian Front from May 1944 to May 1945 At the end of the war from May 1945 to April 1946, I.S. Konev served as Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Forces in Austria, then from June 1946 to March 1950 he was First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces - Deputy Minister of Defense for the Ground Forces, after which from March 1950 to November 1951 Konev held post of Chief Inspector of the Soviet Army - Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR, from November 1951 to March 1955 Commander of the Carpathian Military District until March 1956 First Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces from April 1960 First Deputy Minister of Defense for general issues, until April 1962, Konev was in the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, after which, from May 1973, he again became Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense.

Military ranks: commander of the 2nd rank - awarded in March 1939, lieutenant general - June 4, 1940, colonel general - September 19, 1941, army general - August 26, 1943, Marshal of the Soviet Union - February 20, 1944 G.

He was a member of the CPSU since 1918, a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1952, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st-8th convocations. I.S. died. Konev on May 21, 1973. He was buried in Moscow on Red Square near the Kremlin wall.

KONEV Ivan Stepanovich, Soviet military leader, commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (7/29/1944 and 6/1/1945). Ivan Stepanovich was born in the Vologda region in the native Russian peasant family of Stepan Ivanovich Konev. Early lost his mother, Evdokia Stepanovna. The boy was raised by his father's younger sister. The future commander always spoke of his childhood and his small homeland with love. According to the recollections of the daughter of Marshal Natalya Koneva, once, after his performance on the anniversary of the Victory in front of the Moscow Art Theater troupe, the famous actress Angelina Stepanova approached him and asked: “Ivan Stepanovich! Where are you from? You have such a beautiful, correct language.” He smiled and replied: “My homeland is where there was no serfdom and no conquerors set foot. We preserved the freedom of the language of the Slavs who lived near Veliky Ustyug.

After graduating with a meritorious list of the zemstvo school in the village of Yakovlevskaya Gora, he entered, and in 1912 he successfully graduated from the Nikolo-Pushemsky zemstvo four-year school in the neighboring village of Shchetkino. In addition to the usual work for a peasant family on his father's farm, Ivan was involved in logging from the age of 12, and after graduating from college he worked as a timekeeper at timber rafting in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces. In May 1916 he was called to military service and sent to reserve regiment, who stood in the city of Morshansk, Tambov province. A competent and physically developed conscript attracted the attention of commanders, and he was selected for a training artillery team. Upon completion of his studies, he was awarded the title of fireworks and enrolled in the 2nd separate artillery division of the 2nd reserve heavy artillery brigade stationed in Moscow. In the summer of 1917, the brigade, in which junior non-commissioned officer Konev served, was sent to the Southwestern Front near Tarnopol. After the Central Rada came to power in Kiev, the brigade was disbanded, and the soldiers and officers who refused to join the Haidamak units were demobilized in November 1917. Ivan Stepanovich, who supported the Bolsheviks, was among them and returned to his native land. In February 1918, he participated in the work of the Nikolsky district congress of councils, where he was elected a member of the executive committee, and soon he was appointed military commissar of the district.

Since the beginning civil war he was entrusted with the formation of the Red Army detachments. In the summer of 1918 he was elected a delegate to the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Here he met M.V. Frunze, who played a significant role in the future fate of the future commander. During the Civil War, at the head of a detachment of countrymen - Nikoltsev fought on Eastern Front in the 3rd Army. Participated in battles with parts of Admiral A.V. Kolchak, White Czechs in the Urals, Cossacks of Ataman G.M. Semenov and Japanese invaders in Transbaikalia. In battles he showed courage and military talent.

In 1921, Ivan Stepanovich was elected a delegate to the 10th Congress of the RCP(b) and participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion. From 1921 to 1922 I.S. Konev - Commissar of the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. From 1923, he successively held the positions of military commissar of the 17th Primorsky Rifle Corps, commissar and head of the political department of the 17th Nizhny Novgorod Rifle Division of the Moscow Military District. In the autumn of 1925, the commander of the troops of the district, K.E. Voroshilov, inspecting the troops, suggested: “You, Comrade Konev, according to our observations, are a commissar with a commanding vein. This is a happy combination. Go to team courses, learn.” On advanced training courses commanders I.S. Konev studied in 1925 - 1926, and after graduation he was appointed commander and commissar of the 50th rifle regiment, 17th Nizhny Novgorod Rifle Division. In 1929 he was appointed division commander.

At the end of 1932 at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze, a special retraining group for senior officers was created, in which Ivan Stepanovich graduated in 1934 with excellent performance and was appointed commander of the 37th Infantry Division of the Belorussian Military District. In September 1935, when personal military ranks were introduced in the Red Army for command personnel, I.S. Konev received the rank of division commander.

In July 1937, division commander Konev was appointed senior adviser to the Mongolian People's Army, and when in early 1938 the Soviet troops in Mongolia were merged into the 57th Special Rifle Corps, he was appointed its commander. Activities of I.S. Konev on the deployment of the corps was highly appreciated. On February 22, 1938, the government of the USSR awarded him the Order of the Red Banner, and the government of the MPR - the Order of Sukhe Bator. From October 1938 to May 1941 I.S. Konev consistently commanded the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in the Far East, the Trans-Baikal and North Caucasian military districts. In July 1938 he was awarded military rank commander, in March 1939 - commander of the 2nd rank, and with the introduction of general ranks in the Red Army - the military rank of lieutenant general.

In June 1941, I.S. Konev is appointed commander of the 19th Army. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the main forces of the association were deployed in the second echelon of the Western Front and entered into fighting with the enemy in July 1941 in the Vitebsk region. Then parts of the 19th Army under the command of I.S. Koneva distinguished herself in the battle of Smolensk. In September 1941, he was promoted to the rank of colonel general and was appointed commander Western Front.

In his new position, Konev had to stop the German "Typhoon" - this was the name of the operation planned by the Germans to encircle Moscow. In October 1941, the troops of I.S. Konev, with the overwhelming superiority of the enemy, failed near Vyazma, for which the commander was relieved of his post and appointed deputy front commander. The case went to return it to the court of a military tribunal. But G.K. stood up for Konev. Zhukov, who managed to defend him in front of I.V. Stalin, offering to appoint him as his first deputy, responsible for the Kalinin direction.

According to Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky “I.S. Konev, in perseverance and willpower, was closest to Zhukov. Konev had good intuition, skillfully combined the power of artillery and aviation with the speed, onslaught and suddenness of the strike. Konev strove to see the battlefield with his own eyes, carefully preparing each operation.

October 17, 1941 I.S. Konev took command of the newly created Kalinin Front. Already on December 5, 1941, the troops of the front were the first to launch a counteroffensive near Moscow and broke through the defenses of the 9th German army. On December 16, Kalinin was released. By January 1942, the troops of I.S. Konev reached the Volga in the area northwest of Rzhev.

Since January 1942, Konev's name has been associated with the most difficult and unsuccessful Rzhev battle for the Soviet troops, where his troops participated in the Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation of 1942.

I.S. Konev (first from right) with G.K. Zhukov (center) on the Kursk Bulge. August 1943

In August 1942, Colonel General Konev replaced General of the Army G.K. Zhukov as commander of the Western Front. In this post, he participated in Operation Mars and unsuccessfully carried out the Zhizdrinskaya operation, for which he was again relieved of the post of front commander. Then he commanded the troops of the North-Western Front. The disgrace, however, did not last long: already on June 23, 1943, I.S. Konev was appointed commander of the Steppe Front, which was in the second echelon of the defense zone of the troops of the southern front of the Kursk salient. In the Battle of Kursk, the troops of the Steppe Front of General Konev liberated Belgorod.

To commemorate this victory and the liberation of the city of Orel, on August 5, a salute was fired in Moscow with 15 volleys of 120 guns - the first salute of the Great Patriotic War. The marshal's daughter recalled that “in her father's archive, a small newspaper note by Alexei Tolstoy entitled “Salute to Victory” dated August 5, 1943 was preserved. It wrote: “Orel and Belgorod are larger than Wagram and Austerlitz. That is why the Moscow cannons thundered under the arches with the Suvorov salute. Stalin's eagles flew around the plucked Berlin eagle. And the Motherland named the heroes of the battle with immortal names from now on - Oryol and Belgorod. They were the first to break into our ancestral cities. On their bayonets they carried the victory through fire and smoke, earning the gratitude of contemporaries and descendants.

Moving in a southwestern direction, by August 13, the troops of I.S. Konev approached Kharkov. On August 22, a night assault on the city followed, and the next day the city was cleared of the Germans. August 28, 1943 I.S. Konev was awarded the rank of General of the Army, and he was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st class.

Since October 20, 1943, Konev has been the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. At the head of his troops, he conducted the Nizhnedneprovsk, Korsun-Shevchenkovsk, Kirovograd, Uman-Botoshansk offensive operations. The art of generalship brought to perfection in encircling and eliminating in a short time the enemy grouping of I.S. Konev showed himself in the preparation and conduct of the Korsun-Shevchenko operation, which in this sense was almost classical. In this operation, he largely outmaneuvered Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who did not expect that a major offensive could begin in the spring of 1944. Troops I.S. Konev dealt an unexpectedly powerful blow to the enemy. As a result, about 80 thousand German soldiers and officers were surrounded in the Zvenigorodka area. With a timely maneuver of the 5th Guards Tank Army, I.S. Konev prevented Manstein's attempted breakthrough.

For the defeat of the German troops in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky cauldron, General of the Army I.S. Konev February 20, 1944 was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. In addition, 23 Soviet units and formations were given the honorary titles "Korsun", 6 formations - "Zvenigorod", and 73 military personnel were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and heroism.

In March - April 1944, he carried out the Uman-Botoshansky operation, in which, in a month of fighting, his troops marched over 300 kilometers to the west through mud and impassable roads and on March 26, 1944, they were the first in the Red Army to cross the state border, entering the territory of Romania.

In May 1944 Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev was appointed commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front. As a member of the Military Council of the front, Lieutenant General K.V. Krainyukov: “It is hardly possible to name another commander who would have acted so successfully both in defensive and offensive operations the past war. Thanks to his broad military education, huge personal culture, skillful communication with his subordinates, whom he always treated with respect, never emphasizing his official position, strong-willed qualities and outstanding organizational skills, he earned himself indisputable authority, respect and love of all those with whom he had to fight. Possessing the gift of foresight, he almost always unmistakably guessed the intentions of the enemy, anticipated them and, as a rule, emerged victorious.

The Lvov-Sandomierz operation, which began on July 13, 1944 and ended in a brilliant victory, entered the textbooks of the history of military art. “In the Lvov-Sandomierz operation,” the Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General N.G. Lyashchenko, - by the decision of Ivan Stepanovich, two tank armies were sequentially brought into battle along a narrow six-kilometer corridor pierced by rifle formations in conditions when the Nazis carried out a counterattack in order to close the gap in their defenses. As a participant in that battle, the degree of risk of the marshal is especially clear to me. Another thing is also clear: this risk was justified, backed up by comprehensive support for the entry of tank armies, the subsequent actions of which predetermined the defeat of the fascist group.

During the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, eight enemy divisions were surrounded and defeated in the region of Brody, the western regions of the USSR, southeastern regions of Poland were liberated, and the vast Sandomierz bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula was occupied. The talent of the commander was highly appreciated. Ivan Stepanovich Konev July 29, 1944 was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Having cleared the native land of the enemy and crushed his main forces in battles, the troops led by I.S. Konev, entered a qualitatively new stage of the war, moving towards the enemy's lair.

With the name of Marshal I.S. Konev connected brilliant victories at the final stage of the war. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under his command participated in three major strategic operations: the Vistula-Oder, Berlin and Prague.

Thanks to the highest military art of Marshal Konev and his ability to apply a variety of flexible methods of action, Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, was saved from destruction. When the city was liberated, Marshal Konev decided to use his favorite trick - the "golden bridge". On his orders, the tankers of the 4th Guards tank corps Lieutenant General P.P. Poluboyarova quickly went to the rear of the enemy group, threatening it with a mortal blow from the west. Coming from the north rifle corps. The only way out was to the south. Field Marshal F. Scherner rushed there with his troops. As soon as the Nazis were in an open field, a flurry of artillery shells hit them. This air strike was supported by bombers and attack aircraft of the 2nd Air Army of Colonel General S.A. Krasovsky.

On January 19, 1945, Soviet troops entered the city. In Moscow, the Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin ordered in honor of the troops who had taken the city of Krakow to fire a salute - 24 salvos from 324 guns. One of rifle divisions, who took Krakow, was awarded the title of "Krakow".

In 1987, a monument to Konev was solemnly opened in Krakow (sculptor Anton Haidetsky). However, after the events of the "velvet" revolution of 1989 - 1990. in Poland it was dismantled. It was decided to transport the monument from Poland to the marshal's "small" homeland in the city of Kirov. Local authorities and the Ministry of Defense Russian Federation made a lot of efforts to restore the monument, and in 1995, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the victory, it was solemnly opened on one of the squares of the city.

Skillful actions of I.S. Konev managed to capture the Silesian industrial region, preventing its destruction. In the adits of the Ore Mountains, soldiers found paintings from the collection of the Dresden Gallery. Thanks to the perseverance of the marshal, priceless finds were evacuated to Moscow for restoration. In 1955, 1240 restored paintings were returned to the Dresden Gallery.

By the 20th of January 1945, the troops of I.S. Koneva reached the Oder and Neisse rivers, gaining a foothold on the bridgeheads of their left bank. In order to defeat the enemy's Army Group Center, the Lower Silesian operation was carried out. On February 8, 1945, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through the Oder defensive line. On April 1, the 18,000th garrison of the fortress city of Glogau capitulated, and a 40,000th enemy grouping was blocked in the Breslau region.

In the battle for Berlin, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, along with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, G.K. Zhukov and the 2nd Belorussian Front K.K. Rokossovsky was finished off by desperately resisting Nazi troops on the outskirts of the capital of Germany. Army I.S. Konev already on April 18, 1945 broke through the enemy defenses erected along the Oder and Neisse rivers, and reached the Spree river.

On April 25, 1945, near the city of Torgau on the Elbe River, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front met with the troops of the 1st US Army. Here is how the marshal's daughter writes about this in her book: “Regarding the historic meeting on the Elbe, I recall one funny story from the recent past. US President Bill Clinton made an official visit to Kiev. During his speech, he decided to say something about the traditions of friendship between the Americans and the people of Ukraine, which has long roots: in April 1945, American troops met on the Elbe with soldiers of the Ukrainian Front, correlating the name of the front with the name of the country (whether it was an unsuccessful translation or, perhaps, a flaw in the speechwriters, I don’t know). In fact, soldiers of the 12th American Group of Forces under the command of General Omar Bradley and the 1st Ukrainian Front, commanded by my father, met on the Elbe.

At the same time, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts united west of Berlin. An enemy group of 200 thousand people was surrounded. On May 2, 1945, the capital of Germany capitulated.

In the midst of the Berlin operation in the capital of Czechoslovakia began popular uprising against the fascist invaders. According to the plan approved by the Headquarters, in addition to the 1st Ukrainian Front, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian (Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th Ukrainian (Army General A.I. Eremenko) fronts took part in the Prague operation in addition to the 1st Ukrainian Front. The main blow to Army Group Center, Field Marshal Scherner, was delivered by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, advancing through the impenetrable Ore Mountains. The march of tank and mechanized formations was unprecedentedly difficult and swift: it took only five days and nights. On the morning of May 9, joyful citizens of Prague greeted the Soviet soldiers with flowers. In 1980, a monument to Marshal I.S. was erected on the Interbrigade Square in the Prague district of Dejvice. Konev by architects Z. Krybus and V. Ruzicka.

For victories at the final stage of the war, I.S. Konev was awarded the Order of Victory. Here is what the daughter of the marshal writes about further events according to his stories: “The ring around the Sherner group that refused to lay down its arms was closed. More than half a million German soldiers and officers ended up in this giant cauldron. It must be said that separate skirmishes with those who did not want to surrender continued for almost a week. By the way, during this week the general and traitor to the homeland Vlasov was captured. It happened east of Pilsen. The troops of the 25th tank corps, Major General E.I. The Fomins were captured by the Vlasov division of Buynichenko. When the tankers began to disarm it, it turned out that Vlasov was in one of the cars, whom his own driver helped to find. Vlasov was brought to the headquarters of the 13th Army, Colonel-General N.P. Pukhov, and from there to command post front. Father gave the order to deliver him immediately to Moscow.

Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev at the head of the parade crew of the 1st Ukrainian Front at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945

For the final operations of the Great Patriotic War and the achievement of a common victory over the enemy I.S. Konev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time. At the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, he commanded the parade crew of his native front.

In 1945 - 46 years. I.S.Konev - Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Forces and High Commissioner for Austria. Later he held the positions of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces and Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR (1946 - 1950), Chief Inspector of the Soviet Army - Deputy Minister of War of the USSR (1950 - 1951). From November 1951 to March 1955 I.S. Konev served in Lvov, where he commanded the troops of the Carpathian Military District. The district, which was formed from the troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts, included the Western Ukrainian lands: Galicia, Volyn, Transcarpathia and Northern Bukovina. It was a time when the era of I.V. Stalin. About his role in the war I.S. Konev talked a lot with the writer K.M. Simonov. After the death of the writer, his book “Through the Eyes of a Man of My Generation” was published, a large section of which consists of conversations with Marshal I.S. Konev.

In 1955 - 1956 I.S. Konev again took over as commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces. At the same time, from May 1955 to June 1960, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the States Parties to the Warsaw Pact. During the Hungarian events of 1956, Marshal Konev signed an order to suppress the "forces of reaction and counter-revolution." He also announced the decision to create the Southern Group of Forces of the Soviet Army in Hungary.

In 1961 - 1962 Konev was the commander-in-chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and received Active participation in overcoming the Berlin crisis of 1961.

President of the Academy of Military Sciences General of the Army M.A. Gareev wrote: “Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev not only won major victories, brilliantly organized and conducted a number of critical operations, but also made a great contribution to the development of military art. V post-war years, commanding the troops of the Carpathian Military District, Group of Forces in Germany, being commander in chief ground forces, of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact, he did a lot to generalize the experience of the Great Patriotic War, its creative use in the training of troops and the development of new problems of military art in connection with the emergence of nuclear missile weapons and other new means of armed struggle. To modern officers, he set a great example of innovation and unceasing creativity in the art of war, which all officers must tirelessly learn.

From the second half of the 60s - early 70s. XX century Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev worked on the books of memoirs "Forty-Fifth" and "Notes of the Front Commander". up to the very last days of his life, which ended on May 21, 1973, Ivan Stepanovich did a lot of work on patriotic education youth, never forgetting their native places. For outstanding services to the Fatherland, Ivan Stepanovich Konev was repeatedly awarded: he was awarded the Order of Victory, seven Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, three orders of the Red Banner, two orders of Suvorov 1st class, two orders of Kutuzov 1st class, the Order of the Red Star, an Honorary weapon with a gold image of the State Emblem of the USSR, many medals. Among his awards are 27 foreign orders, including Great Britain, the USA and France. I.S. Konev - Hero of Czechoslovakia and Hero of Mongolia. The urn with his ashes was buried on Red Square in the Kremlin wall. Name I.S. Konev was assigned to a street in Moscow. In the homeland of Ivan Stepanovich, in the village of Lodeyno, Podosinovsky district, Kirov region, his bronze bust was installed.

Monument to Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev in Kirov.

Sergei Kurepin,
researcher at the Research Institute
military history of the VAGSh of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences

Marshal of the Soviet Union. entered military history as one of the brightest and most talented commanders.

Marshal of the Soviet Union. He went down in military history as one of the brightest and most talented commanders. Born into a poor peasant family. He was called up for military service in the spring of 1916. He joined the Red Army in 1918, during the civil war he was in commissar positions. After the Civil War, he was in command positions. He met the Great Patriotic War as an army commander with the rank of lieutenant general. As a commander, he showed himself near Vitebsk, where the tanks of General Hoth were stopped. September 11, 1941 I.S. Konev was awarded the rank of colonel general, and at the same time he was appointed commander of the troops of the Western Front instead of the arrested and executed army general D.G. Pavlova. Subsequently, I.S. Konev commanded the troops of the Kalinin, Northwestern, Steppe, 2nd and 1st Ukrainian fronts. The troops under his command participated in the battles for Smolensk, for Moscow, in the Battle of Kursk, crossed the Dnieper, liberated Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, took part in the Berlin and Prague operations. In February 1944, I.S. Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and on July 29, 1944 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. For exemplary leadership of the troops in the final operations of the Great Patriotic War on June 1, 1945, Marshal Konev was awarded the second Gold Star. In the postwar years, I.S. Konev commanded the troops of the Carpathian Military District, the Group of Forces in Germany, was the commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, the commander-in-chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states. In 1953, Marshal Konev was the chairman of the tribunal that tried L.P. Beria.

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

Youth

Marshal Konev was born on December 28, 1897 in Ivan's family consisted of simple peasants. The future commander graduated from college and from adolescence he worked in forestry work. He combined this hard work with learning and self-development. At the age of 19, Ivan was drafted into the army. First, he studied at the capital's academy. A year later, he was sent to the West to take part in the battles against the 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 served, the Russian troops suffered huge losses. During the first 2 years of the First World War, the coalition of forces advanced hundreds of kilometers, practically reaching the Dnieper. One of the most famous events in this area is the Brusilovsky breakthrough. After a series of major defeats, the emperor ordered an offensive operation in the Lutsk region. This was included in overall plan Entente. The operation began in the late spring of 1916 and ended in the autumn with a major defeat for the Austro-Hungarian forces. The future Marshal Konev was directly involved in the breakthrough.

After the war

Ivan was demobilized in the winter of 1918. Growing up in a peasant family, he clearly saw the inequality between the workers and the bourgeoisie in 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 commissar in Nikolsk. He participated in the civil war, mainly in the East. There, detachments of the Red Army entrusted to him fought with units of the "whites" and the Japanese.

When planning operations, the future Marshal Konev proved himself to be an outstanding commander. He did an excellent job with the tasks and often took the initiative. In addition to military merits, he distinguished himself in matters of building a new state.

Marshal Konev: biography. Interwar period

Ivan was devoted to the ideas of communism. Party comrades always listened to his words. 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 devoted himself entirely to the art of war. He is studying at the Higher Military Academy. There he is transferred to a special group.

With considering combat experience already in 1935, Ivan became the division commander. He is sent to Mongolia, where he stays until the early 40s. While serving in the East, Konev reads a lot and studies all the intricacies of commanding an army. Little is known about his first wife. They met during the civil war. The wounded Konev immediately fell in love with the young Anna and they soon got married. Contemporaries associate this event with Ivan's youth. During the civil war, young Red Army soldiers were overwhelmed with feelings, so field marriages were by no means uncommon. The lovers lived together for 20 years, after which they broke up. For many, this came as a surprise.

Colleagues did not dare to talk about the personal life of the commander if Marshal Konev was nearby. The family was a refuge for him, a quiet haven in which he could rest after the hard everyday life of the war, and which took him almost half of his life. Anna loved open receptions and noisy feasts. Therefore, many historians believe that this was the reason for the rupture of the union.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War

In 1941, Marshal Konev became a 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 were rapidly breaking through the territory of Belarus. The main lines of defense were located beyond the Dnieper, at western borders USSR, since it was there that the main blow was expected. The sudden invasion through the seemingly impenetrable swampy terrain of Belarus caused panic in the ranks of the Red Army. Therefore, the experienced Konev was sent to the Western Front to reinforce the group of troops.

In mid-July, Vitebsk fell. A huge number of military personnel were surrounded. Then the chief general staff Nazis Halder reported that the war against Russia was won in 2 weeks. In his opinion, further resistance will not be able to stop the Wehrmacht.

The failure of the defense near Vyazma

The Third Reich set its sights on Moscow. Smolensk stood in the way of the Germans. The fighting for the city continued for more than two months. A well-prepared enemy advanced in three directions. The hastily formed units of the Soviet army did not have time to repel the offensive. As a result of the fighting, several divisions fell into the "cauldrons". Marshal Konev Ivan Stepanovich, as part of the 19th Army, was also surrounded.

After the loss of communication, the command believed that the commander died or was captured. But Ivan Stepanovich managed to organize a withdrawal and brought the headquarters, as well as the communications regiment, to his own. His actions at the time aroused the approval of Stalin himself. Therefore, Konev was soon appointed commander of the Western Front.

The most complex operations

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

In the fall, the Germans reached the defense lines in front of Moscow. Here commanded Konev. The German Army Group "Center" delivered a cutting blow, and more than half a million people ended up in a "cauldron" near Vyazma. This defeat is the largest in the entire war. On Stalin's orders, a special group was formed to look into the incident. For some time, the threat of execution hung over Konev. Then Zhukov saved him. After the Vyazemsky tragedy, the Germans came close to the capital of the USSR. And only by the efforts of the urgently deployed units of the Red Army and hastily armed militia managed to repulse their attack. Konev participated in the development of the Kalinin operation.

After that, under the command of Ivan Stepanovich, another infamous Rzhev operation was carried out, where the Red Army was opposed by Nazi formations under the command of the defense genius - Model.

The offensive of the Red Army

After a series of failures, Konev was removed from the post of commander of the front. But a year later, he showed himself in the largest tank battle in the history of mankind - the battle of Further, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konev led the offensive in the Lvov direction. For services to the Motherland, he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

In 1944, Konev liberated Prague and other European territories 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. Per special successes in offensive operations, Konev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time.

Marshal's children

The daughter of Marshal Konev released a series of memoirs about her father after his death. There she brought little known facts from the personal life of the commander. The text also mentioned 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 military man.

Ivan Stepanovich

Battles and victories

Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944), illustrious commander, commander of a number of fronts during the Great Patriotic War. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

He brilliantly organized and conducted a number of important operations, participated in the battle for Moscow, in the Battle of Kursk, the storming of Berlin, and liberated Prague. Decisiveness in carrying out operations brought Konev the fame of a master of encirclement, proximity to the soldiers - the rank of soldier's marshal.

The future marshal was born in the village of Lodeyno, Nikolsky district, Vologda province (now Podosinovsky district, Kirov region) into a peasant family. According to the memoirs of the daughter of Marshal N.I. Koneva once, after his speech on the anniversary of the Victory in front of the artists of the Moscow Art Theater, the famous actress Angelina Stepanova approached him and asked: “Ivan Stepanovich! Where are you from? You have such a beautiful, correct language.” The marshal replied: “My homeland is where there was no serfdom and the foot of the conquerors did not set foot. We preserved the freedom of the language of the Slavs who lived near Veliky Ustyug.

In 1916 Ivan Konev was drafted into the army. In the rank of non-commissioned officer of artillery he fought on the South-Western Front. After the collapse of the tsarist army, he returned to his homeland. He was elected a member of the Nikolsky district executive committee, then appointed military commissar of the district. Voluntarily joined the Red Army, fought against the army of A.V. Kolchak on the Eastern Front. In 1921 - Commissar of the Staff of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. As a delegate to the 10th Congress of the RCP(b), in March 1921 he fought against the rebellious sailors of Kronstadt.

Konev graduated from advanced training courses for senior officers. He commanded a regiment, then a division. Higher military education received at the Academy. M.V. Frunze. After graduating from the Military Academy in 1934, he was sent to Far East, where he was commander of a special group of troops in Mongolia, then the 2nd Separate Far Eastern Army and the troops of the Trans-Baikal Military District. In 1940, Konev was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, he was appointed to the post of commander of the North Caucasian Military District.

In 1924, the division, where I.S. Konev served, was redeployed to the Moscow Military District, its commander K.E. Voroshilov said: “You, Comrade Konev, according to our observations, are a commander with a commissar vein. This is a happy combination. Go to team courses, learn.”

From the book by K.M.Simonov “Through the eyes of a man of my generation (1988): “...Then I.S.Konev touched on his biography. He commanded a regiment for five years and for a total of seven years a division, then a corps, then an army, then a front. And he started out as a soldier. Almost went through all the military stages that exist. I went through all the positions, - as he put it, - and each one taught me. I was at the Frunze Academy, but still I went through the main academy in the regiment, for five years of service as a regiment commander. I am a man of the field. If I am capable of something, then on the battlefield, make decisions there and train troops, conduct exercises. I love it passionately. I love it and I know it and I know how to do it. I am inspired by the teachings. And always did. As a regimental commander, he was inspired by this. Without inspiration, there is no learning. And in general, when I told you about military operations, I don’t know if you felt it, whether I was able to convey it, but I wanted to show you that the leadership of military operations is, first of all, inspiration and intuition to make a number of decisions. Suvorov's words "It's hard in learning - it's easy in battle" for me is not a phrase, but the basis of life for many years, the basis of activity.

It was a great joy for me when, during the exercises in the Moscow Military District, Shaposhnikov, after I went out with my regiment on the command path of the “blue” division, mixing up all the cards and cutting off the essence of the exercises, Shaposhnikov told me face to face: you have the makings of leading troops, it is felt that you can become a master of maneuver. I was both pleased to hear this and even a little scary, as if imposing some kind of responsibility for my future actions.

Near Smolensk in July 1941

I.S. Konev was known as a great connoisseur of tactics, had the ability to see the new in military affairs, and rejected stereotyped approaches. He was active, energetic, straightforward, did not like to waste time in vain. He devoted his free time to reading books.

In the spring of 1941, Konev began the formation of the 19th Army. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the main forces of the 19th Army entered combat operations in July 1941 in the Vitebsk region. Then Konev's army distinguished itself in the battle of Smolensk. On September 11, 1941, Konev received an order to confer on him the rank of "Colonel General", and on September 12, he was appointed commander of the Western Front. In October 1941, Konev's troops were defeated near Vyazma, for which the commander was demoted to deputy front commander. The case went to return to the tribunal. But G.K. Zhukov stood up for Konev, who managed to defend him against I.V. Stalin.

G.K. Zhukov said that
Konev smart man, and it will come in handy.

Zhukov was not mistaken. I.S. Konev's military leadership talent was clearly and convincingly manifested in subsequent offensive operations.

According to A.M. Vasilevsky: I.S. Konev was closest to Zhukov in perseverance and willpower. Konev had good intuition, skillfully combined the power of artillery and aviation with the speed, onslaught and suddenness of the strike. Konev strove to see the battlefield with his own eyes, carefully preparing each operation.

In the fall of 1941, Konev was appointed commander of the newly created Kalinin Front. The troops of this front were the first to launch a counteroffensive near Moscow and already on December 5, 1941, they broke through the defenses of the 9th German Army. On December 16, Kalinin was released. By the beginning of January 1942, the troops of I.S. Konev reached the Volga northwest of Rzhev. Most In 1942, the troops of the Kalinin Front acted against the Rzhev salient. The command of the Wehrmacht was forced to transfer here the forces previously intended for operations on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front. This facilitated the position of the Red Army troops fighting at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus.

In the spring of 1943, I.S. Konev was appointed commander of the Steppe Front. Already at the first stage of the battle on the Kursk Bulge, Konev had to introduce the 5th Guards Tank and 5th guard armies who played a decisive role in the battle of Prokhorovka.

At dawn on August 5, 1943, the troops of the Steppe Front stormed Belgorod, and by the evening of the same day the city was completely cleared of the Germans. To commemorate this victory, as well as the liberation of Orel, on August 5, a salute was fired in Moscow with 15 volleys of 120 guns - the first salute of the war.

As the daughter of Marshal Natalia Koneva recalls: “A small newspaper note by Alexei Tolstoy entitled “Salute to Victory” dated August 5, 1943 has been preserved in the father’s archive. It wrote: “Orel and Belgorod are bigger than Wagram and Austerlitz. That is why the Moscow cannons thundered under the arches with the Suvorov salute. Stalin's eagles flew around the plucked Berlin eagle.

And the Motherland named the heroes of the battle with immortal names from now on - Oryol and Belgorod. They were the first to break into our ancestral cities. On their bayonets they carried the victory through fire and smoke, earning the gratitude of contemporaries and descendants.

By August 13, Konev's troops approached Kharkov, and on August 22 a night assault on the city followed. By 12 o'clock the next day, the city was liberated. On August 28, 1943, I.S. Konev was awarded the rank of Army General and the Order of Suvorov, I degree. As Natalia Koneva writes in her book: “Field Marshal Manstein, whose troops opposed his father near Kharkov, left memoirs, where, in particular, he noted that “the command of the enemy’s Steppe Front was probably the most energetic.”

The art of generalship brought to perfection in encircling and eliminating the enemy grouping in a short time, Konev showed in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation, which was almost classical in this sense. In this operation, he largely outplayed Field Marshal E. Manstein, who did not expect that a major offensive could begin in the spring of 1944. Konev dealt an unexpected powerful blow to the enemy forces. As a result, about 80 thousand people were surrounded in the Zvenigorodka area. When Manstein made an attempt to break through, Konev prevented it by transferring the 5th Guards Tank Army to the threatened area.

February 20, 1944 General of the Army I.S. Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. In addition, 23 Soviet units and formations were given the honorary names "Korsun", 6 formations - "Zvenigorod". 73 servicemen were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 9 of them posthumously.

On March 25, 1944, the troops of Marshal Konev went to state border USSR on the Prut River, crossed it on the move and reached the Carpathians.

K.V. Krainyukov, member of the Military Council of the 1st Ukrainian Front: “I.S. Konev turned out to be somewhat older than Vatutin. He had an open, simple Russian face, breathing calm, and only sharp strong-willed folds at the mouth and imperious notes in his voice testified to a strong character, the ability to command. It is hardly possible to name another commander who would have acted so successfully both in defensive and offensive operations of the past war. Thanks to his broad military education, huge personal culture, skillful communication with his subordinates, whom he always treated with respect, never emphasizing his official position, strong-willed qualities and outstanding organizational skills, he earned himself indisputable authority, respect and love of all those with whom he had to fight. Possessing the gift of foresight, he almost always unmistakably guessed the intentions of the enemy, anticipated them and, as a rule, emerged victorious.

On July 13, 1944, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation began, which ended in a brilliant victory and entered the textbooks of the history of military art. “During the Lvov-Sandomierz operation,” Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Pyotr Lashchenko later wrote, “by decision of Ivan Stepanovich, two tank armies were sequentially brought into battle along a narrow six-kilometer corridor pierced by rifle formations in conditions when the Nazis carried out a counterattack in order to close a hole in your defense. As a participant in that battle, the degree of risk of the marshal is especially clear to me. Another thing is also clear: this risk was justified, backed up by comprehensive support for the entry of tank armies, the subsequent actions of which predetermined the defeat of the fascist group.

During the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, eight enemy divisions were surrounded and defeated near the city of Brody, the western regions of the USSR, southeastern regions of Poland were liberated, and the vast Sandomierz bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula was occupied. The talent of the commander was again appreciated. On July 29, 1944, Ivan Stepanovich Konev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Thousands of soldiers of his front were marked with high awards. Having cleared their native land of the enemy and crushed his main forces in battle, the troops led by Konev entered a qualitatively new stage of the war.

Marshal Konev's character was direct, to engage in diplomacy, I must say frankly, he did not know how. A commissar since the days of the Civil War, he was accustomed to dealing with the masses of soldiers. In the troops he was called a soldier's marshal ... He was bold and resolute, sometimes going directly to battalions and companies for personal leadership of the battle, leaving the front headquarters, and consequently, the command and control of the troops. After suggestion from I.V. Stalin about the inadmissibility of such phenomena, he obeyed him and later stopped such trips, remaining, however, with his own opinion.
Air Chief Marshal A.E. Golovanov

The next successful operation was the Carpathian-Duklinskaya, carried out in the most difficult conditions of the mountainous terrain. “We are happy that, under your command, we were the first from the Czech Foreign Army to enter our native land,” General Ludwig Svoboda, the future president of Czechoslovakia, wrote to Ivan Stepanovich in those days.

Brilliant victories at the final stage of the war are associated with the name of Marshal Konev. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under his command participated in three major strategic operations: the Vistula-Oder, Berlin and Prague.

Thanks to the highest military art of Marshal Konev and his ability to apply a variety of flexible methods of action, Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, was saved from destruction. When Krakow was liberated, Marshal Konev decided to use his favorite trick - the "golden bridge". On his orders, the tankers of General Pavel Poluboyarov quickly went to the rear of the enemy group, threatening it with a mortal blow from the west. Soviet infantry advanced from the north. The only way out was to the south. Field Marshal F. Scherner rushed there with his troops. As soon as the fascists were in an open field, a flurry of artillery shells and aerial bombs fell upon them.

On January 19, 1945, Soviet troops entered the city, and soon all of Silesia was liberated from the invaders. In Moscow, Stalin issued an order to celebrate the capture of the city of Krakow with a salute - 24 volleys from 324 guns. One of their Soviet divisions that took Krakow was given the title of "Krakow".

In 1987, a monument to Konev was solemnly opened in Krakow (sculptor Anton Haidetsky). However, after the events of the "velvet" revolution of 1989-1990. in Poland, the monument was dismantled. It was decided to move the monument from Krakow to the "small" homeland of I.S. Konev in the city of Kirov. Local authorities and the Ministry of Defense made a lot of efforts to restore the monument, and then in 1995, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the victory, the monument was solemnly opened on one of the city squares.

The daughter of the famous Marshal N. Konev wrote: “I watched on a television news program how the figure of the father with a rope around his neck was pulled off the pedestal ... Hanged for crimes - only such an association arose then. Yes, I recognize the right of any nation to have monuments such as they want to have on their land, but any ruler must fulfill the will of his people with dignity, without violating the moral law. My father is not a war criminal in order to arouse the hatred of the people against him ... And, among other things, what about the fate of the soldiers whom he led forward, whose lives were cut short in Europe, for example, near Krakow or Auschwitz, where they saved other peoples sentenced to destruction?"

With skilful actions, Konev managed to capture the Silesian industrial region, preventing its destruction. In the galleries, Konev's soldiers found paintings from the collection of the Dresden Gallery, spoiled by groundwater. Among them was Raphael's painting "The Sistine Madonna" and paintings by other masters. Thanks to the help of Marshal Konev, the priceless finds were evacuated to Moscow for restoration. In 1955, 1240 restored paintings were returned to the Dresden Gallery.

By the 20th of January 1945, Konev's troops reached the Oder and crossed it. Konev had to carry out the Lower Silesian operation in order to defeat the Center armies. On February 8, 1945, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian broke through the Oder defensive line. On April 1, the 18,000-strong garrison of the fortress city of Glogau capitulated. In the Breslau area, a 40,000-strong enemy grouping was surrounded.

In the battle for Berlin, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, along with the troops of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front and Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front, finished off the desperately resisting fascist beast in its lair. On April 18, 1945, Konev's armies broke through the enemy defenses erected along the Oder and Neisse rivers and reached the Spree river. On April 25, the Berlin grouping of German troops was cut into pieces and surrounded in the Berlin region and southeast of it.

At the same time, the soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front on the Elbe River near the city of Torgau met with American troops. Here is how N. Koneva writes about this in her book: “Regarding the historic meeting on the Elbe, I recall one funny story from the recent past. US President Bill Clinton made an official visit to Kiev. During his speech, he decided to say something about the traditions of friendship between the Americans and the people of Ukraine, which has long roots: in April 1945, American troops met on the Elbe with soldiers of the Ukrainian Front, correlating the name of the front with the name of the country (whether it was an unsuccessful translation or, perhaps, a flaw in the speechwriters, I don’t know). In fact, soldiers of the 12th American Group of Forces under the command of General Omar Bradley and the 1st Ukrainian Front, commanded by my father, met on the Elbe.

On April 25, 1945, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts united west of Berlin. An enemy group of 200 thousand people was surrounded. On May 2, 1945, the capital of Germany capitulated.

In the midst of the Berlin operation, a popular uprising against the fascist invaders began in the capital of Czechoslovakia. According to the plan approved by the Headquarters, in addition to the 1st Ukrainian Front, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian (R.Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th Ukrainian (A.I. Eremenko) fronts took part in the Prague operation in addition to the 1st Ukrainian Front. The main blow to Field Marshal Scherner's Army Group Center was delivered by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, advancing through the impenetrable Ore Mountains. The forced march was unprecedentedly difficult and swift: it took only five days and nights. On the morning of May 9, joyful citizens of Prague greeted the Soviet soldiers with flowers.

For victories at the final stage of the war, I.S. Konev was awarded the Order of Victory. Here is what N. Konev writes about further events (many facts were completely hushed up in Czechoslovakia for forty years): “The ring around the Sherner group that refused to lay down its arms was closed. More than half a million German soldiers and officers ended up in this giant cauldron. It must be said that separate skirmishes with those who did not want to surrender continued for almost a week. By the way, during this week the general and traitor to the homeland Vlasov was captured. It happened east of Pilsen. The troops of the tank corps of the Fomins captured the Vlasov division of Buinichenko. When the tankers began to disarm it, it turned out that Vlasov was in one of the cars, whom his own driver helped to find. Vlasov was brought to the headquarters of the 13th Army, and from there to the command post of the front. Father gave the order to deliver him immediately to Moscow.

In 1980, a monument to Marshal Konev was erected on the Interbrigade Square in the Prague district of Dejvice (sculptor Zdeněk Krybus). In 2012, the lilac bushes around the monument were renewed. Natalia Koneva continues in her book: “In Prague, to this day, despite different political courses, there remains a monument to my father - a military man in an open overcoat and a bouquet of lilacs. Lilac was his favorite flower. Maybe because in Europe that year the lilac blossomed wildly, and this developed in his mind as a kind of symbol of war, freedom, victory, in the achievement of which he had to invest all his strength, all his life energy.

In 1945-1946. I.S.Konev - Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Forces and High Commissioner for Austria. He held the positions of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces and Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR (1946 - 1950), Chief Inspector of the Soviet. Army - Deputy Minister of War of the USSR (1950 - 1951). From November 1951 to March 1955 Konev served in Lvov, where he commanded the troops of the Carpathian Military District. The district, which was formed from the troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts, included the Western Ukrainian lands: Galicia, Volyn, Transcarpathia and Northern Bukovina. It was a time when the era of Stalin was leaving in the past. Konev talked a lot about the role of Stalin in the war with the writer K. Simonov. After the death of Simonov, the book “Through the Eyes of a Man of My Generation” was published, a large section of which is conversations with Marshal Konev.

In 1955 - 1956 I.S. Konev again took over as commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces. In 1955 - 1960. Marshal Konev - First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. At the same time, from May 1955 to June 1960, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the States Parties to the Warsaw Pact. During the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Marshal Konev signed an order to suppress "the forces of reaction and counter-revolution." He also announced the decision to establish the Southern Group of Soviet Forces in Hungary. Natalia Koneva said in a newspaper interview: “... during the Hungarian events of 1956, my father, flying away, told my mother that he would call her from Budapest and, if the situation was terrible, he would say one phrase to her, and if it was completely terrible - another."

In 1957, I.S. Konev was an active participant in the October plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, at which the issue of G.K. Zhukov from the leadership of the country's armed forces. In 2001, the transcript of this plenum of the Central Committee and the text of Konev's speech at the plenum were published.

In this regard, N. Koneva wrote: “Father experienced moral pressure - he served with Zhukov, was his deputy, and under all circumstances he always had respect for Zhukov as a professional; Zhukov did not report to the Central Committee about “mistakes”, he did not write statements. For those who seek to condemn Zhukov - Konev is a "friend", for others who sincerely sympathize with the military - the situation is dramatic. Friends, even under pressure from the authorities, it is immoral to judge, it must be made clear that the words of condemnation are spoken by a party member who does not separate himself from her decisions ... "" ... Zhukov's meeting with his father, which became a landmark reconciliation meeting, took place on December 28, 1967, when he is seventy years old."

K.M.Simonov described the meeting of G.K.Zhukov and I.S.Konev in 1967: “Fate turned out so that for many years they were separated from each other by circumstances that were dramatic for both. And if you look even further, into the war, then life there, it happened, pushed them together in a dramatic setting. However, for all that, in the people's memory of the war, two names more often than anyone else stood side by side. And when at the evening both of these people embraced for the first time in many years, then before our eyes the secondary became secondary with such obviousness that it was impossible not to rejoice.

In 1961 - 1962 Konev was the commander-in-chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, took an active part in the Berlin crisis of 1961.

Army General M.A. Gareev wrote: “Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev not only won major victories, brilliantly organized and conducted a number of important operations, but also made a great contribution to the development of military art. In the postwar years, commanding the troops of the Carpathian Military District, the Group of Forces in Germany, being the commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact, he did a lot to generalize the experience of the Great Patriotic War, its creative use in training troops and the development of new problems of military art in connection with the advent of nuclear missile weapons and other new means of armed struggle. To modern officers, he set a great example of innovation and unceasing creativity in the art of war, which all officers must tirelessly learn.

From the second half of the 60s - early 70s. I.S. Konev is working on the books of memoirs "Forty-Fifth" and "Notes of the Front Commander". From 1937, from the first elections, and until 1973, he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Until the very last days of his life, which ended on May 21, 1973, Ivan Stepanovich did a lot of work on the patriotic education of young people.

We, front-line soldiers, did not live in vain, we managed to defeat fascism and instill faith in the triumph of our common cause ...
- said I.S. Konev.

For outstanding services to the Fatherland, Ivan Stepanovich Konev was repeatedly awarded. He became a Marshal of the Soviet Union, twice he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945), he was awarded the Order of Victory, seven Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov, I degree, the Order of the Red Star, honorary weapons, many others state awards. Among the awards are 27 foreign orders. I.S.Konev - Hero of Czechoslovakia and Hero of the MPR. The urn with his ashes was buried on Red Square in the Kremlin wall. The name of I.S. Konev was given to a street in Moscow. In the homeland of Ivan Stepanovich, in the village of Lodeyno, Podosinovsky district, Kirov region, his bronze bust was installed.

RYBAKOV S.P., Candidate of History, Associate Professor, MGIMO (U)

Literature

Polevoy B.N. Commander: A Biographical Tale. (About I.S. Konev). M., 1983.

Baskakov V.E. Marshal Konev. M., 1992.

Kozlov P.E. Commander: On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev. Kirov, 1997.

Marshal Konev: Son of the land of Podsinovskaya: Collection of essays, art., Memoirs. Editorial Borovskaya N.A. et al. Kirov, 1997.

Lubchenkov Yu.N. One hundred great commanders of the second world. (section "Front commanders": Konev I.S.). M., 2012.

Internet

Gavrilov Petr Mikhailovich

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War - in the army. Major Gavrilov P.M. from June 22 to July 23, 1941 led the defense of the Eastern Fort Brest Fortress. He managed to rally around him all the surviving soldiers and commanders of various units and subunits, to close the most vulnerable places for the enemy to break through. On July 23, he was seriously wounded by a shell explosion in the casemate and was captured in an unconscious state. He spent the war years in the Nazi concentration camps of Hammelburg and Revensburg, having experienced all the horrors of captivity. Liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945. http://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=484

Dolgorukov Yury Alekseevich

Outstanding statesman and military leader of the era of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Prince. Commanding the Russian army in Lithuania, in 1658 he defeated hetman V. Gonsevsky in the battle of Verki, taking him prisoner. This was the first time after 1500 when a Russian governor captured the hetman. In 1660, at the head of an army sent under Mogilev, besieged by the Polish-Lithuanian troops, he won a strategic victory over the enemy on the Basya River near the village of Gubarevo, forcing hetmans P. Sapieha and S. Czarnetsky to retreat from the city. Thanks to the actions of Dolgorukov, the "front line" in Belarus along the Dnieper was maintained until the end of the war of 1654-1667. In 1670, he led an army sent to fight the Cossacks of Stenka Razin, in as soon as possible suppressed the Cossack rebellion, which later led to the Don Cossacks' oath of allegiance to the tsar and the transformation of the Cossacks from robbers into "sovereign servants".

Barclay de Tolly Mikhail Bogdanovich

Finnish war.
Strategic retreat in the first half of 1812
European campaign of 1812

Loris-Melikov Mikhail Tarielovich

Known mainly as one of the secondary characters in the story "Hadji Murad" by L.N. Tolstoy, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov went through all the Caucasian and Turkish campaigns of the second half of the middle of the 19th century.

Having shown himself excellently during the Caucasian War, during the Kars campaign Crimean War Loris-Melikov led reconnaissance, and then successfully served as commander-in-chief during the difficult Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, having won a number of important victories over the united Turkish troops and for the third time captured Kars, which by that time was considered impregnable.

generals Ancient Russia

... Ivan III (capture of Novgorod, Kazan), Vasily III(capture of Smolensk), Ivan IV the Terrible (capture of Kazan, Livonian campaigns), M.I. Vorotynsky (battle of Molodi with Devlet Giray), Tsar V.I. Shuisky (battle of Dobrynichy, capture of Tula), M.V. Skopin-Shuisky (liberation of Moscow from False Dmitry II), F.I. Sheremetev (liberation of the Volga region from False Dmitry II), F.I. Mstislavsky (many different campaigns, rebuffing Kazy-Girey), There were many generals in the Time of Troubles.

Brusilov Alexey Alekseevich

Outstanding commander World War I, founder new school strategy and tactics, which made a huge contribution to overcoming the positional impasse. He was an innovator in the field of military art and one of the most prominent military leaders in Russian military history.
Cavalry General A. A. Brusilov showed the ability to manage large operational military formations - the army (8th - 05.08. May 21, 1917), a group of fronts (Supreme Commander-in-Chief - May 22, 1917 - July 19, 1917).
The personal contribution of A. A. Brusilov manifested itself in many successful operations of the Russian army during the First World War - the Battle of Galicia in 1914, the Battle of the Carpathians in 1914/15, the Lutsk and Czartoryi operations in 1915 and, of course, in the Offensive of the South-Western Front in 1916 city (the famous Brusilovsky breakthrough).