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By Lyubov Tsarevskaya
The Battle of Stalingrad was a monumental clash of not only military but
also of intellectual might. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, one of a veritable
constellation of brilliant Soviet strategists, deserves much credit for
defeating the 6th German Army led by Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus.
The Germans held Rokossovsky in very high regard for his larger-than-life
professionalism, modesty, deep respect for military traditions and humane
attitude towards the vanquished enemy.
Konstantin Rokossovsky was born on December 8, 1896 in the town of Velikiye
Luki into the family of a railroad man. His father was Polish and mother
- Russian. The family relocated to Warsaw early in the 20th century.
When Konstantin was still a teenager, his father died in a railway accident
leaving the family in a desperate situation. Soon his mother died and Konstantin
had to leave school and start looking for a job. When World War One began
in 1914, Rokossovsky volunteered into the Russian Imperial Army first serving
as a soldier and subsequently moving up through the ranks to become a junior
officer with one of Russia’s oldest Dragoon regiments. He fought valiantly,
was wounded twice and awarded the St. George Crosses of the 4th, 3rd and
2nd Class.
Rokossovsky’s successful military career was cut short by the 1917 revolution,
but the Bolsheviks who took power shortly after, needed professional military
men. Thousands of low rank officers were joining the Red Army. It
was then and there that Konstantin Rokossovsky’s military talent shone
the brightest. Still a young man, he already had a whole division under
his command and was fast moving up the ranks. In 1937, at the height of
Joseph Stalin’s purges of the military, Rokossovsky’s career was cut short
again... Arrested on a trumped-up charge, he spent two and a half years
in the GULAG labor camps and all that time he kept insisting he was innocent.
Just like so many other jailed Red Army commanders, he was released
on Stalin’s orders in March 1940 when the World War Two was already raging
in Europe. Rokossovsky, then still a Colonel, started working hard to get
his ruined career back on track.
His strategic talent didn’t take long showing itself though. Encircled
and heavily outnumbered by the enemy, Rokossovsky managed to break through
and crushed the Nazis in a devastating counterattack. Unaware of the overall
situation out front, he sent a message to his superiors asking for permission
to move on and take Warsaw. He was ordered to fall back though and,
even though they never gave awards for retreats, Rokossovsky was decorated
for getting his army corps out with minimum losses. The Nazi Generals were
quick to appreciate his strategic talent and feared him.
Konstantin Rokossovsky made his name really famous during the Battle of
Stalingrad of 1942 and 43 when the Soviet High Command initiated a major
plan to encircle and rout the 6th German Army led by Field Marshal von
Paulus.
“The High Command kept pressing on demanding that we advance in December,
later pushing the date back to the end of December,” Marshal Konstantin
Rokossovsky later recalled those trying days and nights on the Volga. “We
were not ready yet and remained to be so in early January too. On
January 10th we were more or less prepared to hit out. The cut through
the enemy defenses, we amassed a formidable artillery force there.
The might of that initial barrage was absolutely devastating. Our
troops followed up on that initial success dashing whatever hopes the Germans
had for any protracted defense in Stalingrad…”
In the early hours of January 27th Rokossovsky’s troops commenced the routing
of the scattered enemy who was surrendering en masse, including Friedrich
von Paulus, who had just been promoted to Field Marshal by Hitler. Notably,
it was General Rokossovsky to whom the vanquished Nazi commander gave his
handgun, as conquered to the conqueror.
Other major victories followed, including a mammoth operation to liberate
Belorussia for which Rokossovsky was given the rank of Marshal of the Soviet
Union. Well educated and cultured and a great organizer as well, Konstantin
Rokossovsky was loved and respected by all. He was also very handsome,
elegant and proportionally built. “A handsome man, he also fought accordingly,”
Marshal Georgy Zhukov said about Rokossovsky.
Konstantin Rokossovsky ended the war in Wismar, Germany, where, on May
3, 1945 his troops met the advance units of the 2nd British Army. Field
Marshal Montgomery bestowed upon him the Order of the Bath, which only
added to the impressive collection of decorations awarded Rokossovsky throughout
his long and successful career. And still, Rokossovsky’s most prized award
was the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to command the Victory Parade on
Red Square on July 24, 1945 where to the loud acclaim of the Soviet people,
the vanquished Nazi banners were tossed in front of the red and black granite
of Lenin’s Tomb under the Kremlin Wall…
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