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It follows from Konstantin Rokossovsky’s memoirs “The Duty of a Soldier”
that the future Soviet marshal was born into the family of a railroad engineer
in the town Velikiye Luki, in the north west of Russia, on December 21st
1896. His father was Polish and his mother Russian. In 1911 the family
moved to Warsaw, but soon after Konstantin’s father died, so the boy was
compelled to look for work and started as an apprentice stonemason. Hardly
had the First Word War broken out when he volunteered for military service.
He was sent to the front and in just seven days was awarded the George
Cross for outstanding bravery. Later non-commissioned officer Rokossovsky,
who served in a dragoon regiment, was given two more awards.
Just as most people in Russia, Rokossovsky was largely sympathetic to
the Russian socialist revolution of 1917. Soldiers elected him to what
was known as the regiment’s committee and soon afterwards he was made cavalry
squadron commander. He was wounded in fighting and awarded for bravery,
but this time he was given a Soviet order. The acme of his skills as a
military leader was the way he commanded Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic
War against Nazi Germany. This is certainly the most prominent part of
his life.
When the war broke out, Rokossovsky commanded a mechanized corps and
had the rank of a Major General. On the very first day of the war, on June
22d 1941, he proved that he was a strong-willed man and one who could find
a way out of any, even a no-win, situation. His corps was poorly supplied
with transport, fuel and ammunition. Next to their deployment area were
army stores, but the quartermasters wouldn’t let Rokossovsky’s troops take
what they needed without an order from the army command. Rokossovsky then
wasted no time and ordered his men to use force and replenish the Corps’
food, water and ammunition supplies. After that his battle-worthy force
engaged the main body of the enemy. His determination to supply his divisions
with food, fuel and ammunition in violation of standing orders enabled
his Corps to check the advance of the Wehrmacht’s best troops and fight
them bitterly for a whole three weeks, as the Corps was slowly retreating
eastwards. The three weeks of stubborn fighting against the pressing enemy
forces made it possible to get ready for stiffer resistance in the rear.
The clever fighting control did not go unnoticed by the Red Army Supreme
Command. On July 14th the General Staff called the future Marshal to Moscow
and told him to form an operations group to cover the main axis of German
advance, - their advance on Moscow.
Rokossovsky got down to carrying out his mission as zealously as ever,
and very soon he managed to build up a powerful force. A German field army
that had hitherto been mounting an unrestrained offensive eastwards tried
to breach Rokossovsky’s group defences straight off, but suffered heavy
losses and had to go over to the defence.
During the Battle of Moscow Rokossovsky proved himself to be a careful
and efficient military leader. Actually, this is the main thing about him.
He achieved maximum efficiency when in command of numerically small forces,
and had strong antitank defences built in the sectors that came under threat
of a tank attack. He thus forced the enemy to start pocket fighting and
lose the pace of the offensive. By early December 1941 the Germans had
been past their best, and Rokossovsky’s 16th army went over to the counter-offensive
as part of the Soviet Western army group.
There is not a single major battle in the history of the Great Patriotic
War that would not involve troops under the command of Konstantin Rokossovsky.
The very first victories that the Red Army won over Nazis are linked to
his name: at the initial stage of the war press and radio reports pointed
out effective action by Soviet troops under “Commander “R”. These troops
were the Rokossovsky Corps. Later he assumed the command of the 16th Army,
which was one that actually checked the German war machine’s advance on
Moscow in 1941. Then there was Stalingrad. When Stalin appointed Rokossovsky
to command the Donskoi Army Group, he looked him straight in the eye as
if hypnotizing Rokossovsky and said: “You must save the situation”.
Konstantin Rokossovsky quickly took in the situation and launched the
preparation of the troops for the forthcoming offensive. He never made
rash decisions, his orders were always based on a detailed analysis of
the operational situation. He personally engaged in organizing reconnaissance
and carefully studied the enemy’s strong and weak points. This made it
possible to anticipate the German Army’s plans and forestall their action.
Historians and military experts feel that Rokossovsky had brilliantly
conducted the “Koltso”, or “Ring”, operation to encircle the more than
300,000 strong Nazi army under Field Marshal Paulus. “The Voice of Russia”
sound recording library has the recording of an interview with Konstantin
Rokossovsky, in which he recalls the Soviet troop counteroffensive during
the Battle of Stalingrad:
“It was a very powerful strike. I’ll skip the details and will just
tell you that the very first day of the counteroffensive proved a success.
We did away with a very dangerous salient the Germans had. The Soviet 65th
Army, which had been maximally reinforced, launched a very successful strike
on the enemy positions, a strike that paved the way for committing the
21st Army to action.
The crushing blows by the Soviet troops upset the German High Command’s
plans for Paulus’ army’s stubborn defence in the area of Stalingrad. The
German troops laid down arms, left their military hardware and rushed to
surrender by the regiment and even by the division”. (the voice of K.Rokossovksy’s
voice in RA)
Curiously, once, in the course of the operation to encircle Paulus’
Army, Rokossovsky was in a tank that shot ahead of the rest of the attacking
force. Soon after that he received a telegram from Stalin that went as
follows: “During the attack you were in command of a tank crew. If you
think this job suits you most, we can help you get it.” If Stalin was really
anxious for Rokossovsky or there was some other reason for his telegram
is anyone’s guess.
Rokossovsky’s strategic plans boiled down to not just driving back the
enemy, but to achieving this with minimum forces through encircling, breaking
up and wiping out enemy units. The plans that Rokossovsky would normally
come up with were so daring that Stalin’s frequent comment was: “Your suggestion
is certainly worth consideration, but it’s far too risky”.
Field Marshal Manstein rammed his powerful tank force into the Soviet
troops that surrounded the 6th German Army in Stalingrad. Clearly, Rokossovsky
had analyzed all possible enemy action and, of course, he had reconnaissance
teams bring him all information they could dig up, and yet it took more
than that to rout the advancing Nazis. It took his special intuition and
no fear of risking to concentrate almost all of his army group artillery
on the axis of the main enemy thrust to bring Manstein’s troops under such
massed fired as to foil the Germans’ attempt to break through Soviet battle
formations to Paulus’ surrounded army.
Characteristically, it was none other but Rokossovsky, who took prisoner
Friedrich Paulus, hitherto unsurpassed German military strategist. Notably,
during the very first interrogation session Paulus asked for permission
to hand over his personal weapon, engraved with his name, to the Soviet
army group commander Konstantin Rokossovsky to show that he recognized
the supremacy of Rokossovsky’s strategic thinking and military endowments
over his own ones.
They say that following the victory at Stalingrad one of the first to
congratulate Rokossovsky on his tremendous achievement was the chief of
the prison where Konstantin Rokossovsky served his term in the late 1930s.
“Very good, sir!”, answered Rokossovsky, who was known for his gentle humour.
Now, this needs an explanation. When Rokossovsky was in command of a
cavalry corps in the Leningrad military district in August 1937, he was
informed on, and the information was absolutely wild. It was alleged that
Rokossovsky had been spying for Poland and Japan. He was arrested, but
hard as the investigators tried they failed to knock any evidence out of
him. Actually, he mocked them. He would give them some names, but whenever
they checked those people’s identity they found out that the people in
question had died before 1917. Konstantin Rokossovsky was held behind bars
for three years without giving in to the circumstances. There is, perhaps,
no other Soviet military leader of such a high rank who, when subjected
to ruthless repression by Stalin’s regime, managed to resist and who fully
restored their formidable personality after being reduced to what NKVD
personnel used to call “prison dust”.
Here are some more details of Konstantin Rokossovsky’s biography. According
to those who knew him, above all, women, he was an extremely handsome man,
by far the most handsome of Soviet military leaders. All that film actors
ever playing Rokossovsky managed to achieve was a pale imitation of the
original. A young dragoon in the First World War boasting the George Cross
on his soldier’s blouse, a smart General in the crucial year of 1941with
six military awards fixed to his uniform for everyone to see that the Red
Army was still strong and would not think of accepting defeat. And by the
end of the war he wore one main award on his Marshal’s jacket, - a chevron
to show that he’d been gravely wounded…
Numerous Soviet officials could not conceal their envy of Rokossovsky.
In keeping with standard practice of those years, he was often told on.
Once the chief of the Soviet punitive agency Lavrenty Beria told Stalin
that Rokossovsky was giving cocktail parties to enjoy the company of young
women, mostly doctors and nurses, but that there was also some actress
taking part in merry-making…
- What shall we do about it, comrade Stalin? – asked Beria.
- What can we do, Lavrenty? Just envy the lucky man – answered Stalin.
After that Stalin received some forged case from the prosecutor’s office.
Stalin leafed through the case and then wrote on the front page: “Leave
him alone. Mind you that there is only one Rokossovsky in the Red Army.
Stalin”.
When the decision had to be made on who would command the Victory
Parade of 1945, Stalin appointed Rokossovsky without discussing the matter
with the other political and military leaders. And that was the top form
of recognition of Konstantin Rokossovsky’s services.
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