Everyone knows that the only head of the Soviet Union who fought at the front in the Great Patriotic War was L. I. Brezhnev. N. Khrushchev, Yu. Andropov and K. Chernenko were also allowed to go to defend their homeland with arms in hand - but they had a different fate. Let's see what the heads of the Soviet state were doing instead of fighting together with the entire Soviet people.
Khrushchev
In 1941, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev turned 47 years old. At that time, he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, that is, in fact, the head of this union republic. In those days, he was known as a very loyal communist to I. Stalin, who obediently implemented a repressive policy. When the war broke out, he became military commissar of the five fronts in the southern, southwestern and western directions. To put it simply, he was a senior staff officer. That is, he participated in the war, but as a commander, not a fighter. Note that Khrushchev already had combat experience - during the Civil War he headed a Red Guard detachment, and then was an instructor in the army's political department.
However, apparently, this experience was clearly not enough. His activity as a military commissar is assessed rather negatively. He was directly related to the two major defeats of the Soviet army - the encirclement of Soviet troops near Kiev in 1941 and the unsuccessful battles near Kharkov in 1942.
Khrushchev's role in the Kiev tragedy is controversial. Many accuse him of the fact that the Soviet troops, which were not ordered to retreat, were surrounded. However, it is not. Khrushchev just gave such an order, and without consulting Stalin. But due to the fact that the decision was not agreed with the rate, it did not enter into force and did not reach the troops.
In 1942, the Soviet army was defeated near Kharkov, and the Germans pushed the front line towards the Caucasus. Our units were ordered to resist to the end, although it was obvious that due to a lack of resources, the city would not be able to hold. As a result, we suffered heavy losses, while the Germans were able to take positions that were more profitable than those that they would have got if the defenders of Kharkov retreated. Here, too, there was a mistake of the Soviet command, which is often attributed to Khrushchev. However, it was not he personally committed, but the collective military council.
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Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, who headed the USSR from 1982 to 1984, was 27 years old in 1941. At this time, he, a Komsomol activist, was organizing the work of the Komsomol in the territories of the newly formed Karelo-Finnish ASSR. About his war period, the official biographies of Andropov report briefly: at the beginning of the war, he organized a partisan underground, from 1942 to 1944, under the call sign Mohican, he was engaged in the formation of the Komsomol underground in Karelia, occupied by the Germans and Finns. In the book by Yu. Shleikin “Andropov. Karelia. 1940-1951. provides documentary evidence of Andropov's partisan activities. For example, here is a fragment of the memoirs of partisan Silva Udaltsova:
“In July 1943, together with a group of comrades, they summoned me to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the KFSSR and gave us the task: to penetrate the territory of the occupied Sheltozero region, create an underground party and Komsomol organization, establish strong ties with the local population, among which to develop political work aimed at disrupting the activities carried out by the occupation authorities, reporting the necessary intelligence data to the Center.
… Before us, liaisons of the Central Committee of the Party of the Republic Anna Lisitsyna and Maria Melentieva, who were later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and bravery, visited Sheltozero. I. I. was sent and worked in Sheltozero. Zinoviev and a number of other comrades. However, it was not possible to establish permanent work of the underground for a long period. Our group included: D. M. Gorbachev - secretary of the underground district party committee, P. I. Udaltsov is the secretary of the underground district committee of the Komsomol, MF Asanov is the liaison and I am the radio operator of the group. When I was appointed radio operator, I had just turned 19 years old.
Yu. V. Andropov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of our republic. We flew to the rear on four U-2 aircraft. Yuri Vladimirovich approached each group, standing by the plane, and said parting words again”.
Chernenko
Konstantin Ustinovich, "the strangest ruler of Russia," became General Secretary in 1984, being a decrepit and sick old man.
Chernenko was born into a Siberian family, grew up a strong guy. His mother was Tofalark, and his father was Ukrainian. From his youth, Konstantin was accustomed to hard work, worked in the mines. In the 1930s, he was drafted into the army, where he joined the Komsomol, deciding to become an activist. In 1941 he turned 30 years old. By this time, he was also already an accomplished party leader - head of the agitation and propaganda department of two district committees of the CPSU (b) in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In 1943 he was sent to party courses in Moscow, which he graduated in 1945. It is worth noting that in itself his then position was low and did not exempt him from military duty. Apparently, his sister, who worked as the head of the organizational department of the Krasnoyarsk city committee and was on good terms with Averkiy Aristov, helped the strong young man not get to the front.headed the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Artamonov Alexander