Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (Ksaveryevich) (born December 9 (21), 1896 - death August 3, 1968) - Pole. Soviet and Polish political, statesman, commander. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944), twice Hero of the Soviet Union. He commanded the Victory Parade in Moscow. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII) he commanded the troops of the Bryansk, Don, Central, 1st and 2nd Belorussian fronts. 1949, October - Minister of National Defense and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Poland, Marshal of Poland. 1956 - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.
Marshal Rokossovsky - was one of the most brilliant commanders of the Second World War.
Origin. early years
The future marshal was born in Warsaw. His father, Xavier Jozef Rokossovsky, is an auditor of the Warsaw Railway of Polish origin. Xavier Jozef was from the Rokossovsky gentry family, which lost its gentry in the middle of the 19th century. Mother - Belarusian teacher Antonina (Atonida) Ovsyannikova.
In the 1920s, due to the constant distortion of the middle name, Konstantin Ksaverevich began to be called Konstantin Konstantinovich. As a teenager, he became an orphan. First, his father died, at the age of 14 his mother died. His parents helped him in getting school education, but his code was gone - his relatives. Konstantin tried many professions, including a worker in a textile factory and a stonemason.
1914 - began serving in the Russian army. He took part in the First World War, which he graduated with the rank of junior non-commissioned officer of the 5th Dragoon Kargopol Regiment.
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Military service (Brief biography)
1917, October - enters the Red Guard, then the Red Army. He took part in the Civil War of 1918-1920. - commanded a squadron, a separate division and a cavalry regiment. 1925 - completed the cavalry advanced training courses for command personnel. 1929 - refresher courses for the higher initial staff at the Academy. M. V. Frunze.
During the Second World War 1941-1945. commanded the 9th Mechanized Corps (until July 11, 1941); Commander of the 16th Army on the Western Front (August 1941 - July 1942); Front commander: Bryansk (July - September 1942), Donskoy (September 1942 - February 1943), Central (February - October 1943), Belorussian (October 1943 - February 1944), 1 -m Belarusian (February - November 1944) and 2nd Belarusian (from November 1944 until the end of the war).
The armies under the command of Rokossovsky took part in the Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk battles, in the Belorussian, East Prussian, East Pomeranian, Berlin operations.
1945, June 24 - commanded the Victory Parade in Moscow. 1945-1949 was the commander-in-chief of the Northern Group of Forces. 1949, October - at the request of the government of the Polish People's Republic (PPR) and with Stalin's permission, the Marshal left for the PPR as the Minister of National Defense and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the PPR, with the award of the military rank of Marshal of Poland. Rokossovsky was elected to the Politburo of the PUWP Central Committee and to the Seimas.
1956 - Marshal Rokossovsky returned to the Soviet Union and was Deputy Defense Minister of the USSR (November 1956 - June 1957); 1957, July - October - Chief Inspector - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. 1957-1958 - Commander of the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District. January 1958 - April 1962 - Deputy Minister and Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union. 1962, April - Inspector General of the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee (1956-1968). Was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd, 5th-7th convocations.
Arrest
1937, June 27 - Konstantin Konstantinovich was expelled from the CPSU (b) "for the loss of class vigilance." 1937, July 22 - Rokossovsky was dismissed from the Red Army "for service inconsistency."
1937, August - upon arrival in Leningrad, he was arrested on charges of having connections with the Polish and Japanese intelligence services, becoming a victim of false accusations.
1940, March 22 - Rokossovsky was released, in connection with the closure of the case, at the request of S. K. Timoshenko to Stalin, and rehabilitated. He was fully restored to his rights, in the Red Army position and in the party, and in the same year, with the introduction of general ranks in the Red Army, Rokossovsky was awarded the rank of "Major General".
Death
Over the course of several years, despite a serious illness, he worked on the memoir "Soldier's Duty" (1980), in which he did not mention a single word about his arrest. Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky died on August 3, 1968. The urn with the ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Personal life
It is believed that the handsome marshal was surrounded by female attention. In fact, handsome, charming and brave on the battlefield, Constantine was timid and indecisive with girls.
He met his wife Yulia Petrovna Barmina in Troitskosavsk (now Kyakhta) in Buryatia almost a year after he saw her at a performance at the local officers' house. The future marshal drove past the house of his beloved for several months, not daring to introduce himself. They married in April 1923 and had a daughter, Ariadne, in 1925.
It is known that in 1941 at the front, the commander met the beautiful military doctor Galina Vasilyevna Talanova. 1945, January - she gave birth to his daughter Nadezhda. Rokossovsky gave his daughter his last name and tried to help, but did not leave the family. As for the rumors about romance with Soviet actress Valentina Serova and Polish actress Alexandra Shlenskaya - these are rumors unconfirmed by any of the friends and acquaintances of the Marshal.
Interesting Facts
• It rained during the Victory Parade, but the marshal who commanded this historic parade could not hide under the canopy - he was with the troops. When he arrived home, it was impossible to take off his soaked ceremonial uniform from him. The daughter had a chance to cut the uniform at the seams with scissors.
• Field Marshal Paulus agreed to transfer his personal weapons only to Marshal Rokossovsky.
• Daughter - Ariana (1925-1978) - shot herself, according to one version, from a Paulus pistol.
• We can say that the Marshal has two birthplaces. All Soviet encyclopedias and scientific works indicate the city of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region. The commander himself in his autobiographies until 1945 named Warsaw as his birthplace. But at the end of World War II, when Konstantin Konstantinovich became twice Hero of the Soviet Union, a bronze bust of the Hero was supposed to be installed in his homeland. And it was inconvenient to erect a monument to the Soviet marshal in formally independent, albeit “fraternal” Poland. Therefore, a new homeland was "picked up" for the commander - the city of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region, where the bust was installed.