Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, February 12, 1900 March 18, 1982, ethnic Russian, two-time Hero of the Soviet Union, Soviet military strategist, Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Marshal Chuikov.
On February 12, 1900, Chuikov was born in a peasant family in Veniov County, Tula Province, and he was the fourth of many children.
Because of his family's poverty, Chuikov attended a village church primary school for several years as a child, and at the age of 12 he was working in a factory in St. Petersburg. In 1917, the bourgeois-led February Revolution overthrew the Tsar** and established the Provisional **, but the domestic situation did not improve, and the factory where Chuikov worked also closed down. The unemployed Chuikov went to Kronstadt when he had nothing to do, and his three older brothers were sailors in the Baltic Fleet here.
The Baltic Fleet was the cradle of the revolution, and Kronstadt was the stronghold of the Bolsheviks. It was here that many old Bolsheviks worked underground, and it was here that Chuikov first learned about Lenin, read the Communist Manifesto for the first time, and the unemployed Chuikov simply joined the ranks of sailors like his three older brothers and was incorporated into the mine training team. Soon the October Revolution broke out, and Chuikov took part in the uprising along with the sailors.
In April 1918, the third brother Ilya in Moscow learned that there was a military training school in Moscow that recruited cadets from reliable workers and peasants to train junior commanders of the Red Army, and he immediately told Chuikov the news. After receiving a letter from his brother, Chuikov immediately rushed to Moscow, where he successfully entered the training class for military commanders of the Red Army, and he was assigned to the second squad of the infantry.
On July 2, 1918, Chuikov and other cadets, who were training in the field, were urgently recalled to the school camp to prepare for the rebellion against the Soviets, and Lenin received them as he was leaving. Four days later, they successfully put down the rebellion. On August 30, Lenin was assassinated, and the cadets again took part in the search for the enemy. Chuikov, who took part in the battle for the second time, shot and killed an enemy during the battle.
In the winter of 1918, the situation on the battlefield in the south became more severe, the Don Cossacks rebelled, and Kra**v attacked Tsaritsyn. Chuikov was assigned to the Silves Brigade as a deputy company commander, and in the Red Army at that time, the commander was elected by the soldiers, and Chuikov fought bravely and was promoted to the new company commander after the company commander was seriously wounded. After defeating Kla**v, Chuikov and his family returned to Moscow to continue their studies, officially graduating at the end of the year. Chuikov was assigned to the Volga Coastal Military District as deputy commander of the newly formed 40th Infantry Regiment.
In 1919, Kolchak attacked Moscow from Siberia, and Chuikov took part in the battle against Kolchak, and while the regimental commander remained in the rear hospital, Chuikov led the 40th Infantry Regiment as deputy commander, and in May 1919, he officially became the commander of the 40th Infantry Regiment. During one of the battles, Chuikov's troops were assaulted by the White Army, and when the troops were in disarray, Chuikov rode his horse and took the lead in launching ** against the White Army, repulsing the enemy, and Chuikov was also wounded. On May 4, 1919, Chuikov joined the Bolsheviks.
Chuikov in 1919.
By 1920, Kolchak was completely defeated. Chuikov also served as a regimental commander in the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the Western Front, fighting against the Poles. In the May battle, Chuikov was wounded in the head, and by the time he recovered, the troops had reached the base of Warsaw. As a result, because the Soviet army was careless, it was defeated under the city of Warsaw, and more than 70,000 people were captured. In the event of an emergency, Chuikov's 43rd Infantry Regiment was cut off. After completing the blocking mission, Chuikov's troops also fell into the encirclement of the Polish army, the witty Chuikov led the guards to the enemy's blockade line, pretending to contact the surrender, and then while the enemy was relaxed, the main force of the regiment behind him charged to highlight the enemy's encirclement.
On the way to break through, Chuikov met the 44th Regiment, which was also surrounded, and the leaders of the two regiments unanimously elected Chuikov as the temporary commander-in-chief to command all the troops in a unified manner. Chuikov was unfortunately wounded again while leading everyone to break through the siege, but he insisted on lying on the carriage and commanding the battle, and lived up to his expectations and brought the troops back to the motherland.
The seated person is a Chuikov on the right.
During the Civil War, the young Chuikov rose to prominence, not only fought bravely, was wounded four times, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, but also had outstanding command ability, which left a deep impression on the whole army. After the end of the Soviet-Polish War, Chuikov served for a time as commander of the Verge garrison, responsible for the defense of the border, and in January 1922 he returned to the post of commander of the 43rd Infantry Regiment.
In 1922, the Soviets, having consolidated power, began to shift their focus to the construction of the domestic economy, and the mass demobilization of the troops began. The 23-year-old Chuikov always wanted to improve his military theory, so he applied to study at the Military Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (after Frunze's death in 1925, the Academy was renamed the Frunze Military Academy). The higher-ups approved his request, and in August, Chuikov officially received an admission letter from the college. Judging from the time of admission, Chuikov is the senior brother of the marshals of World War II.
During his three-year study, Chuikov actively consulted experts and scholars at the academy, read a large number of military academic works, and extensively participated in military practice, thus sublimating his military theoretical literacy on the basis of rich practical experience. In August 1925, Chuikov graduated with honors from the fifth class of the Military Academy.
Chuikov in 1920.
Due to Chuikov's excellent academic performance and excellent political quality, the leadership of the academy left him in the Chinese Department of the Oriental Department of the academy to continue his studies, preparing to train him into a new generation of military diplomats. With great perseverance, Chuikov got rid of the obstacle of the Chinese language and became a "China expert" in the Soviet army.
In 1926, in the midst of the Chinese Revolution, Chuikov finally fulfilled his long-cherished wish by serving as a diplomatic attaché as an intern and following the elder Bolshevik Krozhko to China.