Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky, July 2, 1897 – May 10, 1968, Belarusian, military chief of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Marshal Sokolovsky was a strange being, he could be said to be the best chief of staff, but he could also be said to be the worst commander of the Front. His performance in the positions of chief of staff and commander was completely worlds apart.
Sokolovsky was born on July 2, 1897 in a poor peasant family in the village of Kozliki, Bialystok County, Grodno Province, Tsarist Russia. In 1905 he graduated from the local church-parish school and then worked as a temporary worker in a tannery in Zabvudouf.
He did not participate in the Tsarist army in World War I, so he was also a field marshal who had no experience in the old army. In 1918 he graduated from the Neversk Teachers' Academy. In February of the same year, he joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and studied at the First Military Instructor Training School in Moscow.
In May 1918, after graduation, Sokolovsky was assigned to the 2nd Ural Regiment of the Eastern Front as a company commander. In June, he was appointed as the instructor of the battalion headquarters. In July, he was reappointed as the company commander of the 2nd Soviet Mountain Regiment. In August, he served as the deputy head of the regiment, and soon became the head of the ** regiment.
In October 1918, Sokolovsky was selected to study at the Military Academy of the Red Army, and after completing the first year of coursework, he went to the army for an internship as an assistant chief of staff of the 32nd Infantry Division, and on July 19, he was appointed chief of staff of the mixed cavalry division of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. On October 6, he was transferred to the post of chief of staff of the 13th Cavalry Division.
In December 1919, after completing the internship operation, Sokolovsky returned to the military academy to continue his second-year course, and after the end, he went to the army again in June 1920, this time to the headquarters of the 11th Army. In August, he returned to the position of deputy chief of staff of the 32nd Infantry Division, and a month later the post of chief of staff.
In December, he returned to the Military Academy to continue his studies after completing his internship. After graduating from the academy in 1921, Sokolovsky was sent to Central Asia, where he served as a chief of the operations department of the Turkestan Front. During his years in Central Asia, he served as Chief of Staff and Division Commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Turkic Front, participated in military operations to quell the rebellion of the Basmachi (Pan-Turkic Muslim uprising), for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Throughout the twenties, Sokolovsky served as chief of staff at the corps and division level in military districts. During this period, he also studied at the Advanced Training Course of the Frunze Military Academy, graduating in 1928. From 1930 he served as commander of the 34th Infantry Division.
From January 1935, Sokolovsky served successively as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Volga Military District, Chief of Staff of the Ural Military District, and Chief of Staff of the Moscow Military District. In 1935, the Red Army reinstated the rank system, Sokolovsky was awarded the rank of division (equivalent to major general), and in January 1939 he was promoted to the rank of corps (equivalent to lieutenant general). On June 4, 1940, the Soviet army adjusted the military rank system, and Sokolovsky was reassigned to the rank of lieutenant general.
In January 1941, Sokolovsky became deputy chief of the General Staff, in charge of organization and mobilization.
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, at the beginning of the war, Sokolovsky served as chief of staff of the Western Front and then the Western Front, and he was a staff officer on whom all the commanders of the Front worked with him. On August 30, 41, Sokolovsky assisted Zhukov in directing troops in the Yelenia direction to launch a counterattack. In just a few days, by September 8, the Soviet counter-assault had pushed the Germans back 25 kilometers and recaptured the Yelnya salient. This was the first time since the beginning of the war that the Germans regained lost territory.
In the post of Chief of Staff of the Front, Sokolovsky's military and organizational skills were demonstrated, and the Command of the Front, under his leadership, was distinguished by its excellent organizational work. Under Zhukov's leadership, he took an active part in the planning and implementation of the Moscow ** operation, playing an important role in the defense of Moscow.
At the beginning of 1942, Sokolovsky briefly served as first deputy chief of the General Staff for a while, and in March he returned to the Western Front as chief of staff. In June 1942, Sokolovsky was promoted to the rank of general.
In February 1943, the Supreme High Command appointed Sokolovsky as commander of the Western Front. From a staff member to a commander, Sokolovsky seemed to have changed people.
First, in the Orsha Offensive Campaign, Sokolovsky commanded 310,000 men on the Western Front against the 190,000-strong German 4th Army, against General Gotthard Heinrichi. Five days after the start of the battle, the four Soviet armies could not go further than 5 kilometers, but they were already nearly 40,000. Unable to break through the German lines, the battle line was once again deadlocked, and the result of this battle was to give the opponent another medal.
During his tenure as commander of the Western Front, he launched a total of 11 offensive campaigns, basically without achieving decent results, but his troops reached 330,000. In April 1944, he again encountered Heinrich's 4th Army, this time again lacking the experience to break through enemy positions in a narrow area (Bulganin), did not know how to use tanks to cover infantry attacks, and did not know how to use artillery correctly, and as a result, Sokolovsky was once again unable to break through the German lines. This time, the Supreme High Command reached the limit of patience and dismissed Sokolovsky from his post.
Sokolovsky, who was removed from the post of commander, was appointed chief of staff of the 1st Ukrainian Front, and he returned to the post of chief of staff and was resurrected with full blood. Whether it was assisting Zhukov or later Konev, Sokolovsky led his staff team to perform their duties and assist the commander in commanding the troops, all the way from Ukraine, along Poland to Germany, during which the Vistula-Oder offensive, the Silesian offensive and the Berlin campaign were all Sokolovsky's wonderful strokes.
In April 1945, Sokolovsky was appointed deputy commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, allowing him to share the honor of conquering Berlin and accepting the unconditional surrender of Germany. On May 29, 1945, Sokolovsky was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Germany surrendered, and to Zhukov's left was Sokolovsky.
After the war, the 1st Belorussian Front was reorganized into a cluster in Germany, with Sokolovsky as first deputy commander-in-chief, and in April 1946 he took over the post of commander-in-chief after Zhukov's return. On June 3, 1946, Sokolovsky was promoted to the rank of marshal.
During the First Berlin Crisis in 1949, Sokolovsky was tough and prepared for World War III against the United States. Stalin exchanged Chuikov for a radical him.
After returning home, Sokolovsky served as the first deputy head of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and later became the Ministry of Defense. In June 1952, he also became Chief of the General Staff. His analysis of the future war situation: "In the future world war, as far as the future war is concerned, it will first be a rocket nuclear war, and the basis for conducting this kind of war is all branches of the armed forces, first of all, the strategic rocket forces and missile atomic submarines, and a large number of rocket nuclear weapons. Therefore, he despises the conventional ** and advocates the use of rocket nuclear ** to destroy the opponent at the first stage of the war.
In 1960, at the age of 63, Sokolovsky stepped down to the second line and became the head of the General Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
On May 10, 1968, Sokolovsky died in Moscow at the age of 71. His remains were buried under the walls of the Kremlin.
Sokolovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 8 Orders of Lenin, 3 Orders of the Red Banner, 3 Orders of Suvorov of the 1st degree, 3 Orders of Kutuzov of the 1st degree, and many medals and foreign medals.
In 2002, Marshal Sokolovsky ranked 17th out of 20 leaders of strategic and critical campaigns at the Russian Military Academy.