Semyon Timoshenko

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In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Konstantinovich and the family name is Timoshenko.
Semyon Timoshenko
Семён Тимоше́нко
Маршал Советского Союза Герой Советского Союза Семён Константинович Тимошенко.jpg
People's Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Union
In office
7 May 1940 – 19 July 1941
LeaderJoseph Stalin
PremierVyacheslav Molotov
Preceded byKliment Voroshilov
Succeeded byJoseph Stalin
Personal details
Born
Danylichko Alyexandr Fostyak

(1895-02-18)18 February 1895
Orman, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died31 March 1970(1970-03-31) (aged 75)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Soviet Union
Political partyRussian Communist Party (1919–1970)
AwardsHero of the Soviet Union (twice)
Order of Victory
Order of Lenin (five times)
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Red Banner (five times)
Order of Suvorov (three times)
Cross of St. George
Military service
Allegiance Russian Empire (1914–1917)
 Russian Republic (1917)
 Soviet Russia (1918–1922)
 Soviet Union (1922–1970)
Branch/serviceRussian Imperial Army
Workers and Peasants Red Army
Soviet Army
Years of service1914–1970
RankMarshal of the Soviet Union
CommandsKiev Military District
Ukrainian Front (1939)
Leningrad Military District
Western Front
Southwestern Front
Northwestern Front
Belorussian Military District
Battles/warsWorld War I
Russian Civil War
Polish-Soviet War
Winter War
Great Patriotic War / World War II

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko (Russian: Семён Константи́нович Тимоше́нко, Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko; Ukrainian: Семе́н Костянти́нович Тимоше́нко, Semen Kostiantynovych Tymoshenko) (18 February [O.S. 6 February] 1895 – 31 March 1970) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Early life[]

Timoshenko was born in a family of Ukrainian ethnicity[1] in the village of Orman, Russia's Bessarabia Governorate (present-day Furmanivka in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine).[2]

Military career[]

First World War[]

In 1914, he was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire and served as a cavalryman on Russia's western front. On the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, he sided with the Bolsheviks, joining the Red Army in 1918[3] and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1919.[4]

The Russian Civil War[]

During the Russian Civil War of 1917-1923, Timoshenko fought on various fronts. His most important encounter occurred at Tsaritsyn (later renamed Stalingrad), where he commanded a cavalry regiment, and met and befriended Joseph Stalin, who was responsible for the city's defense.[3] The personal connection would ensure his rapid advancement after Stalin gained control of the Communist Party by the end of the 1920s. In 1920–1921, Timoshenko served under Semyon Budyonny and Kliment Voroshilov in the 1st Cavalry Army; Budyonny and Voroshilov became the core of the "Cavalry Army clique" which, under Stalin's patronage, would dominate the Red Army for many years.[5]

Timoshenko fought against Polish forces in Kiev and then against Pyotr Wrangel's White Army and Nestor Makhno's Black Army.[1]

The 1930s[]

By the end of the Civil and Polish–Soviet Wars, Timoshenko had become the commander of the Red Army cavalry forces. Thereafter, under Stalin, he became Red Army commander in Byelorussia (1933); in Kiev (1935); in the northern Caucasus and then Kharkov (1937); and Kiev again (1938). In 1939, he was given command of the entire western border region and led the Ukrainian Front during the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland. He also became a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Due to being a loyal friend of Stalin, Timoshenko survived the Great Purge to become the Red Army's senior professional soldier.

The Winter War[]

In January 1940, Timoshenko took charge of the Soviet armies fighting Finland in the Soviet-Finnish War. This had begun the previous November, under the disastrous command of Kliment Voroshilov. Under Timoshenko's leadership, the Soviets succeeded in breaking through the Finnish Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus, prompting Finland to sue for peace in March. His reputation increased, Timoshenko was made the People's Commissar for Defence and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in May, replacing Stalin's crony Marshal Voroshilov as the Minister of Defence.

British historian John Erickson has written:

Although by no means a military intellectual, Timoshenko had at least passed through the higher command courses of the Red Army and was a fully trained 'commander-commissar'. During the critical period of the military purge, Stalin had used Timoshenko as a military district commander who could hold key appointments while their incumbents were liquidated or exiled.[6]

Timoshenko was a competent but traditionalist military commander who nonetheless saw the urgent need to modernise the Red Army if, as expected, it was to fight a war against Nazi Germany. Overcoming the opposition of other more conservative leaders, he undertook the mechanisation of the Red Army and the production of more tanks.[7] He also reintroduced much of the traditional harsh discipline of the Tsarist Russian Army[citation needed].

In June 1940, Timoshenko ordered the formation of the Baltic Military District in the occupied Baltic states.

World War II[]

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Timoshenko was named chairman of Stavka, the Soviet Armed Forces High Command, on 23 June 1941.[8] In July 1941, Stalin replaced Timoshenko as Defense Commissar and Stavka's chairman before sending him to the Central Front and Western Front[3] to supervise a fighting retreat from the border to Smolensk. In September, he was transferred to the Ukraine to replace Budyonny and restore order in the Southwestern Front at the gates of Kiev. On 23 October, the Soviets made Timoshenko command the entire southern half of the Eastern Front and Georgy Zhukov command the northern half.[9] In November and December 1941 Timoshenko organized major counter offensives in the Rostov region, as well as carving a bridgehead into German defenses south of Kharkov in January 1942.[3]

In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive (the Second Battle of Kharkov) which was the first Soviet attempt to gain initiative in the springtime war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offensive, encircling Timoshenko's armies, and turning the battle into a major Soviet defeat.

General Georgy Zhukov's success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko.[citation needed] Stalin replaced Timoshenko as Commander of the Stalingrad Front on 22 July, with Vasily Gordov due to his failures up to that point in the war,[10] making him Chairman of the High Command. He was called back into service as overall commander of the Northwestern Front between October 1942 and March 1943.[11]

In 1945, Timoshenko attended the Yalta Conference. A rumor started in the western press that Stalin had attacked Timoshenko, but was later disproved.

Between 15 August 1945 and 15 September 1945, Marshal Timoshenko traveled alone to review the Starye Dorogi displaced persons camp where Auschwitz concentration camp survivors recuperated after their liberation. Later author Primo Levi (Prisoner 174517) wrote in The Truce, how the extremely tall Timoshenko "unfolded himself from a tiny Fiat 500A Topolino" to announce the liberated survivors would soon begin their final journey home.[12]

Postwar[]

After the war, Timoshenko was reappointed commander of the Baranovichi Military District (Byelorussian Military District since March 1946), then of the South Urals Military District (June 1946); and then the Byelorussian Military District once again (March 1949). In 1960, he was appointed Inspector-General of the Defence Ministry, a largely honorary post. From 1961 he chaired the State Committee for War Veterans. He died in Moscow in 1970.

Awards[]

Russian Empire[]

RUS Georgievsky Krest 2st BAR.svg Cross of St. George, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class

Soviet Union[]

Hero of the Soviet Union medal.png Hero of the Soviet Union medal.png Hero of the Soviet Union (No. 241 - 21 March 1940, No. 46 - 18 February 1965)[13]
Ordervictory rib.png Order of Victory (No. 11–6 April 1945)
Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png Five Orders of Lenin (22 February 1938, 21 March 1940, 21 February 1945, 18 February 1965, 18 February 1970)
Order october revolution rib.png Order of the October Revolution (22 February 1968)
Order of Red Banner ribbon bar.png Order of the Red Banner, Five times (25 July 1920, 11 May 1921, 22 February 1930, 3 November 1944, 6 November 1947)
Order suvorov1 rib.png Order of Suvorov, 1st Class, Three times (9 October 1943, 12 September 1944, 27 April 1945)
Defstalingrad.png Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"
Defleningrad.png Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"
Defkiev rib.png Medal "For the Defence of Kiev"
Defcaucasus rib.png Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
Ribbon bar for the medal for the Defense of Moscow.png Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
Capturebudapest rib.png Medal "For the Capture of Budapest"
CaptureOfViennaRibbon.png Medal "For the Capture of Vienna"
Liberationbelgrade rib.png Medal "For the Liberation of Belgrade"
Victoryjapan rib.png Medal "For the Victory over Japan"
OrderStGeorge4cl rib.png Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
20 years of victory rib.png Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
20 years saf rib.png Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
30 years saf rib.png Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
40 years saf rib.png Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
50 years saf rib.png Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Soviet 250th Anniversary Of Leningrad Ribbon.jpg Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad"
800thMoscowRibbon.png Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"
Именная шашка.png Honorary weapon – sword inscribed with golden national emblem of the Soviet Union (22 February 1968)

Foreign awards[]

Order of Tudor Vladimirescu 1st.png Order of the Tudor Vladimirescu, 1st class (Romania)
TCH CS Vojensky Rad Bileho Lva 1st (1945) BAR.svg Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory" (Czechoslovakia)
Order of the partisan star with golden wreath Rib.png Golden Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia)
Med XXXth anniversary of chalkin gol victory rib.PNG Medal "30 Years of Victory in the Khalkhin-Gol" (Mongolia)

References[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman (2016). "Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century". p.1030. ISBN 1317475941
  2. ^ Маршал Тимошенко: непростой и противоречивый жизненный путь. grad.ua
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Glantz & House 2009, p. 41.
  4. ^ Axelrod & Kingston 2007, p. 813.
  5. ^ Erickson Vol 1 1999, p. 15.
  6. ^ Erickson 1999, pp. 96, 107.
  7. ^ Neidell, Indy; Olsson, Spartacus (13 June 2020). "Finland and France Join Hitler - WW2 - 094 - June 13 1941". YouTube. TimeGhost History. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  8. ^ Earl Frederick Ziemke; Magna E. Bauer (1987). Moscow to Stalingrad. Government Printing Office. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-16-080081-8.
  9. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjN6aybNbsQ&t=631s
  10. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAfo5mse-ag&t=911s
  11. ^ Generals.dk
  12. ^ Primo Levi, If This Is a Man—The Truce (Abacus, 2013), p. 350.
  13. ^ "Тимошенко Семён Константинович".

General sources[]

  • Axelrod, Alan; Kingston, Jack A. (2007). Encyclopedia of World War II. Volume 1. H W Fowler. ISBN 978-0-8160-6022-1. |volume= has extra text (help)
  • Erickson, John (1999). The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War with Germany. Volume 1. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07812-9. |volume= has extra text (help) (1975, 2003)
  • Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (2009). To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April–August 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1630-5.

External links[]

Military offices
Preceded by
Ivan Fedko 		Commander of the Kiev Military District
1938–1940 		Succeeded by
Georgy Zhukov
Preceded by
Kirill Meretskov
as Commander of the Leningrad Military District 		Commander of the Northwestern Front
1940 		Succeeded by
Mikhail Kirponos
as Commander of the Leningrad Military District
Preceded by
- 		Chairman of the Soviet Armed Forces High Command
1941 		Succeeded by
Joseph Stalin
Political offices
Preceded by
Kliment Voroshilov 		People's Commissar of Defense
1940–1941 		Succeeded by
Joseph Stalin
Retrieved from ""