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In what city was Rokossovsky born? Marshal Rokossovsky. Origin and date of birth

The exact date of birth of Konstantin Konstantinovich is unknown. According to some sources, he was born in 1896, others - in 1894.

As for the family of the future marshal, there is also very little information about it. It is known that his ancestors belonged to the small village of Rokossovo, which is located on the territory of modern Poland. It is from its name that the commander’s surname comes from.

Konstantin Konstantinovich’s great-grandfather’s name was Yuzef. He was also a military man and devoted his entire life to service. Rokossovsky's father served on the railroad, and Antonina's mother was from Belarus and worked as a school teacher.

At the age of six, young Kostya was sent to a technical school. However, after the death of his father in 1902, he had to give up his studies, since his mother could not pay for it on her own. The boy tried to help his family as best he could, working as an apprentice for a stonecutter, a pastry chef, and even a doctor. He loved to read and learn new things.

In 1914 he joined the dragoon regiment. There he learned to master horses, shoot weapons, and fight superbly with pikes and checkers. In the same year, for military successes, Rokossovsky received the St. George Cross of the fourth degree and was promoted to corporal.

In 1923, he married Yulia Barmina, and two years later their daughter Ariadne was born.

Rokossovsky's military career

At the end of March 1917, Rokossovsky was promoted to junior non-commissioned officers. In October 1917, he made an important decision in his life, joining the Red Army. For two years he fought against the enemies of the revolution. He was very courageous and quickly knew how to make the right decisions in difficult military situations. As a result, his career rapidly took off. In 1919, he became the commander of a squadron, and a year later - a cavalry regiment.

In 1924, Konstantin Konstantinovich was sent to courses to improve commander qualities. There he met such famous military leaders as Georgy Zhukov and Andrei Eremenko.

Then, for three years, Rokossovsky served in Mongolia.

In 1929, he took advanced training courses for senior command personnel, where he met Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In 1935, Rokossovsky received the personal rank of division commander.

However, after a series of career ups, Rokossovsky hit a “dark streak” in his life. Because of denunciations, Konstantin Konstantinovich was first deprived of all his well-deserved titles, and then dismissed from the army and arrested. The investigation lasted three years and ended in 1940. All charges against Rokossovsky were dropped, his ranks were returned and he was even promoted to major general.

In 1941, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Fourth and then the Sixteenth armies. For special services to the Fatherland, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. For personal services in the battles near Moscow, Rokossovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin.

During the Great Patriotic War, Konstantin Konstantinovich was seriously wounded. The shrapnel hit vital organs - the lung and liver, as well as damaged the ribs and spine.

The most important event in Rokossovsky's military career was the Battle of Stalingrad. As a result of a brilliantly developed operation, the city was liberated, and almost one hundred thousand German soldiers led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus were captured.

In 1943, Rokossovsky was appointed head of the Central Front. Its main task was to push back the enemy on the Kursk-Oryol arc. The enemy resisted fiercely and there were fierce battles.

At the Kursk Bulge, methods of warfare that were completely new for that time were tested, such as defense in depth, artillery counter-training and others. As a result, the enemy was defeated, and Rokossovsky was awarded the rank of army general.

Konstantin Konstantinovich himself considered the liberation of Belarus in 1944 his main victory.

After the end of the war, Rokossovsky was awarded the second Order of the Golden Star. It was he who hosted the parade on Red Square in 1946. Being a Pole by origin, he moved to Poland in 1949 and did a lot there to strengthen the country's defense capability.

In 1956, Rokossovsky returned to the USSR. Over the years, he was Minister of Defense and headed various state commissions. Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky died on August 3, 1968. His ashes are in the Kremlin wall.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky is one of the most famous commanders of the Great Patriotic War, who forever inscribed his name in the history of the modern world. The military genius of this man truly deserves to remain in the memory of posterity. So who was Rokossovsky?

Brief biography: family

It is not known exactly who the parents of such a person as Konstantin Rokossovsky are. The biography briefly describes his relatives. It is known that the marshal’s family belonged to the village of Rokossovo (the territory of modern Poland), where the family’s surname came from. Great-grandfather's name was Jozef. He is known for completely devoting himself to military affairs. Father Xavier was a nobleman and served on the railway. Constantine's mother's name was Antonina. She comes from Belarus and worked as a teacher.

Childhood

It is not known exactly when Konstantin Rokossovsky was born. The short biography is quite contradictory regarding the exact date. According to the marshal himself, he was born in 1896, but other sources claim that the future commander was born two years earlier. The boy was not even six years old when he was sent to study at a school with a technical focus. But then fate itself intervened - in 1902, his father died, and further education was out of the question. The mother could not pay for the expensive establishment.

Tells about the hard life that Rokossovsky lived with dignity, a short biography. For children he became a real hero. After all, the boy was forced to help a stonecutter, a dentist, and a pastry chef. In his free time from work, he tried to learn something new - he carefully read the books he had.

Carier start

Very rarely do people put as much effort into achieving their dreams as Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky. A short biography of the future commander says that in August 1914 he joined the dragoon regiment, where he so wanted to go. He masterfully learned to handle a horse, was an excellent shot with a rifle, and in battles with checkers and pikes he had no equal at all. The exploits of the young but very persistent military man did not go unnoticed. Konstantin Rokossovsky, whose brief biography says that in the same year he was promoted to corporal.

In general, during the war, the commander, as part of his formation, carried out many successful attacks and gained authority among his colleagues. How did Konstantin Rokossovsky continue to grow up the career ladder? A short biography, photos, and newspaper headlines of that time eloquently indicate that he was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer at the end of March 1917. Two weeks earlier, a military regiment swore allegiance to the provisional government. Rokossovsky, whose brief biography sheds light on interesting information, was delegated to the regimental committee in August 1917.

Red Guard period

The future Marshal Rokossovsky, whose brief biography states that in October 1917 he joined the Red Army, made a serious change in his life. It all started from the very beginning, from the bottom, from the rank and file. The soldier's life was not calm - for the next two years, Rokossovsky fought against the enemies of the revolution. It is not surprising, since the civil war was in full swing. Everyone knows how brave Konstantin Rokossovsky was. A short biography of a military man describes very rapid career growth during this period. In 1919, he again became an officer, commander of a squadron, and a year later - a cavalry regiment.

Personal life

In the mid-twenties, the world saw a new cell of society, the creation of which was initiated by Konstantin Rokossovsky. A short biography tells that the family consisted of his wife Yulia Barmina, whom he married in April 1923. In 1925, the couple had a daughter, who was named Ariadne. Subsequently, grandchildren Konstantin and Pavel were born.

Continuing your studies

The next few years were relatively calm. In 1924, Rokossovsky was sent to courses to improve his commanding qualities. There he met Andrei Eremenko.

Particularly memorable in his life were the years 1926-1929, which the future marshal spent serving in Mongolia. In 1929, he took advanced training courses for senior command personnel, where he met Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In 1935, Rokossovsky received the personal rank of division commander.

Consequence

The years 1937-1940 were some of the most unpleasant in the life of a military man. Due to several denunciations, Konstantin was first stripped of all ranks, dismissed from the army and, as a result, arrested. The investigation, which lasted three years, was completed in 1940. Rokossovsky was given back all his ranks and was even promoted to major general.

The beginning of the war and the battle for Moscow

Peaceful life did not last long. In 1941, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Fourth and later the Sixteenth Armies. For special services he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

A particularly difficult memory was the battle for Moscow, which ended with the pushing of the attacking Germans far beyond the capital. For special personal services in these battles, Rokossovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Wound

The war did not pass without a trace for the commander. March 8, 1942 was marred by a serious injury. The fragments hit important organs - the lung and liver, as well as the ribs and spine. Despite the need for long-term rehabilitation, already at the end of May Konstantin Konstantinovich was back in action.

Battle of Stalingrad

The brilliant result of the operation to capture the iconic city was the capture of almost one hundred thousand German soldiers led by Field Marshal. The awards for the magnificent tactical operation were the Order of Suvorov and the rank of Colonel General.

Battle of Kursk

In 1943, Konstantin Konstantinovich was appointed head of the Central Front, whose main task was to push back the enemy on the Kursk-Oryol Bulge. The result did not come immediately - the enemy was very stubborn. For his demonstrated will to win, Rokossovsky was promoted to army general.

After the Battle of Kursk, people started talking about the commander as an unsurpassed strategist. Only the genius of army thought could predict the actions of the enemy and withstand a massive offensive with much smaller forces. Rokossovsky literally read the enemy’s thoughts, and he could do nothing about it, suffering defeat over and over again. At the Kursk Bulge, the latest methods of warfare were tested, such as defense in depth, artillery counter-training and others.

Liberation of Belarus

The commander's largest and most important victory, as he believed, was in 1944. According to the plan, called “Bagration”, one of the authors of which was Rokossovsky, two simultaneous strikes were necessary, which deprived the enemy of the opportunity to maneuver and move manpower and equipment. In two months, Belarus was free, and with it part of the Baltic states and Poland.

End of the war

In 1945 the war was over. Rokossovsky was awarded the second Order of the Golden Star (the first was received in 1944). In 1946, it was he who hosted the parade on Red Square.

Post-war life

In 1949, Rokossovsky changed his place of residence to Poland. Being a Pole by birth, he did a lot to improve the country's defense capabilities.

In particular, means of communication and transportation were improved, and the military industry was created from scratch. Tanks, missiles, and airplanes were put into service. In 1956, Rokossovsky returned to the USSR, where he again devoted himself to military activities. Over the years, he became Minister of Defense and also headed various state commissions.

Demise

Konstantin Rokossovsky passed away on August 3, 1968. His ashes are in the Kremlin wall. Despite the fact that so many years have passed, his name is not forgotten. The Marshal looks sternly at his descendants from the pages of books, stamps and coins.

Passionate dancer

ON THIS TOPIC

Konstantin Rokossovsky was born on December 21, 1896 in Warsaw. Nevertheless, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the city of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region began to be indicated as his place of birth in official biographies. They say it’s all because it was ridiculous to erect a monument to the Marshal of the Soviet Union in Warsaw. However, in 1949, after being appointed Minister of Defense of the allied Poland, Rokossovsky was again “born” in Warsaw.

Since childhood, the future commander was very fond of dancing, so much so that he was reprimanded on his party card for being excessively interested in “pleasure dancing.” In 1924, when Rokossovsky was sent to Leningrad for advanced training courses, he complained to the chairman of the party commission about “a record so frivolous for a Red commander.” They met him halfway and the next day they gave him a new card.

Favorite of women

Stately, tall, blue-eyed, with a noble and intelligent appearance, Rokossovsky was a favorite of female representatives. There were many rumors about his amorous adventures. In particular, the commander is credited with an affair with actress Valentina Serova. The military leader met his only wife, Yulia Barmina, in Buryatia during a performance at the House of Officers. For several months he drove past his beloved’s house, but did not dare introduce himself. In 1923, the young people got married, and in 1925, their daughter Ariadne was born.

In 1941, already during the war, Rokossovsky met the beautiful Galina Talanova, who served as a military doctor. In January 1945, she gave birth to his daughter Nadezhda. The commander recognized the child, gave his last name, but did not destroy the marriage. The military commander could not participate in the life of his illegitimate daughter, but he helped whenever possible. Once he gave Nadezhda a gold watch. At the next meeting, he asked why she didn’t wear them, to which she replied that no one in her class had a gold watch. For this, the marshal was very grateful to her.

Arrest and torture

Four years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, during the great purges in the army, the commander was arrested. He was suspected of spying for Japan and Poland. In the dungeons, Rokossovsky was tortured: several teeth were knocked out, ribs were broken, and his fingers were beaten with a hammer. However, the future marshal was a strong and physically fit person, so he withstood all the suffering. He was forced, but he did not give a single false testimony, did not slander either himself or others.

In March 1940, the commander was released and rehabilitated, and the case against him was dropped. Rokossovsky was completely restored to his rights, as well as to his party and rank. In the summer of the same year, he went to Sochi to improve his health, or at least to get his teeth inserted.

After the war, the commander received a letter from one of the NKVD officers who was in charge of his case. The security officer apologized and asked for forgiveness for all the torment and suffering that he caused to the military leader. According to the granddaughter of Marshal Ariadna Rokossovskaya, her great-grandfather wrote on the letter: “Leave without attention.” At the same time, the topic of arrest and torture was never raised in the family. However, the marshal always carried a small pistol with him. Answering the question “Why?”, the commander said that if they come for him again, he will no longer be given alive.

Start of the war

After his release, Rokossovsky and his family settled in Novograd-Volynsky in Ukraine, close to the border with the Third Reich. As the commander recalled, strange things began to happen six months before the start of the war. Every now and then defectors appeared who warned about the Nazis' preparations for war, and often caught spies. Such incidents were reported to the center, but they seemed to try to “hush them up” and not make them public. A month before the German invasion, a Luftwaffe reconnaissance plane was shot down while taking pictures of Soviet airfields. They reported to Moscow, and there they replied: “Apologize and let me go.” Such behavior caused bewilderment among the military leader.

On June 21, 1941, Rokossovsky and other commanders were going fishing. But there was no chance to rest: a defector appeared and said that Germany would attack tomorrow. On June 22, Rokossovsky put his family on a train and sent them to Moscow. However, the capital was declared a closed city. The commander’s wife and daughter had to go to Kazakhstan, and then the wife’s brother took them to Novosibirsk. But Rokossovsky did not know about this, thinking that he had lost his family forever.


"My Bagration"

The favorite brainchild of Konstantin Konstantinovich was the Belarusian operation, better known as “Bagration”. Its main feature was two strikes. Rokossovsky feared that if there was one blow, the enemy would be able to counterattack in another direction.

At headquarters, meanwhile, the military leader’s plan was criticized. There cannot be two directions of strikes, they said. Joseph Stalin also did not approve of the commander’s plan. Three times he sent Rokossovsky to think again. And three times he returned with the same convictions, insisting on two strikes. The leader was impressed by the commander's confidence and approved of his plan. As a result, Operation Bagration became one of the most successful in world history: in a short period of time, a million-strong group of Germans was defeated, Belarus was liberated, Soviet troops reached the borders of the USSR. For this triumph, Rokossovsky received the rank of marshal, and Stalin began to call him “My Bagration.”

Relationship with the leader

Stalin valued Rokossovsky very much and treated him with emphatic respect. He knew that the marshal could not be so easily intimidated and forced to change his point of view. Rokossovsky reciprocated: he was one of the few commanders who, even after Stalin’s death, called him by name and patronymic. When he died, he was the only military leader who cried at the coffin.

According to Air Chief Marshal Alexander Golovanov, in 1962 Nikita Khrushchev invited Rokossovsky to write an article about the leader of the people, casting him in a negative light. The commander refused, answering that Stalin was a saint to him. Soon Konstantin Konstantinovich lost his post as Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. However, the connection between these two events has not been established by historians.


Humble Marshal

Rokossovsky was a very simple, largely shy person, did not like doxologies and praise addressed to himself, avoided writing the word “I” whenever possible, and a culture of modesty and restraint reigned in his house. I walked to work and personally took my grandson to school.

As the Minister of Defense of Poland in 1949-1956, the marshal came to relax in a sanatorium, where a separate dining room and swimming pool were prepared for him. One morning Konstantin Konstantinovich came to the dining room and discovered that there was no one there except him. Having understood everything, he took his plate and headed to the common room. He also refused a personal pool.

The commander died on August 3, 1968 at the age of 71, and the urn with his ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall. The marshal himself did not want such a high honor for himself during his lifetime. Shortly before his death, having met Georgy Zhukov in a sanatorium, he admitted that he was not afraid of death. “I’m just afraid that they’ll wall me up,” the commander said sadly.

Konstantin Konstantinovich (Ksaverevich) Rokossovsky(Polish: Konstanty Rokossowski; December 21, 1896, Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire - August 3, 1968, Moscow, USSR) - Soviet and Polish military leader, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945). The only marshal of two countries in the history of the USSR: Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944) and Marshal of Poland (1949). He commanded the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square in Moscow. One of the greatest commanders of the Second World War.

Origin

Konstantin Rokossovsky was born in Warsaw. Pole.

According to information provided by B.V. Sokolov, K.K. Rokossovsky was born in 1894, but while in the Red Army (no later than 1919) he began to indicate the year of birth as 1896 and changed his patronymic to “Konstantinovich”.

After being awarded the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Velikiye Luki began to be indicated as his place of birth, where a bust of Rokossovsky was erected. According to a brief autobiography written on December 27, 1945, he was born in the city of Velikiye Luki (according to the questionnaire dated April 22, 1920 - in the city of Warsaw). Father - Pole Ksaviry Jozef Rokossovsky (1853-1902), who came from the noble family of Rokossovsky (coat of arms Glyaubich or Oksha), auditor of the Warsaw Railway. His ancestors lost their nobility after the Polish uprising of 1863. Great-grandfather - Jozef Rokossovsky, second lieutenant of the 2nd Uhlan Regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw, participant in the Russian campaign of 1812. Mother is Belarusian Antonina (Atonida) Ovsyannikova (d. 1911), a teacher, originally from Telekhan (Belarus).

Rokossovsky's ancestors were Greater Poland nobles. They owned the large village of Rokossowo (now in the commune of Poniec). The name of the family came from the name of the village.

His father sent him to study at the paid technical school of Anton Laguna, but died on October 4 (17), 1902 (according to Rokossovsky’s questionnaire, he was 6 years old at the time of his father’s death). Konstantin worked as an assistant to a pastry chef, then as a dentist, and in 1909-1914 as a stonemason in the workshop of Stefan Wysocki, the husband of his aunt Sophia, in Warsaw, and then in the town of Gruetz, 35 km southwest of Warsaw. In 1911, his mother died. For self-education, Konstantin read many books in Russian and Polish.

World War I

On August 2, 1914, 18-year-old (according to the questionnaire, but in reality - 20-year-old) Konstantin volunteered for the 5th Dragoon Kargopol Regiment of the 5th Cavalry Division of the 12th Army and was enlisted in the 6th squadron. In April 1920, when filling out a candidate card for command positions, Rokossovsky indicated that he served as a volunteer in the tsarist army and graduated from 5 classes of the gymnasium. In reality, he served only as a hunter (volunteer) and, therefore, did not have the necessary educational qualification of 6 years of gymnasium in order to serve as a volunteer. On August 8, Rokossovsky distinguished himself while conducting mounted reconnaissance near the village of Yastrzhem, for which he was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th degree, and promoted to corporal. He took part in the battles near Warsaw, learned to handle a horse, and mastered a rifle, saber and pike.

At the beginning of April 1915, the division was transferred to Lithuania. In the battle near the city of Ponevezh, Rokossovsky attacked a German artillery battery, for which he was nominated for the St. George Cross, 3rd degree, but did not receive the award. In the battle for the Troskuny railway station, together with several dragoons, he secretly captured a German field guard trench, and on July 20 he was awarded the St. George Medal, 4th degree. The Kargopol regiment waged trench warfare on the banks of the Western Dvina. In the winter and spring of 1916, as part of a partisan detachment formed from dragoons, Konstantin crossed the river many times for reconnaissance purposes. On May 6, he received the 3rd degree St. George Medal for attacking a German outpost. In the detachment he met non-commissioned officer Adolf Yushkevich, who had revolutionary views. In June he returned to the regiment, where he again crossed the river on a reconnaissance search.

At the end of October he was transferred to the training team of the 1st reserve cavalry regiment. In February 1917, the Kargopol regiment was reorganized, Rokossovsky ended up in the 4th squadron, together with other fighters crossed the Dvina on the ice and attacked German guards. On March 5, the regiment was temporarily in the rear, was convened, and in front of the equestrian formation, Colonel Daragan read out the act of abdication of Nicholas II from the throne. On March 11, the regiment swore allegiance to the Provisional Government. Convinced supporters of the Bolsheviks appeared in the regiment, among whom was Ivan Tyulenev; according to Order No. 1 of the Petrograd Soviet, a regimental committee was elected. On March 29, Rokossovsky was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer.

The Germans were advancing on Riga. From August 19, the Kargopol regiment covered the retreat of infantry and convoys in Latvia. On August 23, Rokossovsky and a group of dragoons went on reconnaissance near the town of Kronenberg and discovered a German column moving along the Pskov highway. On August 24, 1917 he was presented and on November 21 he was awarded the St. George Medal, 2nd degree. The dragoons elected Rokossovsky to the squadron and then to the regimental committee, which decided issues of the life of the regiment. His cousin and colleague Franz Rokossovsky returned to Poland with a group of Polish dragoons and joined the military organization formed by the leaders of Polish nationalists. In December 1917, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Adolf Yushkevich and other dragoons joined the Red Guard. At the end of December, the Kargopol regiment was transferred to the rear to the east. On April 7, 1918, at the Dikaya station, west of Vologda, the 5th Kargopol Dragoon Regiment was disbanded.

Civil War

In October 1917, he voluntarily joined the Red Guard (in the Kargopol Red Guard detachment as an ordinary Red Guard), then into the Red Army.

Commander of the 35th Cavalry Regiment
Konstantin Rokossovsky (center)

From November 1917 to February 1918, as part of the Kargopol Red Guard cavalry detachment, as an assistant to the chief of the detachment, Rokossovsky participated in the suppression of counter-revolutionary uprisings in the area of ​​Vologda, Buy, Galich and Soligalich. From February to July 1918, he took part in the suppression of anarchist and Cossack counter-revolutionary protests in Slobozhanshchina (in the area of ​​Kharkov, Unecha, Mikhailovsky Farm) and in the Karachev-Bryansk area. In July 1918, as part of the same detachment, he was transferred to the Eastern Front near Yekaterinburg and participated in battles with the White Guards and Czechoslovaks near Kuzino station, Yekaterinburg, Shamary and Shalya stations until August 1918. Since August 1918, the detachment was reorganized into the 1st Ural Cavalry Regiment named after Volodarsky, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 1st squadron.

During the Civil War - commander of a squadron, a separate division, a separate cavalry regiment. On November 7, 1919, south of the Mangut station, in a fight with the deputy chief of the 15th Omsk Siberian Rifle Division of Kolchak’s army, Colonel N. S. Voznesensky (in Rokossovsky’s memoirs erroneously “Voskresensky”), he hacked the latter to death, and he himself was wounded in the shoulder.

...On November 7, 1919, we raided the rear of the White Guards. A separate Ural cavalry division, which I then commanded, broke through the battle formations of Kolchak’s troops at night, obtained information that the headquarters of the Omsk group was located in the village of Karaulnaya, entered from the rear, attacked the village and, crushing the white units, defeated this headquarters, captured prisoners, in their including many officers.

During an attack during a single combat with the commander of the Omsk group, General Voskresensky, I received a bullet in the shoulder from him, and he received a fatal blow from me with a sword...

On January 23, 1920, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 30th Cavalry Regiment of the 30th Division of the 5th Army.

In the summer of 1921, commanding the Red 35th Cavalry Regiment, in the battle near Troitskosavsk he defeated the 2nd Brigade of General B.P. Rezukhin from the Asian Cavalry Division of General Baron R.F. von Ungern-Sternberg and was seriously wounded. For this battle, Rokossovsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In October 1921, he was transferred to commander of the 3rd brigade of the 5th Kuban Cavalry Division.

In October 1922, in connection with the reorganization of the 5th division into the Separate 5th Kuban Cavalry Brigade, at his own request he was appointed commander of the 27th cavalry regiment of the same brigade.

In 1923-1924, he took part in battles against the White Guard detachments of General Mylnikov, Colonel Derevtsov, Duganov, Gordeev and centurion Shadrin I.S. who entered the territory of the USSR, in Transbaikalia (he headed the Sretensky combat sector). On June 9, 1924, during a military operation against the detachments of Mylnikov and Derevtsov, Rokossovsky led one of the Red Army detachments walking along a narrow taiga path.

... Rokossovsky, who was walking ahead, came across Mylnikov and fired two shots at him from a Mauser. Mylnikov fell. Rokossovsky assumes that Mylnikov was wounded, but due to the impassable taiga, he apparently crawled under a bush and could not be found...

Mylnikov survived. Soon the Reds quickly established the whereabouts of the wounded General Mylnikov in the house of one of the local residents and arrested him on June 27, 1924. The detachments of Mylnikov and Derevtsov were defeated in one day.

Interwar period

On April 30, 1923, Rokossovsky married Yulia Petrovna Barmina. On June 17, 1925, their daughter Ariadne was born.

September 1924 - August 1925 - student at the Cavalry Command Improvement Course, together with G.K. Zhukov and A.I. Eremenko.

From July 1926 to July 1928, Rokossovsky served in Mongolia as an instructor of a separate Mongolian cavalry division (Ulaanbaatar city).

Listeners of KKUKS 1924-1925. K.K. Rokossovsky (standing 5th from left). Extreme - G. K. Zhukov

From January to April 1929, he took advanced training courses for senior management at the M. V. Frunze Academy, where he became acquainted with the works of M. N. Tukhachevsky.

In 1929, he commanded the 5th separate Kuban Cavalry Brigade (located in Nizhnyaya Berezovka near Verkhneudinsk), in November 1929 he participated in the Manchu-Zhalaynor (Manchu-Zhalaynor) offensive operation of the Red Army.

Since January 1930, Rokossovsky commanded the 7th Samara Cavalry Division (one of the brigade commanders in which was G.K. Zhukov). In February 1932, he was transferred to the position of commander-commissar of the 15th Separate Kuban Cavalry Division (Dauria).

With the introduction of personal ranks in the Red Army in 1935, he received the rank of division commander.

In 1936, K.K. Rokossovsky commanded the 5th Cavalry Corps in Pskov.

Arrest

On June 27, 1937, he was expelled from the CPSU(b) “for loss of class vigilance.” In Rokossovsky’s personal file there was information that he was closely associated with K. A. Tchaikovsky. On July 22, 1937, he was dismissed from the Red Army “due to official inconsistency.” Komkor I.S. Kutyakov testified against 2nd Rank Army Commander M.D. Velikanov and others, and he, among others, “testified” against K.K. Rokossovsky. The head of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Military District testified that Rokossovsky in 1932 met with the head of the Japanese military mission in Harbin, Michitaro Komatsubara.

In August 1937, Rokossovsky went to Leningrad, where he was arrested on charges of connections with Polish and Japanese intelligence, becoming a victim of false testimony. He spent two and a half years under investigation (investigation case No. 25358-1937).

The evidence was based on the testimony of the Pole Adolf Yushkevich, Rokossovsky’s civilian comrade-in-arms. But Rokossovsky knew well that Yushkevich died near Perekop. He said that he would sign everything if Adolf was brought to a confrontation. They began to look for Yushkevich and discovered that he had died long ago.

K.V. Rokossovsky, grandson.

From August 17, 1937 to March 22, 1940, according to a certificate dated April 4, 1940, he was kept in the Internal Prison of the NKVD State Security Directorate in the Leningrad Region on Shpalernaya Street. According to Rokossovsky's great-granddaughter, who referred to the stories of Marshal Kazakov's wife, Rokossovsky was subjected to severe torture and beatings. The head of the Leningrad NKVD Zakovsky took part in these tortures. Rokossovsky had several of his front teeth knocked out, three ribs were broken, his toes were beaten with a hammer, and in 1939 he was taken to the prison yard to be shot and given a blank shot. However, Rokossovsky did not give false testimony against himself or others. According to his great-granddaughter, he noted in his notes that the enemy sowed doubts and deceived the party - this led to the arrests of innocent people. According to Colonel of Justice F.A. Klimin, who was one of the three judges of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court who heard the Rokossovsky case, a trial took place in March 1939, but all the witnesses who testified were already dead. The consideration of the case was postponed for further investigation; in the fall of 1939, a second meeting was held, which also postponed the verdict. According to some assumptions, Rokossovsky was transferred to the camp. There is a version that all this time Rokossovsky was in Spain as a military emissary under a pseudonym, presumably Miguel Martinez (from the “Spanish Diary” of M.E. Koltsov).

On March 22, 1940, Rokossovsky was released due to the termination of the case, at the request of S.K. Timoshenko to Stalin, and rehabilitated. K.K. Rokossovsky is completely restored to his rights, to his position and to the party, and he spends the spring with his family at a resort in Sochi. In the same year, with the introduction of general ranks in the Red Army, he was awarded the rank of “Major General”.

After his vacation, Rokossovsky was appointed to the command of the Kyiv Special Military District (KOVO) General of the Army G.K. Zhukov, and, upon the return of the 5th Cavalry Corps from the campaign in Bessarabia (June-July 1940) to the Cavalry Army Group KOVO (city Slavuta), takes command of the corps.

In November 1940, Rokossovsky received a new appointment as commander of the 9th Mechanized Corps, which he was to form in KOVO.

The Great Patriotic War

Initial period of the war

Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky, 1941

Commanded the 9th Mechanized Corps in the battle of Dubno-Lutsk-Brody. Despite the shortage of tanks and vehicles, the troops of the 9th Mechanized Corps during June - July 1941 exhausted the enemy with active defense, retreating only when ordered. For his successes he was nominated to the 4th Order of the Red Banner.

On July 11, 1941, he was appointed commander of the 4th Army on the southern flank of the Western Front (instead of A. A. Korobkov, who was arrested and later executed). On July 17, Rokossovsky arrived at the headquarters of the Western Front, but due to the deterioration of the situation, he was entrusted with leading the task force for restoration situation in the Smolensk region. He was given a group of officers, a radio station and two cars; he had to get the rest himself: stop and subjugate the remnants of the 19th, 20th and 16th armies emerging from the Smolensk cauldron, and hold the Yartsevo region with these forces. Marshall recalled:

At front headquarters I got acquainted with the data for July 17. The headquarters workers were not very sure that their materials accurately corresponded to reality, since there was no communication with some armies, in particular the 19th and 22nd. Information was received about the appearance of some large enemy tank units in the Yelnya area.

This difficult task was successfully solved:

In a short time, a decent number of people gathered. There were infantrymen, artillerymen, signalmen, sappers, machine gunners, mortarmen, medical workers... We had a lot of trucks at our disposal. They were very useful to us. Thus, during the fighting, the formation of a formation in the Yartsevo area began, which received the official name “General Rokossovsky’s group.”

Rokossovsky’s group contributed to the release of the blockade of the Soviet armies surrounded in the Smolensk region. On August 10, it was reorganized into the 16th Army (second formation), and Rokossovsky became the commander of this army; On September 11, 1941 he received the rank of lieutenant general.

Battle for Moscow

Commander of the 16th Army K.K. Rokossovsky (2nd from left), member of the Military Council A.A. Lobachev and writer V.P. Stavsky inspect captured enemy equipment

At the beginning of the Battle of Moscow, the main forces of Rokossovsky’s 16th Army fell into the Vyazemsky “cauldron”, but the control of the 16th Army, having transferred the troops to the 19th Army, managed to escape from the encirclement. The “new” 16th Army was ordered to cover the Volokolamsk direction, while Rokossovsky again had to gather troops for himself. Rokossovsky intercepted troops on the march; A separate cadet regiment, created on the basis of the Moscow Infantry School named after. Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, 316th Infantry Division under Major General I.V. Panfilov, 3rd Cavalry Corps under Major General L.M. Dovator. Soon a continuous line of defense was restored near Moscow, and stubborn battles began. Rokossovsky wrote about this battle on March 5, 1948:

In connection with the breakthrough of the defense in the sector of the 30th Army and the withdrawal of units of the 5th Army, the troops of the 16th Army, fighting for every meter, in fierce battles were pushed back to Moscow at the line: north of Krasnaya Polyana, Kryukovo, Istra, and on At this point, in fierce battles, the German offensive was finally stopped, and then by launching a general counteroffensive, together with other armies, carried out according to the plan of Comrade Stalin, the enemy was defeated and thrown back far from Moscow.

It was near Moscow that K.K. Rokossovsky acquired military authority. For the battle of Moscow, K.K. Rokossovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin. During this period, in the 85th field hospital at the army headquarters, he met 2nd rank military doctor Galina Vasilievna Talanova.

Wound

On March 8, 1942, Rokossovsky was wounded by a shell fragment. The wound turned out to be serious - the right lung, liver, ribs and spine were affected. After the operation in Kozelsk, he was taken to a Moscow hospital in the building of the Timiryazev Academy, where he was treated until May 23, 1942.

Battle of Stalingrad

Commander of the Don Front troops K.K. Rokossovsky at a combat position in the Stalingrad area. 1942

On May 26 he arrived in Sukhinichi and again took command of the 16th Army. Since July 13, 1942 - commander of the Bryansk Front. On September 30, 1942, Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Don Front. With his participation, the plan for Operation Uranus was developed to encircle and destroy the enemy group advancing on Stalingrad. The operation began on November 19, 1942, by forces of several fronts; on November 23, the ring around the 6th Army of General F. Paulus was closed.

Later Rokossovsky summed it up:

...the task associated with the participation of the troops of the Don Front in the general offensive, carried out according to the plan of Comrade Stalin, was successfully completed, which resulted in the complete encirclement of the entire Stalingrad group of Germans...

The Headquarters entrusted the leadership of the defeat of the enemy group to the Don Front, led by K.K. Rokossovsky, who on January 15, 1943 received the rank of Colonel General.

On January 31, 1943, troops under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky captured Field Marshal F. Paulus, 24 generals, 2,500 German officers, 90 thousand soldiers.

Battle of Kursk

Rokossovsky writes in his autobiography:

In February 1943, by order of Comrade Stalin, I was appointed commander of the Central Front. He led the actions of the troops of this front in the great defensive and then counter-offensive battle, carried out according to the plans of Comrade Stalin on the Kursk-Oryol Bulge...

In February - March 1943, Rokossovsky led the troops of the Central Front in the Sevsk operation. On February 7, the headquarters of the front commander was located in the Fatezhsky district, Kursk region. The following case is noteworthy, which was once reported by journalist Vladimir Erokhin (“Literary Russia” dated July 20, 1979): There was nothing to pave the roads with. Rokossovsky ordered the demolished church in Fatezh to be dismantled and used for road construction. Troops and tanks walked over these stones. Despite the failure of the offensive on April 28, 1943, Rokossovsky was promoted to army general.

The Central Front command inspects damaged German equipment.
In the center are front commander K.K. Rokossovsky and commander of the 16th VA
S. I. Rudenko. July 1943.

From intelligence reports it followed that in the summer the Germans were planning a large offensive in the Kursk region. The commanders of some fronts proposed to build on the successes of Stalingrad and conduct a large-scale offensive in the summer of 1943; K.K. Rokossovsky had a different opinion. He believed that an offensive required double or triple superiority of forces, which the Soviet troops did not have in this direction. To stop the German offensive in the summer of 1943 near Kursk, it is necessary to go on the defensive. It is necessary to literally hide personnel and military equipment in the ground. K.K. Rokossovsky proved himself to be a brilliant strategist and analyst - based on intelligence data, he was able to accurately determine the area where the Germans struck the main blow, create a defense in depth in this area and concentrate there about half of his infantry, 60% of artillery and 70% tanks. A truly innovative solution was also the artillery counter-preparation, carried out 10-20 minutes before the start of the German artillery preparation. Rokossovsky's defense turned out to be so strong and stable that he was able to transfer a significant part of his reserves to Vatutin when he was in danger of a breakthrough on the southern flank of the Kursk Bulge. His fame had already thundered on all fronts; he became widely known in the West as one of the most talented Soviet military leaders. Rokossovsky was also very popular among the soldiers. As part of the Central Front in 1943, the 8th Separate Penal (Officer) Battalion, nicknamed the “Rokossovsky Gang” by German propaganda, was formed and entered into battle.

After the Battle of Kursk, Rokossovsky successfully carried out the Chernigov-Pripyat operation, the Gomel-Rechitsa operation, the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr and Rogachev-Zhlobin operations with the forces of the Central Front (since October 1943, renamed the Belorussian Front).

Belarusian operation

The leadership talent of K.K. Rokossovsky fully manifested itself in the summer of 1944 during the operation to liberate Belarus. Rokossovsky writes about this:

Carrying out the plan of Supreme Commander-in-Chief Comrade Stalin to defeat the central group of German troops and liberate Belarus, from May 1944 he led the preparations for the operation and offensive actions of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front...

The operation plan was developed by Rokossovsky together with A. M. Vasilevsky and G. K. Zhukov.

The strategic highlight of this plan was Rokossovsky’s proposal to strike in two main directions, which ensured coverage of the enemy’s flanks at operational depth and did not give the latter the opportunity to maneuver reserves.

Operation Bagration began on June 22, 1944. As part of the Belarusian operation, Rokossovsky successfully carried out the Bobruisk, Minsk and Lublin-Brest operations.

The success of the operation significantly exceeded the expectations of the Soviet command. As a result of the two-month offensive, Belarus was completely liberated, part of the Baltic states was recaptured, and the eastern regions of Poland were liberated. The German Army Group Center was almost completely defeated. In addition, the operation jeopardized Army Group North in the Baltic states.

From a military point of view, the battle in Belarus led to a massive defeat for the German armed forces. A common view is that the Battle of Belarus is the largest defeat of the German armed forces in World War II. Operation Bagration is a triumph of the Soviet theory of military art due to the well-coordinated offensive movement of all fronts and the operation carried out to disinform the enemy about the location of the general offensive.

On June 29, 1944, Army General K.K. Rokossovsky was awarded the diamond star of the Marshal of the Soviet Union, and on July 30, the first Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. By July 11, a 105,000-strong enemy force was captured. When the West doubted the number of prisoners during Operation Bagration, J.V. Stalin ordered them to be taken through the streets of Moscow. From that moment on, J.V. Stalin began to call K.K. Rokossovsky by name and patronymic; only Marshal B.M. Shaposhnikov received such treatment.

End of the war

Rokossovsky writes:

In November 1944, I was appointed commander of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, having received personally from Comrade Stalin the task: to prepare an offensive operation to break through the enemy’s defenses at the turn of the river. Narew and the defeat of the East Prussian group of Germans...

G.K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, and the honor of taking Berlin was given to him. Rokossovsky asked Stalin why he was being transferred from the main direction to a secondary sector:

Stalin replied that I was mistaken: the sector to which I was being transferred was part of the general western direction, in which troops of three fronts would operate - the 2nd Belorussian, 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian; the success of this operation will depend on the close interaction of these fronts, therefore, the Headquarters paid special attention to the selection of commanders.<…>If you and Konev do not advance, then Zhukov will not advance anywhere,” concluded the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

As commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, K.K. Rokossovsky carried out a number of operations in which he proved himself to be a master of maneuver. He twice had to turn his troops almost 180 degrees, skillfully concentrating his few tank and mechanized formations. He successfully led the front forces in the East Prussian and East Pomeranian operations, as a result of which large powerful German groups in East Prussia and Pomerania were defeated.

During the Berlin offensive operation, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky, by their actions, pinned down the main forces of the 3rd German Tank Army, depriving it of the opportunity to participate in the battle for Berlin.

Field Marshal Montgomery, G.K. Zhukov,
K.K. Rokossovsky in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, July 12, 1945

On June 1, 1945, for his skillful leadership of the front troops in the East Prussian, East Pomeranian and Berlin operations, Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky was awarded the second Gold Star medal.

On January 7, 1945, Galina Talanova gave birth to his daughter Nadezhda. Rokossovsky gave her his last name, then helped her, but did not meet Galina.

In February 1945, thirty years later, Rokossovsky met his sister Helena in Poland.

On June 24, 1945, by decision of I.V. Stalin, K.K. Rokossovsky commanded the Victory Parade in Moscow (the parade was hosted by G.K. Zhukov). And on May 1, 1946, Rokossovsky took part in the parade.

From July 1945 to 1949, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he was the creator and Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Group of Forces in Poland in Legnica, Lower Silesia.

Rokossovsky established contacts with the government, military districts of the Polish Army, public organizations, and provided assistance in restoring the national economy of Poland. Barracks, officers' houses, warehouses, libraries, and medical institutions were built, which were later transferred to the Polish Army.

Service in Poland

Minister of National Defense of the People's Republic of Poland, Marshal of Poland
K. K. Rokossovsky, 1951

In 1949, Polish President Boleslaw Bierut turned to I.V. Stalin with a request to send the Pole K.K. Rokossovsky to Poland to serve as Minister of National Defense. Despite his long residence in Russia, Rokossovsky remained Pole in manner and speech, which ensured the favor of the majority of Poles. In 1949, the city people's councils of Gdansk, Gdynia, Kartuz, Sopot, Szczecin and Wroclaw, by their resolutions, recognized Rokossovsky as an “Honorary Citizen” of these cities, which were liberated during the war by troops under his command. However, some newspapers and Western propaganda intensively created his reputation as a “Muscovite” and “Stalin’s governor.” In 1950, there were two attempts on his life by Polish nationalists, including members of the Polish army who had previously served in the Home Army.

In 1949-1956, he did a lot of work on rearmament, structural reorganization of the Polish army (land motorized forces, tank formations, missile formations, air defense forces, aviation and the Navy), raising defense capability and combat readiness in the light of modern requirements (the threat of nuclear war ), preserving its national identity. According to the interests of the army, communications and communications were modernized in Poland, and a military industry was created (artillery, tanks, aviation, and other equipment). In April 1950, a new Charter of the internal service of the Polish Army was introduced. The training was based on the experience of the Soviet Army. Rokossovsky constantly visited military units and maneuvers. To train officers, the General Staff Academy was opened. K. Sverchevsky, Military Technical Academy named after. Y. Dombrovsky and the Military-Political Academy named after. F. Dzerzhinsky.

He also worked as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Poland, and was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. On May 14, 1955, he was present at the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Warsaw.

After the death of President Bolesław Bierut and the Poznan speeches, the “anti-Stalinist” Władysław Gomułka was elected first secretary of the PUWP. The conflict between the “Stalinists” (“Natolin group”) who supported Rokossovsky and the “anti-Stalinists” in the PUWP led to the removal of Rokossovsky from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the PUWP and the Ministry of National Defense as a “symbol of Stalinism.” On October 22, in a letter to the Central Committee of the PUWP, signed by N. S. Khrushchev, the Soviet side expressed agreement with this decision. Rokossovsky left for the USSR and never came again, and distributed all his property in Poland to the people who served him.

Return to the USSR

From November 1956 to June 1957 - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, to October 1957 - Chief Inspector of the USSR Ministry of Defense, retaining the post of Deputy Minister of Defense. From October 1957 to January 1958, due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East, he was commander of the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District. This transfer is also associated with the fact that at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee held in 1957, Rokossovsky said in his speech that many of those in leadership positions should feel guilty for the wrong line of Zhukov as Minister of Defense of the USSR. From January 1958 to April 1962 - again Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR - Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Defense. In 1961-1968 he headed the State Commission to investigate the causes of the death of the S-80 submarine.

According to Air Chief Marshal Alexander Golovanov, in 1962 N. S. Khrushchev suggested that Rokossovsky write a “blacker and thicker” article against I. V. Stalin. According to Alexander Golovanov, Rokossovsky replied: “ Nikita Sergeevich, Comrade Stalin is a saint to me!“, - and at the banquet he did not clink glasses with Khrushchev. The next day he was finally removed from the post of Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. Rokossovsky's permanent adjutant, Major General Kulchitsky, explains the above-mentioned refusal not by Rokossovsky's devotion to Stalin, but by the commander's deep conviction that the army should not participate in politics.

From April 1962 to August 1968 - Inspector General of the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Investigated the delivery of unfinished ships to the navy.

Wrote articles for the Military Historical Journal. The day before his death in August 1968, Rokossovsky signed his memoirs “A Soldier’s Duty” into the set.

Lived in a house on the street. Gorky, then to the quarter. 63 of the famous house No. 3 on the street. Granovsky.

On August 3, 1968, Rokossovsky died of prostate cancer. The urn with Rokossovsky's ashes is buried in the Kremlin wall.

Family

  • Wife Yulia Petrovna Barmina
    • daughter Ariadne
      • grandson Konstantin
      • grandson Pavel
  • Illegitimate daughter Nadezhda (from military doctor Galina Talanova) - teacher at MGIMO

Opinions of contemporaries

  • Air Chief Marshal A.E. Golovanov:

It is hardly possible to name another commander who would have acted so successfully in both defensive and offensive operations of the last war. Thanks to his broad military education, enormous personal culture, skillful communication with his subordinates, whom he always treated with respect, never emphasizing his official position, strong-willed qualities and outstanding organizational abilities, he gained unquestioned authority, respect and love of all those with with whom he happened to fight. Possessing the gift of foresight, he almost always accurately guessed the enemy’s intentions, forestalled them and, as a rule, emerged victorious. Now all the materials on the Great Patriotic War have not yet been studied and raised, but we can say with confidence that when this happens, K.K. Rokossovsky will undoubtedly be at the head of our Soviet commanders.

A. E. Golovanov. "Long-Range Bomber..."

  • Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky:

I want to say a few warm, heartfelt words about the common favorite of the Red Army, Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky... This is one of the outstanding commanders of our Armed Forces... Commanding a number of fronts, and always in very important directions, Konstantin Konstantinovich, with his hard work, great knowledge, courage, bravery, enormous efficiency and constant care for his subordinates, earned himself exceptional respect and ardent love. I am happy that during the Great Patriotic War I had the opportunity to witness the military leadership talent of Konstantin Konstantinovich, his enviable calm in all cases, and his ability to find a wise solution to the most difficult issue. I repeatedly watched as troops under Rokossovsky brutally beat the enemy, sometimes in incredibly difficult conditions for them.

A. M. Vasilevsky. "Life's work"

  • N. S. Khrushchev:

I consider him one of the best military commanders. And I liked him as a person. I especially liked his professional integrity.

N. S. Khrushchev. "Time. People. Power"

  • Marshal of the Armored Forces M.E. Katukov:

I have thought many times why everyone who knew Rokossovsky in one way or another treated him with boundless respect. And only one answer suggested itself: while remaining demanding, Konstantin Konstantinovich respected people regardless of their rank and position. And this is the main thing that attracted him.

M. E. Katukov. "At the forefront of the main attack"

  • Army General P.I. Batov:

He never imposed his preliminary decisions, approved of a reasonable initiative and helped develop it. Rokossovsky knew how to lead his subordinates in such a way that each officer and general willingly contributed his share of creativity to the common cause. With all this, K.K. Rokossovsky himself and we, the army commanders, well understood that the commander of our time was without a strong will, without his firm convictions, without a personal assessment of events and people at the front, without his own style in operations, without intuition, that is You cannot be without your own “I”.

P. I. Batov. "On campaigns and battles"

  • Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces A. Kh. Babajanyan:

Talking about my meeting with K.K. Rokossovsky, and I had several of them, I want to once again emphasize the charm of Konstantin Konstantinovich, which generated deep sympathy for him not only among those who had direct official contact with him, but also among the general public soldier masses. Rokossovsky remembered and personally knew hundreds of people, cared about them, never forgot about those who were worthy of encouragement and reward, knew how to delve into the affairs and concerns of commanders, and knew how to listen favorably to everyone.

A. Kh. Babajanyan. "Roads of Victory"

  • Chief Marshal of Artillery N. N. Voronov:

The Don Front was commanded by General K.K. Rokossovsky, whom I knew from the Leningrad Military District, where he commanded a cavalry corps in 1936-1937. And just a few months ago we met with him on the Western Front, where Konstantin Konstantinovich commanded the 16th Army. I always liked him - I appreciated his knowledge, ability to lead troops, extensive experience, exceptional modesty and tact in dealing with people. Rokossovsky enjoyed some special love from his subordinates.

N. N. Voronov. "In military service"

  • Army General S. M. Shtemenko:

The military leader of Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky is a very colorful figure... I probably won’t be mistaken if I say that he was not only infinitely respected, but also sincerely loved by everyone who happened to come into contact with him in his service.

S. M. Shtemenko. "General Staff during the War"

Political and social activities

  • Member of the RCP(b) since March 1919.
  • Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in 1936-1937.
  • Candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee (1961-1968).
  • Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 2, 5-7 convocations.
  • Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the PUWP in 1950-1956.
  • Member of the Sejm of Poland.
  • Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Poland in 1952-1956.

Awards

Russian empire

  • St. George Cross, IV degree (08/08/1914);
  • St. George Medal, IV degree (07/20/1915);
  • St. George Medal, III degree (05/06/1916);
  • St. George Medal, II degree (11/21/1917).

USSR

  • Order "Victory" (No. 6 - 03/30/1945);
  • two “Gold Star” medals of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/1/1945);
  • seven Orders of Lenin (08/16/1936, 01/2/1942, 07/29/1944, 02/21/1945, 12/26/1946, 12/20/1956, 12/20/1966);
  • Order of the October Revolution (02/22/1968);
  • six Orders of the Red Banner (05/23/1920, 12/2/1921, 02/22/1930, 07/22/1941, 11/3/1944, 11/6/1947);
  • Order of Suvorov, 1st degree (01/28/1943);
  • Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (08/27/1943);
  • medal “For the Defense of Moscow” (05/1/1944);
  • medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad” (12/22/1942);
  • medal “For the Defense of Kyiv” (06/21/1961);
  • medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (9.05.1945);
  • medal "Twenty years of victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (7.05.1965);
  • medal “For the capture of Koenigsberg” (06/09/1945);
  • medal “For the Liberation of Warsaw” (06/09/1945);
  • medal “XX Years of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army” (02/22/1938);
  • medal “30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy” (02.22.1948);
  • medal “40 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR” (12/18/1957);
  • medal “50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR” (12/26/1967);
  • medal “In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow” (06/12/1947);
  • honorary weapon with a gold image of the State Emblem of the USSR (1968).

Poland

  • Order of the Builders of People's Poland (Poland, 1951);
  • Order "Virtuti Militari" 1st class with star (Poland, 1945);
  • Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (Poland, 1945);
  • medal “For Warsaw” (Poland, 03/17/1946);
  • medal “For the Odra, Nisa and the Baltic” (Poland, 03/17/1946);
  • medal "Victory and Freedom" (Poland, 1946);

Foreign awards

  • Order of the Legion of Honor (France, 06/09/1945);
  • Military Cross 1939-1945 (France, 1945);
  • honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (Great Britain, 1945);
  • Order of the Legion of Honor, Commander-in-Chief degree (USA, 1946);
  • Order of the Red Banner of Battle (MPR, 1943);
  • Order of Sukhbaatar (MPR, 03/18/1961);
  • medal "Friendship" (Mongolian People's Republic, 10/12/1967);
  • medal "For Freedom" (Denmark, 1947);
  • medal of “Sino-Soviet Friendship” (PRC), (1956).

Honorary titles

  • Honorary citizen of the city of Velikiye Luki (Russia);
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Wroclaw (Poland) (since 1949) (by decision of the city magistrate in 2012 to eliminate part of the decisions on conferring Honorary citizenship of the city, Rokossovsky’s honorary citizenship was retained).
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Gdansk (Poland) (1949-1990) (by decision of the city council of December 18, 1990, all previous decisions on conferring honorary citizenship were canceled)
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Gdynia (Poland) (1949-1990) (by decision of the city president in 1990, all decisions on conferring honorary citizenship during the Polish People's Republic were canceled)
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Gomel (Belarus);
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Legnica (Poland) (1949-1993) (by decision of the city president in 1993, all previous titles were canceled);
  • Honorary citizen of Kursk (Russia);
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Szczecin (Poland) (1949-2017) (by decision of the city magistrate of March 28, 2017, deprived of honorary citizenship of the city).

Memory

The former German village of Rogzau (now Rokosovo, commune Sławoborze) was renamed in honor of the marshal.

Also in the city of Koszalin, the Rokossovsky district bears his name.

Streets

Named after Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky boulevard in Moscow (as well as a Moscow metro station and an MCC station), Mtsensk, Nizhny Novgorod and Chita; square in the city of Sukhinichi.

His name is streets in Russian cities: Belovo, Velikiye Luki, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Dubovka, Zheleznogorsk, Ishim, Kaliningrad, Kamenka, Kizel, Krasnoyarsk, Kyakhta, Millerovo, Nazyvaevsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Nikolsk, Novozybkov, Novokuznetsk, Omsk, Pokhvistnevo, Proletarsk, Pskov, Rybinsk , Salsk, Soligalich, Surovikino, Sukhinichi, Tomarovka, Ulan-Ude, Unecha, Khabarovsk, Khadyzhensk, Chita, Shakhty, Yuzhno-Sukhokumsk, Yartsevo; village of Alenino, Kirzhach district, Vladimir region.

in the cities of Belarus: Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Brest, Volkovysk, Gomel, Zhodino, Kobrin, Nesvizh, Pinsk, Rechitsa, Stolbtsy;

in cities of Ukraine: Konotop, Chernigov, Kremenchug, Novograd-Volynsky, Novgorod-Seversky, Pervomaisk, Sosnitsa.

Square Rokossovsky - in the cities of Velikiye Luki and Kursk.

An avenue in Minsk (Belarus) and an avenue in Kyiv (Ukraine) are named after Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky.

Monuments

Monuments to Marshal Rokossovsky were erected in the cities: Atkarsk, Velikiye Luki, Volgograd, Zelenograd, Kursk (on Rokossovsky Square, sculptor V. M. Klykov), Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod (on Marshal Rokossovsky Street), Sukhinichi, Blagoveshchensk (on the territory of the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms command school) and in the village of Svoboda, Kursk region (to the Museum of the Communist Party of the Central Front).

The monument was erected in Unejovice, Poland (near the city of Legnica) on the territory of the Museum of the Red Army and the Polish Army. The monument to K.K. Rokossovsky was erected in the city of Kyakhta in the Republic of Buryatia in 2008.

Memorial plaques

Memorial plaques with the name of Rokossovsky were installed in Moscow (on the building of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), Kaliningrad, Pskov, Brest, Gomel, Chernigov, Minsk (at the school named after Rokossovsky).

On November 29, 2011, by order of the Moscow city government, school No. 1150 in Zelenograd was given the honorary name of Hero of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky. The Museum houses the commander's personal belongings and other valuable exhibits.

Also, school No. 8 in the city of Kursk bears the name of K.K. Rokossovsky.

In philately and numismatics

Postage stamp of Russia. Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and K.K. Rokossovsky on Red Square on June 24, 1945. 2004

USSR postage stamp dedicated to K.K. Rokossovsky, 1976, (DFA (ITC) #4554; Sc #4488)

Commemorative coin of the Republic of Belarus, 2010

Postage stamp of Kyrgyzstan, 2005

Other

  • Since February 2018, one of the control rooms of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation has been named after Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky.
  • Motor ship "Marshal Rokossovsky".
  • A song is dedicated to the marshal - “Song about Marshal Rokossovsky” (Polish: Piesn o marszalku Rokossowskim) was one of the most popular military songs.

On August 3, 1968, fifty years ago, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, one of the most outstanding Soviet military leaders who made a tremendous contribution to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, died in Moscow. The death of the famous commander at the age of 71 was the sad result of a serious illness that Rokossovsky suffered in the last years of his life.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky was truly a unique person. It was he who commanded the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square in Moscow, and the parade was hosted by Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. The two pillars of the Great Victory - Zhukov and Rokossovsky - were outstanding commanders and very different people from each other. My grandfather, who spent the entire war as the commander of an artillery battery, said that the Rokossovsky Coast of people in general was much softer and more intelligent than Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, a difficult and harsh man.

The life of Konstantin Rokossovsky went through many trials, but the Marshal also received a lot of awards after the Great Victory. He became the only military leader in our country who received the rank of marshal in two different countries - the Soviet Union and Poland. It was he who covered Moscow and captured the army of Field Marshal Paulus at Stalingrad. After the war, Rokossovsky served as Poland's Minister of National Defense for seven years, from 1949 to 1956. This was also not surprising - it was in Warsaw in 1896 that the future Soviet military leader was born. He was an ethnic Pole of gentry origin.

Konstantin's father Ksaviry Jozef Rokossovsky (already in adulthood, the future marshal changed his patronymic name to a more convenient one for Russian pronunciation “Konstantinovich”) was a representative of the noble family of the coat of arms of Glyaubich, who served as an auditor on the Warsaw Railway. After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, the nobility was taken away from the Rokossovskys. The great-grandfather of the future Soviet marshal took part in the War of 1812, serving as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Uhlan Regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw. Rokossovsky's mother Antonina Ovsyannikova was Belarusian by nationality. The early death of his father forced Konstantin to begin working in his teens. He was an assistant to a pastry chef and a dentist, worked as a stonemason in a workshop, not forgetting about self-education. When World War I began, young Rokossovsky volunteered for the active army. Thus began his military career, which would last throughout his life.

The young man was enlisted to serve in the 5th Dragoon Kargopol Regiment, which was part of the 5th Cavalry Division of the 12th Army. As a volunteer, Rokossovsky served as a hunter, participated in numerous reconnaissance raids and soon received the rank of corporal and the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. Konstantin fought bravely, for which he was awarded, and on March 29, 1917, after the February Revolution, he was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer. As an authoritative soldier, Rokossovsky was elected to the squadron and then to the regimental committees of the regiment.

When the October Revolution occurred, Konstantin Rokossovsky, who sympathized with the Bolsheviks, joined the Kargopol Red Guard detachment, and then the Red Army. Fifty years of Konstantin Konstantinovich’s subsequent life were associated with military service to the Soviet state. Rokossovsky participated in the Civil War - as an assistant commander of the Kargopol detachment, then as a squadron commander of the 1st Ural Volodarsky Cavalry Regiment, division commander, commander of the 30th Cavalry Regiment of the 30th Division of the 5th Army of the Red Army. In March 1919, Konstantin Rokossovsky joined the RCP (b). In the early 1920s. Rokossovsky took part in hostilities in Transbaikalia - against the troops of Baron Ungern, and then other white commanders. In 1924-1925 He received his first military education - he attended the Cavalry Advanced Course for Command Staff of the Red Army, after which he served for some time as an instructor in the Mongolian People's Republic cavalry division in Mongolia.

The military leadership genius of Rokossovsky is all the more surprising because the military leader never received a classical military education - he studied at the mentioned courses, then completed a three-month advanced training course for senior command personnel at the M. V. Frunze Academy. In 1929-1930 Rokossovsky commanded the 5th separate Kuban Cavalry Brigade, stationed near Verkhneudinsk, as part of which he participated in the Manchu-Zhalaynor offensive operation of the Red Army. In 1930-1932 Rokossovsky held the position of commander of the 7th Samara Cavalry Division, in which Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov served as commander of one of the brigades at that time. In 1932-1936 Rokossovsky commanded the 15th Separate Kuban Cavalry Division, receiving the rank of division commander in 1935.

In 1936, Konstantin Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 5th Cavalry Corps with a deployment in Pskov, and already in the following 1937, the military leader began to have a dark streak in his life. Like a huge number of other Soviet commanders, Rokossovsky fell under the merciless flywheel of repression. On June 27, 1937, he was expelled from the CPSU (b), on July 22, 1937, he was dismissed from the army “due to official inconsistency,” and in August 1937 he was arrested. The future marshal spent almost three years in prisons and camps. He was tortured and beaten, but if we compare Rokossovsky’s fate with the fate of other Red commanders, he was very lucky. Rokossovsky survived.

On March 22, 1940, he was released, rehabilitated and reinstated in the party and rank. Since general ranks were introduced in the Red Army in the same year, division commander Rokossovsky received the rank of major general. Throughout the spring of 1940, he was recovering from his experiences over these two and a half years, relaxing with his family at a resort in Sochi. After his leave, Rokossovsky was assigned to the Kiev Special Military District, which by this time was commanded by Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, once a subordinate, and now Rokossovsky’s commander. During the time that Rokossovsky was in prison, Zhukov made a brilliant military career and already had the rank of army general. Rokossovsky was to form and lead the 9th Mechanized Corps as part of the Kyiv Special Military District, finding himself subordinate to his former subordinate.

As a corps commander, Rokossovsky met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. At this time, it seemed that Rokossovsky, just a major general and corps commander, would never be able to catch up with his old colleague Georgy Zhukov, the army general who headed the general staff of the Red Army in June - July 1941. However, fate decreed otherwise. The Great Patriotic War brought Rokossovsky, who by June 1941 was only one of many Soviet major generals, national and even worldwide fame. But Konstantin Konstantinovich achieved this fame on the battlefield, literally with his own blood.

For his successful actions, he was promoted to commander of the 4th Army, operating on the southern flank of the Western Front. Then he was assigned to lead the task force to restore the situation in the Smolensk region, which was soon transformed into the 16th Army. On September 11, 1941, Rokossovsky received the rank of lieutenant general. As an army commander, he took part in the most difficult battle near Moscow. It was at Rokossovsky’s disposal that a regiment of Kremlin cadets was created from the personnel of the Moscow Infantry School named after. Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the famous 316th Infantry Division of Major General Ivan Panfilov, 3rd Cavalry Corps of Major General Lev Dovator.

The Battle of Moscow, during which Rokossovsky showed himself admirably as a talented and brave military leader, became another turning point in his fate. If at first they did not really trust yesterday’s repressed man and even in official communications they did not mention the name of the army commander, speaking about a certain “Commander R,” then after the defense of Moscow, the attitude towards Rokossovsky on the part of the Soviet leadership began to change for the better. On July 13, 1942, he was appointed commander of the troops of the Bryansk Front, and on September 30, commander of the troops of the Don Front.

It was under the command of Rokossovsky that the forces of several fronts organized a ring around the army of General Paulus. On January 15, 1943, Rokossovsky received the rank of Colonel General, and already on January 31, troops under his command captured Field Marshal Paulus, 24 German generals, 2,500 officers and more than 90 thousand lower ranks of the Wehrmacht. After such a triumphant success, Stalin entrusted Rokossovsky with command of the Central Front, and in April 1943 he received the rank of army general. Success on the Kursk Bulge is also largely the work of Rokossovsky. In October 1943, the Central Front was renamed the Belorussian Front. It was mainly his forces that carried out the liberation of Soviet Belarus from the Nazi invaders.

On June 29, 1944, Konstantin Rokossovsky received the highest military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and on July 30, the first Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union. But, nevertheless, when the choice was made about who to entrust command of the Soviet armies advancing on Berlin, Stalin settled on the candidacy of Georgy Zhukov. Konstantin Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, and Marshal Zhukov led the 1st Belorussian Front.

Naturally, this situation seemed offensive to Rokossovsky and he even asked Stalin what the reason for his transfer to the post of commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front was connected with, to which the leader replied that this post was no less important for the military leader. But, of course, Rokossovsky’s Polish nationality, and his past as a former repressed person who spent almost three years in camps, could also play a role in Joseph Vissarionovich’s decision.

However, the contribution of Rokossovsky and his front formations to the assault on Berlin was also enormous. Troops under the command of Rokossovsky liberated Pomerania and East Prussia, then pinned down the main forces of the 3rd German Tank Army, preventing them from preventing Soviet troops advancing on Berlin. On June 1, 1945, for successful operations in Germany, Rokossovsky was given the second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. By Stalin's decision, Marshal Zhukov hosted the Victory Parade on Red Square, and Marshal Rokossovsky commanded the parade. In July 1945, he headed the Northern Group of Forces, stationed in Poland, and held this position until 1949. It was under the leadership of Rokossovsky that the entire infrastructure was created, which for almost half a century ensured the Soviet military presence in Poland.

In 1949, the President of the People's Republic of Poland Boleslav Bierut asked Stalin to allow Rokossovsky to transfer to Polish service. So the Soviet marshal became the Marshal of Poland and the Minister of National Defense of the People's Republic of Poland. It was under the leadership of Rokossovsky that the Polish Army was modernized, becoming one of the most powerful armies of the socialist camp. However, in 1956, due to political changes in Poland, Rokossovsky was recalled back to the Soviet Union. He was appointed to the post of Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, then commander of the Transcaucasian Military District. From January 1958 to April 1962, he again served as Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, but was dismissed due to disagreements with Nikita Khrushchev. According to one version, Rokossovsky refused to write a fiery anti-Stalin article, which angered the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. From April 1962 to August 1968, until his death, Konstantin Rokossovsky served as Inspector General of the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Konstantin Rokossovsky is one of the few Soviet military leaders of this rank who enjoyed not only respect, but also sincere love among the troops. Even those who did not agree with some of his actions spoke about their sympathy for Rokossovsky. For example, the same Nikita Khrushchev noted the highest professionalism and excellent human qualities of the marshal. Soviet soldiers - marshals, generals, officers and ordinary soldiers who happened to serve under his command - remembered Konstantin Konstantinovich even more warmly. As a person, Rokossovsky, apparently, differed favorably from many other military leaders - he tried to do everything possible to save soldiers’ lives, and did without swearing or assault.

One of the main positive features that contemporaries noted in Rokossovsky was that he always positioned himself only as a soldier, not concerned with politics. Unlike Georgy Zhukov, Rokossovsky was not allowed into the Kremlin until the end of the war; such epoch-making events in the country’s history as the death of Stalin and the subsequent arrest of Beria and the seizure of power by Khrushchev passed him by.