When some "experts" call Russia a bast shoe, it must be admitted that this expression contains a small grain of truth. Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovich Konev comes from peasants. In childhood and even adolescence, he wore bast shoes. Where to go? Other footwear is simply not provided in the village. And when he was called up to serve in the First World War, he received soldiers' boots, he did not take them off until his retirement.
Most of the generals and senior officers of the Red Army were workers and peasants. Yes, former nobles also remained in the service of the country of the Soviets. This symbiosis made it possible to solve the most difficult, sometimes fantastic tasks on the battlefields. Ivan Stepanovich Konev showed remarkable abilities in military affairs. For which he was awarded the highest awards and titles.
Armored train commissar
The biography of Ivan Konev, a native of the Vologda province, could have developed in a completely different way. A child from a poor family could rely only on his own strength and abilities. And there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped - the First World War began. The guy was drafted into the army and assigned to the artillery. The savvy and brave fighter showed himself in battles and campaigns from the best side. And when the tsarist army finally collapsed, Ivan Stepanovich was demobilized with the rank of non-commissioned officer. After a short period of time, civil war flared up throughout Russia, and gunners were required in the theater of operations. From that moment on, his military career began.
By order of the Revolutionary Military Council, Konev was sent to the Eastern Front. Events developed as in the once well-known song: “Our youth took us on a saber campaign. Our youth threw us on the Kronstadt ice”. In the position of commissar of the armored train, Ivan Stepanovich "gave a light to" the White Guard formations in Transbaikalia and the Japanese invaders in the Far East. It was here that his first wife, Anna Voloshin, met him. Love to the sounds of cannonade only grows stronger. The Konev family wandered along the Civil War fronts. After the end of hostilities in Primorye, the husband is assigned to Nizhny Novgorod. Then there were other points on the map of the country.
Big war
In the mid-30s, before the Second World War, Ivan Konev received a higher military education at the Academy. M. V. Frunze. Personal life has settled down to this - the family has two children, a son and a daughter. The work in the troops is going according to plan. However, reports from Europe are troubling. The presentiments of misfortune did not deceive - the war began on a sunny June day in 1941. The commander, famous in the near future, received a combat order to act as the commander of the 19th Army, which was stationed in the North Caucasian Military District. The events of the Great Patriotic War are described in detail in many memoirs and works of art.
In this context, it should be noted that the initial stage of the war for General Konev was not very successful. During the first two years of hostilities, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief twice removed Konev from his posts. But Ivan Stepanovich endured these extremely painful blows and was able to draw the necessary experience from the situation. Starting in 1943, offensive operations prepared by Konev's headquarters ended in convincing victories. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front took part in the Berlin operation and in the liberation of Prague. In peacetime, the Marshal of the Soviet Union wrote his memoirs. The work of Ivan Stepanovich was appreciated by both colleagues and historians.
