Rodion Malinovsky is a Soviet military leader and statesman. The commander of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union was twice Hero of the Soviet Union, was the People's Hero of Yugoslavia. From 1957 to 1967, he held the post of Minister of Defense of the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky commanded the Southwestern, Southern, Second and Third Ukrainian fronts. The only one of all the military leaders of that period, Malinovsky was fluent in several foreign languages.
The beginning of the way
The marshal's biography began in Odessa on November 10 (22). He was born in 1898. The boy was raised by one mother. From an early age, the child was accustomed to work. The teenager worked in a dry goods store. With the outbreak of the First World War, Rodion persuaded him to take him to the front.
The guy was enrolled in the machine-gun team as a carrier of cartridges. In 1915 Malinovsky was seriously wounded near Smorgon. After him, the hero was found the first award, the St. George Cross. The rank of corporal was added to it. Treatment in the hospital took almost two years, and then the young man went to the Western Front.
After being wounded in April 1917, he was awarded two battle crosses. At the same time in La Curtina he received a new wound and was out of action for two months. Rodion then volunteered for the Foreign Legion. The future marshal returned to Russia in 1919. He joined the Red Army, took part in the Civil War.
In the ranks of the 27th division, Malinovsky fought against Kolchak. After the end of hostilities, Rodion Yakovlevich successfully graduated from the school of command personnel. The graduate was assigned to command a machine-gun platoon, then a team. The future marshal was also an assistant to the commander of a rifle battalion.
After graduating from the Frunze Malinovsky Military Academy, he was appointed chief of staff of a cavalry regiment. An officer of the Belarusian and North Caucasian military districts headed the headquarters of the cavalry corps, then the army of the "western" in 1930. From 1937 to 1938, the colonel served in Spain as a military adviser.
New battles
For helping the republican command he was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner. In 1938 he was promoted to brigade commander. The next year, Malinovsky began teaching at the Frunze Academy.
In 1941, the Great Patriotic War, Rodion Yakovlevich was appointed commander of the 48th rifle corps in the Odessa military district in the city of Balti. He met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War there, holding the defense with corps units. The fighters did not retreat from the state border near the Prut River, despite the superior enemy forces. However, the retreat was inevitable.
The troops retreated to Nikolaev. Malinovsky led the corps out of the encirclement. When retreating to the east, the fighters inflicted a lot of damage on the enemy troops. For skillful actions, Malinovsky was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. He was assigned to command the 6th Army and the Southern Front.
The enemy was driven back from Kharkov in the winter of 1942, but in the spring they dealt powerful blows against the Soviet troops. The Kharkov operation was lost, and Malinovsky led the 66th army, but was demoted. In the fall of 1942 he was appointed deputy commander of the Voronezh Front. A month later, the future marshal led the Second Guards Army.
He managed to regain his former rank and post of commander of the Southern Front for his invaluable contribution to the defeat of enemy troops at Stalingrad. The help was necessary for the troops of Vasilevsky during the Kotelnikov operation.
Awards
Successful military operations allowed the liberation of Donbass and southern Ukraine. Odessa was liberated in the spring of 1944. Malinovsky received the rank of General of the Army. He led the Second Ukrainian Front. When the enemy army "Southern Ukraine" was defeated, Romania entered the war against Germany.
For heroism and skillful military actions, numerous victories and courage, Malinovsky was promoted to Marshal in September 1944. Under his leadership, the enemy's two hundred thousandth army was defeated near Budapest.
For the Vienna operation, the marshal was awarded the Order of Victory. For his service in the Far East after the end of the war, he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Russo-Japanese War, he commanded the Trans-Baikal Front. After breaking through the Gobi Desert, the troops ended up in the center of Manchuria, completing the complete encirclement of the enemy.
The defeat of the enemy was complete. Marshal remained in command of the Trans-Baikal-Amur military district. He became commander-in-chief there in 1947. From 1953 he headed the Far Eastern Military District, in 18956 he became Deputy Minister of Defense of the country Zhukov and Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of the Soviet Union. In 1957 he became Minister of Defense. Under him, the military power of the country increased noticeably, the rearmament of the army was carried out.
Family and work
Malinovsky's personal life did not settle down right away. His first choice was a French teacher. The acquaintance with Larisa Nikolaevna took place in Irkutsk. She became the wife of the future marshal in August 1925.
Two years later, the first child appeared in the family, the son Gennady. In 1929, a second son, Robert, was born. He became a Doctor of Engineering Science. Eduard, a music teacher, was born in 1934. Together with their mother, the children were taken first to the capital, then to Irkutsk. The family was reunited in July 1945.
The restoration of relations after four years of separation failed. The couple separated in 1946. The meeting in the new darling took place in 1942. Raisa Kucherenko-Galperina distinguished herself in collecting intelligence. In 1943 she was awarded the Order of the Red Star. And in 1946 Malinovsky and Halperina officially became husband and wife.
They had a daughter, Natalya, who chose the profession of a philologist and became the custodian of her father's archive. The adopted son Herman continued the military dynasty, becoming a colonel.
Marshal played chess very well. He wrote chess problems for magazines and took part in solver competitions. Malinovsky was fond of photography, fishing.
Rodion Yakovlevich passed away on March 31, 1967.
