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Andrei Grechko
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{{Short description|Soviet military commander (1903–1976)}} {{family name hatnote|Antonovich|Grechko|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Andrei Grechko | honorific_prefix = '''[[Marshal of the Soviet Union]]''' | birthname = Andrei Antonovich Greczhko | honorific_suffix = | image = Andrei Grechko 3 cropped (a).jpg | image_size = | caption = Grechko in 1960 | nationality = {{USSR}} | office1 = [[Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization|Supreme Commander of Warsaw Pact Armed Forces]] | predecessor1 = [[Ivan Konev]] | successor1 = [[Ivan Yakubovsky]] | term_start1 = 1 April 1960 | term_end1 = 12 April 1967 | office2 = Commander-in-Chief of the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany]] | predecessor2 = [[Vasily Chuikov]] | successor2 = [[Matvei Zakharov]] | term_start2 = 26 May 1953 | term_end2 = 17 November 1957 | office3 = Commander of the [[Kiev Military District]] | predecessor3 = [[Vasyl Herasymenko]] | successor3 = [[Vasily Chuikov]] | term_start3 = 9 July 1945 | term_end3 = 25 May 1953 | office4 = Full member of the [[24th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] | term_start4 = 27 April 1973 | term_end4 = 26 April 1976 | office = [[Minister of Defence (Soviet Union)|Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union]] | term_start = 12 April 1967 | term_end = 26 April 1976 | 1blankname = Premier | 1namedata = [[Alexei Kosygin]] | predecessor = [[Rodion Malinovsky]] | successor = [[Dmitriy Ustinov]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1903|10|4|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Kuybyshevsky District, Rostov Oblast|Golodaevka]], [[Don Host Oblast]], Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1976|4|26|1903|10|4}} | death_place = Moscow, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union | resting_place = [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]], Moscow | spouse = | profession = [[Soldier]] | party = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (1928–1976) | otherparty = [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|Communist Party of Ukraine]] | allegiance = {{flag|Soviet Russia|1919}}<br/>(1919–1922) <br />{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}<br/>(1922–1976) | branch = [[Soviet Army]] | serviceyears = 1919–1976 | rank = [[File:Rank insignia of маршал Советского Союза.svg|34px]]<br/>[[Marshal of the Soviet Union]] (1955–1976) | commands = [[18th Army (Soviet Union)|18th Army]]<br/>[[1st Guards Army (Soviet Union)|1st Guards Army]]<br/>[[Kiev Military District]] | battles = {{tree list}} * [[Russian Civil War]] * [[World War II]] ** [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] ** [[Great Patriotic War]] *** [[First Battle of Kiev]] *** [[Barvenkovo–Lozovaya offensive]] *** [[Battle of the Caucasus]] *** [[Battle of the Dnieper]] **** [[Second Battle of Kiev]] *** [[Zhitomir–Berdichev offensive]] *** [[Lvov–Sandomierz offensive]] *** [[Western Carpathian offensive]] *** [[Moravia–Ostrava offensive]] *** [[Prague Offensive]] ** [[Anti-Soviet resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army|Ukrainian insurgency]] * [[Cold War]] ** [[East German uprising]] ** [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian uprising]] ** [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] {{tree list/end}} | awards = [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (twice) | signature = Andrei Grechko Signature 1949.png| | native_name_lang = ru | native_name = {{nobold|Андрей Гречко}} }} '''Andrei Antonovich Grechko''' ({{Langx|ru|Андре́й Анто́нович Гре́чко}}; {{Langx|uk|Андрій Антонович Гречко}}; {{OldStyleDate|17 October|1903|4 October}} – 26 April 1976) was a Soviet military commander and [[Marshal of the Soviet Union]] during the [[Cold War]]. He served as the Soviet [[Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union|minister of defence]] from 1967 to 1976. Born to a Ukrainian peasant family near [[Rostov-on-Don]], Grechko served in the [[Red Army]] cavalry during the [[Russian Civil War]]. After graduating from the [[Frunze Military Academy]], he took part in the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] in 1939. Grechko was a fresh graduate of the [[Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia|Voroshilov Military Academy]] when [[Operation Barbarossa|Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union]]. He held a succession of cavalry and army commands afterwards and saw action in the Caucasus, Ukraine and Central Europe. After the war, Grechko commanded the [[Kiev Military District]]. In 1953, he was appointed commander-in-chief of [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|Soviet Forces in East Germany]], and led the suppression of the [[East German uprising of 1953|East German uprising]]. In 1955, he was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1957, he became commander-in-chief of the [[Soviet Army|Soviet Ground Forces]], and three years later he also became the commander of the [[Warsaw Pact]] forces. In 1967, Grechko was appointed Minister of Defence, and oversaw the subsequent [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] and [[Sino-Soviet border conflict|violent border clashes]] with China. He helped modernize the Soviet Army and was responsible for continuing the Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe. An ideological hardliner, he was a defender of the [[First strike (nuclear strategy)|first strike]] nuclear strategy, and only reluctantly supported [[Leonid Brezhnev]]'s [[détente]] with the United States and the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks]] (SALT). Grechko died in 1976 at the age of 72.
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