Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Semyon Timoshenko
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===World War II=== ==== 1941–1942 ==== In the weeks before the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]], Timoshenko and Zhukov were worried by reports that German planes were crossing the Soviet border at least 10 times a day, and on 13 June, they asked Stalin for permission to put the troops on the western border on high alert, but were overruled because Stalin was convinced that there would be no German invasion before spring 1942.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pleshakov |first1=Constantine |title=Stalin's Folly, The Secret History of the German Invasion of Russia, June 1941 |date=2005 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |location=London |isbn=978-0-297-84626-0 |pages=1–2}}</ref> General [[Ivan Boldin]], deputy commander on the western front, recounted in memoirs published 20 years later that early in the morning of the invasion, on 22 June, when several towns in Belarus, including [[Grodno]], were being bombed, aircraft destroyed on the ground, troops were being strafed, and German paratroopers were landing behind Red Army lines, Timoshenko rang him with an instruction that "no action is to be taken against the Germans without our knowledge ... Comrade Stalin has forbidden to open artillery fire against the Germans".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Werth |first1=Alexander |title=Russia At War, 1941–1945 |date=1965 |publisher=Pan |location=London |pages=154–155}}</ref> On 23 June, Timoshenko was named chairman of [[Stavka]], the Soviet Armed Forces High Command.<ref name="ZiemkeBauer1987">{{cite book|author1=Earl Frederick Ziemke|author2=Magna E. Bauer|title=Moscow to Stalingrad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjOxtqM8768C&pg=PA30|year=1987|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-080081-8|page=24}}</ref> In July 1941, Stalin replaced Timoshenko as Defense Commissar and Stavka's chairman. At the same time, the [[Western Front (Soviet Union)|Western Front]] was divided into three sectors, with Timoshenko put in command of the [[Soviet Central Front|Central Front]]{{sfn|Glantz|House|2009|p=41}} to supervise a fighting retreat from the border to [[Smolensk]]. The Northern Front was commanded by Voroshilov, and the [[Southwestern Front (Soviet Union)|Southwestern Front]] by Budyonny, both of whom were removed by Stalin for incompetence after only a few weeks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montefiore |first1=Simon Sebag |title=Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar |date=2004 |publisher=Phoenix |location=London |isbn=0-75381-766-7 |pages=388, 394–395}}</ref> Timoshenko was transferred to [[Ukraine]] in September to replace Budyonny and restore order at the gates of [[Kiev]]. On 23 October, the Soviets made Timoshenko command the entire southern half of the Eastern Front and [[Georgy Zhukov]] command the northern half.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/CjN6aybNbsQ Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20201101080915/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjN6aybNbsQ&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjN6aybNbsQ&t=631s| title = 113 – Martial Law in Moscow, but is the Cavalry coming? – WW2 – October 24, 1941 | website=[[YouTube]]| date = 24 October 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> In November and December 1941, Timoshenko organized major counter offensives in the [[Battle of Rostov (1941)#Rostov Offensive Operation|Rostov]] region, as well as carving a bridgehead into German defenses south of [[Kharkiv]] in January 1942.{{sfn|Glantz|House|2009|p=41}} In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive (the [[Second Battle of Kharkov]]), which was the first Soviet attempt to gain initiative in the springtime war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offensive, encircling Timoshenko's armies, and turning the battle into a major Soviet defeat. The fact that he was the most senior Soviet army officer with a front-line command during most of the first year after the German invasion turned Timoshenko, briefly, into an international celebrity, lionised in the US and UK in particular as a supposed military genius. According to an account written later in the war: {{blockquote|Marshal Timoshenko flared up like a shooting star of unusual brightness against a sky that was more than commonly dark, and faded just as swiftly and unexpectedly. From June 1941 to about July 1942, so famous was he that foreigners, notably the Welsh and Irish, attempted to inch under his halo by finding their blood in him. The Welsh said that Timothy Jenkins was the Marshal's ancestor who had migrated to Russia to work as a mechanic and marry a Ukrainian girl. The Hibernians told a similar story about a certain Tim O'Shenko. In June 1942, an American humorist wrote: "I am waiting to hear from the Poles, the Czechs, the Brazilians and the Greeks. Everybody wants to be a winner." But just then, Marshal Timoshenko began his descent from glory.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parry |first1=Albert |title=Russian Cavalcade, a Military Record |date=1944 |publisher=Ives Washburn Inc. |location=New York |page=222 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b86566&view=1up&seq=9 |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref>|}} General [[Georgy Zhukov]]'s success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}} On 22 July 1942, Stalin replaced Timoshenko with [[Vasily Gordov]] as Commander of the [[Stalingrad Front]] due to his failures up to that point in the war,<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/YAfo5mse-ag Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200401163013/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAfo5mse-ag Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAfo5mse-ag&t=911s| title = Battlestorm Stalingrad E1 – The 6th Army Strikes! | website=[[YouTube]]| date = 7 October 2019 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> making him "Chairman of the High Command". He was called back into service as overall commander of the [[Northwestern Front]] between October 1942 and March 1943.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://generals.dk/general/Timoshenko/Semen_Konstantinovich/Soviet_Union.html|title=Biography of Marshal of Soviet Union Semen Konstantinovich Timoshenko – (Семен Константинович Тимошенко) (1895–1970), Soviet Union|website=generals.dk}}</ref> ==== 1943–1945 ==== Nonetheless, Timoshenko continued active military action in the later phase of the war. From March 1943, he was appointed as a representative of the Stavka to coordinate the actions of a number of fronts. He took part in the development and conduct of some operations. From March to June 1943, Timoshenko coordinated the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts during the battles at the Leningrad sector. By December 1943, he had coordinated the North Caucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet, oversaw the liberation of the North Caucasus and [[Novorossiysk]], the landing operation in [[Kerch Peninsula]], paving the way for the liberation of [[Crimea]] later. From February to June 1944, he oversaw the actions of 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts, including the Starorussko-Novorzhevskaya operation. From August 1944 until the end of the war, he coordinated the actions of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts.<ref>[https://srcaltufevo.ru/uk/timoshenko-semen-konstantinovich-biografiya-kratko-sem-n-konstantinovich.html Тимошенко насіння Костянтиновича біографія коротко. Семен Костянтинович Тимошенко: біографія Маршал Тимошенко у роки Великої Вітчизняної]</ref> Timoshenko was awarded his first Order of Suvorov, 1st class, due to the achievements in the Caucasus and the bridgehead in Crimea.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560612223/?backurl=/heroes/?last_name=%D0%A2%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE&first_name=%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD&middle_name=%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87&group=all&types=pamyat_commander:nagrady_nagrad_doc:nagrady_uchet_kartoteka:nagrady_ubilein_kartoteka:potery_vpp:potery_doneseniya_o_poteryah:potery_gospitali:potery_utochenie_poter:potery_spiski_zahoroneniy:potery_voennoplen:potery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov:potery_kartotek | title=Тимошенко Семен Константинович :: Память народа }}</ref> After the Red Army liberated [[Chișinău]] on 25 August during the Jassy–Kishinev offensive, Timoshenko sent a telegram to Stalin that praised the achievement of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts under his coordination and requested the promotion of their respective commanders, Malinovsky and Tolbukhin, to the rank of [[Marshal of the Soviet Union]]. The commanders were indeed promoted, and Timoshenko was also awarded another Order of Suvorov, 1st class.<ref>[https://news.rambler.ru/other/41742911-timoshenko-unichtozhenie-yuzhnoy-ukrainy/ Тимошенко: уничтожение «Южной Украины» Об этом сообщает "Рамблер". Далее: https://news.rambler.ru/other/41742911/]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560603642/?backurl=/heroes/?last_name=%D0%A2%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE&first_name=%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD&middle_name=%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87&group=all&types=pamyat_commander:nagrady_nagrad_doc:nagrady_uchet_kartoteka:nagrady_ubilein_kartoteka:potery_vpp:potery_doneseniya_o_poteryah:potery_gospitali:potery_utochenie_poter:potery_spiski_zahoroneniy:potery_voennoplen:potery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov:potery_kartoteki&page=1&static_hash=723218fe0db377be03092ee28da66428 | title=Тимошенко Семен Константинович :: Память народа }}</ref> On 4 June 1945, Timoshenko was awarded the [[Order of Victory]] for his contributions in the war. In 1945, Timoshenko attended the [[Yalta Conference]]. A rumor started in the Western press that Stalin had attacked Timoshenko, but this was later disproved.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} Between 15 August 1945 and 15 September 1945, Timoshenko travelled alone to review the [[Staryya Darohi|Starye Dorogi]] [[Displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe|displaced persons camp]] where [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] survivors recuperated after their liberation. Later, the author [[Primo Levi]] (Prisoner 174517) wrote in ''[[The Truce]]'' of how the extremely tall Timoshenko "unfolded himself from a tiny [[Fiat 500 "Topolino"|Fiat 500A Topolino]]" to announce that the liberated survivors would soon begin their final journey home.<ref>Levi, Primo, ''If This Is a Man – The Truce'' (Abacus, 2013), p. 350.</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)