Why Zhukov had to save Marshal Baghramyan from being shot: Brother of the enemy of the people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The future marshal began his combat path back in 1915. In the ranks of the Armenian army he fought with the Turks, and after the revolution he joined the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, Baghramyan showed himself in the terrible 1941 during the tragic episode of the first military stage. The command of the Wehrmacht managed to carry out a brilliant operation - the Kiev cauldron. Then Ivan Khristoforovich led thousands of people out of the environment. True, very soon Zhukov had to save his comrade from being shot, which he highly valued for the rest of his life.

Unique small homeland and the path to the Red Army

The future glorious marshal hails from the high-mountainous Armenian village of Chardakhly (now the territory of Azerbaijan). This place is unique in its own way, despite the fact that today nothing there reminds of its outstanding immigrants. In 1941, about 1200 local residents left Chardakhla for the Great Patriotic War. Half were awarded orders and medals, and a quarter were awarded command positions. In addition, the small village provided the USSR with 12 generals, 7 Heroes of the Soviet Union and 2 marshals.

Hovhannes (birth name) Baghramyan was born in 1897 in the family of a railway worker. Having received his primary education at a parish school and having mastered his father's craft, in 1915 the young man volunteered to serve. Service began for him in an infantry battalion, after until the beginning of 1917 he was in the ranks of the Caucasian reserve cavalry regiment. An incredibly disciplined and promising soldier was sent by the command to the school of warrant officers. After the outbreak of the revolution, Baghramyan beat the Turks in the interests of the Armenian nationalists. Then, already commanding a squadron, he took part in an uprising against the government and found himself in the Red Army. In 1924 Baghramyan was sent to study at the Higher Cavalry School, where he became friends with Georgy Zhukov. Their close relationship lasted until the last breath of Georgy Konstantinovich.

In the early 30s, after graduating from the military academy, Baghramyan was appointed chief of staff of a cavalry division, while at the same time he was a student of the Academy of the General Staff. With the beginning of the repressions, the military career hung in the balance. He was reminded of his past ties with Armenian nationalists. Then Ivan Khristoforovich's brother got under the rink. As a result - dismissal from the army for family ties with the enemy of the people. Baghramyan was then saved by the intercession of the authoritative compatriot Mikoyan. The colonel by all means attracted attention to himself for an audience with Voroshilov. It got to the point that, donning a military uniform, he sat down directly on the ground under the Spasskaya Tower, decisively declaring that he would wait for a meeting with the "first marshal" and would not leave his place. And he achieved his goal. After a conversation with Voroshilov, Baghramyan was reinstated in the army, albeit at first as a teacher at the military academy. And already in 1940, Ivan Khristoforovich went to head the operative department in the Kiev military district.

War and the razor blade

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Baghramyan took part in major Soviet counterattacks in the Western Ukrainian territories. The first large-scale results of the military leader Ivan Khristoforovich demonstrated in the fall of 1941 in the Kiev operation. Then hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers of the Red Army got into the "cauldron". Fleeing, the troops were forced to retreat through the territory occupied by the enemy. Baghramyan was instructed to break through with a hundred fighters, paving the way for the rest, including the command. In the most difficult situation Baghramyan not only broke through the ring, but also provided a way out of the encirclement for thousands of the doomed. Then the brave strategist was awarded the 1st Order of the Red Banner.

Subsequently, Baghramyan often recalled the autumn of 1941 as the hardest period of his military career. There was not enough weapons, ammunition was worth its weight in gold, and the enemy was 100 km away from Moscow. In November, Baghramyan promptly developed a desperate Rostov operation, liberating Rostov-on-Don in two weeks and daringly pushing back the Germans. Kleist then left 150 tanks and up to one and a half thousand cars to Rostov, and Bagramyan was granted the rank of general.

Stalin's anger and Zhukov's help

Despite a number of high merits and considerable experience, luck once completely turned away from Baghramyan. The Kharkov offensive operation in 1942, developed by Ivan Khristoforovich, turned into a real disaster. The losses of the Red Army amounted to hundreds of thousands of soldiers. This failure allowed the enemy to reach Stalingrad, from where there was nothing left to the Baku oil. Stalin saw the main culprit in the person of Baghramyan, which for the latter was equated with a death sentence. Then he was saved by Zhukov, who took the liberty of claiming that, along with his friend, Headquarters and the General Staff were among the culprits.

Career growth despite the fall

When the Germans were defeated at Stalingrad in 1943, besieged in the North Caucasus and the Don, they broke the Leningrad blockade, liberated Donbass from South-Eastern Ukraine, the front revived. The battle for Kursk was prepared especially carefully. In the clashes near Orel and Bryansk, Baghramyan's subordinates liberated over 800 settlements. For 50 days of the Battle of Kursk, at least 30 Nazi divisions were destroyed with a total loss of half a million Germans. By the fall of 1943, Baghramyan commanded the 1st Baltic Front. His skill as a general-strategist only grew. An experienced military practitioner, he was able to accurately see the enemy's most vulnerable spots, concentrating the striking force in the most unexpected manifestation.

During the Vitebsk-Orsha offensive operation in 1944, Baghramyan took a big risk, striking from difficult swamps. This move was completely unexpected, catching the Germans by surprise. The operation planned by the general in the fall of 1944 was also unique. Before the Memel offensive, almost all the troops of the Baltic Front were deployed secretly from the enemy - with ten thousand guns, one and a half thousand tanks and self-propelled guns. The realized breakthrough stunned the Nazis, completely cut off from East Prussia. High-class strategic victories awarded General of the Army Baghramyan the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the fall of 44, Baghramyan stormed the impregnable Koenigsberg with its multiple echelons of defense and oversaturated equipment. The Baltic citadel was taken in 4 days.

In the summer of 46, Baghramyan took part in the Supreme Military Council, the decision of which had an overwhelming effect on the military generals. Close to Ivan Khristoforovich Zhukov was recognized as involved in the coup. Loyal to his classmate, Baghramyan was one of the few who spoke out in defense of his friend. When in May 1965 Zhukov was invited to the Kremlin for the first time after a long period of disgrace, he immediately found Baghramyan among the guests, shaking his hand and hugging him tightly.

The love story was outstanding for the military leader Marshal Baghramyan. He kidnapped his Tamara, contrary to tradition and convention, and she became his guardian angel. He never had front-line girlfriends, and he went into battle with the name of his wife on his lips.