How ex-White Guard Govorov became a Soviet Marshal and managed to avoid Stalin's repressions

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

On January 18, 1943, the forces of the Leningrad Front under the leadership of the outstanding military leader Leonid Govorov broke the blockade of Leningrad. And a year later, German troops were completely thrown back from the city. Miraculously avoiding mass repressions, the mysterious ex-White Guard Govorov made a brilliant career in the Red Army. All his life he found time for on-the-job training, putting education in a cult. He was the only author of a scientific dissertation from the galaxy of Victory Marshals. Govorov's merits were appreciated by Stalin, and after the end of the war, the marshal became the pilot commander-in-chief of the newly created air defense forces.

Striving for education, Kolchak and the Red Army

The future marshal grew up in peripheral Elabuga. From his youth, his father earned his living by hard physical labor, but found the opportunity to learn to read and write. Having perfected his handwriting to calligraphic, he achieved the position of chief of the office at the local school. At the time, it was a staggering growth for a farm laborer. So, from childhood, Leonid absorbed the idea that thanks to education, everything can be achieved in life. And he confirmed this with his own example. After graduating from the artillery school in Petrograd under the tsar, he graduated from there with the rank of ensign. In the Civil War, at first he fought against the Reds on the side of Kolchak, but soon changed his views and went over to the Bolsheviks. Govorov had already distinguished himself at the front - for the artillery attack by Wrangel's forces he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Denunciations and disruption of the offensive on Moscow

Despite the massive purges among the leading army personnel, Govorov did not suffer a similar fate. Even when he was charged with close ties with the persons involved in the "Tukhachevsky case", he was not included in the number of firing officers. At the same time, Govorov's military career cannot be considered cloudless. Denunciations were repeatedly written on him. They did not want to recommend the Marshal as a candidate for the Communist Party, and without this condition, the career of a red military leader was not possible. But the clouds cleared away, and Govorov made a rapid career takeoff.

In 1940, he headed the artillery headquarters of the 7th Army, which fought with Finland. For his participation in the breakthrough of the Mannerheim line, he received the Order of the Red Star and rose to major general of artillery. He met the Great Patriotic War as the commander of the 5th Army, which was defending the approaches to Moscow. For the first time, a combined-arms formation was subordinate to an artillery general. On his initiative, anti-tank areas were formed on the Borodino field, ambushes and mobile detachments were used, thanks to which General Kluge's offensive failed.

The role of Zhukov and Stalin's gift

An important role in the fate of Govorov was played by the then Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Zhukov. He petitioned the leader for the promotion of a promising artilleryman to the army commander. In the description signed by Zhukov, it was stated that Govorov was distinguished by a strong will, energy, courage and organization. After this turning point, Govorov moved 4 ranks forward in 4 military years, reaching Marshal.

A glorious period for Leonid Govorov was the Leningrad Front, which he ruled from the summer of 1942. The difficult tasks of defending the city in the blockade mode fell on Govorov's shoulders. They demanded a miracle from him in the face of a constant lack of equipment, ammunition, fuel, medicine and food. An experienced artilleryman with a competent approach to business achieved new aircraft for the front, creating fortified field areas on the approaches to the city.

His grandson later said that among the family heirlooms is a gift to his grandfather from Stalin himself: an inkwell in the shape of a tank. According to legend, during the war, she stood on the leader's desk and was transferred to Govorov before the operation to break the Leningrad blockade. In a personal conversation, Stalin asked the commander about the frontline needs. Govorov replied that he needed tanks. Then the leader ironically remarked that only a personal one could provide. So the ink tank got to the marshal. In 1943, Govorov planned and carried out the legendary Operation Iskra, as a result of which the blockade of Leningrad was broken.

Betrayed spouse and number one air defense commander

In the first time after the start of the war, Govorov's wife and her son lived separately from her husband in Moscow. It was not the first time that Lydia had experienced a long separation from her husband. During his participation in the battles with Finland, the couple did not see each other for a long time. During the blockade period, Govorov wrote very touching letters to Moscow. He called his wife dear, sweet and beloved. He reported that he was alive and well and full of strength to fulfill his duty to the Motherland. Govorov reassured Lydia, remembering how quickly the previous separation had flown by and was against his wife going to him. “I have full responsibility for Leningrad,” the army commander explained. "And I will not give the city to the enemy, for the defeated is only the one who recognized himself as defeated."

In December 1942, despite her husband's objections, Lydia Ivanovna firmly decided to go. She felt how difficult it was for Govorov, and wanted to be near. During the flight, due to severe icing, the plane landed near Lake Ladoga, and it was necessary to get to the shore first by railcar, and then by car along the Road of Life in a convoy of food trucks. Throughout her subsequent life, Govorova recalled how the car in front fell through the ice, and traces of bomb explosions gaped around. The Germans now and then fired at the route, but fortunately the convoy managed to slip through. Lydia Ivanovna also spoke about her conversation with her husband after the reunion. It was on the eve of the breakout operation. The woman asked her husband the main question that worries her: what will happen if it does not work out? Govorov assured that everything was calculated accurately, the army was prepared at the height. And then he added, half in jest, that in the event of a failure of the operation, he would only be left in the hole with his head. Everything worked out. And already next fall, son Vladimir came to his parents - a newly-made artilleryman who had completed accelerated training courses.

Govorov's vast experience was useful to the country after the Victory. It was he who coordinated the transition of the USSR air defense to new frontiers. Fighter aircraft were re-equipped with jet aircraft, and anti-aircraft artillery was replenished with new complexes and stations. Then a new type of troops appeared - the air defense, and the chair of the commander-in-chief-deputy minister of defense was taken by Marshal Govorov.

Everything turned out completely differently with another marshal of victory. And it is still not clear was Tukhachevsky really an anti-Stalinist conspirator, and why the leader was in a hurry to be shot.