Everything about Semyon Timoshenko totally explained
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko (
Semën Konstantinovič Timošenko; –
March 31,
1970) was a
Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the
Red Army at the beginning of the
German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Early life
Timoshenko was born into a peasant family at Furmanca (
Furmanka), in Southern
Bessarabia,
Odessa region (now part of
Ukraine). In 1915, he was drafted into the army of the
Russian Empire and served as a
cavalryman on the western front. On the outbreak of the
Russian Revolution in 1917, he sided with the revolutionaries, joining the
Red Army in 1918 and the
Bolshevik Party in 1919.
The Russian Civil War and the 1930s
During the
Russian Civil War, Timoshenko fought on various fronts. His most important encounter occurred at Tsaritsyn (later renamed
Stalingrad, and now
Volgograd), where he met and befriended
Joseph Stalin. This would ensure his rapid advancement after Stalin gained control of the Communist Party by the end of the
1920s. In 1920-1921, Timoshenko served under
Semyon Budyonny in the
1st Cavalry Army; he and Budyonny would become the core of the "Cavalry Army
clique" which, under Stalin's patronage, would dominate the Red Army for many years.
By the end of the Civil and
Polish-Soviet Wars, Timoshenko had become commander of the Red Army cavalry forces. Thereafter, under Stalin, he became Red Army commander in
Belarus (1933); in
Kiev (1935); in the northern
Caucasus and then
Kharkov (1937); and Kiev again (1938). In 1939, he was given command of the entire western border region and led the
Ukrainian Front during the . He also became a member of the Communist Party's
Central Committee. As a loyal friend, Timoshenko survived Stalin's
Great Purge, to be left as the Red Army's senior professional soldier.
The Winter War
In January 1940, Timoshenko took charge of the Soviet armies fighting
Finland in the
Soviet-Finnish War. This had begun the previous November, under the disastrous command of
Kliment Voroshilov. Under Timoshenko's leadership, the Soviets succeeded in breaking through the Finnish
Mannerheim Line on the
Karelian Isthmus, prompting Finland to sue for peace in March. His reputation increased, Timoshenko was made the
People's Commissar for Defence and a
Marshal of the Soviet Union in May.
Timoshenko was a competent but traditionalist military commander who nonetheless saw the urgent need to modernise the Red Army if, as expected, it was to fight a war against
Nazi Germany. Overcoming the opposition of other more conservative leaders, he undertook the
mechanisation of the Red Army and the production of more
tanks. He also reintroduced much of the traditional harsh discipline of the Tsarist Russian Army.
World War II
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June
1941, Stalin took over the post of Defence Commissar and sent Timoshenko to the
Central Front to conduct a fighting retreat from the border to
Smolensk. Huge casualties were suffered, but Timoshenko managed to save the bulk of the army for the defence of
Moscow. In September, he was transferred to
Ukraine, where the Red Army had suffered 1.5 million casualties while encircled at
Uman and
Kiev. Here he succeeded in stabilising the front.
In May 1942, Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, launched a counter-offensive at Kharkov, the first Soviet attempt to gain the initiative in the war. After initial Soviet successes, the Germans struck back at Timoshenko's exposed southern flank, halting the offense. Although Timoshenko's actions slowed the German advance on
Stalingrad, he was forced to accept responsibility for failing to drive back the German forces.
General
Georgy Zhukov's success in defending Moscow during December 1941 had persuaded Stalin that he was a better commander than Timoshenko. Stalin removed Timoshenko from front-line command, giving him roles as overall commander of the Stalingrad (June 1942), then North-Western (October 1942),
Leningrad (June 1943),
Caucasus (June 1944) and
Baltic (August 1944) fronts.
Postwar
After the war, Timoshenko was reappointed Soviet Army commander in Belarus (March 1946), then of the southern
Urals (June 1946); and then Belarus again (March 1949). In 1960, he was appointed Inspector-General of the Defence Ministry, a largely honorary post. From 1961 he chaired the State Committee for War Veterans. He died in Moscow in 1970.
Awards
==
Further Information
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