Rotmistrov Pavel Alekseevich 1901 1982. The first "honorary citizen of Prokhorovka"

Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov

P.A. Rotmistrov. 1926

Preamble

History is an infinite, polysyllabic subject,
adding more trouble than pleasure and truth.
Augustine the Blessed

To take this epigraph specifically for a selection of materials about Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov prompted me to tell in a nutshell not so much about the discovery truths how much about those troubles, which I personally experienced - in connection with the published below. Several times I received letters from readers who, in extreme irritation, expressed their indignation at the texts published here. And although I have specially made a separate page Introduction to the project , which details the principle of completing the project with materials, anyway, sometimes there are readers whose irritation in the mixture eagerly erupts into an angry demand: "fix it now!", Or even in an even more categorical: "remove immediately!". In order to avoid repetition in response letters, I am giving an additional explanation here: on this page, I personally, in addition to this paragraph under the heading "Preamble", own only the words: "Materials used ...", etc., highlighted in italics. The rest of the texts are copyrighted. Whether it is the authors of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Internet sites or paper books used in the selection of materials (Torchinov with Leontyuk ...) Dear readers, if you do not like one of the points of view presented here, please know: these are not my points of view . Maybe some people are accustomed exclusively to a monologue, to an indication from top to bottom, but my project (as well as individual author's texts placed in it) is author's - my author's project, it is built on dialogue! Participants in historical events, their witnesses and researchers on the pages of CHRONOS enter into this complex, boundless dialogue. The only way! We, the Russians, lost the information war to the West because our nobility, that is, the Soviet nomenklatura, in governing the country and the people, relied solely on a monologue - on instructions from top to bottom. Dialogue in those years existed only as a parody. And the nomenklatura decided to enter into such a "dialogue" only on the condition that full and unconditional approval from the "lower classes" was guaranteed in advance - by bloody terror, as it was in the 20-30s, or psychological terror (in the late Brezhnes era). And in the end, we lost to the West completely. And the vigilant tutelage of the GLAVPURA for the historians of the war made this greatest war of all time the most boring subject - made it so for the youth, who are replacing the gerontologists in power. But instead of sovereign power, the dying gerontologists handed over to the new generation only a bunch of rotten junk. So that's enough! Let's learn dialogue. Only through dialogue is it possible to learn to INDEPENDENTLY THINK about our past. If there is such a point of view in historiography, then listen to it. She is unpleasant. Are its authors distorting the facts? So learn to understand and expose distortions of facts for yourself. Stop losing information wars! In the end, learn to think with your own head, and not accept the ready-made "truth" given from above. Understand, finally: from above, in fact, there is no longer any Great and Wise leader who thinks for us for all.

Biographical materials:

Participant in the suppression of uprisings ( Soviet military encyclopedia in 8 volumes, v. 7: Radio control - Tachanka. 688 p., 1979).

Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. The hero of the myth of the battle of Prokhorov ( Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. St. Petersburg, 2000).

Compositions:

Tank battle near Prokhorovka. M., 1960,

Time and tanks. M., 1972,

Tanks at war. Ed. 4th. M., 1975.

Literature:

Chief Marshal of the Armored Troops - In the book .. Dolgov I. A. Golden Stars of Kalinin. M., 1969, p. 529-535;

Chuikov V. Chief Marshal of the Armored Troops P. A. Rotmistrov.- “Military-pet. journal”, 1971, No. 5.

In 1919 he joined the Red Army and was enrolled in the Samara workers' regiment. Participated in the battles near Bugulma. In the same year he became a member of the party. He graduated from military engineering courses, after which he was sent to the 42nd stage battalion of the 16th Army on the Western Front. Rotmistrov participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, was wounded, after the hospital he returned to the village.

After graduating from the Smolensk infantry school, he was sent to Ryazan as a political instructor of a company of the 149th Infantry Regiment, then he was transferred to Vladimir as a political instructor of the divisional cavalry reconnaissance. In 1922, Rotmistrov was admitted to the military united school of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

In 1924, he was a platoon commander of the 31st regiment of the 11th rifle division. After 4 years, he began studying at the Academy. Frunze. He graduated from it in 1931 and was appointed to the post of chief of the first part of the headquarters of the Trans-Baikal Rifle Division in Chita. In 1933, Rotmistrov was appointed head of the 1st sector - deputy head of the operational department of the OKDVA headquarters.

In 1937 he commanded a rifle regiment. In October 1937, Rotmistrov surrendered the regiment, arrived in Moscow as a teacher of tactics at the Military Academy of Motorization and Mechanization of the Red Army. In December 1940, Rotmistrov was appointed deputy commander of the 5th Panzer Division of the 3rd Mechanized Corps of the Baltic Special Military District.

At the end of May 1941, Pavel Alekseevich was appointed chief of staff of the 3rd mechanized corps. In this position, he met the war. For two months, the 3rd mechanized corps retreated with the troops of the 11th army in the Siauliai direction, where the corps headquarters was surrounded. Upon exiting the encirclement, the corps was disbanded. Colonel Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 8th tank brigade operating on the Northwestern Front. At the beginning of 1942, the formation of the 7th Tank Corps began, with Rotmistrov appointed commander. At the end of June 1942, the corps was transferred to the 5th Panzer Army. When advancing to the area of the city of Yelets, the tank corps immediately attacked the 11th German tank division and defeated it. On August 25, 1942, the corps was transferred to the 1st Guards Army. During the counteroffensive at Stalingrad, the 7th Panzer Corps distinguished itself in the area of the Rachkovsky farm. Then the corps as part of the 2nd Guards Army participated in the defeat of the Kotelnikovskaya grouping of the Don Army Group.

He commanded a mechanized group consisting of 3 corps. In mid-February, Rotmistrov was appointed to the post of commander of the 5th tank army being formed, with this army Rotmistrov participated in the tank battle near Prokhorovka. Then the 5th Panzer Army, under the command of Colonel-General of the Tank Troops Rotmistrov, took part in the battle during the crossing of the Dnieper as part of the Steppe Front. From October 1943, she advanced on Pyatikhatki, Krivoy Rog, and liberated Kirovograd.

In January 1944 Rotmistrov participated with the army in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation. On February 21, 1944, Rotmistrov was awarded the military rank of Marshal of the Armored Forces, and in August 1944 he was appointed to the post of Deputy Commander of the Armored and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army. With the end of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Armored Forces Rotmistrov served as commander of armored and mechanized troops in the group of Soviet troops in Germany from 1945 to 1948. In 1948, he was appointed to the post of commander of armored and mechanized troops in the Far East.

In 1956, Rotmistrov was transferred to Moscow and appointed head of the department at the Academy of Armored and Mechanized Troops. He is doing a lot of scientific work, in 1956, after defending his dissertation, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Military Sciences, and in 1958 he was awarded the title of professor. Since 1958, Rotmistrov has been Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for higher military educational institutions. In 1962, Rotmistrov was awarded the military rank of Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces. In 1968, Rotmistrov, for health reasons, moved to the group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Best of the day

In 1965 Rotmistrov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Rotmistrov was awarded 5 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, 4 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov 1st degree, the Red Star, many medals and foreign orders. Rotmistrov is the author of a number of scientific works and memoirs: "Time and Tanks", "Steel Guard", etc. Rotmistrov died in 1982 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Information from archives. Tank armies near Kursk lost 1200 T-34, KV tanks. And the Germans 400 tanks. Stalin wanted to bring Rotmistrov to justice for this, but the army commanders helped him out and Rotmistrov himself lied - they say the Germans lost the same amount. Stalin retreated. The T-34 tanks by this time were technically much inferior to the German ones in all respects except speed. Rotmistrov was afraid to openly tell Stalin about this and passed the note through Zhukov to the tank builders. Only in 1944 did the modernized T-34-85 tank appear, which somewhat leveled the situation.

Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov

P.A. Rotmistrov (left) and A.S. Zhadov, Prokhorovka area, July 1943

era of the myth of the battle of Prokhorov

ROTMISTROV Pavel Alekseevich (1901-1982). Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces (1962). Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Member of the Civil War. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1919. He graduated from the Military Joint School. All-Russian Central Executive Committee (1924). Military Academy. Frunze (1931), Military Academy of the General Staff (1953). Member of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. During the Great Patriotic War - in command positions in the Western, Northwestern, Kalinin, Stalingrad, Voronezh, Steppe, Southwestern, 2nd Ukrainian and 3rd Belorussian fronts. From August 1944 - Deputy Commander of the Armored and Mechanized Forces of the Soviet Army. Since 1948 - in teaching at the Military Academy of the General Staff. In 1958-1964. - Head of the Military Academy of Armored Forces. In 1964-1968 - assistant to the Minister of Defense of the USSR.

Rotmistrov was awarded six Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov 1st and 2nd class, Kutuzov 1st class, Order of the Red Star and other distinctions.

Rotmistrov - a participant in the famous Battle of Kursk. B.V. Sokolov writes: “This battle became the largest battle not only of the Great Patriotic War, but of the entire Second World War. Two whole years have passed since the German attack on the USSR, and all the advantages that the Wehrmacht received due to the surprise of the invasion have long lost their significance. The Soviet Union fully deployed its military potential, was able to use significant Lend-Lease supplies and had an army manned and equipped with two years of combat experience, which seriously outnumbered the enemy in terms of numbers and weapons.

Nevertheless, from the point of view of military art, according to a number of historians, the Red Army lost the Battle of Kursk, because with the enormous superiority that it possessed, the relatively modest results achieved do not justify the monstrous losses it suffered in people and equipment. By the way, in terms of the degree of inconsistency with the real course of events, the Soviet mythology of this battle will give odds to the battles for Moscow and Stalingrad, as the works of German researchers convincingly testify to.

I would especially like to highlight the work of Karl-Heinz Frieser, dedicated, in particular, to the analysis of the famous tank battle near Prokhorovka (Frieser K.-H. Schlagen aus der Nachhand - Schlagen aus der Vorhand. Die Schlachten von Char "kov und Kursk. - Gezeitenwechsel im Zweiten Weltkrieg? Hrsg. von R.G. Foerster, Hamburg-Berlin-Bonn, 1996. A German historian was inspired to write it by watching the Soviet film "Arc of Fire" from the film epic "Liberation". 1) He found the film's picture of the greatest tank battle to be wholly false. On the material of the German archives, Frieser proved that the Soviet claims that the Germans lost 300 or 400 tanks near Prokhorovka on July 12, 1943, are nothing more than a poetic exaggeration contained in the reports of Soviet tank commanders. In fact, the 2nd German SS Panzer Corps, which opposed the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army (Commander Lieutenant General P. Rotmistrov) near Prokhorovka, irretrievably lost only 5 tanks, and another 43 tanks and 12 assault guns were damaged, then how the irretrievable losses of only three corps of the 5th Guards Tank Army amounted, according to Soviet reports, coinciding in this case with German ones, at least 334 tanks and self-propelled guns. And this despite the fact that the Soviet side had an almost fourfold superiority - together with two corps attached to the army of P. Rotmistrov, tank and mechanized - up to 1000 armored vehicles against no more than 273 from the Germans. 2)

There is an oral tradition from the words of eyewitnesses that after the Battle of Prokhorov Stalin called Rotmistrov "on the carpet" in Moscow and said something like this: "What are you, wise ..., in one day you ruined the entire army, but did nothing?" However, the Supreme Commander refused to bring the unlucky commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army to trial: after all, the Soviet troops won the Battle of Kursk. As a result, the legend of Soviet success near Prokhorovka was born. For this purpose, the number of German tanks was overestimated by two and a half times - up to 700, and their losses - by 5-7 times, up to 300-400 vehicles, in order to make them comparable with the Soviet ones.

Most of the Soviet tankers did not have the necessary combat experience and they received a baptism of fire on the Kursk Bulge. This undoubtedly affected the results of the tank battle near Prokhorovka. The true reasons for the termination of the offensive of the Army Group "South", contrary to the widespread opinion in Soviet historiography, that the Germans' refusal to continue the "Citadel" operation was caused by the failure near Prokhorovka (which in reality did not happen), lie in the fact that the Soviet attack against Orlovsky had already begun bridgehead, and therefore there was no chance of encircling the Red Army grouping near Kursk. The continuation of the attack on Kursk from the south was an unjustified risk and in the future could lead to the encirclement and death of German tank formations. The victory near Prokhorovka still could not change the overall strategic situation, unfavorable for the German side ”(Sokolov B.V: The Truth about the Great Patriotic War. St. Petersburg, 1998. P. 14-17).

Notes

1) The epic film "Liberation" (five episodes, 1970-1972). Director and co-writer Yu.N. Ozerov. “The wide coverage of world-historical events is combined in it with a careful development of the images of the participants in these events. This work is characterized by a modern embodiment of the forms of the film epic, a combination of strict documentary with the scale of historical generalizations and staged scope. (Cinema. Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1986. S. 304). For this work, the director received the Lenin Prize (1972) and other awards.

2) “Up to 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns simultaneously participated in the battle from both sides ... The participation of such a large number of Soviet tanks turned out to be a complete surprise for the enemy. From the air, massive air strikes were carried out against the enemy by the aircraft of the 2nd VA and units of the 17th VA, as well as the ADD. The fascist German troops lost up to 400 tanks and assault guns and over 10,000 men. Not having reached the intended goal, the enemy went on the defensive, and on July 16 began to retreat. In the battle of Prokhorovka, the superiority of Soviet military equipment and art over the military equipment and art of the Nazi army was manifested (Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. M., 1985. S. 592-593).

Materials of the book were used: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. St. Petersburg, 2000

Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov was born in the village of Skovorovo, now in the Selizharovsky district of the Tver region, into a large peasant family (he had 8 brothers and sisters). Russian. He graduated from a four-year rural school. In 1916 he graduated from the Higher Primary School. He worked on the railway in Peno, as a timber rafter in the upper reaches of the Volga. In 1917 he came to Samara, where he worked as a loader.

Civil War

In the Soviet Army since April 1919 (he was enrolled in the Samara workers' regiment), a participant in the Civil War. Then he joined the RCP (b). Participated in battles against the troops of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, in the liquidation of the Melekes uprising, in the Soviet-Polish war. Sent to study at the Samara Soviet Engineering Courses. He fought near Bugulma in the Samara Workers' Regiment, then in the 42nd stage battalion of the 16th Army of the Western Front. After the Civil War in 1921, he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. Rotmistrov was among the first to break into the fortress. He was wounded in battle, but was able to personally destroy a machine-gun point. In 1921, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the courage shown during the storming of Fort No. 6 during the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising.

interwar time

He graduated from the 3rd Smolensk infantry school, served in Ryazan as a political instructor in the 149th and 51st rifle regiments. Since 1924, after graduating from the 1st Military Combined School named after. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee commanded a platoon, a company. In March-October 1928 - commander of the battery of the 11th artillery regiment. He was deputy battalion commander of the 34th Infantry Regiment in the Leningrad Military District. In 1931 he graduated from the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze. Since 1931 - served as chief of the first part of the headquarters of the 36th Trans-Baikal Rifle Division (Chita). Since March 1936 - head of the first department of the headquarters of the Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army. In June 1937, Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 63rd Red Banner Regiment. M. V. Frunze of the 21st Twice Red Banner Primorsky Rifle Division. S. S. Kameneva.

In October 1937, he was recalled from the Far East and appointed as a teacher of tactics at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army. I. V. Stalin. In 1939 Rotmistrov defended his PhD thesis. In 1939, he was expelled from the CPSU (b) on charges of having links with "enemies of the people", but did not wait for the subsequent arrest, but appealed against the decision of the party bureau of the academy. A few months later, by decision of the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he was reinstated in the party, exclusion from the party was replaced by a severe reprimand. A year later, P. A. Rotmistrov defended his dissertation on one of the problems of using tanks in war and received a PhD in military sciences.

At the beginning of 1940, he was seconded to the front of the Soviet-Finnish War to gain combat experience in the use of tank troops. Officially sent to the front as commander of the reserve group of the North-Western Front, but at his own request he was sent to the troops as the commander of a tank battalion in the 35th light tank brigade of the 7th army. Participated in battles during the breakthrough of the "Mannerheim Line" and near Vyborg. Soon he becomes the chief of staff of this brigade. For successful combat operations in the Soviet-Finnish war, the brigade was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Alekseevich received the Order of the Red Star.

In the Great Patriotic War

In North-west

During the Great Patriotic War, P.A. Rotmistrov fought on the Western, Northwestern, Kalinin, Stalingrad, Voronezh, Steppe, Southwestern, 2nd Ukrainian and 3rd Belorussian fronts. Member of the border battles of 1941.

In December 1940, Lieutenant Colonel P. A. Rotmistrov was appointed deputy commander of the 5th Panzer Division of the 3rd Mechanized Corps of the Baltic Special Military District in Alytus, Lithuanian SSR.
Since May 1941 - Chief of Staff of the 3rd Mechanized Corps, located in Kaunas. In this position he met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

The 3rd mechanized corps was stationed in Lithuania, near the cities of Kaunas and Alytus. It was armed with light tanks with weak weapons. Already on the fifth day of the war, the Germans surrounded the headquarters of the corps and the headquarters of the 2nd Panzer Division, which was part of the corps. For more than two months, Rotmistrov with a group of soldiers and officers left the encirclement through the forests of Lithuania, Belarus and Bryansk.

In September 1941, Colonel Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 8th Tank Brigade of the 11th Army of the Northwestern Front.

From the memoirs of P. A. Rotmistrov:

In October 1941, a brigade consisting of a tank regiment and a motorized rifle battalion marched 250 kilometers from Valdai to Dumanovo in a day and on October 14 approached the village of Kalikino near Kalinin (now the city of Tver). Concentrating on the Leningrad Highway in the Mednoye-Kalinin section, together with other parts of the operational group of General Vatutin, the brigade fought for several days with the enemy, who occupied Kalinin and tried to reach the rear of the troops of the North-Western Front through Mednoye-Torzhok.
On October 16, the enemy delivered a strong blow from the area of the Doroshikha railway station to Nikolo-Malitsa. They manage to quickly break through the defenses of the 934th Infantry Regiment and reach the Medny area by the end of the day. Rotmistrov was ordered to go to Polustov (8 km northwest of Medny) and prevent further enemy advance to Torzhok. When performing this task, after part of the tanks and motorcycles of the enemy broke through to Maryino and captured the crossing over the river. Logovezh. Rotmistrov decided to withdraw the brigade to the Likhoslavl region.
This was the most critical moment in the Kalinin defensive operation.
In a combat report addressed to Colonel-General I.S. Konev, P.A. Rotmistrov justified his decision as follows:

Colonel General Konev in a telegram addressed to Lieutenant General Vatutin demanded:

Lieutenant General Vatutin, having assessed the situation and the position of the remaining formations of the task force, demanded from Rotmistrov:

Then, as part of the Kalinin Front, the brigade participated in the winter counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow, distinguished itself during the liberation of the city of Klin. Then, together with the troops of the 30th Army, she was again transferred to the Kalinin Front. With battles, she reached Rzhev. In January 1942, the brigade received the Guards banner for the mass heroism of its personnel and became known as the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade, and its commander, Colonel Rotmistrov, was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Corps commander

In April 1942, Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the emerging 7th Tank Corps, which was formed in March 1942 in the Kalinin area on the basis of the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade. At the end of June, in connection with the enemy’s breakthrough into the Ostrogozhsk region and the threat of Voronezh being captured by the Germans, the corps was hastily transferred by rail to the Yelets region and transferred to the 5th Panzer Army under the command of Major General A. I. Lizyukov.

The army was instructed to launch a counterattack on the advancing enemy tank grouping on Voronezh. When advancing to the area of the city of Yelets, the tank corps immediately attacked the 11th German tank division and defeated it. But due to inept and hasty organization, the counterattack did not achieve its goal. Three well-equipped tank corps were brought into battle at two-day intervals, which prevented a decisive turning point in the combat situation. In July 1942, Rotmistrov was promoted to the rank of Major General of Tank Forces.

On August 25, 1942, the corps fought as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army on the Stalingrad Front. In September, the corps received an order, together with the 1st Guards Army, to attack the enemy and break through to Stalingrad. The unprepared strike ended in disaster - in three days of fighting, out of 180 tanks, 15 remained in service. The remains of the corps were put into reserve.

After the Soviet Army surrounded the German troops of Paulus in the Stalingrad region, on December 12, 1942, the Nazi command launched a counterattack from the Kotelnikovsky region. It threw tank, infantry and cavalry divisions into battle. To defeat this enemy grouping, the 2nd Guards Army was advanced. It was reinforced by the 7th Panzer Corps. From December 12 to December 30, 1942, Rotmistrov's corps took part in the defeat of the enemy's Kotelnikovskaya grouping. Heavy and bloody battles for the capture of the well-fortified railway station Kotelnikovo and the village of Kotelnikovsky lasted two days. The corps captured an important village and station. At the final stage of the operation, on December 28 at 16.00, part of his forces - the 87th tank and 7th motorized rifle brigades managed to capture the German airfield located 1 km from the village on the move. The blow was so swift that the enemy could not only offer serious resistance, but even come to his senses. German planes returning from missions continued to land on the already captured airfield. For the courage and stamina shown by the personnel of the corps in these battles, on December 29, the formation was transformed into the 3rd Guards Tank Corps and it was given the honorary name "Kotelnikovsky".

In January 1943, the corps successfully participated, together with the 2nd Guards Army, in the defeat of the group of troops of Field Marshal E. Manstein, who was trying to unblock the encircled Stalingrad grouping of the enemy, and the liberation of the city of Rostov-on-Don.

Army commander

February 22, 1943 For the skillful command of the corps a, P. A. Rotmistrov received the next military rank of lieutenant general of the tank troops, the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree (No. 3) and a new position - the commander of the newly created tank formation of a homogeneous composition - the 5th Guards Tank Army .

During the Battle of Kursk, this army took part in a defensive battle in the zone of troops of the Voronezh Front. On July 12, 1943, the army under the command of Rotmistrov took part in a counterattack, known in Soviet historical science as "the largest tank battle near Prokhorovka." In fact, army troops in full strength unsuccessfully attacked the positions of two incomplete German tank divisions, losing 53% of their 642 tanks and self-propelled guns during the day of the battle. Only the intercession of Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky then saved Rotmistrov from the wrath of I. V. Stalin. A commission headed by G. M. Malenkov was hastily sent to the troops to investigate the reasons for the defeat of the army. Rotmistrov was saved only by the quick restoration of the army's combat readiness and the fact that it was again thrown into battle before the end of the commission's work, and in new battles he managed to distinguish himself.

In September 1943, the army under the command of Colonel-General Rotmistrov took part in the battle for the Dnieper, in the Pyatikhatskaya, Znamenskaya operations, liberated the cities of Pyatikhatki, Krivoy Rog, Kirovograd. In January 1944, the army participated in the Kirovograd operation and the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation, where on January 28, in the Zvenigorodka area, it closed the encirclement around the enemy grouping (10 divisions and 1 brigade) and for seven days repulsed the enemy’s fierce attacks on the outer encirclement ring, preventing a breakthrough of reinforcements to the encircled troops. On February 17, the encircled group of Germans was completely liquidated. For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command in February 1944, Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov was awarded the military rank of Marshal of the Armored Forces. In March 1944, he also showed himself well in the Uman-Botoshansk operation, for a month of fighting in the conditions of spring thaw, having fought over 300 kilometers and crossing the Prut River on the move.

Then the army was transferred from the 2nd Ukrainian to the 3rd Belorussian Front, where it took part in the Belorussian offensive operation. The offensive of the troops of this front began on June 23. When there was success in the zone of action of the 5th Combined Arms Army, Marshal of the Armored Forces Rotmistrov immediately brought his tanks into the gap to develop this success in the Bogushevsky direction. The next day, the army entered the Minsk highway, 50 kilometers west of Orsha. By the end of the same day, the regional center Tolochin was liberated.

On the night of July 1, Rotmistrov's troops, in cooperation with the 11th Guards and 31st armies, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, broke into Borisov and completely liberated the city from the enemy by morning. The next day, having traveled more than 60 kilometers, the forward detachments of the army started fighting for the northern and northeastern outskirts of Minsk. After the liberation of the capital of Belarus, Rotmistrov's tankers attacked the enemy grouping in the area of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. On July 13, the Vilnius garrison of the Wehrmacht was liquidated, and the capital of Lithuania was taken. Having successfully proved himself when encircling the enemy in the Minsk region, Rotmistrov then could not break through on the move (the breakthrough was carried out within two days) to Vilnius and, at the request of the front commander I. D. Chernyakhovsky, was removed from the post of army commander.

Later career

In August 1944, Rotmistrov was appointed to the post of deputy commander of the armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army and did not participate in hostilities until the end of the war.

Post-war service

After the Great Patriotic War, Rotmistrov was the commander of armored and mechanized troops in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, and then in the same position in the Far East. Since 1948 - Deputy Head of the Department of the Higher Military Academy named after K. E. Voroshilov.

In 1953, Rotmistrov himself graduated from the Higher Military Academy named after K. E. Voroshilov, after which he became the head of the department in it, and conducted military-pedagogical and military-scientific work. Doctor of military sciences (1956), professor (1958). In 1958 - 1964 he was the head of the Military Academy of Armored Forces. In order to improve the educational process, he actively maintained contact with the troops, often organized creative conferences to improve military scientific work, participated in the development of works on the use of tank troops in battle, operations and war as a whole, as well as the prospects for their development.

For services to the Armed Forces in the development of military theory, education and training of officers, in 1962 P. A. Rotmistrov was awarded the military rank of Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces.

On May 7, 1965, Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 10688) for the skillful leadership of the troops, personal courage and courage shown in battles with the German invaders.

Since 1964, Rotmistrov was an assistant to the Minister of Defense of the USSR for higher military educational institutions, since 1968 - in the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Pavel Alekseevich maintained constant contact with fellow countrymen: he came to his native places, corresponded with workers and youth of the Upper Volga region. He is an honorary citizen of the city of Kalinin and the village of Selizharovo.

Private life

From 1944 to 1982 he lived in the center of Moscow, in house 8 on Gorky Street. There is a memorial plaque on the house.

Military ranks

July 21, 1942 Major General of Tank Troops
December 29, 1942 Lieutenant General of Tank Troops
October 20, 1943 Colonel General of Tank Forces
February 21, 1944 Marshal of the Armored Forces
April 28, 1962 Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces

Awards

Hero of the Soviet Union (05/07/1965)
6 Orders of Lenin
Order of the October Revolution (06/22/1971)
4 orders of the Red Banner (1921, 11/3/1944, ..., 02/22/1968)
Order of Suvorov 1st class (02/22/1944)
Order of Kutuzov 1st degree (08/27/1943)
Order of Suvorov 2nd degree (01/09/1943)
Order of the Red Star (3.07.1940)
Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd class (1975)
Medals
foreign orders.

Memory

He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
In Tver, near the Gorbaty Bridge, a memorial sign was erected to the soldiers of the 8th tank brigade, commanded by Rotmistrov.
A memorial plaque dedicated to Rotmistrov on the building of the Military Academy of Armored Forces (now the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 21st Krasnokursantsky pr., 3/5).
In Moscow, a memorial plaque was installed on the house (Tverskaya st. 8, building 1) in which he lived.
A street in Minsk (in the Shabany microdistrict) is named after Rotmistrov.
The Chelyabinsk Higher Military Automobile Command and Engineering School (Military Institute) (Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsky Prospekt 28) is named after Rotmistrov
P. A. Rotmistrov is an honorary citizen of the city of Kalinin.

Bibliography

Tank battle near Prokhorovka. M., 1960;
Tanks at war. M., 1975;

Soviet military leader, marshal of armored forces (1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (1962).

Born in the village of Skovorovo (now the Selizharovsky district of the Tver region). In 1916 he graduated from elementary school. In 1919 he joined the Red Army, fought against Kolchak near Bugulma. Member of the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. After the Civil War, he commanded various units. In 1928-1931 - student of the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. Then he served in the headquarters of the division, army, commanded a rifle regiment. In January 1938, he was appointed lecturer in the Tactics Department of the Military Academy of Motorization and Mechanization of the Red Army. In 1939 he became a candidate of military sciences. During the Soviet-Finnish war, heading the headquarters of the 35th tank brigade, in December 1940 he was appointed deputy commander of the 5th tank division. Since May 1941 - Chief of Staff of the 3rd Mechanized Corps, in June 1941 - Colonel. In the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War, the skillful actions of the command of the 3rd mechanized corps, including the chief of staff Rotmistrov, allowed the unit, after putting up stubborn resistance to superior enemy forces in the Baltic states, to get out of the encirclement. In September 1941, Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 8th Tank Brigade (since January 1942, the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade). Under his command, the brigade fought stubborn battles in the area of Staraya Russa, near Kalinin, for the cities of Rogachev, Klin and Dmitrov, and actively participated in the counteroffensive near Moscow. In April 1942, Rotmistrov headed the 7th Tank Corps. In July 1942, the corps fought south of Yelets, fought heavy battles north of Stalingrad in September, and especially distinguished itself in December 1942 during the Kotelnicheskaya operation (repulsing the strike of the Manstein group, which was rushing to help the Paulus group surrounded in Stalingrad). For the courage and heroism shown by soldiers and officers in these battles, the 7th Tank Corps was renamed the 3rd Guards Corps and received the name "Kotelnichesky". An important role was played by the corps during the Rostov offensive operation in 1943, having made a 200-kilometer raid on the rear of the enemy. In February 1943, P. A. Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army. During the Battle of Kursk, this army, reinforced by the 2nd Guards and 2nd Tank Corps, played a decisive role during the largest oncoming tank battle of the 2nd World War in the Prokhorovka area, and also successfully participated in the Belgorod-Kharkov operation. As part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, the army participated in the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine, in the Kirovo-grad, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky and Uman-Batoshansky operations, having fought approx. 500 km. In the summer of 1944, troops under the command of Rotmistrov successfully fought in the Vitebsk-Orsha, Minsk, Vilnius and Kaunas operations as part of the 2nd Belorussian Front. In August 1944, P. A. Rotmistrov took the post of deputy commander of the armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army. After the war, he commanded the armored and mechanized troops of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, then in the Far East. Since 1948, he headed the Department of Armored and Mechanized Troops of the Military Academy of the General Staff, in 1958 he became the head of the Military Academy of Armored Troops. Since 1968 - in the Group of General Inspectors of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.