Chuikov

Whats your image of the 2nd World War Soviet Soldier. Mine is that of an uncompromising, tough, determined, proud, ruthless, courageous and often simple individual, with a fondness for a wee drop of Vodka and an ironic sense of humour. A stereotype maybe, but one held by the Soviets themselves.

One man in particular embodies this ethos for me, I'll ask you to do two things, one is take a look at the photo above and then read the quote below then see if you can marry the face with the comment:

"On the 12th of September Chuikov was appointed commander of 62nd Army by Khrushchev, at his HQ in Yamy. Krushchev informed him that the Germans were prepared to take the city at any cost, there could be no surrender and there was nowhere to retreat to. Then he asked 'Comrade Chuikov, how do you interpret your task?' Chuikov answered 'We will defend the city, or die in the attempt!' On hearing his answer, Krushchev informed him that he had interpreted his task correctly"

Some may define his response as mere bluster, that may be the case for non-students of Soviet Military history, however those who have taken time to study this genre will find that this was a mindset that was deeply embedded in the psyche of the Soviet soldier both by nature and training and more in particular by the consequences of weakness or failure in Stalin's USSR, retreat was never an option. Retreat was treason, for the simple reason that you were expected to fight and die and if you didn't die, then you were a traitor of spy- the consequences were the same. To put a fine point on it, he said it and he meant it.

There is an often used modern colloquial term "hard bastard" often used when defining some thuggish football hooligan or underworld figure, well whatever, but the truth is that if any man/woman deserved this title, then it would have to be Vasily Chuikov.

A summary of his credentials would be thus: the defence of Stalingrad against the overwhelming force of the German invasion, with limited resources and in the face of mind-boggling odds both logistical and personal. The battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in human history and involved close quarter combat of the most extreme quality, and almost daily house-to-house combat, in almost unimaginably difficult conditions i.e the hunger, insanitary conditions, disease and lest I forget..the Russian winter, with average temperatures  of -25 degrees centigrade. To put the conditions into perspective, here'a an extract from the accounts of a soldier who died in the course of the battle.."my hands are done for and have been since the beginning of December. The little finger of my left hand is missing and whats even worser (sic) the three middle fingers of my right one are frozen, I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I'm pretty hopeless, only when a man has lost a finger does he see how much he needs them for little things. The best thing I can do for the little finger is to shoot it off. My hands are finished. After all even if I'm not fit for anything else I can't go on shooting for the rest of my life...." http://users.pandora.be/stalingrad/russianpart/ruswinter.html Stark but horribly true.

Chuikov's task simply put was to stop the German advance and defeat them comprehensively. A tall order considering that the Germans were barely a mile away from the city centre and the hoisting of the German flag would have signified the capture of Stalingrad. I won't belabour you with details but will say that this was a herculean task for even a General with enormous resources in men and materials. Chuikov did not have such an advantage. Chuikov inherited a demoralised and defeated Army overwhelmed by the force and ruthlessness of Von Paulus' German 6th Army advance, lack of resources and tragically the activities of Beria's NKVD (The Soviet Secret Police), which probably murdered as many Soviet soldiers as the German's did.

Chuikov was under the command of Yeremenko and Nikita Krushchev. His battle plan was to encircle and trap the German forces who numbered close to 300, 000 inside the city alone out of a total number of almost 1.2 Million committed to the campaign. He succeeded in trapping the Germans in the city and then ensued one of the most brutal battles in modern warfare. This was no high tech conflict, this battle was a throw back to Medieval warfare in that a large percentage was close quarter hand to hand combat. The 6th Army by the way consisted of some of the best troops the Wehrmacht could throw up- disciplined, determined, battle hardened, ruthless soldiers against the poorly trained, poorly supported Russian soldiers, who numbered slightly less than a million at the onset of the campaign, in short they were outnumbered. The difference was Chuikov.

He firstly proceeded to work on morale, not by handing out sweeties and flowers but by drawing the cold hard line of choice- fight or die, instilling military discipline (less the looting, boozing rabble-rousing, but a cold hard determined mindset), most importantly he was in the field or battle not in some cosy Command and Control centre removed from the theatre. Chuikov leiterally had to move command centres several times to escape bombardment, often operating from freezing, filthy bunkers, with debris and dust often choking the small spaces he worked from. These were creature comforts, for which he was not concerned, the man was a warrior pure and simple and set about his task with single-minded purpose and conviction, often having to deal with the absurdity of Stalin's refusal to provide requisite logistics, inspite of the glaring need. Importantly, he had to work hard to counter the ill-effects on morale caused by the hated NKVD. The effect of his leadership on the morale of his men is symbolised by the following comparison used in an earlier post:

1. Letter home from an Italian soldier in North Africa during WW2:"I am tired of this stinking hole filled with sand that gets everywhere, with the millions of devilish flies that swarm all over us and this horrible war and all our friends who have died needlessly to make those old men happy..."

2. Letter from a Russian Soldier to his wife during the defence of Stalingrad WW2 (In conditions far worse than in North Africa, equally against incredible odds at the time.)" The Germans will not withstand us".

The victory at Stalingrad was one of the major turning points in WW2 and was won by the sheer courage and determination 0f the Russian Soldier, Chuikov's leadership and quite honestly by the Russian winter.

A bit about Chuikov- born in 1900 in the Tula province near Moscow, he joined the Red Army in 1917, and progressed rapidly through the ranks from Assistant Commander to Commander of the 40th and then the 43rd Rifle regiments in 1919 and 1920. Command of the 5th Rifle Corps in 1938 and the 4th Army in the same year. He suffered defeat whilst leading the 9th Army in the Finnish campaign, with the main reason for his defeat being that his command position was too far from the front, I shall presume he learnt his lesson after this. After a period in the wilderness he was appointed by Stalin to lead the 62nd Army in the defence of Stalingrad. His strategy was simply- encirclement and his tactics were: a. Night attacks to prevent the Luftwaffe from preventing the attacks and also to deprive the Germans of sleep and physically weaken them; b. To keep the Russian attack as close to the Germans as possible; c. Strong attack points to channel the Germans into Anti-tank defence zones.

Two million soldiers died in the battle of Stalingrad, close to a million German and axis troops and a million Soviet troops. It is difficult to say how many civilians died of starvation and as a result of the fighting. Mention must however be made of the discipline of the German troops who inspite of frightening conditions, starvation, cold and disease, remained disciplined till the very end in unbelievable conditions. At the end of the battle the Russians were amazed to see the pitiful condition of their adversaries- even the Generals.

On the 19th of November, he launched operation Uranus- the encirclement of the German forces, this turned the tide of battle and changed the Russian objective from defence to attack, resulting ultimately in victory and surrender by the Germans on January 31st 1943.

Chuikov was honoured by Stalin for his leadership and courage and equally rewarded with the assignment of leading the attack on Berlin, symbolically because the defeat had so weakened the German Army that there was little to stop the Soviet advance to Berlin. On the 2nd of May 1945, Chuikov accepted the surrender of Berlin on behalf of the Soviet High Command at a small cost. The battle for Berlin was one of the most bloody close quarter battles ever fought and rivalled only by Stalingrad, however Chuikov's men were well suited to the task. A reflection of their sacrifice is signified by the Chuikov's quote that 'every stone, the brick rubble, the asphalt pavements of the squares and streets" of Berlin were stained with his mens blood.

He remained in Germany as Head of the Occupation Force and later became Soviet Minister of Defence till his retirement in 1972. He died in 1982, a hero of the Soviet Union.

Chuikov was a paradox, an extremely courageous and determined man, he was nonetheless an extremely ruthless individual- part of his orders were that any retreating soldiers on the banks of the Volga were to be shot on sight, however its a bit rich judging a man like him by subjective gentle standards. The future of his country and indeed his own life depended on winning the battle and unfortunately he made some hard choices and that sadly is the bottomline. What is undeniable is that his courage and the victory of his men was the final nail in the coffin of the German war machine, done against incredible odds and..with a little help from the Russian winter. To qualify this last fact I'll use an old proverb, he who runs from an assailant must take comfort in the fact that as he suffers tiredness, so does his pursuer. The Russians suffered the winter too, the difference being that they were defending their country and lives, the Germans were invaders. A lesson to be learnt before we go off invading other countries.

He was also human, after operation Uranus but before victory, Chuikov took a walk across the Volga to a have a couple of drinks on his way back and whilst totally rat-arsed and unsteady of gait, he fell into a hole in the Ice and nearly drowned/froze to death, which would have been an ignominious end to a distinguished Military career.

© Edward Keazor

Reference: Stalingrad- Author Antony Beevor; Pan-Ballantynes History of World War 2 (Editor- Barrie Pitt); The Eastern Front http://www.theeasternfront.co.uk/index.html