Marshal of the Soviet Union - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. (The highest rank de jure, Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, was created for Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

and held by him alone).

The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in 1991. Forty-one people held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The equivalent naval rank was Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union

Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union

An Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union was the highest naval rank of the Soviet Union.The rank was largely honorary and could be considered equivalent to Admiral of the Navy in other nations...

History of the rank

The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), on September 22, 1935. On November 20, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...

, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

Alexander Ilyich Yegorov, and three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher

Vasily Blyukher

Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher (also spelled Bliukher, Blücher, etc., , Soviet military commander, was among the prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the late 1930s....

, Semyon Budyonny

Semyon Budyonny

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny , sometimes transliterated as Budennyj, Budyonnyy, Budennii, Budenny, Budyoni, Budyenny, or Budenny, was a Soviet cavalryman, military commander, politician and a close ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.-Early life:...

, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...

.

Of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov were executed during Stalin's Great Purge

Great Purge

The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...

of 1937–38. On May 7, 1940, three new Marshals were appointed: the new People's Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko

Semyon Timoshenko

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko 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:...

, Boris Shaposhnikov

Boris Shaposhnikov

Boris Mikhailovitch Shaposhnikov was a Soviet military commander.-Biography:Shaposhnikov was born at Zlatoust, near Chelyabinsk in the Urals. He joined the army of the Russian Empire in 1901 and graduated from the Nicholas General Staff Academy in 1910, reaching the rank of colonel in the...

, and Grigory Kulik

Grigory Kulik

Grigory Ivanovich Kulik was a Soviet military commander and was born into a peasant family near Poltava in Ukraine. A soldier in the army of the Russian Empire in World War I, he joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and the Red Army in 1918...

.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Timoshenko and Budyonny were dismissed, and Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was given to a number of military commanders who earned it on merit. These included Georgy Zhukov

Georgy Zhukov

Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...

, Ivan Konev

Ivan Konev

Ivan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin....

and Konstantin Rokossovsky

Konstantin Rokossovsky

Konstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill...

to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1945, he was joined by his intelligence and police chief Lavrenti Beria. These non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...

.

Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...

, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, and Ustinov, who was prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov

Dmitry Yazov

Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov was the last Marshal of the Soviet Union to be appointed before the collapse of the Soviet Union . He was the only Marshal of the Soviet Union to be born in Siberia....

, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 on the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Marshals fell into three generational groups.

Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

. These included both those who were purged in 1937–38 (Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov), and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II (Budyonny, Kulik, Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko and Voroshilov). All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved incompetent and were removed from commanding positions.

Those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Vasilievsky, Konev, Rokossovsky, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin and Govorov.

Those who assumed high command in the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

or as Soviet Defence Ministers. These included Grechko, Yakubovsky, Kulikov, Ogarkov, Akhromeev, and Yazov.

All Marshals in the third category had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev, who had been a military commissar

Political commissar

The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...

, and Ustinov, who had been an arms factory manager. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander.

The rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation

Marshal of the Russian Federation

Marshal of the Russian Federation is the highest military rank of Russia, created in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It ranks immediately above General of the Army and Admiral of the Fleet , and is considered the successor to the Soviet-era rank of Marshal of the Soviet...

, which has been held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev

Igor Sergeyev

Igor Dmitriyevich Sergeyev was the Defense Minister of the Russian Federation from 22 May 1997 until 28 March 2001...

, who was Russian Defence Minister from 1997 to 2001.

List of Marshals of the Soviet Union

Note: All Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Non-Military Marshals had at least started their military careers in the Army. The Service Arms listed are the services they served in during their respective tenures as Marshals of the Soviet Union.

Name	Lifespan	Appointed	Service Arm or Background
Voroshilov, KlimentKliment Voroshilov Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...	1881–1969

} || Army/Political
|-
| Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...

|| 1893–1937|| || Army
|-
| Alexander Yegorov || 1883–1939|| || Army
|-
| Semyon Budyonny

Semyon Budyonny

|| 1883–1973|| || Army
|-
| Vasily Blücher || 1890–1938|| || Army
|-
| Semyon Timoshenko

Semyon Timoshenko

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko 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:...

|| 1895–1970|| || Army
|-
| Grigory Kulik

Grigory Kulik

|| 1890–1950|| || Army
|-
| Boris Shaposhnikov

Boris Shaposhnikov

|| 1882–1945|| || Army
|-
| Georgy Zhukov

Georgy Zhukov

|| 1896–1974|| || Army
|-
| Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky was a Russian career officer in the Red Army, promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. He was the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces and Deputy Minister of Defense during World War II, as well as Minister of Defense from 1949 to 1953...

|| 1895–1977|| || Army
|-
| Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

|| 1879–1953|| || Political
|-
| Ivan Konev

Ivan Konev

|| 1897–1973|| || Army
|-
| Leonid Govorov

Leonid Govorov

Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov was a Soviet military commander. An artillery officer, he joined the Red Army in 1920. He graduated from several Soviet military academies, including the Military Academy of Red Army General Staff. He participated in the Winter War as a senior artillery officer.In...

|| 1897–1955|| June 1944|| Army
|-
| Konstantin Rokossovsky

Konstantin Rokossovsky

|| 1896–1968|| June 1944 || Army
|-
| Rodion Malinovsky

Rodion Malinovsky

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest...

|| 1898–1967|| September 1944 || Army
|-
| Fyodor Tolbukhin

Fyodor Tolbukhin

Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin was a Soviet military commander.-Biography:Tolbukhin was born into a peasant family in the province of Yaroslavl, north-east of Moscow. He volunteered for the Imperial Army in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. He was steadily promoted, advancing from private to...

|| 1894–1949|| September 1944 || Army
|-
| Kirill Meretskov

Kirill Meretskov

Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov was a Soviet military commander. Having joined the Communist Party in 1917, he served in the Red Army from 1920. During the Winter War, he was responsible for penetrating the Mannerheim Line as commander of the 7th Army...

|| 1897–1968|| || Army
|-
| Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

|| 1899–1953|| || NKVD/MGB
|-
| Vasily Sokolovsky

Vasily Sokolovsky

Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky was a Soviet military commander.Sokolovsky was born into a peasant family in Kozliki, a small town in the province of Grodno, near Białystok in Poland . He worked as a teacher in a rural school, where he took part in a number of protests and demonstrations against the...

|| 1897–1968|| || Army
|-
| Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...

|| 1895–1975|| || Political
|-
| Hovhannes Bagramyan

Hovhannes Bagramyan

Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan , also known as Hovhannes Khachaturi BaghramyanPronunciation: Bagramyan's name is most commonly written in English as Bagramyan "bahg-rahm-yahn" or Bagramian...

|| 1897–1982|| || Army
|-
| Sergey Biryuzov |||1904–1964|| || Army/Air Defence/Strategic Rocket Forces
|-
| Andrei Grechko

Andrei Grechko

Andrei Antonovich Grechko was a Soviet general, Marshal of the Soviet Union and Minister of Defense.-Biography:Born in a small town near Rostov-on-Don, the son of Ukrainian peasants, he joined the Red Army in 1919, where he was a part of the legendary “Budyonny Cavalry”...

|||1903–1976|| || Army
|-
| Andrei Yeremenko

Andrei Yeremenko

Andrey Ivanovich Yeryomenko or Yeremenko or Eremenko was a Soviet general during World War II, Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Draft and early service:...

|| 1892–1970|| || Army
|-
| Kirill Moskalenko

Kirill Moskalenko

Kirill Semyonovich Moskalenko was a Marshal of the Soviet Union. A member of the Soviet Army who fought in both the Russian Civil War and World War II, he later served as Commander in Chief of Strategic Missile Forces and Inspector General for the Ministry of Defense.-Biography:Moskalenko was born...

|||1902–1985|| || Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
|-
| Vasily Chuikov

Vasily Chuikov

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...

|||1900–1982|| || Army
|-
| Matvei Zakharov

Matvei Zakharov

Matvei Vasilevich Zakharov Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of General Staff, Deputy Defense Minister, was born in Tver, to peasant parents. Zakharov joined the Red Guards in 1917. He served under Kliment Voroshilov during the Russian Civil War...

|| 1898–1972|| || Army
|-
| Filipp Golikov

Filipp Golikov

Filipp Ivanovich Golikov, was a Soviet military commander, promoted Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1961.Golikov saw service during the Russian Civil War...

|||1900–1980|| || Army
|-
| Nikolay Krylov

Nikolay Ivanovich Krylov

Nikolai Ivanovich Krylov was a Marshal of the Soviet Union . He was commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces from 1963 to 1972....

|||1903–1972|| || Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
|-
| Ivan Yakubovsky |||1912–1976|| || Army
|-
| Pavel Batitsky

Pavel Batitsky

Pavel Fyodorovich Batitsky was a Soviet military leader awarded the highest honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965 and appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1968...

|||1910–1984|| || Air Defence
|-
| Pyotr Koshevoy

Pyotr Koshevoy

Petr Kirillovich Koshevoi was a Soviet military leader.Koshevoi was born to a peasant Ukrainian Cossack family and joined the Red Army in 1920...

|||1904–1976|| || Army
|-
| Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

|||1906–1982|| || Political
|-
| Dmitriy Ustinov

Dmitriy Ustinov

Dmitriy Feodorovich Ustinov was Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1976 until his death.-Early life:Dimitry Feodorovich Ustinov was born in a working-class family in Samara. During the civil war, when hunger became intolerable, his sick father went to Samarkand, leaving Dimitry as head...

|||1908–1984|| || Defence Industry
|-
| Viktor Kulikov

Viktor Kulikov

Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov was the Warsaw Pact commander-in-chief from 1977 to 1989. He has held the rank of the Marshal of the Soviet Union for over 30 years, since January 14, 1977.Kulikov was born into a peasant family and joined the Red Army in 1939...

|| born 1921|| || Army
|-
| Nikolai Ogarkov

Nikolai Ogarkov

Nikolai Vasilyevich Ogarkov , was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1977. Between 1977 and 1984 he was Chief of the General Staff of the USSR. He became widely known in the West when he became the Soviet military's spokesman following the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near...

|||1917–1994|| || Army
|-
| Sergei Sokolov || born 1911|| || Army
|-
| Sergei Akhromeyev

Sergei Akhromeyev

Sergey Fyodorovich Akhromeyev was a soviet military figure, Hero of the Soviet Union , Marshal of the Soviet Union .Akhromeyev was a Naval Infantry junior officer during the German-Soviet War, serving with distinction on the Leningrad front. At one point he was ordered to guard and hold a road on...

|||1923–1991|| || Army
|-
| Semyon Kurkotkin

Semyon Kurkotkin

Semyon Konstantinovich Kurkotkin was appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1983. He commanded the Transcaucasus Military District in 1968–1971 and the Soviet forces stationed in East Germany since 1971. Kurkotkin was appointed Assistant Minister of Defense in 1972.Kurkotkin was born near...

|||1917–1990|| || Army
|-
| Vasily Petrov || born 1917|| || Army
|-
| Dmitry Yazov

Dmitry Yazov

Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov was the last Marshal of the Soviet Union to be appointed before the collapse of the Soviet Union . He was the only Marshal of the Soviet Union to be born in Siberia....

|| born 1923|| || Army
|}

External links

Biographies of all the Marshals of the USSR

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