Sergei Shtemenko
Encyclopedia
Sergei Matveevich Shtemenko ' onMouseout='HidePop("59297")' href="/topics/Uryupinsk">Uryupinsk
, Russian Empire
- 23 April 1976, Moscow
, Soviet Union
) was a Soviet general, who served as the Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces' General Staff from 1948 to 1952.
at 1926. In 1930 he joined the Communist Party, and graduated from the Anti-Aircraft School in Sevastopol
at the same year. After several years in the Artillery, he moved to the Armored Corps, completing his studies in the Mechanization and Motorization Academy
in 1937. He commanded a tank regiment until September 1938, when he was summoned to the General Staff Academy
. On late August 1939, with other cadets, Shtemenko was assigned as a staff officer to the Soviet forces preparing for the Invasion of Poland
, and took part in the operation. During the Soviet-Finnish War he served as an assistant in the General Staff. After matriculating from the Academy at autumn 1940, Shtemenko's request to be transferred to the new Tank Corps was rejected and he was posted as an aid to General Mikhail Sharohin, a department chief in the Operations Directorate.
, Shtemenko was appointed as Sharohin's deputy, an office he held until after the Battle of Moscow
, when he was assigned as chief of the Near East department. As such, Shtemenko monitored the conditions of the Soviet troops stationed in the recently occupied Iran
. In June 1942, he substituted Sharohin as the department chief. Shtemenko took part in the operational planning of the Battles for Crimea, the Caucasus
and Stalingrad
. In May 1943, he was promoted to be the chief of the Operations Directorate, serving directly under Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky. In November, he escorted Stalin
to the Tehran Conference
.
During February and March 1944, Shtemenko served as the Stavka
representative in the 2nd Baltic Front during the campaign to relieve the Siege of Leningrad
. During the spring of 1944, he toured between the different fronts fighting in Belarus and coordinated their operations.
After the German Surrender, Shtemenko was among the organizers of the Victory Parade
. In August 1945, he took part in the planning of the Soviet-Japanese War
.
. But in June 1952, Stalin decided to dismiss him, replacing him with Vasily Sokolovsky
and demoting him from his rank of Army General
to Colonel General
. Shtemenko was then transferred to command the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
. In the last days of Stalin's reign, Shtemenko was listed as an intended victim of the Doctors' Plot
. He continued to serve in the General Staff, and was made a candidate member of the Central Committee
, an office he held until 1956.
At August 1956 he was appointed chief of the Military Intelligence
, but again fell out of grace, this time with Khruschev, who accused him in a speech of being an informant of Beria. He was demoted further to Lieutenant General
in 1957, and sent to occupy the position of deputy commander in the Volga Military District.
Shtemenko slowly regained his status. In June 1962 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, and at April 1964 he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff again, after 18 years. At August 1968 he was promoted to be the Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Pact
armies, under the Pact's forces Supreme Commander Marshal Ivan Yakubovsky, and granted the rank of Army General once more.
At 10 February 1977, at his 70th birthday and three years after his death, the Krasnodar
Red Banner Military Academy was renamed after him.
Uryupinsk
Uryupinsk is a town in Volgograd Oblast, Russia, situated northwest of Volgograd on the Khopyor River. It serves as the administrative center of Uryupinsky District, although administratively it is separate from the district...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
- 23 April 1976, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, 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....
) was a Soviet general, who served as the Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces' General Staff from 1948 to 1952.
Early life
Born to a peasant family, Shtemenko volunteered into the Red ArmyRed 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...
at 1926. In 1930 he joined the Communist Party, and graduated from the Anti-Aircraft School in Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
at the same year. After several years in the Artillery, he moved to the Armored Corps, completing his studies in the Mechanization and Motorization Academy
Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Combined Arms Order of Lenin Order of the October Revolution Red Bannered Order of Suvorov Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation-Center for Military Education and Science of the Russian Ground Forces is a military academy in Moscow which prepares commissioned officers for...
in 1937. He commanded a tank regiment until September 1938, when he was summoned to the General Staff Academy
General Staff Academy (Russia)
The General Staff Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was founded in 1936 in Moscow by Leonid Govorov. It was the senior Soviet and now Russian professional school for officers....
. On late August 1939, with other cadets, Shtemenko was assigned as a staff officer to the Soviet forces preparing for the Invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
, and took part in the operation. During the Soviet-Finnish War he served as an assistant in the General Staff. After matriculating from the Academy at autumn 1940, Shtemenko's request to be transferred to the new Tank Corps was rejected and he was posted as an aid to General Mikhail Sharohin, a department chief in the Operations Directorate.
World War Two
In August 1941, soon after the German invasionOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, Shtemenko was appointed as Sharohin's deputy, an office he held until after the Battle of Moscow
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...
, when he was assigned as chief of the Near East department. As such, Shtemenko monitored the conditions of the Soviet troops stationed in the recently occupied Iran
Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was the Allied invasion of the Imperial State of Iran during World War II, by British, Commonwealth, and Soviet armed forces. The invasion from August 25 to September 17, 1941, was codenamed Operation Countenance...
. In June 1942, he substituted Sharohin as the department chief. Shtemenko took part in the operational planning of the Battles for Crimea, the Caucasus
Battle of the Caucasus
The Battle of Caucasus is a name given to a series of German and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area during the Soviet-German War.-1941 operations:...
and Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. In May 1943, he was promoted to be the chief of the Operations Directorate, serving directly under Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky. In November, he escorted 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...
to the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
.
During February and March 1944, Shtemenko served as the Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
representative in the 2nd Baltic Front during the campaign to relieve the Siege of Leningrad
Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive
The Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive, also known as the Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive during World War II was launched by the Red Army on with an attack on the German Army Group North by the Soviet 2nd Pribaltiysky, Volkhov and Leningrad army fronts...
. During the spring of 1944, he toured between the different fronts fighting in Belarus and coordinated their operations.
After the German Surrender, Shtemenko was among the organizers of the Victory Parade
Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 was a victory parade held by the Soviet army after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. It took place in the Soviet capital of Moscow, mostly centering around a military parade through Red Square...
. In August 1945, he took part in the planning of the Soviet-Japanese War
Soviet-Japanese War (1945)
The Soviet-Japanese War of 1945 , began on August 9, 1945, with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. The Soviets liberated Manchukuo, Mengjiang , northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands...
.
Post-war career
In April 1946 Shtemenko was promoted to the role of Deputy Chief of the General Staff. At November 1948, the 41 years old Shtemenko was made the Chief of the General Staff and the Deputy Minister of DefenceChief of the General Staff (Russia)
The Chief of the General Staff is the chief of staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He is appointed by the President of Russia, who is the commander-in-chief. The position dates to the period of the Russian Empire...
. But in June 1952, Stalin decided to dismiss him, replacing him with 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...
and demoting him from his rank of Army General
Army General
For the army rank of General, as opposed to the specific rank of Army General, see General officer.Army General is a title used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an army in the field...
to Colonel General
Colonel General
Colonel General is a senior rank of General. North Korea and Russia are two countries which have used the rank extensively throughout their histories...
. Shtemenko was then transferred to command the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , also known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany and the Western Group of Forces were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany....
. In the last days of Stalin's reign, Shtemenko was listed as an intended victim of the Doctors' Plot
Doctors' plot
The Doctors' plot was the most dramatic anti-Jewish episode in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin's regime, involving the "unmasking" of a group of prominent Moscow doctors, predominantly Jews, as conspiratorial assassins of Soviet leaders...
. He continued to serve in the General Staff, and was made a candidate member of the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
, an office he held until 1956.
At August 1956 he was appointed chief of the Military Intelligence
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
, but again fell out of grace, this time with Khruschev, who accused him in a speech of being an informant of Beria. He was demoted further to Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
in 1957, and sent to occupy the position of deputy commander in the Volga Military District.
Shtemenko slowly regained his status. In June 1962 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, and at April 1964 he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff again, after 18 years. At August 1968 he was promoted to be the Chief of Staff of 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...
armies, under the Pact's forces Supreme Commander Marshal Ivan Yakubovsky, and granted the rank of Army General once more.
At 10 February 1977, at his 70th birthday and three years after his death, the Krasnodar
Krasnodar
Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...
Red Banner Military Academy was renamed after him.
Books
- The New Laws and Military Service, Moscow, 1968.
- Our Universal Military Commitment, Moscow, 1968.
- The General Staff in the War Years, Moscow, 1968-73.
- The Last Six Months of WWII, Moscow, 1973.
- The Liberating Role of the Soviet Armed Forces, Moscow, 1975.