Ambitious Marshal of the Soviet Union
The genus Tukhachevsky is known to researchers of dynasties from the thirteenth century. It was his ancestors who gave birth to the illustrious Tolstoy family. Mikhail's father, Nikolai Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky, was descended from impoverished noblemen of Polish origin. He married a semi-literate peasant Mavra Petrovna, who bore him nine children: four sons and five daughters. They lived in the estate of Alexander, located in the province of Smolensk.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky was the third child in the family, born in the 1893 year. In early childhood, he was an exceptionally agile, hyperactive boy who could not be ignored for a minute. To look after him, the parents even had to take a separate nanny, because the nurse, who was in common with all the children, could not keep up with Misha. He learned the letter early, read a lot (in three languages), was always drawn to new knowledge and was interested in music. Already in adolescence, remarkable artistic and literary abilities of the future commander began to appear. Parents often staged performances at home, in which all family members took part. Mikhail independently composed plays for them, where he always assigned himself to leading roles. After asking for a violin from his parents, he learned to play it pretty well. A few months before his death, in the spring of 1937, he, playing the part for his sister, sadly noted: “And why didn’t I decide to become a musician? I would be a good violinist now. ” Also all his life he was engaged in writing activities, historians know more than one hundred and twenty of his works. True, they are all scientific works on military topics. In his youth, Tukhachevsky was fond of horse riding, dancing and wrestling. Contemporaries noted that he was beautifully built, very handsome and charismatic.
Later, Mikhail entered the first Moscow Cadet Corps, where he immediately stood out thanks to a sharp mind, physical abilities and excellent diligence. Teachers noted that “warfare is the true vocation of this boy.” Because of his exceptional abilities, he was even personally introduced to Nicholas II. However, there were less biased moments. In the case he had no friends at all, and not at all because he was a closed or timid youth. On the contrary, everyone was well aware of his desire for absolute leadership and cruelty towards others. They were afraid of hostility with him, since he knew no mercy, and he behaved like a despot with younger cadets.
It is quite natural that he graduated from the school with the best in academic performance, after which he was sent, as he dreamed, to the Semenov regiment. Tukhachevsky took part in the First World War, and even detractors noted his bravery on the battlefield and in intelligence. The courage, bordered often with recklessness, more than once will let him down in the future. In the end, for the heroism shown, he presented himself five times with orders of various degrees (five orders in six months), Mikhail was taken prisoner.
There is a legend about four unsuccessful escape attempts made by Tukhachevsky. But historical there is no evidence of this. It is only known that after some time Mikhail was sent to the international concentration camp Ingolstadt. According to some reports, the fortress was a gathering place for captured officers who, for various reasons, were noticed by German intelligence. The most famous prisoners of this camp were Charles de Gaulle and Louis Rivet.
It is not known under what conditions the prisoners were held in the fortress of Ingolstadt, but they were sometimes allowed to go out into the city as a walk.
Taking advantage of this, on August 3 of 1917 of the year Tukhachevsky made another, fifth (in a year and a half) attempt to escape. She was successful, and in October 1917, he returned to his homeland.
While still in prison, Tukhachevsky began to sympathize with the Bolsheviks. He wrote: “If Lenin rid Russia of old prejudices, if he makes her a strong power, then I choose Marxism.” Voluntarily joining the Red Army in March 1918, by June he was already the commander of the First Army of the Eastern Front.
Possessing an oratorical gift, Tukhachevsky became the initiator of the recording of former royal officers in the Red Army. However, he convinced them not only with words. From his order: “For the organization of an efficient army we need experienced leaders. Therefore, I order the former officers to come to me immediately. Those who do not appear will be given to the military court. ” Although Tukhachevsky himself wrote about this: "I helped them go with the people, and not against it." The officers followed him. And soon, despite the aristocratic appearance, he managed to gain confidence from the soldiers. During the Civil War in Russia, a twenty-six-year-old red commander became famous on various fronts, crowding Krasnov and Denikin, burning out anti-Soviet sentiments in Russia with fire and sword.
In 1919, the year for the defeat of Kolchak Tukhachevsky was honored with the highest award in those days - the Honorary Revolutionary weapons together with the Order of the Red Banner. Having won many exemplary victories from a military point of view, he became famous for his ability to clearly deliver army work. However, the largest battle in his life for Warsaw, Mikhail Tukhachevsky lost in all respects.
The Soviet-Polish war began with the fact that the Poles mobilized about a million people. The allies helped them with equipment and money. The backbone of the army was the 70-thousandth corps of General Galler, formed from the French Poles who went through the war. Aviation represented by American pilots. The intelligence of the Red Army, which was in its infancy, missed all these large-scale preparations. In the spring of 1920, the commander of the Polish forces Pilsudski hit in the Zhytomyr direction. Units of the Red Army organized from the Galicians revolted, the front was exposed, and no one remained in the way of the Poles. Having traveled almost two hundred kilometers, occupying Kiev without a fight and capturing many prisoners, the enemy troops stopped on the banks of the Dnieper.
But the Soviet government was not going to give up. A massive transfer of troops to the Polish front began, and the General Staff issued a well-known appeal "To all former officers ...", after which, to save the Motherland from the Poles, everyone who had recently fought for the whites, hid from arrests, sat in prisons began to save. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, appointed commander of the Western Front, decided to defeat the Polish army in one swift rush in the direction of Warsaw. True, the very first attempts to break through the enemy defenses near the Berezina River failed. Then the First Cavalry Army came to the rescue, incorporating all the advanced techniques of the time: armored trains, artillery, airplanes and the invention of the Makhnovists, the famous carts. At the beginning of summer, the advance guard of the army of Budyonny broke through the front and rushed uncontrollably to Volyn. Here and Tukhachevsky began to rapidly advance in the north. The Poles quivered and ran. In just a few days, the troops of Mikhail Nikolayevich rushed past Minsk, Brest, along the Lithuanian border, through Vilna and Grodno, until they were on Polish soil.
No one has seen such raids since the days of Napoleon. Pilsudski was depressed, the Allies had already buried Poland. Tukhachevsky, considering himself a new Suvorov, appointed the capture of Warsaw on August 12. To this end, he decided to go around the Polish capital from the west and north, attacking directions unexpected from the enemy. Not knowing the size and location of enemy troops, Tukhachevsky independently climbed into the bag between the main forces of the Poles and the German border. In mid-August, selected Polish troops of General Haller, inflicting a series of counterattacks, to their own surprise were in the rear of the Reds. Be near the First Horse, Galler would definitely not be good, but she got stuck in the battles near Lvov. Already much later the opinion appeared that Joseph Vissarionovich was to blame for everything. Indeed, Stalin opposed the relocation of Budyonny's troops to the north. However, this had a rational basis. He saw that the cavalry army was exhausted by fighting and was not capable of such a dash. But the headquarters of Tukhachevsky could not properly assess the strength of the Poles.
Soon, half of Tukhachevsky's troops were pressed to the German border. All attempts to break through to the east ended in failure. Then the troops retreated to the lands of East Prussia, where they were interned. It was a disaster. The Bolsheviks had no choice but to negotiate.
In the thirties, in all subsequent posts, Mikhail Nikolaevich punched the idea of militarizing the country's economy. He put forward proposals to increase the number of divisions, to develop artillery, aviation, tank troops. However, his calculations contained fabulous figures, for example, on the possibility of producing one hundred thousand tanks a year in the USSR. Stalin pointed out to the marshal the delirious nature of this venture, calling it "red militarism." Also, the leader’s other mistakes include emphasis on the development of recoilless artillery to the detriment of further study of the rifled barrel, the abolition of the production of a successful 37-mm anti-tank gun, and the refusal to introduce mortars. Large funds were spent by the marshal on the study of unpromising weapons.
But Tukhachevsky personally participated in the maneuvers of the army and fleet, analyzed their results and developed measures to improve command and control. Seeing in tanks the main force of future wars, he studied the forced deployment of mechanized formations, created the theory of deep combat and continuous operations in one direction. Being a supporter of an offensive strategy, he advocated the independence of small units. In 1932, thanks to him, work began on the creation of rocket engines, and in 1933 a Jet Research Institute specializing in the development of rocket weapons was built.
He met his first wife while still at the gymnasium. Her name was Maria, she was the engineer's daughter and committed suicide shortly after their wedding. According to one of the versions, she could not bear the numerous betrayals of her husband, according to the other, Mikhail himself demanded a divorce. In any case, Tukhachevsky was implicated in this, Maria shot herself in the head directly at his headquarters car. He did not come to the funeral, but soon he again married sixteen-year-old Lika. Defying party ethics, the military leader married her in church. However, this did not keep him from numerous intrigues on the side, and their union broke up after a short time. And in the 1923 year, Tukhachevsky seduced the wife of the political commissar of the fourth rifle division, Nina Grinevich. They got married, but five years later the marshal was attracted by the wife of Nikolai Kuzmin’s former friend, Julia. He did not divorce Nina Grinevich, but until the very 1937 of the year he lived with Kuzmina.
In the spring of 1937, Tukhachevsky, the former Deputy Commissar of Defense, was unexpectedly not allowed George VI to coronation to London. Perhaps, even then, he realized that the end was near. On May 11, Mikhail Nikolayevich was removed from his post and sent to command the Privolzhsky Military District in Kuibyshev. Before leaving, Stalin put his hand on his shoulder and promised that he would soon return the marshal to the capital. Joseph Vissarionovich kept his word, already 24 of May Tukhachevsky was really returned to Moscow. Only in handcuffs and under guard. The arrest of Mikhail Nikolayevich was carried out by a representative of the NKVD, the old Bolshevik Rudolf Nelke. Tukhachevsky just arrived in Kuibyshev and came to the regional committee to get acquainted with the local leadership. In the office of the first secretary was already waiting for him. When the marshal opened the door, he immediately understood everything. After a pause, Tukhachevsky waved his hand and crossed the threshold. When Nelke said that he had an order for his arrest, Mikhail Nikolayevich silently sat in a chair. He was offered to wear civilian clothes, which were delivered by the Chekists, but he did not respond. Then the prisoners, tearing the military uniform, independently disguised the marshal. Rudolf Nelke was shot several months later.
The first recognition Tukhachevsky gave already 26 May. A note written in the name of Yezhov read: “... I inform you that I recognize the existence of an anti-Soviet military-Trotskyist conspiracy, as well as the fact that I headed it. I promise to state to the investigation everything that affects the conspiracy, without hiding any of the participants and not a single document or fact. Mikhail Tukhachevsky. Why did he break down so quickly? On this account there are several versions. First, you should not detract from the art of the shoulder masters from the Lubyanka. The torture in the walls of this building was fantastic. Tukhachevsky’s daughter later told how her young child was brought to her father and wanted to be raped. From other sources, a naked marshal was tied to a pole, and an iron tube with rats was attached to the genital organ ... Documentary evidence of the episodes described is not, but the handwritten confessions of Tukhachevsky are preserved. Even without graphological research, it is clear that they were written in various emotional and physical states. The letters constantly dance, the lines are blurred, the handwriting and the style change. The pages are smeared with brown spots, which, according to the defense lab's medical laboratory, are blood. At the end of the interrogations with his own handwritten papers, Tukhachevsky is becoming less and less, they are replaced with typewritten with his signatures.
Was he really plotting or not? In this regard, the opinions of researchers are still divided. Most likely, yes, too many facts and information in support of this have been collected. However, the scale of the conspiracy, as well as its relationship with German intelligence, are still in doubt, many more mysteries remain in this story. At the conclusion of the investigation, Tukhachevsky was found guilty of organizing a military conspiracy to forcibly overthrow the government and establish a military dictatorship. He was also charged with actions for the collapse of the Red Army and the transfer to the German intelligence of secret information about the number and deployment of Soviet troops near the border. On 12 on June 1937, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky and seven other accused were shot in the basement of the Military College.
On the next day after the execution, the pages of Soviet newspapers simply came with hysterical headlines: “People who the whole country admired”, “Smashing blow to German intelligence”, ”“ Court verdict - confirmation of our power ”were exposed. Hate, fear, self-preservation instinct seized people's hearts. At Moscow factories and factories, crowded rallies were held, the workers, trying to shout over each other, expressed their approval of the verdict of the court, considering the execution to be a very easy death to the traitors.
After the liquidation of the marshal in the Red Army, mass repressions began. Also, Stalin did not spare almost any of Tukhachevsky’s relatives, wanting to exterminate almost his entire family. Brothers, sisters, the last wife, daughters, husbands and wives of brothers and sisters went into exile or were shot. Her mother, Mavra Petrovna, died in exile, not having learned about the terrible fate of the majority of her children and grandchildren. All property of the deceased marshal, up to personal correspondence and photographs, was confiscated and destroyed.
Almost twenty years later, during the Khrushchev thaw, Mikhail Tukhachevsky was rehabilitated. The country's leadership has fallen to the other extreme, declaring him almost the most brilliant commander of our country. His works on military history and theory were reprinted, although by this time they were inevitably outdated. And successful operations conducted by him against Denikin and Kolchak began to be studied in academies.
Mikhail Nikolayevich forever remained in history as the youngest Soviet marshal, having made a brilliant military career that ended, one might say, at the very takeoff. He was one of the main military commanders of the largest army in the world, he was happily accepted in the highest military circles of Paris, London, and Berlin. Shortly after the process, as well as later during the period of rehabilitation, books and articles on Tukhachevskiy appeared in different countries and in different languages. At first they imagined him to be similar to Bonaparte, a commander who lost the political battle to Joseph Stalin. In the fifties, the emphasis shifted towards the innocent victim of the thirties terror, a failed alternative to the command of the Russian Army in World War II. However, in all his works, Tukhachevsky appears as an extraordinary, global figure.
So why did Tukhachevsky take the side of the Red power, why did he join the deadly game with her? He could settle together with representatives of the white movement in some European country. Or, for example, go to the service in the Reichswehr, become a general and lead a division or corps (at best, as a talented foreigner). I dare to suggest that he would have lived much longer then.
If we do not touch upon the questions of patriotism, which seem to be not the most important motive in all the actions of the ambitious Guards Second Lieutenant, Tukhachevsky’s main dream, as many memoirists admit, was the desire to create the greatest army in history. And also to lead it and lead it into battle, say, during the proletarian world revolution. For the sake of this goal, he went on everything: he became an ally of the Bolsheviks, gassed the peasants from Tambov, shot the Kronstadt sailors, spent huge amounts of money on the manufacture of weapons ... With such an independent character and intelligence, there was no chance of surviving under totalitarian conditions. It is not known how the course of the most terrible war in the history of our country would have been had it been in the ranks of Soviet commanders. However, World War II ended up without him.
Information sources:
-http: //ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
-http: //www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/6841/
-http: //militera.lib.ru/bio/sokolov/09.html
-http: //www.liveinternet.ru/users/1758119/post67411288/
-http: //eg.ru/daily/politics/10058/
-http: //clubs.ya.ru/zh-zl/replies.xml? item_no = 3853
-http: //izvestia.ru/news/287239#ixzz2KpzZYVvH
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