Grigory Michailowitsch Schtern

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Grigory Michailowitsch Schtern

Grigory Mikhailovich Schtern (Russian: Григорий Михайлович Штерн, * July 24 . Jul / 6. August  1900 . Greg in Smela , Province Cherkassy ; † 28. October 1941 in the village Barbysh, District Kuibyshev ) was a Soviet Colonel-General (1940) and Hero the Soviet Union . Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1939 to 1941, since 1937 a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR .

Life

Grigori Schtern was born in 1900 in the family of a Jewish doctor in today's Ukrainian town of Smila. He graduated from the Kiev grammar school on Miuskaya Street and took part in the activities of the Bolshevik underground. During his studies in high school, he joined the social democrats and then the left socialist revolutionaries. In 1918 after graduating from high school and during the time when the hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyj was ruling Ukraine, he was arrested for possessing weapons and for distributing illegal literature and revolutionary propaganda.

Early career in the Red Army

In March 1919, Stern volunteered with two of his brothers in the Red Army and received his baptism of fire in the spring of 1919 when he fought the troops of Ataman Grigoryev. He then served as a commissioner in the headquarters of the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Ukrainian Rifle Division, which fought with the Poles in May 1919. In 1920 he was military commissar of the 408th Company of the 21st Rifle Regiment. From August 1919 to December 1920 he was political commissar in the 46th Rifle Division, and finally head of the political department of the 138th Brigade of the 46th Rifle Division. He took part in battles on the red southern front against the White Guards under Denikin and Wrangel . Stern ended the civil war as the red regimental commissar who fought in the Crimea in 1921 . From January to August 1921 he took part in the suppression of a peasant uprising in the province of Tambov . In October 1921 he became military commissar of the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Kazan Rifle Division, later commissar at the headquarters of the same division. Since March 1923 he was military commissioner in the 1st Cavalry Corps of the Red Cossack Cavalry. In December 1923 he was sent to Turkestan , where he took part in the hostilities against the Basmachi as part of the independent 2nd Turkestan Cavalry Brigade in the Association of the Red Khorezmer Group, where he served as military commissar and head of the brigade's political department. Schtern made a name for himself when he defeated rebellious Uzbek Yarmatians near Margelan and was able to encircle them by clever maneuvers in February 1924.

Since October 1924 he was head of the political department and then military commissioner of the 7th Samara Cavalry Division, which was stationed in Minsk in the military district of Belarus . In 1926, Schtern completed advanced training courses for commanders at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow. From July 1926 to October 1927 he was the commander and political commissar of the 9th Putilower Cavalry Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Division. In 1929 he completed further leadership courses at the Military Academy of the Red Army and acquired international language skills. From June 1929 he was adjutant to the chief of the 4th section at the headquarters of the Red Army. Since December 1929 Stern was available to the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR, General KE Voroshilov . In 1931 he was sent to Germany to study. With the support of Political Commissars JE Jakir and JB Gamarnik , Stern joined the Secretariat of the People's Defense Commissariat in November 1931, where he soon became one of the closest advisers to the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, General KE Voroshilov .

From May 1933 Schtern himself was head of the office of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR (from December 1934 People's Commissar for Defense of the USSR). Since February 1935 he acted as a commissioner for special tasks at the people's defense commissioner. On November 20, 1935, he was awarded the military rank of division commander. Since March 1936 he was the commander and commissioner of his old unit, the 7th Samara Cavalry Division in the military district of Belarus. From January 1937 to April 1938, during the Spanish Civil War , he acted under the pseudonym "Grigorowitsch" as the chief military advisor in Spain. Immediately after his arrival in Spain, he took part in the Republican defense operation on the Jarama from January 6 to February 27, 1937 and in the Battle of Guadalajara from March 8 to 20 . In this operation the Italian expeditionary force was defeated. Other red commanders also took part in this operation, such as the leader of the 12th International Brigade, Máté Zalka (pseudonym "General Lukacz") and the senior adviser to the Air Force, Yes. W. Smuschkewitsch (Spanish pseudonym "General Douglas") participated as head of the Madrid Air Defense Committee. In July 1937, Stern took part in the implementation of the Battle of Brunete . On July 21, 1937 he was awarded the Order of Lenin and on October 22, 1937 the Order of the Red Banner . From December 15, 1937 to January 8, 1938, the Battle of Teruel was developed and carried out with his assistance . On December 31, 1937, with the support of the Air Force, the nationalists managed to break through the republican defenses on the external front and reach Teruel . The republican command led by Stern, who introduced the 5th Corps from the reserve into the defensive fighting, was able to repel the attack and stop the national offensive on the external front of Teruel. On January 7, 1938, the Frankists capitulated at Teruel and on February 19, Stern was promoted to KomKor .

In April 1938, Schtern returned to the USSR and was appointed chief of staff of the independent Red Banner Army in the Far East. On July 29, 1938, the Japanese army invaded Soviet territory near Lake Chassan and occupied Bezymjanaja. On August 3, 1938, the People's Defense Commissioner of the USSR, Kliment Voroshilov appointed him commander of the 39th Rifle Corps and ordered him to prepare an operation to expel the Japanese and restore the state border. In fact, it was KomKor Schtern who commanded the following battle on Lake Chassan since Marshal VK Blucher had fallen out of favor. From August 4th, Schtern carried out regroupings and improved the organization of the supply of missing ammunition. It was also he who developed the original plan of attack against the Japanese: He decided to deploy two rifle divisions and the 2nd mechanized brigade for the offensive. The 32nd Rifle Division under Colonel Bersarin was supposed to advance north of Lake Chassan and the 40th Rifle Division and the machine gun corps had to provide flank cover. The support of the ground troops was assigned to the air forces under General JV Smushkewitsch. During this military operation, infantry and tanks were prohibited from crossing the state border between Manchuria and Korea . On the morning of August 6th, the Soviet offensive began and on August 9th, the Soviet territory was completely liberated from the Japanese invaders. On August 10, the Japanese army attempted new attacks but was repulsed and suffered heavy losses. On August 11th, General Schtern signed an armistice with Japan on behalf of the Soviet government. For the victory on Lake Chassan, Stern was awarded his third Order of the Red Banner . From September 4, 1938 to June 1939, he was appointed commander of the unnamed 1st Red Banner Army in the Far East. On February 9th he was appointed Army Commander 2nd rank. On May 11, 1939, the Japanese army attacked the Mongolian People's Republic again. In August 1939 Schtern led the Army Group (Mongolian Army, Soviet 1st and 2nd Far East Army) in the Battle of Chalchin Gol . By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 29, 1939, Schtern was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and a second Order of Lenin . Soviet historiography attributed the victory in the Battle of Chalchin Gol exclusively to General Zhukov , who was then subordinate to Schtern.

In World War II

During the Soviet-Finnish War , Stern was in command of North Karelia . From December 16, 1939 he commanded the 8th Army in the Union of the Leningrad Military District. The 8th Army, under his predecessor Major General IN Khabarov, fought stubborn fighting in the Petrozavodsk area and was forced to take the defensive. The fighting with Finland during the Great Terror turned out to be more difficult than expected for the Red Army. The commanders were afraid to withdraw their troops after failures, the political representative of Stalin , LS Mechlis inspected the front and had commanders shot at random. The 18th, 168th Rifle Divisions and the 34th Light Tank Brigade were surrounded by the Finns. As early as December 1939, Schtern had proposed to the Central War Council to withdraw the encircled units immediately 15-20 km, but the Central War Council declined at that time. It was not until February 29, 1940, after receiving permission to withdraw, that Stern began withdrawing the 8th Army units. It was Schtern who proposed, following the example of the Finns, introducing ski groups into the Red Army, which were equipped with automatic weapons. However, the losses remained large - because the decision to withdraw was delayed. In March 1940, large parts of the 8th Army managed to break through the Finnish line and reach Loimola. Units of the newly formed Soviet 15th Army managed to break the blockade of the 168th Rifle Division, which was surrounded by the Finns.

On May 19, 1940, Schtern was awarded the Order of the Red Star for the war in Finland. He was then appointed Colonel General on June 4, 1940, and Commander of the Far East Military District on June 22. He advocated the massive use of tanks, artillery, and air forces, and was convinced of the need to organize interaction between the troops, tanks, and artillery. Many of its provisions and conclusions later found practical application during the Great Patriotic War .

On January 14, 1941, Schtern was entrusted with the management of the Main Air Defense Department of the People's Defense Commissariat and in April 1941 he took over the management of the Air Defense Department of the USSR. From day one, he visited the military districts and oversaw the implementation of the new measures to create an effective defense system. Stern had control over the construction of command posts, the creation of new communication systems and the renewal of its radio systems. From April to May 1941 he took an active part in the development of air defense concepts and tasks for the troops in the military districts of the Baltic States, Kiev and Odessa, Leningrad and in operational plans to cover the state border in the event of war.

In mid-May, a German Ju-52 aircraft appeared in Moscow airspace and asked for permission to land on one of the airfields there. Stalin found out about this and got angry and asked Marshal Tymoshenko why the air defense had failed and who was to blame. It was hard to blame Schtern directly because he had only taken office shortly before the incident. Tymoshenko did not dare to report that the former People's Defense Commissioner Kliment Voroshilov, who only looked after his cavalry day and night instead of paying attention to the air defense, was actually to blame. He therefore instructed a hand warehouse of the NKVD chief LP Beria , Michejew, the head of the 3rd section in the People's Commissar and Ministry of Defense, to collect incriminating evidence against Schtern. Schtern was arrested on June 7, 1941, and during the investigation he admitted under torture that he had been "a participant in the Trotskyist conspiracy in the Red Army" and "a German spy" since 1931. The investigation was led by the Deputy Head of the Ministry of State Security, Colonel LL Schwartzman, and the secret service officers WN Merkulov , LJ Wlodzimirski and BS Kobulov , who personally participated in the brutal torture of General Schtern. On October 17, 1941, Beria signed the decree for the execution of the Colonel General on the basis of the trial files of Wlodzimirski and the prosecutor VM Bochkow . On October 28, 1941, GM Schtern was shot without trial in the village of Barbysh (now a district of the city of Samara) with 25 arrested military leaders and their wives who were brought in from Moscow.

Rehabilitation

When Hitler called for an attack by Japan on the USSR in late autumn 1941, the German ambassador in Tokyo , Major General Ott , telegraphed to Berlin to explain the hesitation of the Japanese government: Obviously, the troops created and fortified by General Schtern in the Far East became the decisive argument for Japan not to attack the USSR.

Colonel-General GM Schtern was only rehabilitated after Stalin's death on August 27, 1954 by order of the Public Prosecutor General of the USSR. The dishonest trial was rejected by decision of the General Prosecutor's Office of the USSR for lack of evidence. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of January 2, 1959, Schtern was posthumously reimbursed the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the rights of all disallowed awards. At the place of execution near Samara at the place of burial of the victims, a memorial plaque was put up with the final words: "Let us bow to the memory of the innocent victims ..."

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schtern, Grigory Mikhailovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Штерн, Григорий Михайлович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet colonel general
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Smela
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1941
Place of death Barbysh, Kuibyshev district