Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos

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Colonel General MP Kirponos

Mikhail Kirponos ( Russian Михаил Петрович Кирпонос , scientific. Transliteration Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos ; January 9 * . Jul / 21st January  1892 greg. In Wertijewka at Nezhin , Kiev Governorate , Russian Empire ; today Oblast Chernihiv , Ukraine , † September 20 1941 in Shumeikovo near Lochwiza , Ukraine) was a Soviet Colonel General of Ukrainian descent.

Life

Soldier in the First World War since 1915 , Kirponos completed training as a field shearer . In August 1917 he was elected representative of a revolutionary regimental committee in the 5th Infantry Division on the Romanian front and in November became chairman of the committee of the 26th Rifle Corps . After the October Revolution he joined the Red Army , with which he took part in the Russian Civil War in Ukraine . In 1918 he also joined the Russian Communist Party . In December 1919 he was promoted to battalion commander and later became chief of staff , then deputy commander and finally commander of the 22nd Ukrainian Council Regiment. After the civil war, Kirponos served as deputy head of a military school and then as chief of staff of the 5th Perekop Rifle Division. He graduated from the military academy "MW Frunze" in 1927 and then became head of the military school in Kazan . For his services as commander of the 70th Rifle Division in the Finnish Winter War , he was honored on March 21, 1940 as Hero of the Soviet Union (No. 91). He was given command of the XXXXIX in April 1940 . Rifle Corps , in June 1940 he became the commander of the Leningrad Military District before he was appointed in February 1941 as the commander of the Special Kiev Military District, from which the Southwest Front emerged during the German invasion of the Soviet Union .

In contrast to Army General Pavlov , the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front , Kirponos believed the reports of German defectors about the impending attack and had put his troops on alert in good time. He also got in touch with Stalin when he learned from the defectors that German troops were already crossing the Bug and preparing an invasion.

In Moscow, his suggestion, from a military point of view, to evacuate the population as well as to strengthen border guards was viewed as a provocation of the German Reich, which could not be made because it would provide a pretext for the start of the war. Political, not factual, military considerations were decisive for the rejection.

He had also cleverly staggered his units, and he led them flexibly. He immediately sent his own tanks towards the breakthrough of Panzer Group 1 (Kleist) . In this way he managed to at least slow down the German advance for a while.

Stalin's order to “stand, hold and die if necessary” ultimately led to the encirclement of his troops in the battle of Kiev . On September 20, 1941, the headquarters of the front itself was suddenly involved in a battle with German troops. Kirponos directed the fighting from the edge of the forest, where he was soon wounded. A short time later, he was fatally injured by a shrapnel and died two minutes later.

Before his death, he met General Rokossovsky , who had taken over a corps in the Kiev military district under him , as can be seen in his book Soldiers' Duty.

Honors

There is a Kirponos monument in Kiev.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to other sources, the date of birth is December 31, 1891 jul. / January 12,  1892 greg.
  2. ↑ ebbemunk.dk
  3. ↑ Aleksander A. Maslov: Fallen Soviet Generals - Soviet General Officers Killed in Battle, 1941–1945 , London / Portland 1998, p. 27.
  4. ^ Konstantin Konstantinowitsch Rokossowski: Soldiers' duty. Memories of a commander in chief at the front . Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1971, p. 11.
  5. ↑ worldwalk.info
personal data
SURNAME Kirponos, Mikhail Petrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Кирпонос, Михаил Петрович (Russian); Kirponos, Michail Petrovič
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet general
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Wertijewka near Neschin , Kiev Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1941
Place of death Shumeikovo near Lochwiza , Ukraine