Nikolai Pavlovich Puchow

Nikolai Pavlovich Puchow

Nikolai Pavlovich Pukhov ( Russian Николай Павлович Пухов ; born January 13, ^jul. / January 25, 1895 ^greg. In the village Grishowo, District Babyninski, Kaluga oblast ; † 28. March 1958 in Moscow ) was a Soviet Colonel-General (1944) and Army commander in Second World War , honored as Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943 .

Life

Puchow was born into a family of Russian nationality, the son of a laborer. His mother worked as a teacher at a rural school. From 1903 he graduated from the secondary school in Zemstwo, from 1915 he attended the theological seminar in Kaluga . In the same year he began studying at Moscow University , but had to drop out in the first semester because of the poverty of his family. From October 1915 he worked as a history and literature teacher at the secondary school in the village of Plochino in the Schisdra district .

Early military career

Pukhov volunteered in the tsarist army in April 1916, graduated from the Peterhof Junker School and then served as a sergeant in the 163rd Reserve Infantry Regiment of Chelyabinsk . From June 1917 he fought on the northern front in the unit of the 744th Infantry Regiment: first as a sergeant, then as leader of a mounted reconnaissance platoon. In September 1917 he was injured while defending Riga and fell ill with scurvy because of poor hospital care . In January 1918 he was demobilized to the rank of ensign and returned to his hometown. He joined the Red Army as a volunteer in February 1918 , this happened spontaneously because he had to look after his family at Liski station. He was appointed adjutant to the chief of staff of the newly formed Red Guard of Voronezh Oblast , which in May 1918 was merged into the 2nd Voronezh Rifle Regiment. In the Russian Civil War he and his regiment first fought the Cossacks under General PN Krasnow . In March 1919 he became chief of staff of the Kalachewer Division on the southern front in the section of the 8th Red Army , then in April chief of staff of the 3rd brigade of the 1st Special Rifle Division and in October 1918 chief of staff of the 1st Brigade of the independent Ryazan rifles -Division. He fought against the White Guard in southern Russia under General AI Denikin , among other things he was involved in repelling the attacks of General KK Mamontov . In November 1918 his brigade was transferred to the 7th Red Army and integrated into the 1st combined rifle division. There he took part in the fighting against the Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus . In January 1920, his brigade was transferred to the Baltic to the 15th Red Army and took part first in the fighting against the Latvian troops and then in the Soviet-Polish War . In September 1920 he became chief of staff of the 61st (then 63rd) brigade of the 21st Rifle Division, which was used against the Poles and then against the troops of Bulak-Balachowitsch in Belorus . In January 1921 he was then chief of staff of the 21st Rifle Division, which was initially relocated to Arkhangelsk and in April to Gorno-Altaysk , where he took part in operations against the divisions of AP Kaigorodow and AS Bakitsch . Since April 1923 he was chief of staff of the 35th Rifle Division in the West Siberian Military District. From January 1924 to March 1930 he commanded the 34th Omsk Rifle Regiment in the 12th Rifle Division in the Siberian Military District. From September 1925 to October 1926 he completed the Comintern's “Wystrel” shooting course, whereupon he again commanded his last regiment. From March 1930 he taught the same courses, from December 1931 as the teacher of the course and finally as the main teacher of the course in tactics. From July 1932 to March 1934 he was assistant to the commander of the 1st Panzer Division of the Red Army. In January 1935 he completed academic courses to improve the technical command personnel at the Stalin Military Academy for Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army and was made a colonel on December 4, 1935 . In July 1936 he became the deputy leader of the training units of the Red Army and in March 1938 he took over the management of the Kharkov tank school named after Stalin. From April 1939 he worked as a teacher at the Military Economics Academy of the Red Army named after WM Molotov . On April 2, 1940, he was promoted to brigade commander and on June 4, 1940 to major general.

In World War II

At the beginning of the Second World War, he had commanded the 304th Rifle Division since August 1941. As part of the 38th Army of the Southwest Front , the division took part in defensive battles in the Poltava region in September 1941 and in the defense of Sumy and Kharkov in October . Although his division suffered heavy losses, he managed to prevent a general panic as he withdrew. In January 1942 he was appointed Deputy Commander of the 13th Army on the Bryansk Front . The 13th Army became part of the Central Front on March 12, 1943 , the Voronezh Front from October 6, and the 1st Ukrainian Front from October 1943 . In June – July 1942, the 13th Army took part in the defense of Kastornoje during the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation , where its retreating troops withstood the German attack and diverted the main enemy attack against the positions of the armies that followed south. During the Voronezh-Kastornoye operation (January – February 1943), the 13th Army quickly penetrated the German defense and closed the ring around the Kastornojer group of the German 2nd Army from the north . After the raid on Maloarkhangelsk the 13th Army tried in vain to the encirclement of the German Oryol to force grouping, however, could force up to 20 kilometers only an advance of the 10th For the services of his troops he was promoted to lieutenant general on February 14, 1943 . On the northern part of the Kursk front arc , the 13th Army held its positions against the German 9th Army in the Battle of Kursk . From July 5 to 11, the troops, with the support of the neighboring 70th Army , were able to quickly contain and repel the German attacks. At the end of July and August 193, the 13th Army also took part in the pursuit of the successful Oryol operation . The 13th Army rapidly advanced army troops in the Chernigov-Poltava operation at a speed of 30 to 40 kilometers per day. One after the other, the troops were able to cross the Desna , Dnieper and Pripyat rivers and built a Dnieper bridgehead north of Kiev near Chernobyl . It was the troops of the 13th Army who, on September 22nd, 1943, became the first of three Soviet fronts to cross the river in the Battle of the Dnieper . For his skillful leadership of the army, on October 16, 1943, by order of the Supreme Soviet, Lieutenant General Puchow was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union . At the end of 1943, the troops of the 13th Army took part in the Kiev Offensive and the Kiev Defense Operation. Then on the successful attack operations of the 1st Ukrainian Front by Zhitomir-Berditschew (December 1943), Rowno -Lutk , Proskurow-Cernowitz (March 1944) and Lviv-Sandomir (July 1944). On August 26, 1944, he was promoted to colonel general. In the last year of the war, 1945, the 13th Army was involved in the Vistula-Oder Operation (January 1945), in the Lower and Upper Silesian Operation and in April and May in the Berlin and Prague operations .

post war period

After the war, Puchow continued to command the 13th Army. In June 1946 he was appointed commander of the 8th Mechanized Army in the Carpathian Military District. From February 1948 to November 1951 he was the commander of the troops in the Odessa Military District . In 1952 he completed higher academic leadership courses at the Voroshilov Military Academy. From April to November 1953 he commanded the troops of the North Caucasus Military District , from November 1953 to January 1956 the troops of the West Siberian and from January 1956 to June 1957 the troops of the Siberian Military District. In June 1957, he became Chief Military Advisor to the Minister of the Armed Forces of the Romanian People's Republic . From 1950 until his death he was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the 3rd and 4th Congresses of the CPSU ; he died in Moscow in 1958.

Web links

• http://encyclopedia.mil.ru/encyclopedia/history/more.htm?id=11794623%40cmsArticle
• http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1834