Pavel Ivanovich Bodin

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Portrait photo of General Bodin
PI Bodin with the rank of major general (1940/41)

Pawel Iwanowitsch Bodin ( Russian Павел Иванович Бодин , scientific transliteration Pavel Ivanovič Bodin ) (born January 9th July / January 21st  1900 reg. In Surskoje ( Zimbirsk Governorate ); † November 2, 1942 in Ordzhonikidze ) was a Soviet general .

Life

Bodin joined the Red Army in 1919 and took part in the Russian Civil War. After the war, in 1923 he joined the staff of a cavalry regiment that was used in what is now Uzbekistan in the battles against the Basmachi . In the years after 1926 Bodin was successively commander of a cavalry regiment, chief of staff of a cavalry division or larger mounted units. In 1935 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and then became chief of the 1st department of the staff of the cavalry group of the Kiev special military district . Here he was promoted to brigade commander on November 4, 1939 , before he attended the Academy of the General Staff in Moscow until 1941 . During this time he also joined the CPSU in 1940 .

After graduating from the General Staff Academy, Bodin, major general since June 4, 1940 , was appointed Chief of Staff of the Odessa Military District. In June 1941 this became the independent 9th Army under Colonel General J.T. Tscherewitschenko formed, whose Chief of Staff Bodin was now. The army was soon subordinated to the southern front . In heavy fighting it retreated from the Prut over the Dnestr to the Dnieper . In September 1941, Bodin came into conflict with Lieutenant General D.I. Ryabyshev , the Commander in Chief of the Southern Front. The new commander- in-chief at the front had given orders to counterattack the German bridgehead at Kachowka on the Dnieper. When the 9th Army failed to do this and the German troops successfully broke through the Soviet lines on September 9, Ryabyschew and his staff succeeded in replacing the leadership of the army, which was finally approved by the Stawka VGK . However, a few weeks later, Ryabyschew himself was deposed because of his defeat in the Battle of the Sea of ​​Azov , while Bodin became the new Chief of the General Staff of the Southwest Front on October 15, 1941 under Marshal S.K. Tymoshenko was appointed. In this function he had a lot of responsibility, as this command post also functioned as the high command for the south-west direction and therefore had to coordinate several fronts. This was particularly the case during the Battle of Rostov , the Red Army's first operational victory in the war against the German Reich, and during the subsequent counter-offensive (→ Barvenkowo-Losowaja Operation ) in winter. In the 1970s, the »Soviet Military Encyclopedia« stated: “B. [odin] skillfully organized the battle management and coordination of the troops. He deserves great credit for organizing the Soviet troops during the defeat of the Kleist Panzer Group and the attack on the southwestern front in the winter of 1941/42. "

Bodin, who had been in the rank of Lieutenant General since November 9, 1941, attracted the attention of the Soviet General Staff through his successes. In March 1942 he therefore moved to Moscow as the second deputy to the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Marshal BM Shaposhnikov . From April 1942 he headed the important operational administration here in the absence of Lieutenant General AM Wassilewski . Nevertheless, as a representative of the Stawka VGK, he also traveled to various command posts. However, when the new German summer offensive (→ Blue Case ) put the Red Army under pressure again in the summer of 1942 , Bodin returned to the front. On June 26, 1942, he replaced Lieutenant General Hovhannes Baghramjan, who was unsuccessful in the Battle of Kharkov, as Chief of the General Staff of the Southwest Front. Nevertheless, Baghramjan and Bodin, who had already served on the same staff in the fall of 1941, remained friends. Baghramjan later reported about Bodin:

“He was the ideal person to talk to. He listened without interrupting, keeping his blue eyes, which looked a bit astonished, on his partner. At the right moment he asked questions, wanted this or that detail to be specified, made comments. He always spoke calmly, the words stretching slightly. He formulated his thoughts briefly and clearly. I liked its directness, its liveliness, the ability to get to the heart of a question quickly. "

- Hovhannes Baghramjan

In his function, Bodin was now subordinate to the Soviet 28th Army under his former superior Ryabyshev. Bodin let the latter feel clearly how bitter he still was about his replacement as Chief of Staff of the 9th Army the previous year. He also worked again with Commander-in-Chief Marshal Tymoshenko. When the south-western front was largely smashed, Tymoshenko was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed Stalingrad Front on July 12, 1942 with Bodin as its chief of staff and NS Khrushchev as a member of the military council . On July 21, 1942, both Tymoshenko and Bodin were dismissed from their posts. Bodin now became permanent deputy to the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, which was probably due not least to the extremely positive assessments that NS Khrushchev sent Josef Stalin and of which he later reported in his memoirs:

“I liked this man for his intelligence and his clear understanding of our situation. He was interesting as a person and as a soldier alike. […] I was simply convinced of Bodin and even today I would not take back anything of the good that I said about this man. [...] He was a remarkable general. "

- Nikita S. Khrushchev

Bodin's last employment was that of the Chief of Staff of the Transcaucasus Front under Army General I.W. Tyulenev from August to November 1942. On November 1, 1942, the staff of the front was in Ordzhonikidze in order to better direct the fighting in this area. When German planes bombed the city, Bodin was seriously injured by an aerial bomb while sitting in a vehicle; the following day he succumbed to his serious injuries. Besides him, the member of the war council of the front AN Sadschaya and the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the North Ossetian ASSR also died. Bodin was later buried in Tbilisi .

literature

  • Бодин, Павел Иванович , in: А.А. Гречко (ред.): Советская Военная Энциклопедия , Vol. 1, Воениздат, Москва 1976, p. 510 [Ger. Bodin, Pavel Ivanovič, in: AA Grečko (Red.): Soviet Military Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, Military Publishing House, Moscow 1976, p. 510 ]
  • Aleksander A. Maslov / David M. Glantz (eds.): Fallen Soviet Generals - Soviet General Officers killed in Battle 1941-1945 , Frank Cass Publishers, London 1998. ISBN 0-7146-4790-X .
  • Michael Parrish: Sacrifice of the Generals - Soviet senior officer losses 1939-1953 , Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2004. ISBN 0-8108-5009-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Бодин, Павел Иванович , in: Советская Военная Энциклопедия , Vol. 1, Москва 1976, p. 510
  2. ↑ Klaus Dorst / Birgit Hoffmann (eds.): Kleines Lexikon der Sovietstwehr Forces , Berlin (East) 1987, p. 15
  3. ↑ Details on the fighting can be found in: Hans Steets: Gebirgsjäger in der Nogaischen Steppe , Heidelberg 1954.
  4. ↑ Aleksander A. Maslov / David M. Glantz (eds.): Fallen Soviet Generals - Soviet General Officers killed in Battle 1941–1945 , London 1998, p. 66
  5. ↑ Hovhannes Baghramjan: So began the war , Berlin (East) 1972, p. 374f
  6. ↑ П.М. Андриянов: Русский архив - Великая Отечественная , vol. 13, Москва 1997, p. 378; SM Schtemenko: In the General Staff , Berlin (East) 1974, p. 58
  7. ^ John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad , London 2003, p. 346
  8. ↑ Hovhannes Baghramjan: So we stepped to victory , Berlin (East) 1977, p. 116
  9. ↑ Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev : Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev , Vol. 2, State College / Pennsylvania 2004, p. 353
  10. ↑ Hovhannes Baghramjan: So began the war , Berlin (East) 1972, p. 375
  11. ↑ Aleksander A. Maslov / David M. Glantz (eds.): Fallen Soviet Generals - Soviet General Officers killed in Battle 1941–1945 , London 1998, pp. 66f
  12. ^ John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad , London 2003, p. 360
  13. ^ John Erickson: The Road to Stalingrad , London 2003, p. 364
  14. ↑ Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev: Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev , Vol. 2, State College / Pennsylvania 2004, pp. 353, 398
  15. ↑ AA Gretschko: The Battle of the Caucasus , Berlin (East) 1971, p. 236; Aleksander A. Maslov / David M. Glantz (eds.): Fallen Soviet Generals - Soviet General Officers killed in Battle 1941–1945 , London 1998, p. 66
personal data
SURNAME Bodin, Pavel Ivanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Бодин, Павел Иванович (Russian); Bodin, Pavel Ivanovič (scientific transliteration)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet general
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Surskoye, Simbirsk Governorate
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1942
Place of death Vladikavkaz