Sergei Matveevich Shtemenko

Sergei Matveevich Shtemenko

Sergei Matveevič Shtemenko ( Russian Сергей Матвеевич Штеменко , scientific transliteration Sergej Matveevič Štemenko ; * 7 February ^July / 20 February  1907 ^greg. In Urjupinsk , today to the Volgograd Oblast ; † April 23, 1976 in Moscow ) was chief of the Soviet General Staff , Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Pact and Army General .

Life

Shtemenko comes from a Cossack family and joined the Red Army in 1919 . In 1930 he graduated from the armored forces officers' school. In August 1938 he was leading an independent heavy tank regiment in Zhitomir ( Kiev military district ) when he was appointed to the General Staff Academy. Since this academy had only existed for two years and the few graduates were urgently wanted, the chance of being tied to an office armchair was great. His objection had no effect. The training was interesting, as he was able to gain valuable experience in staff service both during the occupation of eastern Poland and in the winter war against Finland . His request to come back to the troops after the end of the course in autumn 1940 was rejected and the transfer to the Operations Department of the General Staff was announced, where he served as a department head in the Operations Department from 1940 to 1942. It was a hectic time, made difficult by the constant change of chiefs of staff.

On Georgy Zhukov was followed in July 1941 Boris Shaposhnikov , who for health reasons in April 1942 Alexander Vasilevsky handed. In 1943 Schtemenko was first deputy, then chief of the operations department and deputy chief of the Soviet general staff, which he remained until 1948, but temporarily served as chief of staff of the forces stationed in Germany. After Stalin's death in 1953, he fell into disrepute with his successor Nikita Khrushchev , was demoted from the army general to lieutenant general and relieved of his functions. It was not until 1959 that he was given a post as deputy commander of the Volga military district and then in the same position in the Transcaucasus military district. After Khrushchev's dismissal, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Land Forces from 1962 to 1965 and again as Deputy Chief of the General Staff from 1965. His last service was Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Pact with the rank of Army General.

Works

• In the General Staff (Russian, Moscow 1968), Deutscher Militärverlag Berlin, 1969 (2 volumes)

literature

• Geoffrey Jukes: Sergei Matvejevich Shtemenko. In: Harold Shukman : Stalin's Generals. New York 1993
• Seweryn Bialer : Stalin and his Generals . Pegasus Publications, New York 1969