Vasily Dmitrijewitsch Kryuchonkin

Vasily Dmitrievich Krjutschonkin (Russian: Василий Дмитриевич Крючёнкин, * 13. January 1894 in the village of Karpovka, today Buguruslan , Orenburg , † 10. June 1976 in Kiev ) was a Soviet Lieutenant General (1943) as well as cavalry and several army commanders of the Second World War .

Life

childhood

Born in what is now Buguruslan in an impoverished family with 8 children, including four sons and four daughters, Vasily was the youngest child. Due to the extreme poverty of the family, the only two year old Vasily was given to a relative of his father, a wealthy landowner. This family was stingy and Vasily soon had to work every piece of bread himself. He worked in the household of his adoptive parents from an early age and only completed 3 classes of primary school. At the age of 7 he was already grazing sheep, cleaning cattle and the stable, then he worked in a shop. He had to work hard for a living: he loaded sacks of flour, sugar, salt and barrels of oil onto carts, and carried boxes of goods on his shoulders.

Early military career

In 1915 he was drafted into the tsarist army, as a sergeant and commander of half a company, he took part in battles on the western front. In 1917 he joined the Red Guard and in 1918 joined the Red Army . During the Russian Civil War he fought on the Eastern, Southern and Western Fronts as commander of a cavalry squadron, a squadron and as deputy commander and commander of a cavalry regiment. In the ranks of the 1st Cavalry Army , Kryuchonkin and thousands of other proletarians took part in the battles for Voronezh , Belaya Tserkov , Zhitomir , Berditschew, Rowno and Dubno. In 1923 he graduated from the Kamenev Military School in Kiev (today the Bogun Military Lyceum). In 1926 he completed cavalry courses for the command staff (KUKS) and in 1935 advanced training courses for cavalry commanders (KKUKS) at the Frunze Military Academy . In the interwar period he worked as head of a regimental school, then as chief of staff and deputy commander of the 111th cavalry regiment of the 28th Cavalry Division. From June 10, 1938 he commanded the 14th Cavalry Division stationed in Novohrad-Wolynskyj in the Kiev military district . In March 1940 he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR from Rovno . In the spring of 1941 he attended further training courses for commanders at the Frunze Military Academy.

In World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Kryuchonkin's 14th Cavalry Division defended the city of Kremenets during the tank battle of Dubno and then covered the retreat of the 36th Rifle Corps to Berdichev and Kasatin in July 1941 . On November 28, 1941, Kryuchonkin was appointed commander of the 5th Cavalry Corps, which took part in the Jelezer operation as part of the Kostenko group . For the success in these battles, the corps was renamed the 3rd Guard Cavalry Corps on December 25, 1941. In July 1942 Kryuchonkin was appointed commander of the 28th Army transferred to the Southwest Front . From May to July, after Tymoshenko's unsuccessful offensives during the Battle of Kharkov (May 12-29) and the fierce defensive battles in the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation (June 28th-July 24th), the 28th Army suffered heavy losses . From August 1st to October 14th, he briefly commanded the 4th Panzer Army on the Don sector near Stalingrad . In December 1942 he completed missing leadership courses at the Voroshilov Military Academy in an accelerated time . On March 22, 1943, he was appointed commander of the 69th Army that took part in the Battle of Kursk . After participating in the Belgorod-Kharkov operation, his army was in the reserve of the High Command from September 30, 1943. From April 10, 1944, he was in command of the 10th Army of the Reserve Front. From April 12 to September 7, 1944, he was in command of the 33rd Army , whose troops crossed the Dnieper and forced the liberation of the cities of Shklov and Mogilev . From December 1944 he served on the Military Council of the 1st Belarusian Front , and in January 1945 he was appointed deputy commander of the 61st Army and then deputy commander of the troops on the same front. Lieutenant General WD

Kryuchonkin was awarded the Lenin and Red Banner Order four times and was also the holder of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class and the Bukhara Order with the Golden Star, 1st Class, as well as many other medals. After the war, Kryuchonkin was appointed Deputy Commander of the Troops of the Don Military District from August 1945 and served as judge of the DOSAAF cavalry in Ukraine for several years . In 1946 he retired, he died in June on Alexei Davydov Boulevard No. 14 in Kiev and buried in the Bajkowski Cemetery.

Web links

• https://www.krainaz.org/2017-08/304-kruchonkin
• https://structure.mil.ru/structure/forces/ground/structure/tank/leaders/more.htm?id=12093664@SD_Employee
• https://pamyat-naroda.ru/commander/644/