Wassili Iwanowitsch Schwezow

Vasily Ivanovich Schwezow ( Russian Василий Иванович Швецов ; * February 28th ^July / March 12th  1898 ^{greg. In} the village of Lykowskaja, Novgorod Governorate ; † October 1, 1958 in Leningrad , Soviet Union ) was a Soviet Colonel General (1954) and participant in the Great Colonel General (1954) Patriotic War .

Wassili I. Schwezow

Life

Wassili Schwezow was born in 1898 in what is now the Kaduisky district near Vologda . He came from a poor Russian peasant family, of 13 children only three survived. He graduated three classes of school in Malyschewo and 2 classes professional school in binding Wachonkino and then moved to 1917 to Orel . Before the civil war he worked as a carpenter building bridges in Shonguj and at the Kola train station in Murmansk . In June 1918 he was elected chairman of the examination commission for roads of the Murmansk railway at the congress in Petrozavodsk . In October 1919, he joined the Red Army as a volunteer . From July 1920 he studied engineering courses in Moscow, then at the Petrograd Military Engineering School in the Petrograd Military District. At the end of the civil war, he fought on the southern front against the troops of the White Guards . After the defeat of General Pyotr Wrangel , he took part in the fighting against the armed group Machno and was injured in the process.

In January 1921 he graduated from a technical school and was appointed moderator for several military engineering courses in Petrograd. In March 1921 he participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising as a member of a combined cadet brigade, where he acted as platoon commander. From May 1921 he was in command of a battalion of the 6th Talitsky Regiment in the Urals military district . For his military achievements he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1921 . In January 1922 he became the moderator of several communication courses in Vladikavka at the commandant of the North Caucasus Military District . From June to September 1922 he was a tactics teacher at the Petrograd Aviation School. In 1923 he graduated from the Petrograd Military Higher Education School. From November 1923 he was a tactics teacher at the 8th Petrograd Infantry School. From October 1924 to September 1926 he was a teacher of tactics at the Higher Cavalry School of the Red Army in Novocherkassk . In 1928 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army. After graduating in July 1929, he completed an internship in the Urals Military District as an assistant to the commander of the 132nd Rifle Regiment. From May 1930 he was sent to the Oriental Faculty of the same academy, which he graduated in May 1931. From July 1935 military commissioner of the 2nd course at the main faculty and was promoted to colonel in December . On April 11, 1939 he was promoted to brigade commander and in September 1939 he was commander of the 133rd Rifle Division in the Siberian Military District .

On June 4, 1940, he was promoted to major general. At the beginning of the Second World War , the 133rd Division was incorporated into the 24th Army , which had been reformed in July 1941. In July 1941 the unit was transferred to the Western Front and had to defend in the Dorogobusch area . From the end of August to the beginning of September 1941, his division took part in the Jelnya offensive as part of the Western Front . On December 11, 1941, he took command of the 29th Army on the Kalinin Front . On December 16, two divisions of his army, in collaboration with the 256th Rifle Division of the 31st Army , liberated the city of Kalinin .

In early 1942, Schwezow led the army's military operations in the Rzhev-Vyazma attack operation . In the course of the battle, the 29 Army was able to break through the front of the 9th German Army and was then encircled as a result of a German counterattack. Despite the extremely difficult conditions, the Army War Council proved to be persistent and organized a successful defense until April 1942.

At the end of July to August 1942, the 29th Army took part in a new offensive against the German group between Rschew and Sychovka . The Soviet troops were able to penetrate to a depth of 30 km and reached the Volga . Due to miscalculations and tactical inability to lead his troops in the area of ​​the Gridinski Heights, he was removed from command. On September 8, 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the 3rd Shock Army on the Kalinin Front. In the course of the offensive on Welikie Luki , he commanded the northern task force of this army and was wounded in the process, whereupon he had to go to hospital from February 15 to May 4, 1943. After his recovery he was appointed Commander of the 4th Shock Army on May 18, 1943 and Lieutenant General on October 16, 1943 .

At the beginning of November 1943, parts of the 4th Shock Army took part in the Newel Offensive . In the period from December 30, 1943 to February 1944, the promontory of Gorodok was removed. From February to April 1944 he was in command of the 21st Army , which at that time was in the reserve of the Stawka . On July 3, 1944, he was appointed commander of the 23rd Army on the Leningrad Front as the successor to General Cherepanov . His troops carried out successful attacks during the second phase of the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Operation (July 1944) to expand the beachhead on the Vuoksa River . After the hostilities with Finland ended , the 23rd Army was withdrawn to the old state border on the Karelian Isthmus , where it remained stationed until the end of the war.

After the war, Schwezov continued to command the troops of the 23rd Army as part of the Leningrad Military District. In April 1948 he was appointed commander of the 25th Army of Primorsk District. From May 1953 he was in command of the 39th Army in the Far East Military District and on May 31, 1954 he was promoted to Colonel General. In September 1955, he became deputy commander of the Baltic Military District. In addition, he was elected member of the Council of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the period 1954-1958 . At the end of April 1958 he was assigned to an advisory group of the General Staff ; he died on October 1, 1958. He was buried in the Cossack cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Leningrad.

Web links

Commons : Wassili Iwanowitsch Schwezow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on hrono.ru
• Biography on the site of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Russian)