Wassili Timofejewitsch Wolski

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Wassili Timofejewitsch Wolski (Russian: Василий Тимофеевич Вольский, born March 10, 1897 in Moscow , † February 22, 1946 ibid) was a Soviet colonel general of the armored forces .

Life

Vasily Wolski was born in Moscow in 1897 (according to other sources in the village of Polzikow in the Chernsky district in the Tula province ) and later worked as an assistant locksmith on the Moscow tram.

In 1916 he joined the Imperial Russian Army in the course of the First World War and did his basic training with the 193 Infantry Regiment. From December 1917 he was with the Red Guard and initially acted as an adjutant to the military commissioner of the Moscow district of Yakimanka, then until June 1918 as secretary the Extraordinary Commission of the Cheka in Samoskvorechye District .

In the Red Army

In the Russian Civil War he fought in the ranks of the Red Army , from June to August 1918 as commissar of the 28th Koslower Rifle Regiment and from September 1918 to August 1920 he was deputy commissar of the armed trains on the southern front. From September to November 1920 he was Deputy Commander of the Internal Service of the Eastern Siberian Military District . He became head of the political department of the 8th Rifle Brigade (November 1920 to January 1921), then military commissioner of the 13th Cavalry Division (February to April 1921) and military commissioner of the Armed Forces Group in Semipalatinsk (April to October 1921). From October 1921 he was military commissar of the 10th Cavalry Division for a year. Wolski graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow from October 1922 to October 1926 . From October 1926 to August 1927 he completed his training as a squadron chief in the 73rd Cavalry Regiment and was then alternately commander of the 86th, 69th and 37th Cavalry Regiment until December 1929. From September 1931 he was deputy inspector of the motorized troops of the Red Army. From February to May 1932 he was Senior Military Representative in the Engineering of Department "Arkosa" in England. From December 1932 to December 1934 he was the commander of the 6th Mechanized Rifle Brigade, then he was available for one year as a commander of the Red Army. From November 1935 he acted as head of the technical department of the Soviet trade mission in Milan . From January 1936 to May 1939 he was available to the Secret Service Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. He was promoted to brigade commander on January 17, 1936 and served as a military attaché in the Soviet embassy in Italy from 1938. Since May 20, 1939 he was Deputy Head of the Stalin Military Academy for Mechanization and Motorization in Moscow. On April 6, 1940, he was promoted to major general.

In World War II

After the German attack he was first deputy commander of the 21st Army and was appointed deputy commander of the armored forces of the Southwest Front on July 1, 1941 . He took part in the Shlobin-Rogachev operation , the Smolensk Kettle Battle and the Kiev defense operation. From January 1942 he was deputy general inspector of the main directorate of armored weapons and from April 1942 deputy commander of the armored forces of the Crimean and North Caucasus fronts . In October 1942 he became the commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps, which played a significant role in the Soviet Uranus counter-offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad . In the following battles his corps entered the fight against the relief attempts of the German Army Group Don , which tried in vain to free the German 6th Army . The Panzer Corps received the honorary name "Stalingrader" for its achievements and was renamed the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps. At the end of March 1943 Wolski had to leave the front due to illness, after his recovery he was promoted to deputy commander of the armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army in June 1943 and to lieutenant general on July 2, 1943 . From August 18, 1944 to March 16, 1945 he was in command of the 5th Guards Armored Army and took part in the Memel Offensive as part of the 1st Baltic Front . As part of the 2nd Belarusian and from February 1945 - the 3rd Belarusian front , the 5th Guards Panzer Army was involved in the East Prussian operation (January - April 1945). Wolski's Panzer Army was introduced into the staging area of ​​the 48th Army , broke through the deep German defenses in the direction of Mława and Lidzbark and reached the Baltic Sea north of Elbing . The withdrawal of the German 2nd Army to West Prussia was cut off. Commander of the 5th Guards tank army (August 18, 1944 - March 16, 1945). He was appointed Colonel General of the Armored Forces on October 26, 1944 . In March 1945 he had to leave for treatment in Moscow for symptoms of tuberculosis . He died on February 22, 1946 in Moscow, was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery and left his wife Tatiana Anatolyevna as a widow.

Awards

literature

  • Великая Отечественная. Командармы. Военный биографический словарь / Под общей ред. М. Г. Вожакина. - М .; Жуковский: Кучково поле, 2005. - p. 408 ISBN 5-86090-113-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wolski, Wassili Timofejewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Вольский, Василий Тимофеевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet colonel general
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1946
Place of death Moscow