Vladimir Yakovlevich Kolpaktschi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vladimir Yakovlevich Kolpaktschi , Russian Владимир Яковлевич Колпакчи (August * 26 . Jul / 7 September 1899 greg. In Kiev - 17th May 1961 over Moscow ) was a Soviet colonel general and army commander in World War II , and before his flight accident shortly army general .

Life

Vladimir Kolpaktschi was born in Kiev in 1899 in the family of an employee. According to the biographical dictionary he was Russian, but according to other sources of Jewish origin. After attending the Kiev city school and graduating from the Petrograd at Tsar Peter I High School, he entered the law faculty of Kiev University.

Early military career

In May 1916 he was called up for military service in the tsarist army and completed his basic training with the 43rd Army Corps. After completing his training as a non-commissioned officer, he was appointed to the command of the cavalry commander of the 12th Army Corps on the Northern Front. During the February Revolution of 1917 he was on sick leave from military service, but took part in revolutionary events in a department of the commissariat of the Petrograd Commune. From August 1917 he was a member of the Bolsheviks and a participant in the October Revolution in Petrograd and in the storming of the Winter Palace .

In 1918 he joined the Red Army and participated in the Russian Civil War . He served in the 1st Petrograd Rifle Corps as a company and battalion commander. In July 1918 he became battalion commander in the 47th Rifle Regiment of the 6th Rifle Division, at the head of which he took part in the defense of Petrograd against the troops of Generals AP Rodzyanko and NN Yudenich . In June 1919, he completed leadership courses in the Petrograd Military District and received a battalion that was deployed on the Southern Front. In February 1920 he became deputy logistics leader in the 14th Army and took part in the fighting with the rebellion formations under Jurko Tjutjunnyk near Odessa . After the beginning of the Kronstadt Uprising in 1921, he was appointed commander of the southern thrusting forces of the 7th Army, which took part in the attack on Kronstadt . From April 1921 he was commissioner in the 11th Rifle Division of the Petrograd Military District, but was soon transferred to the headquarters of the fortified Petrograd region. From September 1922 he was assistant to the military commissioner and from July 1923 himself military commissioner of the fortified region of Petrograd. In October 1923, during the hostilities against the Basmachi, he became military commissar of the Turkestan 3rd Rifle Division and military commissar at the headquarters of the Eastern Bukhara Group. From August 1924 he served as military commissioner of the 17th (Nizhny Novgorod) and 59th rifle divisions.

In 1928 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army . From May 1929 he served in the Belarusian Military District as commander of the 110th Novosybkov Rifle Regiment of the 37th Rifle Division, from April 30, 1931 as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Belarusian Rifle Division and from June 1933 as a division commissioner in the 8th Rifle Division in Minsk. On November 26, 1935, he was appointed brigade commander and since July 1936 he was deputy chief of staff of the Belarusian Military District. He took part in the Spanish Civil War from August 1937 to February 1938 and was a military advisor to the 22nd Spanish Brigade and military advisor to the commander of the 13th International Brigade. He fought for the Republican army in the Madrid and Valencia area. In March 1938 he returned to the USSR and on March 8 was appointed division commander and commander of the 12th Rifle Corps in the Volga Military District. On June 4, 1940, he was promoted to major general , since December 1940 he was chief of staff of the military district of Kharkov .

In World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Kolpaktschi was appointed chief of staff of the 18th Army , which was formed on the basis of the Kharkov Military District Command . The 18th Army was transferred to the southern front and took part in border battles in Moldova and in the Tiraspol-Melitopol defense operation. At the beginning of October 1941, during the fighting in Donbass , the 18th Army was surrounded by German troops. After the death of Lieutenant General AK Smirnow , Kolpaktschi took over command of the army and was able to save part of his troops, including the headquarters, from the boiler. This was followed by participation in the counter-offensive in the Battle of Rostov . From December 24, 1941, he was Chief of Staff and from January 17, 1942, Deputy Commander of the Brjansk Front . From February 1942 he was then deputy commander of the 4th Shock Army at the Kalinin Front and at the same time commander of the defense in the Welisch section . In May 1942 he was appointed commander of the 7th Reserve Army, on the basis of which the 62nd Army was formed on July 10, which was soon admitted to the Stalingrad Front . Until August 2, 1942, he commanded the 62nd Army in the defensive battles against the German 6th Army advancing to the Don sector . On August 2, 1942, he was removed from the post of army commander at the instigation of the commandant of the Stalingrad Front, General WN Gordov . Soon, however, Gordov himself was deposed and Kolpakchi's actions were recognized as appropriate to the situation, after which he was rehabilitated. Since November 1942 he was Commander-in-Chief of the 30th Army on the Western Front , which took part in Operation Mars . On February 14, 1943 Kolpaktschi was appointed lieutenant general. In March 1943, his army troops took part in the Rzhev-Vyazma operation of 1943, during which the city of Rzhev was liberated on March 3rd. Although the 30th Army did not meet the requirements of the operation (the German 9th Army was able to withdraw to a previously prepared line of defense without heavy losses), the 30th Army was renamed on the basis of a directive of April 16, 1943 10th Guard Army increased in rank.

On May 14, 1943 he was appointed commander of the 63rd Army of the Brjansk Front. He led his new troops in the Battle of Kursk , in the front bow of Oryol in Bryansk and pushed during the Gomel-Rechitsa operation (September 30 bs 30 October) until after Orsha before. In February 1944 he became Chief of Staff of the 2nd Belarusian Front , which was to carry out the Polish offensive.

From April 1944 until the end of the war, Kolpaktschi was Commander-in-Chief of the 69th Army of the 1st Belarusian Front. The troops of the 69th Army distinguished themselves in Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944 : During the Lublin-Brest offensive (July 18 - August 2, 1944) the army advanced towards Lublin and broke through the German defense several times. The army troops crossed the western Bug and liberated the city of Chelm on July 22nd in cooperation with the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps . At the end of July, army units reached the Vistula and from the movement formed the strategically important bridgehead of Puławy for the last year of the war . He was appointed Colonel General on November 2, 1944. In January, the 69th Army broke through the German defense during the Vistula-Oder operation and, in cooperation with other formations, captured the Polish cities of Radom , Tomaszów Mazowiecki , Lodz , Posen (with the participation of the 91st Rifle Corps) and Miedzyrzec . After the army had advanced over 300 kilometers to the west, the Oder was also crossed. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of April 6, 1945, Colonel General Kolpaktschi was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" and awarded him an Order of Lenin and the Medal of the Golden Star. Subsequently, his troops took part in the fighting over the bridgehead of Küstrin in order to expand it for participation in the Berlin operation .

post war period

After the war, Kolpaktschi commanded the troops of the Baku military district from July to October 1945 . In December 1945 he commanded the 40th Army of the Odessa Military District. From May 1946 he was Deputy Commander of the Far East Military District and from July 1946 to March 1950 Commander in Chief of the 1st Separate Red Banner Army in Far East Asia . In July 1951 he completed higher academic courses at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy. In February 1952 he became commander of the 6th Army and from May 1954 he commanded the troops of the northern military district. From January 1956 he was head of a department in the main directorate for combat training of the land forces and from August 1956 head of the same institution. Vladimir Kolpaktschi was appointed army general on May 5, 1961, but died 12 days later together with Colonel General SN Perevjortkin in a business flight accident (crash of an Mi-4 helicopter). The fact of his death was kept secret for a long time. His remains were buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery. His wife Galina Stepanovna (née Novikova) died in the same year and was buried next to her husband. Their daughter, Marina Vladimirovna (born August 31, 1933), was married to the youngest son of the former first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU, AA Valery Kuznezow.

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kolpaktschi, Vladimir Jakowlewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Колпакчи, Владимир Яковлевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet army general
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1961
Place of death Moscow