MARSHAL OF THE SOVIET UNION

The rank of 'Marshal of the Soviet Union' (Russian: ''Marshal Sovietskovo Soyuza'' [''Маршал Советского Союза'']) was in practice the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. (The highest rank in theory, Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, was created for Joseph Stalin and held by him alone). The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in 1991. Forty-one people held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The equivalent naval rank was Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union.

Contents

History of the rank

List of Marshals of the Soviet Union

External link

History of the rank

''See also'': History of Russian military ranks

The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), on September 22, 1935. On November 20, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik Kliment Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Aleksandr Yegorov, and three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher, Semyon Budyonny, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
Of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevski and Yegorov were executed during Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. On May 7, 1940, three new Marshals were appointed: the new People's Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, and Grigory Kulik.
Even though traditional personal ranks for officers were reestablished in 1935, General ranks in the Red Army were not introduced until 1940. The updated rank system confusingly featured both Marshal and General of the Army ranks, but lacked a Brigadier and full General ranks (despite the fact that positional rank of 'kombrig', or Brigade commander, had existed before); the position in between Lieutenant General and General of the Army is occupied by the Colonel General rank. This arrangement suggests that General of the Army can be considered an equivalent to Field Marshal and U.S. General of the Army, which leaves the Marshal rank as a largely honorary one.
During World War II, Timoshenko and Budyonny were dismissed and Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was given to a number of military commanders who earned it on merit. These included Georgy Zhukov, Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1945, he was joined by his police chief Lavrenti Beria. These "political" Marshals were joined in 1947 by Nikolai Bulganin.
Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976 and Ustinov who was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 on the fall of the Soviet Union.
The rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, which has been held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev who was Russian Defence Minister from 1997 to 2001.
The Marshals fell into three generational groups.

★ Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War. These included both those who were purged in 1937–38 (Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov), and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II (Budyonny, Kulik, Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko and Voroshilov). All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved incompetent and were removed from office.

★ Those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Vasilievsky, Koniev, Rokossovsky, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin and Chuikov.

★ Those who assumed high command in the Cold War era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact or as Soviet Defence Ministers. These included Grechko, Yakubovsky, Kulikov, Ogarkov, Akhromeev, and Yazov.
All the postwar Marshals had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev who had been a military commissar and Ustinov who had been an arms factory manager. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander. Unlike senior U.S. commanders in the Cold War era, no Soviet Marshal had combat command experience after 1945.

List of Marshals of the Soviet Union

Name	Lifespan	Appointed	Service Arm
Kliment Voroshilov	1881—1969	November 1935	Army/Political
Mikhail Tukhachevsky	1893—1937	November 1935	Army
Aleksandr Yegorov	1883—1939	November 1935	Army
Semyon Budyonny	1883—1973	November 1935	Army
Vasily Blyukher	1890—1938	November 1935	Army
Semyon Timoshenko	1895—1970	May 1940	Army
Grigory Kulik	1890—1950	May 1940	Army
Boris Shaposhnikov	1882—1945	May 1940	Army
Georgy Zhukov	1896—1974	January 1943	Army
Aleksandr Vasilevsky	1895—1977	February 1943	Army
Joseph Stalin	1879—1953	March 1943	Political
Ivan Konev	1897—1973	February 1944	Army
Leonid Govorov	1897—1955	June 1944	Army
Konstantin Rokossovsky [1]	1896—1968	June 1944	Army
Rodion Malinovsky	1898—1967	September 1944	Army
Fedor Tolbukhin	1894—1949	September 1944	Army
Kirill Meretskov	1897—1968	October 1944	Army
Lavrenty Beria	1899—1953	July 1945	NKVD/MVD Militsiya
Vasily Sokolovsky	1897—1968	July 1946	Army
Nikolai Bulganin	1895—1975	November 1947	Political
Hovhannes Baghramian [2]	1897—1982	March 1955	Army
Sergei Biriuzov	1904—1964	March 1955	Air Defence/Strategic Rocket Forces
Andrei Grechko	1903—1976	March 1955	Army
Andrei Yeremenko	1892—1970	March 1955	Army
Kirill Moskalenko	1902—1985	March 1955	Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
Vasily Chuikov	1900—1982	March 1955	Army
Matvei Zakharov	1898—1972	May 1959	Army
Filipp Golikov	1900—1980	May 1961	Army
Nikolai Ivanovich Krylov	1903—1972	May 1962	Strategic Rocket Forces
Ivan Yakubovsky	1912—1976	April 1967	Army
Pavel Batitsky	1910—1984	April 1968	Air Defence
Petr Koshevoi	1904—1976	April 1968	Army
Leonid Brezhnev	1906-1982	May 1976	Political
Dmitry Ustinov	1908-1984	July 1976	Political
Viktor Kulikov	born 1921	January 1977	Army
Nikolai Ogarkov	1917-1994	January 1977	Army
Sergei Sokolov	born 1911	February 1978	Army
Sergei Akhromeev	1923-1991	March 1983	Army
Semyon Kurkotkin	1917-1990	March 1983	Army
Vasily Petrov	born 1917	March 1983	Army
Dmitry Yazov	born 1924	April 1990	Army

1. As Konstanty Rokossowski he was also a Marshal of Poland from 1949
2. also known as ''Ivan Baghramian''

External link

★ Biographies of all the Marshals of the USSR