The general is hunchbacked. General Gorbatov and his difficult fate. Before and after the Victory

Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov is a man of difficult fate, tempered in the crucible of war and tested for strength in Stalin’s camps. Even under torture by the NKVD, he did not admit guilt. Having had a blast, this “thoughtful commander and interesting person” (as Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky spoke of him) was consistent, rational and unpretentious in everyday life. Only when it came to service was he merciless (to himself first of all). His childhood, full of hardships, and service in the tsarist army had an effect. More detailed information about the biography of Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov, based on his memories, as well as descriptions of other participants in the events, can be gleaned from this article.

An ordinary childhood in a peasant family

The great Soviet commander was born on March 21, 1891 in pre-revolutionary Russia in the village of Pakhotino, located in the modern Ivanovo region. A large peasant family, where the father and mother were very hardworking and pious people. Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov had five brothers and five sisters. The family was in need, but stubbornly fought for its existence. An emaciated horse, a piece of land and a trade in making sheepskins after autumn field work before Maslenitsa were the only sources of income. Therefore (as in most peasant families), children were accustomed to hard work from an early age.

The father of the family, although he was a thin, sickly man, reinforced the science of life with cuffs - such were the realities of Russia at that time, where even the offspring of noble families were subjected to such educational measures. The parents sincerely believed that in this way they were guiding their child on the right path.

Little Sasha already stood out from his surroundings from childhood. He completed his three-year rural schooling with a certificate of merit. An entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to think outside the box woke up in him very early. As a teenager, he independently undertook to transport mittens on a sleigh, which his family and fellow villagers were making for sale. He took the goods seventy miles away and returned with a profit unheard of for peasants. Soon many of the adults wanted to communicate with such a “daring boy.”

Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov soon wanted to “get out into the public eye,” rightly believing that there were more prospects in the city. Despite the persuasion of his parents, he goes to Shuya. It was a city and a new stage in his life was beginning. The guy got a job as a clerk in a shoe store. During the three years of his training, he endured ridicule and beatings, but persistently strived for his goal - to receive a salary for his work. In trade, his business was successful, even too successful. When Alexander Vasilyevich’s first successes began to appear, he (as his contemporaries put it then) was “shared into a soldier.” It was 1912.

Hardening of a Russian warrior

Did the future famous Soviet general Gorbatov think that he would become a world-famous and famous commander? No, he simply fulfilled the oath given to his father, the oath of allegiance to the Tsar and the Fatherland. The ordinary cavalryman became involved in the life of a soldier and tried to prove himself in the best possible way. When he was still a clerk, he swore to his friends: Alexander, the son of the owner, for whom he served as a clerk, and the student Rubachev, that he would not drink, smoke, or use swear words. Colleagues chuckled, calling him an Old Believer. Later, while already serving in the Soviet army, in the biography of Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov there were cases when his superiors ordered him to drink, but he remained adamant. He never sought oblivion from sorrows at the bottom of a bottle.

In the meantime, a private of the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment of the 6th Squadron spent five hours every day caring for his horse named Amulet, hit the target with a rifle 38 times out of forty, and showed his best performance in tactical exercises. The number of “jabs” from senior ranks was kept to a minimum. Piety is gone. Its place was taken by the understanding that everything is in the hands of man, his discipline, will and desire to win.

With special respect, in his memoirs “Years and Wars,” Alexander Gorbatov recalled Colonel Dessino, who commanded their regiment. The officers did not like him, but the soldiers idolized him and were ready to follow their regiment commander into hell. Strict and fair, he was a role model.

You can't fight like that

Private cavalryman Gorbatov, as part of the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment, was sent to the front. Brave and decisive, he volunteered for the most risky operations for exploration and extraction of “tongues”. Over the years of the war, I have seen enough of how the majority of Russian officers are conniving towards the common soldier, but they hold on to their privileges and every time they do not forget to remind them that they are “gentlemen” and everyone else is “boorish”.

A remarkable incident occurred during the general retreat of Russian troops in Galicia. The retreat of the infantry was covered by cavalry. The horsemen had already repelled German attempts to inflict damage on the retreating Russian units several times. It is at such moments that any army is most vulnerable and suffers the most losses.

The fifth German attack was more decisive and better prepared. The Russian cavalrymen wavered, leaving the positions entrusted to them. In addition to non-commissioned officers Karelin and Kozlov. They stood courageously until the end and fought back with the help of 2 machine guns. The Germans had to retreat. These two heroes were presented for a reward and transferred to the Uhlan regiment. Subsequently, the regiment's officers did not want to shake hands with former fellow tribesmen and lower ranks.

Such discrimination gave rise to certain thoughts, but the future General Gorbatov at that time remained faithful to the military oath with a clear understanding and awareness of “who the enemy is and what to do with him.” He felt respect for the enemy: there was no laxity, bungling and many other vices that plagued the Russian tsarist army. The enemy was strong, smart, disciplined. There was even electricity in his trenches and not a single shell casing was lying on the ground. But this enemy did not cause fear, but forced us to mobilize, become better in order to win and survive.

In the Russian units there was a certain demoralization and decay caused by the long years of war and the mediocrity of the tsarist government. Everyone was tired of the war, sooner or later changes had to begin, usually accompanied by great upheavals.

Homecoming

Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov met the Tsar’s February abdication of power in the trenches. What did the Russian soldiers feel at that moment? Confusion, anger and despondency. They risked their lives, lost friends, and steadfastly endured hardships. Nobody knew why anymore. The meat grinder continued until March 1918. But this state was replaced by joy - the order came to disband the regiment. Now Alexander Vasilyevich could return home after four years of war.

At home he found his aged parents, who were overcome by grief - two sons died at the front. The general confusion and devastation added to the sorrow in the soul: there was not enough food, people were glad of any opportunity to feed themselves. The sowing time was approaching - and the Gorbatov family did not have seeds, but the enterprising Alexander Vasilyevich was able to get them by exchanging them for chintz in the Kazan province.

Having finished the field work and repaired the outbuildings, he could not find a place for himself. He was again drawn to the front - to fight for Soviet power. He had seen a lot at the front and did not want the old order and the former masters with their habits to return. You can have different attitudes towards the Bolsheviks, but one thing is beyond doubt - they won because the people believed them and supported them. One of the representatives of the people was the future General Gorbatov.

Love for the cavalry forever

The invaluable combat experience gained in the war, observation, diligence, and initiative did their job: the Red Army soldier Gorbatov was noticed by the Soviet command. There were not enough specialists, and the Red Army needed decisive, experienced commanders. Therefore, initially under his leadership there was a platoon, then a squadron, and then the 58th cavalry regiment, and a separate Bashkir cavalry brigade in 1920.

Fought against General A.I. Denikin and Petliura's troops. The civil war was over, but he continued his service in the cavalry until September 1937.

Lived, served and “turned out”

The year 1937 came and purges began in the Red Army. By that time, Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov had risen to the rank of commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division in Ukraine. Having opened the newspaper in the spring of 1937, he was surprised to learn that Marshal of the Soviet Union M.N. Tukhachevsky is an enemy of the people and a spy who participated in a “military-fascist conspiracy.” Soon, Alexander Vasilyevich’s friends and colleagues began to be grabbed, but he had a glimmer of hope that the Soviet government would sort it out.

In this situation, everyone tried to survive as best they could. For example, one of the subordinates of division commander Gorbatov, who commanded the seventh regiment, presented a beautiful horse to the commissioner of the special department. This was a blatant and humiliating act that the division commander could not ignore, so he ordered the regiment commander to return the beautiful animal.

And a month later, Alexander Vasilyevich was removed from command and expelled from the party with an order to report to the Main Directorate. There was nothing left for him to do; he went to Saratov to visit his wife’s parents.

He was then summoned to Moscow in October 1938, where his arrest took place. So the valiant Soviet officer ended up in the millstones of the NKVD.

“The more they plant, the better”

General Gorbatov and his difficult fate, which led this wonderful man along different paths, with its ups and downs, are a clear example of how one can not lose spirit in a critical situation. His cellmates talked about how they signed all sorts of utter nonsense under pressure. This outraged Alexander Vasilyevich - he condemned such actions of his colleagues in misfortune, believing that they thereby interfere with justice and frame the innocent. They had a different point of view, which was that the more people suffer, the sooner the Soviet government will understand the absurdity of what is happening.

The former division commander, and now an enemy of the people, was adamant in his decision not to give any confession. He was taken to Lefortovo and an investigator named Stolbunsky began interrogating him with passion, threatening that Alexander Vasilyevich’s wife would soon be arrested if he did not surrender and begin to cooperate.

The wife of the "enemy of the people"

While the Russian warrior steadfastly endured the hardships of fate, his wife Nina Alexandrovna unsuccessfully tried to make inquiries. At Lubyanka they told her that no one had arrested Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov. Only by miracle did she learn about his unenviable fate and decided to return to Saratov. By that time, her father and brother had also been arrested on ridiculous charges, and her mother, sister and brother needed support.

Nina Aleksandrovna got a job, but everywhere, upon learning that she was the wife of an “enemy of the people,” she was fired. Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov learned about this when he returned to freedom.

Kolyma

On May 8, 1939, there was a five-minute trial and a sentence under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for 15 years. They were sent to serve their sentence in Kolyma - the land of the doomed. Criminals ruled and ran everything. I had to live in a new way. Barracks, difficult working conditions, stabbings and other “delights” of camp life. It was a gold mine where over 400 people worked. Alexander Vasilyevich himself managed to find a nugget weighing 150 grams only once. Time passed, and the Nazi threat was approaching the Soviet Union.

Back in action

There were plenty of mediocrities in the Red Army, but smart, experienced military men could be counted on one hand. There was naturally a staff shortage. Purges in the Red Army, lack of time for technical re-equipment and many other factors due to which millions of lives of Soviet soldiers and officers were lost.

War was on the threshold. They were waiting for it and preparing for it. There are many myths about Hitler's treacherous attack, but the truth was that the two giants could not live under the same sun. When a fight is inevitable, strike first. This is what Nazi Germany did on June 22, 1941.

And for our hero, this situation turned out to be beneficial - he was returned from the camps, cured and sent to the post of deputy commander of the 25th Rifle Corps.

It was a sad return. The wife, who told about all the sorrows and sorrows, a new assignment, where during the initial analysis of the entrusted divisions it became clear: discipline is lame, there is no coherence, and most commanders do not even pay attention to this.

The front is rolling back to the East

In the biography of Alexander Gorbatov, the Second World War, as in the fate of the entire long-suffering Soviet people, is a tragedy mixed with a sense of pride and the pain of loss. The Soviet Union did not break under the yoke of the enemy, but paid too high a price for it.

He asked to be directed to the most difficult section. The Vitebsk direction was an extremely important section of the front. When Alexander Vasilyevich found himself near Vitebsk, he found a depressing picture: entire units were moving east. Someone received a false order through the chain, someone was frightened by the actions of enemy artillery. Dejection and depression reigned in the ranks of Soviet soldiers.

Gorbatov reassigned the alarmists and organized the defense. But the general retreat could not be stopped. And on July 22, one of the German machine gunners managed to wound Alexander Vasilyevich in the leg. He returned to Moscow, but a sense of guilt forced this Soviet commander to rush into battle (and without recovering from his wound).

Onslaught and surprise

The ability to think outside the box, separating reasonable risk from adventure is a quality that is not given to every commander, but General Gorbatov had it, and it manifested itself in the most difficult situations. This was the case during the battle for the city of Orel, when he convinced Zhukov to allocate an independent sector for his 3rd Army to break through. The task was complicated by the need to cross the Zushi River. But Headquarters representative G.K. Zhukov believed Gorbatov, who with his army was initially assigned a supporting role in ensuring the offensive. Even experienced German officers were surprised by such a maneuver.

The manner in which Hero of the Soviet Union Gorbatov viewed combat operations was distinguished by the fact that he planned each of his operations taking into account the specific situation, avoiding repetitions and templates. I always tried to use the factor of surprise. He was opposed to the assault on Berlin, believing that the city itself would have surrendered. For him, the main goal was not to kill, but to capture as many as possible and do everything possible to eliminate unnecessary risk.

Conclusion

The biography and awards of Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov are impressive. Having started his service in the cavalry, he continued it in the ground forces, commanding a separate air guards landing army. He was the commander of the Baltic Military District. Neither the war, where he was a hero and “Bateya”, for his fighters, nor the camps and torture of the NKVD broke him. He did not slander himself or others, preserving the honor of the officer. He lived according to conscience and truth, as his father taught him. He didn’t smoke or drink - he kept the oath he made to his friends in his youth.

At birth he was given the name Alexander, which translated from ancient Greek means “protector of people.” This is how he will remain in the memory of the people.

In the thirties, the Stalinist leadership carried out a massive purge of the command staff of the Red Army. Much has been written about this period; repressions against party leaders and military commanders were even considered for a long time to be the main reason for the series of defeats in the initial period of the war.

General Gorbatov spent almost two and a half years in the camps, from October 1938 to March 1941. The reason for the arrest was the courage shown in a dispute with NKVD investigators who accused his friend of treason. The brigade commander, deputy commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps, was stripped of all government awards and turned into a powerless slave of the Gulag, occupying a level below criminals in the prison hierarchy. Thieves and murderers mocked the honored order bearer, not forgetting to remind him of how the state that he was called upon to protect treated him.

They could have shot him, but for some reason they didn’t. Apparently, the bravest and most talented commanders were kept in reserve. They made him suffer, but did not kill Rokossovsky. General Gorbatov also took a sip.

He survived, and just before the war he was released and reinstated. The time of difficult trials was approaching. In June 1941, the value of competent and courageous commanders turned out to be higher than that of informers and lackeys.

General Gorbatov retained his best. Kolyma did not break him. Having gone through all the stages of his military career, starting from private, he valued the soldier and tried to fight in such a way that he had to send as few funerals as possible. It was not easy, there were often arguments. The commander knew only too well how the objections to his superiors could end.

During the fighting on the Northern Donets, one of these disputes led to his removal from office. Refusal to carry out a senseless order could have led to more tragic consequences, but the Battle of Kursk began, and General Gorbatov was needed again.

In those cases where it was necessary to take the initiative and take responsibility, this commander did not hesitate. His decisions were correct, he acted decisively, without fear of his superiors’ anger.

In 1944, a delegation of home front workers and Donetsk miners visited the active army. They told the command about the difficulties that had arisen in the liberated territories, and that the lack of timber was preventing the full operation. General Alexander Gorbatov gave the order to send a train of ownerless logs from Poland to the rear. The consequences of this act could have been the saddest, but here J.V. Stalin himself stood up for the decisive commander. He figured out the results of the investigation and closed the case, making a pun: “Gorbatov’s grave will fix it...”

The people who served under this remarkable commander were infected by his directness and honesty. An elderly medical worker assigned to the general in order to treat his spine damaged during camp work admitted that she was required to report on all conversations of the commander of the 3rd Army. An unpleasant explanation took place with the Supreme Commander himself, after which the overzealous special officer, recruiter of informants, went to the front line.

In April 1945, Gorbatov brought his own to Berlin itself. His unvarnished biography is presented in his book “Years and Wars. Notes of an Army Commander,” written after the war. Life turned out to be difficult, but honest, as the fate of a Russian soldier should be.

G Orbatov Alexander Vasilievich - commander of the 3rd Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Colonel General.

Born on March 9 (21), 1891 in the village of Pakhotino, Vyaznikovsky district, Vladimir province, now part of the Palekh district of the Ivanovo region. From a large (9 children) peasant family. Russian. He graduated from a three-year rural school. At the age of fourteen he went to work in the city of Shuya. He worked in a shoe store.

In October 1912 he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army. Served in the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment (Eagle). Participant of the 1st World War from its first days. He took part in hostilities in Poland, in the Carpathians, on the Stokhod River, was wounded in battle, and rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. He was awarded two St. George's crosses and two St. George's medals. In 1917 - member of the regimental and divisional soldiers' committees. In March 1918 he was demobilized and returned to his homeland. He was a member of the volost executive committee and a member of the poor peasants' committee.

Peaceful life did not last long. In August 1918, Gorbatov volunteered for the Red Army. Red Army soldier of the reserve regiment (Kineshma), from November 1918 - cavalry reconnaissance of the 2nd Kyiv Fortress Infantry Regiment. He took part in battles against Denikin’s troops, showed courage and resourcefulness, and in October 1919 was appointed commander of a cavalry platoon of the cavalry regiment of the 60th Infantry Division. Later he commanded a squadron in this regiment on the Southern Front. From April 1919, on the Southwestern Front against Polish troops, he was deputy commander and acting commander of the 100th Cavalry Regiment of the 17th Cavalry Division. In March 1920 he was wounded in a battle with the Poles; in May 1920 he returned to duty and was appointed commander of the 2nd Don-Kuban Cavalry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. From August 1920 he commanded a separate Bashkir cavalry brigade. Member of the RCP(b)/VKP(b)/CPSU since 1919. After the Civil War, his brigade took part in the liquidation of Petliura’s troops and other nationalist and bandit formations in Ukraine. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

After the Civil War he remained in service in the Red Army. From April 1921 - commander of the 1st separate squadron of the Cheka troops (Kamenets-Podolsky), from November 1921 - commander of the 12th Chervono-Cossack regiment of the 2nd division of the Chervonoy Cossacks (Shepetovka), from November 1923 - commander of the 5th 1st cavalry regiment (Starokonstantinov), from October 1927 commanded the 7th Chernigov Chervony Cossacks cavalry regiment of the 2nd cavalry division in the Kharkov Military District. Since October 1928 - commander of the 2nd brigade of the 3rd Bessarabian cavalry division named after G.I. Kotovsky (Berdichev). Since November 1931 - assistant commander of this cavalry division. In 1926 he graduated from cavalry advanced training courses for command personnel (Novocherkassk), and in 1930 he completed advanced training courses for senior command staff of the Red Army in Moscow.

Since January 1933, he commanded the 4th Turkestan Mountain Cavalry Division of the Central Asian Military District in the Turkmen SSR. For excellent military and political training in 1936 he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Since May 1936 - commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the Kyiv Military District.

In July 1937, he was removed from office; in September 1937, “for connections with enemies of the people,” he was expelled from the party, removed from his post and transferred to the disposal of the Directorate for Command and Control of the Red Army. After six months of forced idleness, in March 1938 he was appointed deputy commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps in the Belarusian Military District (Osipovichi). However, in October of the same 1938, he was again removed from his post, summoned to Moscow, and on the very first night of his arrival, October 22, 1938, he was arrested. In prison he was subjected to torture and beatings, but pleaded not guilty. On May 8, 1939, he was sentenced under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 15 years in prison followed by 5 years of disqualification. He served his prison term in a camp in Kolyma. Released on March 5, 1941, he was immediately reinstated in the Red Army. In April 1941, he was appointed deputy commander of the 25th Rifle Corps of the Kharkov Military District.

In the battles of the Great Patriotic War, brigade commander A.V. Gorbatov - from June 1941. The corps was hastily transferred to the Western Front and, as part of the 19th Army, took part in heavy defensive battles in the Vitebsk direction, then participated in the Battle of Smolensk. In battle on July 21, 1941, he was seriously wounded.

After recovery, he was enrolled in a group of officers at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the South-Western Direction, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko. In September 1941, he was appointed commander of the 226th Infantry Division of the 21st Army near Kharkov. Participated in defensive battles near Kharkov in October 1941. From the very first days of hostilities, A.V. Gorbatov set a goal for himself and his subordinates: to ensure that each unit, while still on the defensive, took part in a daring sortie. During difficult and largely unsuccessful winter offensive battles on the Southwestern Front, he planned and carried out a number of bold raids behind enemy lines, smashing and routing small garrisons. The division captured large trophies and hundreds of prisoners, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

From June 1942 - inspector of the cavalry of the Southwestern Front, from August - of the Stalingrad Front, and from September - of the Don Front. On behalf of the front commander, Eremenko led the fighting on one of the front sectors, repelling an attempt by German troops to capture Stalingrad on the move. From October 1942 - deputy commander of the 24th Army on the Stalingrad and Don fronts, participated in the encirclement and liquidation of the 6th German Army in the Stalingrad ring.

Since April 1943 - commander of the 20th Guards Rifle Corps of the 4th Guards Army. Two months later, in June 1943, he became commander of the 3rd Army (Bryansk, then 2nd Belorussian Fronts).

In July 1943, in the Oryol offensive operation, he skillfully organized the army's military operations to break through the enemy's heavily fortified defenses on the Zusha River and the subsequent offensive as part of the Bryansk Front. On August 5, 1943, troops of the 3rd Army, in cooperation with the 63rd Army, liberated the city of Orel. In offensive operations in the fall of 1943 and winter of 1944, the 3rd Army under the command of A.V. Gorbatov successfully crossed large water obstacles (the Sozh, Dnieper and others rivers), and participated in the Belarusian operation of 1944.

In January-February 1945, General A.V. Gorbatov skillfully commanded army troops in breaking through the enemy’s long-term defenses and repelling his counterattacks during the East Prussian operation (as part of the 2nd Belorussian Front). For skillful leadership of the entrusted army troops during the East Prussian operation and demonstrated personal courage, the commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Marshal Rokossovsky, was nominated for the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, but in Moscow the army commander’s merits were rated higher...

U Kaz of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 10, 1945 to Colonel General Gorbatov Alexander Vasilievich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The 3rd Army under the command of A.V. Gorbatov took part in the Berlin operation. On May 7, 1945, army troops reached the Elbe River and met with American troops.

After the war, from June 1945 he commanded the 5th Shock Army and at the same time was the commandant of Berlin. Since October 1946 - commander of the 11th Guards Army. Since March 1950 - commander of the airborne army. Since May 1953 - Commander of the Airborne Forces. Since May 1954 - Commander of the Baltic Military District. Since March 1958 - military inspector-adviser of the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

In 1952-1961 - candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for 2-5 convocations (1946-1962).

Lived in the hero city of Moscow. Died December 7, 1973. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Military ranks:
brigade commander (11/26/1935),
Major General (12/25/1941),
Lieutenant General (04/28/1943),
Colonel General (06/29/1944),
General of the Army (08/08/1955).

Awarded 3 Orders of Lenin (06/3/1944; 02/21/1945; 04/10/1945), the Order of the October Revolution (03/25/1971), 4 Orders of the Red Banner (1921; 03/27/1942; 11/3/1944; 11/15/1950), 2 orders ami Suvorov 1st degree (09/22/1943, 05/29/1945), orders of Kutuzov 1st degree (07/23/1944), Suvorov 2nd degree (08/27/1943), Kutuzov 2nd degree (02/8/1943), 2 orders Red Star (08/16/1936; 03/21/1961), medals, Weapons of Honor, a foreign award - the Order of the Legion of Honor, commander's degree (USA, 1945).

Honorary citizen of the cities of Bryansk, Mtsensk (1968), Novosil, Orel (1968).

Busts of the Hero are installed in the cities of Orel and Novosil, Oryol region, which he liberated; the monument is on the collective farm named after him in the Ivanovo region, memorial plaques are in the cities of Mtsensk, Oryol region, and Shuya, Ivanovo region. Streets in the cities of Gomel, Ivanovo, Ufa, Shuya, Rogachev are named after A.V. Gorbatov. The feature film “General” was shot about him.
Essays:
Years and wars. - M.: Voenizdat, 1965.

Biography updated by Anton Bocharov
(Koltsovo village, Novosibirsk region)

FROM THE AWARD SHEET

A brief, specific statement of personal combat feat or merit

In preparation for an operation to break through the enemy’s deeply layered defenses on the western bank of the river. Narew at the front: Ponekevka, Duzhe, Dombrovka and the entry of troops into East Prussia by the Guards. Colonel General Gorbatov personally conducted a series of practical training on real terrain and gave instructions to the commanders of corps, divisions, regiments, and in the main direction, battalion commanders, how to methodically break through the enemy’s defenses and how to consistently build up attacks during the offensive.

During the offensive, the troops of Guards. Colonel-General Gorbatov, acting on the right flank of the strike group of front forces, with a swift strike on the first day of the offensive, broke through the enemy’s defenses to the entire tactical depth and advanced 7-10 troops. On the second day of the operation, the enemy, with the forces of the newly introduced “Gross Germany” tank division, in cooperation with other units, struck a blow at the group of army troops that had moved forward. At this critical moment, Guards. Colonel General Gorbatov, personally being in the combat formations of units 35 and 42 SK, showing courage and determination, repelled all enemy counterattacks and thereby ensured the development of the success of the main group of front forces.

Troops of the 3rd Army under the command of Guards. Colonel General Gorbatov also broke through the second heavily fortified enemy defensive line on the river. Ozhits and developing the offensive with bold roundabout actions, immediately broke into its intermediate defensive lines and, rapidly pursuing, entered the territory of East Prussia.

During the operation, army troops occupied the cities of Krasnoselets, Ednorozhets, Khozhel, Yanovo, Willenberg, Ortenburg, Jedwabno, Passenhain, Wartenburg, Gutstadt and, in cooperation with the 3rd Guards KK, the city of Allenstein.

From January 14 to February 10 this year. Army troops inflicted the following damage on the enemy in manpower and equipment: destroyed 23918 soldiers and officers, 203 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 300 guns of various calibers, 14 ammunition depots, captured: 2258 soldiers and officers, 79 tanks and self-propelled guns, various guns 198 caliber, 93 different warehouses, 1890 wagons and platforms, 83 steam locomotives, a lot of other military equipment, food and enemy equipment. The army troops marched 163 km with intense battles and cleared an area of ​​3,600 sq km from enemy troops. Guard Colonel General Gorbatov, throughout the entire offensive period, constantly visited the troops, monitored the implementation of assigned tasks and analyzed the situation, quickly and decisively brought his reserves into action to build up attacks to develop the offensive.

For a well-prepared, skillfully and successfully executed military operation of the Guard, Colonel General Gorbatov is worthy of being awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree.

Commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky
Member of the Military Council of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Lieutenant General Subbotin
February 16, 1945

Photo from the site sindrom-merilin-monro-fb2.ru

After interrogations in the Lefortovo prison, brigade commander Alexander Gorbatov was returned to his cell on a stretcher, and when he came to his senses, they continued to torture him. But the investigation failed to get him to incriminate himself and his colleagues on the sweeping accusation of having ties with “enemies of the people.” However, he was sentenced to 15 years in the camps and sent to Kolyma. He returned to the army after the case was reviewed, before the start of the war, and proved himself to be a talented commander, devoting more than 60 years to this craft .

In 1944, the commander of the 3rd Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, Lieutenant General Alexander Gorbatov, committed an offense, which, as he wrote in his memoirs “Years and Wars,” “was recognized as more than doubtful,” and in the Kremlin was classified as crime. One of the officers, a native of Donbass, received a letter from his father: he complained to his son that to restore the mines destroyed by the Nazis, timber was needed, but very little of it was supplied. Having learned about this, the army commander said to his subordinate: “So write to your father, let him come himself or send someone to us for timber. Do you see how much forest there is? We will cut down, we will load the empty goods leaving us...”

He said it, and with a lot of things to do, he forgot about this conversation. He remembered about it only when he was informed that “a delegation from Donbass had arrived.” Gorbatov invited a member of the Army Military Council, Major General Ivan Konnov, to a conversation with three miners. “Well, what do you think, Ivan Prokofievich, should we help the miners?” - Gorbatov turned to him. And I received an unexpected answer: “Yes, we should help. But here’s the problem: it is strictly forbidden to export timber.” Gorbatov had to admit that he knew nothing about this government resolution. Nevertheless, he decided to cut down the forest and send it “under the guise of the need to build defensive lines in the rear of the army.” “And if something happens, I will take all the blame upon myself,” he finished. Konnov nodded his head barely noticeably. Gorbatov did not mention the dispatch of the first batch of harvested timber with a volume of 50,000 cubic meters in his memoirs, only emphasizing that loading into trains going to the rear empty took place mainly between stops and sidings. But it was not possible to keep the “operation” secret, and, according to commander, “the hour of reckoning has come.”

"Gorbatov's grave will be fixed"

Three men in civilian clothes, authorized by Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin, arrived from Moscow to army headquarters to understand the situation. Gorbatov spoke about the miners’ request and his desire to help restore the coal industry, emphasizing that he was warned by a member of the Military Council about the inadmissibility of timber removal, but made the decision on his own responsibility. The interview-interrogation lasted for four hours. The army commander noticed that the eldest of the visitors mainly asked questions about the essence of what had happened, while his younger companions were constantly confused by questions about the events of seven years ago, when Gorbatov was arrested and convicted.

“Not meeting an opponent, I even felt disappointed”

Gorbatov was born on March 21, 1891 in the village of Pakhotino (now Ivanovo region) into a peasant family. In 1902, he graduated from a rural three-year school with a certificate of merit, worked on his father’s peasant farm, in winter latrines, and at a shoe factory in Shuya. In October 1912, 21-year-old Gorbatov was “shaved,” that is, drafted into the tsarist army. He ended up in the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment. “Serving in the cavalry did not seem difficult to me: military science was easy, I was considered a serviceable and disciplined soldier,” he recalled many decades later. “I received a “good” rating in combat and physical training, “excellent” in shooting and tactics.” "I was often used as an example in tactical training for my ingenuity and desire to deceive a hypothetical enemy."

When World War 1 began, the Chernigov regiment took an active part in hostilities in Poland and the Carpathians. “My always willingness to get involved in a risky business turned into the reasonable risk of a front-line soldier. The habit of reasonable prudence inherent in me from childhood also came in handy,” Gorbatov wrote in his book. “Many of my regiment comrades, when they first went to war, were afraid and thought that they would be wounded and left on the battlefield or killed and buried in a foreign land. Therefore, they waited with fear to meet the enemy... As far as I remember, I have not had such experiences<…>Where many, previously indifferent to religion, often began to “trust in God,” I became convinced that all the power lies in a person - in his mind and will. Therefore, not meeting the enemy, I even felt disappointed and always preferred to be on reconnaissance or patrol than to swallow dust, moving in a common column. The bosses appreciated my unfailing readiness to go on any reconnaissance mission."

Gorbatov ended the war as a senior non-commissioned officer; “for feats of personal bravery” he was awarded four St. George crosses and medals. On March 5, 1918, the Chernigov Hussar Regiment was disbanded and the personnel were demobilized. Gorbatov went to his relatives, but in 1919 he decided to join the Red Army as a volunteer. Gorbatov's commanding talent, determination, excellent knowledge of the cavalry regulations of the Russian army and extensive front-line experience quickly promoted him from the ranks of the Red Army. He successively commanded a platoon, a squadron, a regiment and a separate cavalry brigade.

Gorbatov's track record after the end of the Civil War looks no less impressive: from 1921 - commander of the 7th Chernigov Chervony Cossacks cavalry regiment, from 1928 - cavalry brigade, from January 11, 1933 - 4th Turkestan Mountain Cavalry Division, from May 1936 - 2nd Cavalry Division. Gorbatov understood well that his education was not enough to command large cavalry units. “In those years there was a kind of fever, everyone, including me, was eager to learn,” he recalled in his memoirs. “And, perhaps, self-education in short hours of rest, personal time gave us what we could not get in childhood and youth. What can be called "internal culture", "intelligence" was developed. Only in 1925 did he graduate from the department of regimental commanders at the cavalry courses for improving command personnel in Novocherkassk, and in 1930 - the Higher Academic Courses. On November 26, 1935 he was awarded personal military rank “brigade commander.” By this time he also became a holder of the Order of the Red Banner.

"Trojan horse" of the security officer

In September 1937, the commander of the cavalry division of the Kyiv Military District, Gorbatov, was accused of “connecting with the enemies of the people” and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU (b). Shortly before this, he learned from the newspapers that the state security agencies had “uncovered a military-fascist conspiracy.” Among the names of the conspirators were major Soviet military leaders, including Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky. This news, according to Gorbatov, “downright stunned” him. How could it happen, he asked himself, that military leaders who played a prominent role in the defeat of the interventionists and internal counter-revolution, who did so much to improve the army, could become enemies of the people? “In the end, after going through various explanations, I settled on the most popular one at that time: “No matter how you feed the wolf, he keeps looking into the forest,” Gorbatov later wrote. “This conclusion had an apparent basis in the fact that M.N. Tukhachevsky and some other people arrested with him came from wealthy families and were officers in the tsarist army. “Obviously,” many said then, speculating, “during trips abroad on business trips or for treatment, they fell into the networks of foreign intelligence services.” .

In the spring of 1937, the commander of the Kyiv Military District, Iona Yakir, was arrested in the case of the “Tukhachevsky group”. “For me it was a terrible blow,” Gorbatov recalled. “I knew Yakir personally and respected him. True, in the depths of my soul there was still a glimmer of hope that this was a mistake, that they would sort it out and release him.” And on July 24, Pyotr Grigoriev, the commander of the cavalry corps, which included Gorbatov’s division, was arrested. On the same day, a meeting was held in the division, at which the head of the political department of the corps announced that the corps commander “turned out to be an enemy of the people” and called for “branding him with shame.” When Gorbatov was given the floor, he decisively stated that Grigoriev, a hereditary worker, a participant in the Civil War, awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, “had no vacillations in matters of party policy.” “This is one of the best commanders in the entire army. If he were alien to our party, it would be noticeable, especially to me, one of his closest subordinates for many years. I believe that the investigation will sort it out and Grigoriev’s innocence will be proven,” - Gorbatov finished his speech. But his voice, as he wrote in his memoirs, “seemed to be drowned in an unkind chorus” of condemnations.

A few days after the rally, Gorbatov learned that the commander of one of the division’s regiments had given the commissioner of the special department, “who almost did not know how to ride a horse,” a well-trained horse that had won a championship in district competitions. Summoning his subordinate, the brigade commander said: “Apparently, you feel some sins behind you, and therefore are placating the special department? Take the horse back immediately, otherwise it will be spoiled by a rider who does not know how to handle it!” The next day, the regiment commander reported to the brigade commander that his order had been carried out. And a month later, by order of the new commander of the district, Gorbatov was removed from his post and placed at the disposal of the Main Personnel Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense. At the same time, the party headquarters expelled him from the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), in which he had been a member since 1919, with the wording “for connections with enemies of the people.” All of Gorbatov’s attempts to defend himself in the district party commission were unsuccessful: it approved the decision of the lower organization.

At the beginning of March 1938, Gorbatov’s personal file was reviewed by the party commission of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, which nevertheless canceled the previous penalty and reinstated the brigade commander in the party. Moreover, he was appointed to the post of deputy commander of the cavalry corps. “It’s true,” Gorbatov wrote, “I would have gone with much greater pleasure to command the division, since by my nature I prefer independent work, but I was not given it.” He attributed this to the fact that the disgrace from him had not been completely removed. Subsequent events confirmed his worst fears. When corps commander Georgy Zhukov was promoted and handed over the formation to Gorbatov, he hoped that he would be confirmed in this position, but soon corps commander Andrei Eremenko arrived in Zhukov’s place. Their career paths had already crossed, and the two cavalrymen quickly found a common language. “Life was getting better,” Gorbatov wrote optimistically about that time in his memoirs. But soon the tone of the notes changed.

"Refrain from issuing planned uniforms to Gorbatov"

“In September, the storekeeper of the corps headquarters reminded me to receive the uniforms due according to the winter plan; when I arrived to him the next day, he with an embarrassed look showed me a telegram from the commissar of the Fomin corps, who was at that time in Moscow: “Refrain from issuing planned uniforms to Gorbatov." Following this strange telegram, an order came for my transfer to the reserve," Gorbatov recalled. "On October 15, 1938, I went to Moscow to find out the reason for my dismissal from the army." Gorbatov was not allowed to see the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov; he was received for a few minutes by the head of the Personnel Directorate for command and control personnel of the Red Army, Efim Shchadenko. “We will find out your situation,” he said, and then asked where he was staying.

At two o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the door of Gorbatov's room at the CDKA hotel. Three military men entered, one of them announced to the brigade commander from the threshold that he was under arrest. Gorbatov demanded an arrest warrant, but heard in response: “You can see who we are.” One of the security officers began to remove orders from the brigade commander’s tunic lying on a chair, another began to cut off insignia from his uniform, and the third did not take his eyes off Gorbatov as he was getting dressed. He was brought to Lubyanka and placed in a cell where there were already seven prisoners. One of the awakened cellmates greeted him with the words: “Comrade military man is probably thinking: I myself am not guilty of anything, but I ended up in the company of state criminals. If you think so, then it’s in vain! We are the same as you. Don’t be shy.” “, sit down on your bed and tell us what is happening in this world, otherwise we have been torn away from it for a long time and know nothing.”

Gorbatov later learned that they were all former responsible workers: “They impressed me as cultured and serious people. However, I was horrified when I learned that all of them had already signed utter nonsense during interrogations with investigators, confessing to imaginary crimes for themselves and for others. Some did this after physical pressure, and others because they were intimidated by stories about all sorts of horrors. This was completely incomprehensible to me. I told them: after all, your slander brings misfortune not only to you and those against whom you bear false witness, but also to their relatives and friends. And finally, I said, you are misleading the investigation and the Soviet government<…>By your false testimony, you have already committed a serious crime, for which you are sentenced to prison. To this they answered me ironically: “We’ll see how you speak in a week!”

“Those who have nothing to write are free, and you write”

Gorbatov was summoned for questioning only on the fourth day after his arrest. The investigator, without giving his last name, gave the defendant a paper and pen and suggested that he “describe all the crimes he has committed.” “If we are talking about my crimes, then I have nothing to write,” Gorbatov replied. “Those who have nothing to write are free, and you write.” But he failed to intimidate Gorbatov; he did not even touch the pen. At the second interrogation, he was again asked to give written testimony, and, having received a refusal, they threatened: “You blame yourself.”

The next day, Gorbatov was transported to Lefortovo prison. His cell neighbors turned out to be a former brigade commander and a high-ranking official from the People's Commissariat of Trade ( Gorbatov did not mention their names in his memoirs). Both, as the new prisoner found out, had already signed confessions and advised their cellmate: it’s better to write right away, because it doesn’t matter if you don’t sign today, you’ll sign in a week or six months. “I’d rather die,” Gorbatov replied, “than slander myself, much less others.”

In the Lefortovo prison, after Gorbatov’s next refusal to confess and “name his accomplices in anti-Soviet activities,” “bonebreakers” called by investigator Yakov Stolbunsky began to work on him. “There were five interrogations with an interval of two or three days; sometimes I returned to the cell on a stretcher. Then for about twenty days I was allowed to catch my breath,” Gorbatov recalled. “The ominously hissing voice of Stolbunsky still sounds in my ears, repeating when I, exhausted and bloodied, they were carried away: “You will sign, you will sign!” Finally, they left me alone and did not call me for three months. At this time, I again believed that my liberation was approaching...”

On May 8, 1939, Gorbatov was ordered to prepare with his things to leave. “Infinitely joyful, I walked along the corridors of the prison,” he recalled. “Then we stopped in front of the box. Here they ordered me to leave my things and led me further. We stopped at a door. One of the escorts left with a report. A minute later I was led into a small hall: I found myself in front of the court of a military collegium. Three people were sitting at the table. The chairman<…>I noticed a wide gold stripe on the sleeve of the black uniform. “Captain 1st rank,” I thought. “The joyful mood did not leave me, because all I wanted was for the court to sort out my case.”

The trial lasted no more than five minutes. The chairman asked: “Why didn’t you confess to your crimes during the investigation?” The defendant replied that he had nothing to confess. “Why are ten people pointing at you, who have already confessed and been convicted?” - asked the chairman. “I read the book “Toilers of the Sea” by Victor Hugo,” Gorbatov answered, “it says: once in the sixteenth century, eleven people suspected of having connections with the devil were captured in the British Isles. Ten of them admitted their guilt, although not without help torture, but the eleventh did not confess. Then King James II ordered the poor man to be boiled alive in a cauldron: the broth, they say, would prove that this one also had a connection with the devil. Apparently, the ten comrades who confessed and pointed at me experienced the same thing, like those ten Englishmen, but they did not want to experience what was destined to the eleventh.”

The judges looked at each other, and the chairman asked his colleagues: “Is everything clear?” They nodded their heads. Gorbatov was taken out into the corridor. A few minutes later he was returned and the sentence was announced: fifteen years in prison and camp plus five years of loss of rights. “It was so unexpected that where I was standing, I sank to the floor,” Gorbatov noted in his memoirs.

The brigade commander was shown a place "near the bucket"

On the same day, Gorbatov was transferred to a cell in the Butyrskaya prison, where about 70 convicts were being held, awaiting transport to the prison camp. Upon entering, he loudly introduced himself: “Brigade Commander Gorbatov.” The cell leader showed him a place near the door and bucket. “As some left and others came, I became an old-timer and moved from the bucket and the door closer to the window,” Gorbatov wrote. “Among my cellmates again there were many people who, during interrogations, wrote, as they said, “novels.” “and resignedly signed the interrogation protocols concocted by the investigator. And what was not in these “novels”! One, for example, admitted that he came from a princely family and since 1918 had been living on someone else’s passport, taken from the peasant he killed, that all this time harmed Soviet power, etc."

Gorbatov was sent to the Far East to serve his sentence. On the way and at stops, Gorbatov saw several military trains with troops, artillery, tanks and vehicles on platforms. The war with Japan has begun, the brigade commander wondered? But after Nerchinsk, Gorbatov no longer observed military transport, so he assumed that troops were being transferred to Mongolia, but he learned later that clashes between Soviet troops and Japanese troops began there.

At the beginning of July 1939, a batch of prisoners was taken to Vladivostok and placed outside the city in wooden barracks surrounded by barbed wire. Here Gorbatov learned that he had to travel by sea to Kolyma, they were only waiting for new batches of prisoners to be loaded onto a large steamer. One day he heard the voice of the camp duty officer calling out those who wanted to carry water to the boilers and volunteered for this job. Here he met, in a group of convicted women who came for boiling water, the niece of Corps Commander Grigoriev. She was the wife of the head of the division's special department, but this did not save her from arrest and conviction on charges of espionage. The woman knew nothing about the fate of Grigoriev, who was arrested a year ago. ( On November 19, 1937, Grigoriev was sentenced to capital punishment by the Military Collegium of the USSR Armed Forces and executed on the same day.)

A week later, about 7 thousand inhabitants of the transit camp were loaded onto the ship "Dzhurma". In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, according to Gorbatov’s story, two “urkagans” approached him early in the morning and pulled his boots out from under his head. “Having hit me hard in the chest and head, one of the criminals said with ridicule: “He sold me boots a long time ago and took the money, but he still won’t give me the boot.” Laughing, they walked away with the loot, but when they saw that I was in In desperation, I follow them, they stopped and began to beat me again in front of the silent people. Other “urkagans,” looking at this, laughed and shouted: “Add more to him! Why are you yelling? The boots have not been yours for a long time." Only one of the political ones said: "What are you doing, how can he remain barefoot?" "Then one of the robbers, taking off his supports, threw them to me. More than once in prison I heard stories about the bestial rudeness of criminals, but, frankly, I never thought that in the presence of other prisoners they could rob with impunity like that. Be that as it may, I lost my boots, and there was no use complaining. The security, led by the chief, got along with the “urkagans,” encouraging a tendency toward violence and using them to mock “enemies of the people.”

"The criminals were well-fed, but we were starving"

In July 1939, Gorbatov arrived at the Maldyak gold mine, located six hundred and fifty kilometers from Magadan. The civilians here lived in wooden houses, and in the camp behind barbed wire there were ten large, sanitary-style, double tents, each for fifty to sixty prisoners. Wooden barracks for security, mines and butars - structures for washing soil - were located outside the zone. “In our camp there were about four hundred people convicted under Article 58 and up to fifty “urkagans”, inveterate criminals, on whose conscience there was more than one conviction, and some had several, even eight, robberies with murder. the elders are above us,” Gorbatov recalled.

The soil for washing gold was mined at a depth of 30-40 meters, the prisoners worked with miners' electric jackhammers. The excavated soil was transported by wheelbarrows to the lift, climbed up the shaft, and then delivered by trolleys to the butars. “The work at the mine was quite grueling, especially considering the low-calorie diet. As a rule, “enemies of the people” were sent to do the harder work, and “urkagans” to do the easier work,” Gorbatov testified in his memoirs. “They were also appointed as foremen and cooks.” , orderlies and tent elders. Naturally, the small amount of fat that was released onto the boiler ended up first of all in the stomachs of the “lesson.” There were three categories of food: for those who did not meet the quota, for those who fulfilled it, and for those who exceeded it. Among the latter were criminals. Although they worked very little, the accountants were from their own company. They cheated, attributing to themselves and theirs the production at our expense. Therefore, the criminals were well-fed, and we were starving."

The prisoners' enemy, besides malnutrition, was frost and strong winds. Gorbatov’s cherished dream was to quickly get to the tent, under the holey blanket. But even on the bunk, the cold found him and did not let him sleep. There was less and less strength left, it became more difficult to work. Soon his legs began to swell and his teeth began to loosen. The duties of a doctor in the camp were performed by a paramedic, sentenced to ten years. He “listed” Gorbatov as disabled, and he was transferred to work as a watchman. But the scurvy did not subside. I had to go again to the paramedic, who wrote a conclusion: Gorbatov must be sent to another camp, located twenty-three kilometers from Magadan. “Now everything depended on the head of the camp. Luckily for me, he approved the act, and at the end of March 1940 I found myself near Magadan. This, and only this, saved me from imminent death,” Gorbatov recalled.

Gorbatov himself recovered from scurvy in a new place. He volunteered for overtime work sorting vegetables. Since it was impossible to gnaw raw potatoes and carrots with loose teeth, he made a grater from a found piece of tinplate. After some time, the teeth began to strengthen, and the swelling of the legs began to subside. In the summer he volunteered to work in the fisheries. The regime here was less strict, prisoners walked freely around the village. Here Gorbatov met his comrade, the former commander of the 28th Cavalry Division Fedorov, who was serving a prison sentence. When the short Kolyma summer arrived, Gorbatov signed up to harvest hay in the taiga for a month, but the work order turned out to be shorter.

"You are being summoned to Moscow to review the case"

Along with the cart on which food was brought to prisoners engaged in haymaking once a week, an order came: prisoner Gorbatov should return immediately and report to the head of the camp. To Gorbatov’s surprise, he received him well, asked how the hay harvest was going, and expressed satisfaction with his work. Then, with a grin, he asked if he knew why he was recalled? “No, I don’t know,” the prisoner answered with alarm. “You commanded a division, your last name is Gorbatov, your name is Alexander Vasilyevich, do you have fifteen plus five?” Having received an affirmative answer, he said: “You are being summoned to Moscow to reconsider the case. You need to be ready to go by boat to Magadan tomorrow morning. My advice: be careful in your conversations and actions until you reach Moscow.” And he shook the prisoner’s hand goodbye.

Gorbatov recalled: “It was hard to part with Fedorov and other comrades remaining in the camp. They all shed bitter tears, only I had tears that were bitter for them and joyful for myself. Everyone asked me to say in Moscow that they were not guilty of anything and especially not enemies of their native government. Leaving on the boat, I saw them for a long time standing on the shore, waving their hands farewell."

Gorbatov later learned that all this time his wife did not stop knocking on the doors of the NKVD, the prosecutor's office, the Supreme Court and the People's Commissariat of Defense. Finally, on March 20, 1940, she received an envelope stamped by the Supreme Court. For a long time I did not dare to open it, but when I opened it, I began to cry. She was informed that the plenum of the Supreme Court overturned the verdict against me and sent the case for further investigation. “S. M. Budyonny’s speech in my defense at the plenum of the Supreme Court played a big role in this decision,” Gorbatov recalled with gratitude. “He said that he knew me as an honest commander and a communist. I learned about this later from one of the military prosecutors , who was also at this plenum."

Gorbatov’s journey to Moscow lasted almost six months. In Nakhodka Bay, Gorbatov accidentally met another former colleague, who commanded the 9th Cavalry Division before his arrest. Here Ushakov “commanded” nine camp kitchens and considered himself lucky to have received such a privileged position. “We hugged and kissed deeply. Ushakov did not get to Kolyma due to health reasons: an old warrior, he was wounded eighteen times during the fight against the Basmachi in Central Asia. He had four orders for military services,” Gorbatov wrote in his memoirs. “During that time , while we lived in Nakhodka, Ushakov experienced changes for the worse: he was removed from the post of foreman and assigned to heavy earthworks. The authorities realized that those convicted under Article 58 are not allowed to occupy such positions when there are “urkagans” or "household workers"..."

After arriving in Moscow, Gorbatov again found himself in the already familiar Butyrka prison. About forty people lived in the cell. All of them arrived for retrial from various camps and prisons. For half of them, the review of the case had already ended, and they were returned to the camps again. “This did not frighten me,” wrote Gorbatov. “And before, when I left the cell of the Lefortovo prison or was before the court of the military board, I believed that it would help me that I did not slander either myself or others.”

Seven days later, Gorbatov was summoned to the investigator. “By presenting certain charges, he compared my answers with previous testimony. All this was done in a rather polite manner, but nevertheless, nothing gave any reason to think that the case was heading towards release,” Gorbatov wrote. “This continued until March 1 ", when I was transferred from Butyrka prison to Lubyanka. On the evening of March 4, I was informed that the investigation was completed and I would be released from prison that night."

After his release, Gorbatov went to the People's Commissariat of Defense, where he was received by Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko. He said: “Rest, get better, and then get back to work. I have already given instructions to reinstate you in the army and to pay your salary for your position for all thirty months.”

“Our main misfortune was Stalin’s fatal delusion”

Returning from the sanatorium, Gorbatov appeared at the People's Commissariat, according to him, as a different person. When asked by the People's Commissar where he would like to serve - again in the cavalry or in another branch of the military - Gorbatov replied: “No, I won’t go to the cavalry. With great pleasure I will go to the rifle formations.” “For now, go to the position of deputy commander of the rifle corps to look around and get acquainted with all sorts of innovations. And then we’ll see,” the marshal summed up.

On the same day, Gorbatov received orders to go to the 25th Rifle Corps in Ukraine. With this connection he entered the war with Nazi Germany. “Everyone was waiting for her, and there were not so many military people who still had hope that war could be avoided,” he wrote 20 years later. “However, when a surprise attack by enemy aircraft on Zhitomir was announced, Kiev , Sevastopol, Kaunas, Minsk, to railway junctions and airfields and about the passage of enemy divisions across our border, this message amazed everyone. Why? There were many reasons for this. But I, perhaps, will not be mistaken if I say that our main misfortune was Stalin's fatal delusion. We believed him then resignedly, but he turned out to be blind..."

“It was believed that the enemy was advancing so quickly because of the surprise of his attack and because Germany had put the industry of almost all of Europe at its service. Of course, this was so,” Gorbatov reflected in his memoirs. “But my old fears: how will we fight, having lost so many experienced commanders even before the war? This, undoubtedly, was at least one of the main reasons for our failures, although they did not talk about it or presented the matter as if 1937-1938, Having cleared the army of “traitors,” we increased its power.”

In the very first days of the war, Gorbatov was wounded and sent by plane to Moscow. The bullet pierced the leg right through below the knee without damaging the bones, the wound healed quickly. Two weeks later he was discharged from the hospital and enrolled as a student in the Courses for Senior Commanders. But Gorbatov insisted that he be sent to the front. On October 1, 1941, in Kharkov, he took command of the 226th Infantry Division. He distinguished himself during defensive battles near Kharkov, and then in winter offensive battles, where he repeatedly launched daring raids behind enemy lines with the defeat of his garrisons.

“In that situation, it was natural for the division commander to choose targets for private operations, to determine the strength of the detachment and the time for an attack using surprise. In such cases, the enemy usually had losses two, three, or even four times greater than we,” he wrote in his book, “it’s another matter when they write everything down to you from afar and order you to capture on January 17 - Maslova Pristan, on January 19 - Bezlyudovka, on January 24 - Arkhangelskoye, etc., indicating the hour of attack, the forces will be determined ( besides, they do not correspond to either the task or your capabilities.) In these cases, the result was almost always the same: we were not successful and suffered losses two to three times greater than the enemy<…>Particularly incomprehensible to me were the persistent orders - despite failure, to attack again, moreover, from the same starting position, in the same direction for several days in a row, to attack, not taking into account that the enemy had already strengthened this sector. Many, many times in such cases my heart bled<…>I have always preferred active action, but avoided losing people to no avail. That is why we so carefully studied the situation not only in our own zone, but also in the neighboring areas of our neighbors; that is why, with each capture of a bridgehead, we tried to make full use of surprise and, at the same time as the capture, provided for securing and holding it; I always personally followed the progress of the battle and, when I saw that the offensive did not promise success, I did not shout: “Come on, come on!” - and ordered to go on the defensive, using, as a rule, advantageous and dry terrain with good visibility and shelling."

On December 25, 1941, Gorbatov was awarded the first general rank - major general, and in March of the following year he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On June 22, 1942, Gorbatov left for a new position - cavalry inspector at the headquarters of the South-Western direction. “It was sad to part with the comrades whom I taught and from whom I myself learned a lot,” he wrote about those days, “but it was not a shame to hand over to the new commander, Colonel Usenko, a division that accounted for more than 400 captured prisoners, 84 guns (half of them heavy), 75 mortars, 104 machine guns and many other trophies. At that time, not only many divisions, but also some armies could envy such a quantity of captured things."

In his post-war memoirs, Gorbatov constantly returned to the idea that one of the main reasons for failures at the front was the lack of qualified command personnel: “How many experienced division commanders are sitting in Kolyma, while at the front it is sometimes necessary to entrust the command of units and formations to people, although and honest, and loyal, and capable of dying for our Motherland, but not knowing how to fight."

In October 1942, Gorbatov became deputy commander of the 24th Army. “The position of deputy was not according to my character - I would have been more willing to command a division,” he notes. In April 1943, Gorbatov was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and appointed commander of the 20th Guards Rifle Corps, and in June - commander of the 3rd Army, with which Gorbatov reached the Elbe. During the war, his name was mentioned 16 times in the gratitude orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. For his skillful leadership of the army in breaking through the enemy’s defenses in East Prussia, Gorbatov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union a month before the Victory.

Gorbatov said goodbye to the 3rd Army in the summer of 1945. At the beginning of June, the first commandant of Berlin, Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin, died in a car accident, after which Gorbatov was appointed to this post. “At first we were alone in Berlin, then the commandant’s offices of the Americans and the British arrived in the western part, and later the French commandant’s office was located in the English zone,” Gorbatov recalled. He noted that at first the commandants and employees of the Allied commandant’s offices were selected from those who fought, “therefore it was not so difficult to come to an agreement with them on issues of governing Berlin, but the further it went, the more difficult it became. The employees in the commandant’s offices, and even the commandants themselves, were gradually replaced those who were hostile to Soviet power."

Gorbatov was noticeably burdened by the administrative position, but only in March 1950 was he recalled from Germany and appointed commander of the Airborne Forces. And in 1954, he was appointed to the post of commander of the Baltic Military District. In August 1955, he became a full general - general of the army. From 1958 until his death in 1973, Gorbatov was in the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov was born on March 21, 1891 into a poor peasant family, in the village of Pokhotino, Palekh district, Ivanovo region, not far from Palekh, famous for icon painting. He graduated from the 3rd grade of an elementary rural school, and at the age of 12 Sasha began working: he had to help his family, where, besides him, there were four more brothers and four sisters.

Civil

In 1912, Alexander Gorbatov was drafted into the tsarist army and enlisted in the Chernigov Hussar Regiment. He took part in the First World War, fought bravely, received the rank of non-commissioned officer, two Georges and two medals. In August 1919 he joined the Red Army and fought against Denikin, the Poles, and the Petliurists in the Civil War. For military operations on the Polish front, Alexander Gorbatov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

He commanded a platoon, squadron, regiment and separate cavalry brigade. During a risky foray behind Polish lines, he was wounded and survived after a bullet pierced his cheek under the eye and exited behind the ear. After the Civil War, Gorbatov commanded a regiment for seven years, a brigade for five and a half, and a division for the same amount of time. In October 1938, he was arrested and unjustifiably sentenced to fifteen years in prison and a camp, plus five years of loss of rights... In 1941, Gorbatov’s case was reviewed, in March he was released and rehabilitated.

The Great Patriotic War

Alexander Vasilyevich met the Great Patriotic War as deputy commander of the 25th Rifle Corps on the Southwestern Front. Demoralized, poorly trained troops of the 25th Corps were surrounded near Vitebsk, and corps headquarters officers were captured. Gorbatov was wounded in the leg by a German machine gunner and sent to the hospital. The bullet penetrated his leg below the knee without damaging the bone, and two weeks later he was already discharged from the hospital.

From October 1941 to June 1942, Alexander Gorbatov commanded the 226th Infantry Division, which participated in the fighting in Ukraine. The division retreated to Kharkov. Gorbatov, on his own initiative, organized several surprise attacks on the Germans. He himself led these risky forays, well aware that if he was captured, there would be no way back for him, who had recently returned from Kolyma.

In December 1941, Gorbatov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and given the rank of major general. Here, near Kharkov, Gorbatov, who sought by any means to avoid frontal attacks that were bleeding the regiments, came into sharp conflict with the new army commander Moskalenko, who described the actions of the obstinate division commander as “criminal.” Gorbatov believed that high-ranking generals could not correctly assess the situation without seeing their soldiers, without visiting the very edge. In addition, General Moskalenko based his communication with his subordinates on a combination of insults and hysteria. Alexander Vasilyevich did not give up, he did not allow himself to be insulted by Moskolenko or anyone else. In his assessments, he was always courageous and principled. Stalin once said about him: “Only the grave will correct Gorbatov.”

In June–October 1942, Alexander Vasilyevich was an inspector of the cavalry of the Southwestern, then the Stalingrad fronts. Gorbatov could not understand why he was not given serious, responsible work. In October 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the 24th Army. In April 1943, Major General Gorbatov was awarded the military rank of lieutenant general. From April to June 1943, he commanded the 20th Guards Rifle Corps.

Battle of Kursk

But the name of Gorbatov became known throughout the country in 1943 after the Battle of Kursk. In June 1943, General Gorbatov was appointed commander of the 3rd Army, with which he fought until the end of the war. He was happy: finally a real military leadership position! Alexander Vasilyevich studied the plan for the attack on Oryol, traveled around the entire front line of his army, visited the bridgehead from which it was supposed to attack, and he did not like everything planned. Especially the bridgehead: it is dangerous, you cannot advance from it under any circumstances - the Germans have an advantageous location, and they will not miss theirs.

Not afraid that they would once again say: “Gorbatov is being clever again,” he expressed his special opinion to the Headquarters representative Georgy Zhukov, who came to check the readiness of the Bryansk Front for an offensive. After listening to Gorbatov, Zhukov was surprised and at first angry. Everything is ready and scheduled, there are only a few days before the onset, and then Gorbatov appears and offers to change a lot. Gorbatov proposed giving the 3rd Army an independent breakthrough section with crossing the Zushi River. And yet, Georgy Konstantinovich agreed and ordered the 63rd Army to transfer one of the three breakthrough artillery divisions to Gorbatov.

In July 1943, in the Oryol offensive operation, Gorbatov carefully planned and organized the army's military operations to break through the enemy's heavily fortified defenses on the Zusha River and the subsequent offensive. As a result, on August 5, army troops, in cooperation with the 63rd Army, liberated the city of Orel. In the offensive operation in the fall of 1943 and winter of 1944, the 3rd Army under the command of Gorbatov successfully crossed large water barriers: the Sozh, Dnieper and other rivers. Successfully participated in the Belarusian operation of 1944.

In June 1944, Alexander Gorbatov was awarded the rank of Colonel General. Guard Colonel General Gorbatov was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, for Operation Bagration. In this operation, the 3rd Army captured 27,900 prisoners, who made up a significant part of the column filmed on newsreel, which was soon carried through the center of Moscow. In his memoirs “Memories and Reflections”, Marshal Zhukov highly praised Gorbatov: “And one can say that he could have successfully coped with the command of the front, but the top leadership did not like him for his directness, for the harshness of his judgments. Beria was especially opposed to him, who absolutely undeservedly kept him in prison for several years.”

Commandant of Berlin

In January–February 1945, Gorbatov’s army skillfully acted in breaking through the enemy’s long-term defenses and repelling his counterattacks during the East Prussian operation. At the beginning of February 1945, the 3rd Army was transferred to the 3rd Belorussian Front. It was commanded by Army General Chernyakhovsky. Gorbatov liked that the commander, closely monitoring the plans and actions of his subordinates, did not restrict their independence. The 3rd Army took Melzak, on February 17, 1945, Chernyakhovsky congratulated Gorbatov on his success by telephone, familiarized himself with the situation and made an appointment at one of the forks of the highway beyond Melzak. Alexander Vasilyevich, before reaching the appointed place, saw that the commander’s jeep had driven into a fork, and then a shell exploded near him... And this time fate was on Gorbatov’s side.

The 3rd Army under the command of Gorbatov maneuvered from East Prussia and participated in the Berlin operation as part of the 1st Belorussian Front. On April 10, 1945, Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In defeated Berlin, General Gorbatov is present at the signing of the surrender of Nazi Germany. After the death of Colonel General Berzarin, the first commandant of Berlin, on June 16, 1945, Gorbatov was appointed commander of the 5th Shock Army and commandant of the German capital.

Did not slander either himself or others

In August 1937, corps commander Grigoriev, a hero of the civil war, a hereditary worker, was arrested... At a rally in the division commanded by Gorbatov, the head of the corps' political department announced that the corps commander "turned out to be an enemy of the people." Alexander Vasilyevich spoke out in defense of Grigoriev, for which he paid. A month later, by order of the district commander, Gorbatov was released from command of the division, and soon expelled from the party “for connections with enemies of the people,” and in October 1938 he ended up in prison in Lubyanka. After refusing to testify about his “crimes,” Gorbatov was sent to Lefortovo prison.

But here, too, Gorbatov refused to testify: “I’d rather die,” I said, “than slander myself, much less others.” The court, who did not admit anything, sentenced Gorbatov to fifteen years in prison and a camp plus five years of loss of rights.

Even such good health as Alexander Vasilyevich’s was undermined by hard work in the camp at the Maldyak gold mine in Kolyma. However, strong will and great personal courage helped Gorbatov withstand this test.

In the summer of 1940, a message was received in Kolyma that, by the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR, the verdict against Gorbatov was canceled and the case was sent for further investigation. “I believed that it would help me that I did not slander either myself or others,” recalled Alexander Vasilyevich.

On March 1, 1941, he again found himself in Lubyanka, and already on March 4, the investigation was completed, a resolution was approved to terminate the criminal case against A.V. Gorbatov, due to the lack of corpus delicti in his actions. Alexander Vasilyevich was restored to his military rank - brigade commander.

Not like everyone else

In his memoirs “A Soldier’s Duty,” Marshal Rokossovsky recalled Gorbatov this way: “Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov is an interesting person. A brave, thoughtful military leader, a passionate follower of Suvorov, he valued surprise, swiftness, and long-distance throws reaching the enemy’s flank and rear above all else in combat operations. Gorbatov behaved like Suvorov in everyday life - he refused all comforts and ate from a soldier’s cauldron. Suvorov's principles helped him fight. But sometimes Gorbatov understood them too straightforwardly, without taking into account the changed conditions.”

Alexander Vasilyevich will follow the conviction of the need for close contact between the commander and ordinary soldiers throughout his life. During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army soldiers will call the commander of the 3rd Army, Colonel General Gorbatov, Batya. This must be earned. Gorbatov, without directly imposing his opinion, tried to instill in the young commanders: “On the battlefield, it is very important to always understand what is possible and what is not... And, most importantly, remember: you have people under your command. They must be taught and protected... Whether they are good or bad, cheerful or gloomy, young or old, they are the same defenders of the homeland as you.” Every operation carried out by Gorbatov's army turned out to be stunning for the enemy.

Alexander Vasilyevich studied well the strengths and weaknesses of the Germans, who were afraid of encirclement, outflanking and outflanking. Gorbatov widely used surprise, swiftness, and long-distance throws to the enemy’s flank and rear in combat operations, honing his brilliant military leadership style. Gorbatov also loved to deceive the enemy by installing dummy guns, false movements, the noise of tank engines and other carefully thought-out means of disinformation. Before the breakthrough to the Dnieper, the Germans spent a huge number of shells for ten to twelve days, nervously firing at false targets.

“The ability to fight,” believed Alexander Vasilyevich, “is not to kill the enemy as much as possible, but to take as many prisoners as possible. Then our own people will be safe.” He was proud that by the end of the war his 3rd Army had taken 106 thousand prisoners, while the neighboring armies had taken no more than 50 thousand. “So just think about how many unnecessary losses we suffered because some generals did not know how to fight.” For example, he was against the storming of Berlin. Surround them and they would surrender themselves. To put the countless number of Soviet soldiers who went through the entire war in the very last days is, of course, wrong. The troops, under the command of General Gorbatov, as a rule, reached new frontiers earlier than planned, acted in such a way that the Germans found themselves in a mousetrap and were forced to abandon operationally important points even before the arrival of our main forces. This happened, for example, with Gomel, and then with Bobruisk.

For almost forty years, Alexander Vasilyevich sacredly observed the boyhood oath given in 1907 - to abstain from vodka and tobacco, which neither the ridicule of his comrades nor the “orders” of his superiors could force him to break. In this too he was not like everyone else. Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Gorbatov broke his oath once. “Indeed, on Victory Day, a day of bitter tears and joyful celebration, I drank three glasses of red wine to the applause and joyful cries of my comrades and their wives.” But smoking and swearing remained prohibited.

Despite all the trials of his tragic fate, Gorbatov did not hold a grudge against his Motherland, he remained a true Soviet general - one of those our military leaders who spared nothing for the Victory, for the Fatherland. Yes, repressions in the Red Army affected innocent commanders. But, finding themselves at the front, in the face of the enemy, they managed to suppress personal grievances. They thought, first of all, about the fate of the Motherland, about what would happen to their families if the Nazis managed to enslave our Fatherland. Realizing all this, Soviet soldiers fought the enemy tooth and nail.