Zaitsev Mikhail Mitrofanovich General of the Army. Zaitsev, Mikhail Mitrofanovich

Biography

Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev was born into a peasant family in the village of Zavodskoy Khutor Chernsky district Tula province, now part of Chernsky district Tula region. Russian. Graduated from high school.

The Great Patriotic War

from April 1985 to January 1987 - the transition from active operations mainly to supporting the Afghan troops with Soviet aviation, artillery and sapper units, while the special forces units continued to fight to prevent the delivery of weapons and ammunition from abroad. During this period, a partial withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Afghanistan was carried out; from January 1987 to February 1989 - the participation of Soviet troops in the policy of national reconciliation with continued support for the combat activities of the Afghan troops. Preparation of Soviet troops for withdrawal and their complete withdrawal.

Reviews and memories

• ... I leaf through the pages of the book "Military Elite of Russia". "Hero Soviet Union, General of the Army, Commander of the Belarusian Military District (1976-1980), Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1980-1985), Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Southern Direction (1985-1988). He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the October Revolution, medals "For Courage", "For the Defense of Moscow", "For the Capture of Berlin" , "For the liberation of Prague", orders of the GDR "Order of Scharnhorst" and "For Services to the Fatherland" I degree (in gold), numerous Soviet and foreign medals.

... Acting as part of a raid detachment of a tank army, Zaitsev had the task of restoring contact with the guards tank battalion that had broken away from the main forces, and for this, to find it and return it to an accessible distance. The combat order was carried out, but just before the battalion left the battlefield, an enemy automatic bullet pierced the left shoulder of the officer who was on the armor. But Zaitsev did not leave the battalion until he brought it to the appointed place. The commander of the 3rd Guards Tank Army of the Guard, Lieutenant General Rybalko, visited the wounded captain in the hospital. “So I met you,” the commander said at that meeting. - You, boy, have a long, long time to fight. Anything can happen - an idea for a Hero can get stuck somewhere ... And therefore, with my power, I present you with the Order of the Red Banner ... ". Justice has prevailed after 40 years. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to M. M. Zaitsev, Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, in 1983 with the following wording in the Decree: “For a great contribution to the cause of increasing the combat readiness of troops, skillful leadership of units and formations, personal courage and courage shown in fight against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War and in connection with the sixtieth anniversary of his birth.

• When extremely disturbing reports began to come from Afghanistan about the helplessness of the BMP-1 weapons in mountainous terrain, General Zaitsev turned to the very top, to the Central Committee of the CPSU, and achieved an immediate solution to the issue of deploying mass production of BMP-2 and sending them to Afghanistan. The guns of these combat vehicles with an elevation angle of 74 degrees to the horizon were simply irreplaceable in the mountains. They made it possible to shoot at the mountains from the gorges where the roads passed. A high rate of fire almost at the zenith and a lot of fragments, including from stones, created a powerful damaging effect. As a participant in the events in Afghanistan, I know that the Mujahideen were very afraid of this car.

• “Mikhail Mitrofanovich is a front-line soldier,” Colonel General V.E. Pavlov, in turn, recalled, “and in the 1980s, more than 40 years after the Great Patriotic War, he went to Afghanistan and there he not only led the apparatus and accepted reports, and circled all the garrisons. But there is no guard there ... The main professional quality of Mikhail Mitrofanovich was purposefulness. He was constantly on the lookout. He was very demanding, but I do not remember a single case of rudeness on his part. He always encouraged enterprising commanders ... During my service in the GSVG, Commander-in-Chief Zaitsev enjoyed unquestioned authority.

• “... in July 1985, General Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev led the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. As commander-in-chief of the GSVG, Zaitsev was known for completely reforming the training of troops there. He placed the main emphasis on personal initiative, encouraging junior officers to make independent decisions. Mujahideen instructors accordingly changed the training program to match Soviet tactics. ("Unrighteous Wars: Afghanistan, America and international terrorism» John C. Cooley)

• “...Gorbachev appointed a strong field commander, General Zaitsev, as commander of the Soviet forces in Afghanistan ... Zaitsev immediately changed the tactics of Soviet military operations from massive mechanized offensives towards counter-terrorist operations using decentralized special forces operations in cooperation with Afghan special forces. This relied on accurate intelligence data, surprise, mobility and night maneuver. The Mujahideen were trapped in distant camps and could not terrorize the local population…” (David A. Adams, U.S. Navy, Kevin Norton, U.S. Marine Corps, Christopher Schmitt, U.S. Army, and Jeffrson E. Turner, U.S. Air Force. “Follow the Bear ", US NAVAL Institute, "Proceedings Magazine", February 2010, Vol. 136/2/1,284).

• Here is how Marshal of Artillery V. M. Mikhalkin recalls one of the episodes: “I remember there was a case during the exercises: he said one thing, I said another, he insists, I continue to prove my own: and then he seemed to cut off: no! It will be like this! I told him: do not do this, it will be a mistake. He remained silent in thought and ... did not - and then thanked me for dissuading him from a rash decision. He knew how to admit mistakes. He knew how to listen to others. And in general, I treated people with respect, and even juniors in rank ... I am grateful to fate that I was lucky to serve with Mikhail Mitrofanovich not only in the Belarusian military district, but also in the Armed Forces in general.

• In 1985, M. M. Zaitsev was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Direction, which also included troops in Afghanistan. According to the recollections of the commanders, General of the Army M. M. Zaitsev very often visited the 40th Army, which was in Afghanistan, and often personally supervised the conduct of military operations. (ZARYA No. 47 of 06/19/2009)

• In 1979, the issue of "object 675" was raised again. From May to December, now on the basis of the 2nd Guards Taman Division near Moscow, the weapons of the Kurgan "objects" were again tested: 681st and 675th. The 2A42 cannon once again defeated Zarnitsa and again ... no solution. Everything was put in its place by the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan and the decisiveness of General Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev. Already being the commander-in-chief of the GSVG, General M. Zaitsev at the training ground near Wünsdorf for the first time conducted demonstration firing from two BMP-2 specially delivered from the Union. For their demonstration, "bempesh" aces were seconded from Belarus - the guards of Captain Mikhail Baikov and the guards of senior lieutenant Sergei Vladimirov. They shot brilliantly in Germany, having received a wristwatch from Zaitsev's hands.

• “... And then, one night,” Zakharov recalled, “a call from Moscow. By telephone, they transmit the government's order on the urgent development of mass production of the BMP-2. In two weeks, the first batch of vehicles should be sent to Afghanistan. As I found out later, this was my old acquaintance, General Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev, while in Afghanistan, called the Central Committee and explained that in local conditions the new machine of Kurganmashzavod was simply irreplaceable. The fact is that the troops often had to operate in the mountains, gorges, and the BMP-2 cannon is capable of firing almost at the zenith - at an angle of 70 degrees to the horizon ... Immediately after the call, I went to the factory. By the morning he issued an order - the production was transferred to the wartime regime. In April, the first 25 vehicles were shipped ... "(ARMORED VEHICLES TO AFGHANISTAN (1979-1989) Andrey Rudolfovich Zayets, teacher at the Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (Yekaterinburg)

• I saw Zaitsev once (late 85-early 86), he served in Uryupinsk and he, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Direction, came to us. True, there was no special check (it did not affect the soldiers in any way), but everyone remembered his performance at the club. An indelible impression was made by the appearance of the general - tall (probably 1.90, or even under 2 m. Our divisional commander Colonel Yakovenko himself is of considerable height and not weak in figure, dimmed against his background), athletic build, powerful chest (you can dance on it. In any case, I have never met a person with a wider and more powerful chest in my life), speech is developed. I remember what he said about the war period - he started the war as a soldier, and ended as a battalion commander. Without exaggeration, we can say that his personality raised the morale of the division (albeit a cropped one), and this impact was due primarily to the physical strength and bright speech of the Commander-in-Chief. The only negative is that during the performance he showed narcissism. (Shapovalov O.A., reconnaissance company, regiment "B").

Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev was born into a peasant family in the village of Zavodskoy Khutor, Chernsky district, Tula province, now part of the Chernsky district. Tula region. Russian. Graduated from high school.

In 1941 he volunteered for the Red Army.

The Great Patriotic War

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Zaitsev was sent to special communications courses, after they ended in May 1942 - in the army. He held the positions of assistant and senior assistant to the chief of staff of a tank brigade, senior assistant to the head of the department of headquarters of a tank corps. He fought on the Western, Voronezh, Bryansk, Central and 1st Ukrainian fronts. He took part in many major operations of the war, including the Battle of Kursk, in the Lvov-Sandomierz, Vistula-Oder, Berlin, and Prague operations. Participated in the defense of Moscow.

post-war period

After the war, M. M. Zaitsev served as the head of the headquarters of the airborne division in 1945, then in the same position in the tank division, was the chief of staff and deputy commander of the tank division. Graduated from the Military Academy of Armored Forces in 1955, Military Academy General Staff in 1965. Since 1965 he commanded a tank division. From November 1968 he was chief of staff, and from December 1969 - commander of a tank army.

In senior command positions

From August 1972 - First Deputy Commander, and from May 1976 - Commander of the Belarusian Military District. Since 1980 - Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The military rank of General of the Army was awarded by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 4, 1980. Since 1985 - Commander-in-Chief of the troops of the Southern direction.

Since 1989 - in the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Since 1992 - retired. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 10th and 11th convocations. In 1981-1989 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Lived in Moscow. He was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Reviews and memories

• “Perhaps nature itself put him in the army, giving him high growth, sazhen shoulders, endowing him with heroic strength and iron will ... Purposefulness, the ability to organize and lead people - these are the features of this character. In his decisions, Colonel Zaitsev was adamant, in exactingness to himself and his subordinates he did not know any concessions. At the same time, neither in the office at meetings in a narrow circle of leading officers, nor at the training ground in moments of some kind of malfunction and nervousness, no one heard a rude word from him. (Hero of the Soviet Union, General of the Army I.M. Tretyak, book "Brave hearts of fellow soldiers").

• “Mikhail Mitrofanovich was very erudite in the field of operational art, he brilliantly knew equipment and weapons ... In his person, I first saw a combined arms commander who knew well not only the design of a tank, artillery gun, but even an aircraft. Everywhere he delved into the intricacies of the matter and often made proposals for the modernization of this type of weapon ... ”(Marshal of Artillery V.M. Mikhalkin).

• “Undoubtedly, Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev played a big role in the formation of army aviation as a branch of the army ... He is one of the few district commanders who everywhere, including at the collegium of the Ministry of Defense, emphasized its important role ... Being engaged in training troops in Germany for Afghanistan, the “field general” (as he was called in the troops) Zaitsev focused on the close interaction of army aviation with infantry. Helicopter, he believed, is the weapon of the commander, divisional commander, but first of all, it is the weapon of the commanders of battalions and regiments that are on the battlefield ... In all divisions of the GSVG, the practice of using aircraft guidance vehicles was introduced, specifying targets for army aviation. ..” (Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel-General of Aviation V.E. Pavlov).

• I saw Zaitsev once (late 85-early 86), he served in Uryupinsk and he, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Direction, came to us. True, there was no special check (it did not affect the soldiers in any way), but everyone remembered his performance at the club. An indelible impression was made by the appearance of the general - tall (probably 1.90, or even under 2 m. Our divisional commander Colonel Yakovenko himself is of considerable height and not weak in figure, he faded against his background), athletic build, powerful chest (you can dance on it. In In any case, I have never met a person with a broader and more powerful chest in my life), speech is developed. I remember what he said about the war period - he started the war as a soldier, and ended as a battalion commander. Without exaggeration, we can say that his personality raised the morale of the division (albeit a cropped one), and this impact was due primarily to the physical strength and bright speech of the Commander-in-Chief. The only negative is that during the performance he showed narcissism. (Shapovalov O.A., reconnaissance company, regiment "B").

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (decree of November 22, 1983, "for a great contribution to improving the combat readiness of troops, their skillful leadership, personal courage and courage shown during the Great Patriotic War and in connection with the 60th anniversary")
• Two orders of Lenin
• Order of the October Revolution
• Two Orders of the Red Banner
• Two Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st class
• Two Orders of the Patriotic War, 2nd class
• Two Orders of the Red Star
• Medals
• Foreign awards

Mikhail Mitrofanovich Smolyaninov

R e e n s e n t s:

Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus P. T. Petrikov,

Doctor of Historical Sciences E. M. Savitsky,

Doctor of Historical Sciences V. E. Kozlyakov

The problem of the state of the Russian army during the First World War has a rich historiography. Historians and publicists showed great interest in this topic after 1917. Special monographic works, memoirs and documentary collections were prepared and published on the army, dissertations were written, paragraphs and sections were published in numerous publications on the history of the October Revolution.

Bourgeois historians and publicists, generals, other eyewitnesses and participants in the events of those years, evaluating the processes taking place in the Russian army from the state point of view, from the point of view of military regulations and laws, qualified them as the decomposition of the Russian army, counteracted their development. Historians and publicists - representatives of the parties of revolutionary democracy (Bolsheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks), approaching these processes from class positions, saw revolutionary aspects in them, contributed to their development with the aim of destroying the old army, as a stronghold of the outdated autocratic system. Soviet historians considered the events and processes that took place in the tsarist army only through the prism of the revolutionary movement, the struggle of the Bolsheviks to attract the masses of soldiers to the side of the revolution. Often, for the sake of the political situation, this activity of the Bolsheviks was greatly exaggerated.

The Soviet historiography of the problems of the Russian army during the First World War and the problems of the February bourgeois-democratic and October socialist revolutions of 1917, during the development of which the researchers in one way or another touched upon the problems of the Russian army, can be conditionally divided into two periods: the historiography of 1917 - first half of the 1950s and historiography of the second half of the 1950-1980s.

In the first years of Soviet power, memoirs, articles, brochures were written by active revolutionaries, eyewitnesses and participants in the events of that time. During these years, the first attempts were made to scientifically generalize the events and activities of the Bolsheviks in the Russian army, and works were published on the revolutionary movement in Belarus and on the Western Front. The labors of these years marked the beginning of the politicization of historical events. In them, elements of the spontaneous activity of the masses in the revolution were replaced by the purposeful activity of the Bolsheviks, in many cases not supported by concrete facts. The authors unreasonably and undeservedly exaggerated the role of individuals in the activities of the Bolsheviks to attract the working people of Belarus and the soldiers of the Western Front to the side of the revolution. In their works I. V. Stalin is presented as the second, after V. I. Lenin, the leader of the revolution, and L. M. Kaganovich as the organizer and leader of the Polessye organization of the RSDLP (b), which does not correspond to the truth. At the same time, the names of other participants in the October Revolution in Belarus and on the Western Front were hushed up.

In general, studies of the problems of the October Revolution since the 1930s. began to roll up. This is due to the development of the personality cult of I. V. Stalin, the Great Patriotic War. In the late 1930s-1940s. only "A Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks" and the second volume of "The History of the Civil War in the USSR" were published, which briefly narrate about the revolutionary events on the Western Front, separate journal articles.

The revival in the development of the historiography of the October Revolution and the ongoing processes in the Russian army came from the beginning of the 1950s. During this period, the first studies appeared that were specifically devoted to the events taking place on the Western Front. These include, first of all, the monograph by L. S. Gaponenko, candidate dissertations of N. E. Gurevich, P. S. Kruglikov, H. V. Konikov and I. K. Telezhkin. In the works of these authors, the influence of the personality cult of I. V. Stalin is clearly expressed. The processes and phenomena that took place in the Russian army, including on the Western Front, were considered by them through the prism of revolutionary expediency and as organized by the Bolsheviks, in the absence of any spontaneity of events.

By the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, Belarusian historians V. G. Ivashin, N. V. Kamenskaya, I. I. Saladkov, G. A. Grechkin, E. D. Direnok prepared and published their works. Exploring the issues of preparation and conduct of the October Revolution in Belarus and its individual provinces, they briefly touched on the events on the Western Front.

In the next 30 years, active research continued on the history of the October Revolution and the establishment of Soviet power, and in combination with them, the issues of the revolutionary movement in the Russian army. During these years, the works of I. I. Mints, P. A. Golub, A. M. Andreev, E. N. Gorodetsky, O. N. Znamensky, N. Ya. Ivanov, V. I. Miller, N. M. Yakupov, T. F. Kuzmina and other historians, which touched upon certain aspects of the events that took place on the Western Front.

During these years, Belarusian historians were engaged in a deeper and more comprehensive study of the problem of the October Revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Belarus. In the works of I. M. Ignatenko, V. G. Ivashin, P. A. Selivanov, A. G. Khokhlov and other authors, as well as in collective works, the processes and events that took place in the troops of the Western Front were reflected.

It should be noted that the work Soviet historians the second half of 1950 - the first half of the 1980s. differ in their argumentation and evidence, have become more objective. In them, the influence of the personality cult of I.V. Stalin and dogmas " short course history of the CPSU(b). However, the processes and events that took place in the country and the army, including in Belarus and on the Western Front, were still considered by historians only through the prism of revolutionary expediency and the activities of the Bolsheviks. Moreover, this activity was greatly exaggerated. However, some researchers also noted negative phenomena in the revolutionary activities of the Bolsheviks, which took place in the Russian army and testified to its decay even before the February Revolution.

Until recently, it was stated in the historical literature that more than 30 Bolshevik organizations were created and functioned on the Western Front before the February Revolution. A deeper study of this issue showed that such a statement is not true. It is established that until the second half of the 1950s. any information about the number of Bolshevik organizations before the February Revolution on the Western Front was not available in historical works. And not by accident. Under conditions of persecution by the tsarist authorities of the activities of parties on the Western Front, there were no Bolshevik organizations before the February Revolution. Only (and this is confirmed by eyewitnesses-revolutionaries and active participants in the events of those days) in some parts were small Bolshevik groups of three or four people, who were scattered, did not always maintain ties with each other and with the Bolshevik centers and functioned in the deep underground.

Knorin V. Revolution and counter-revolution in Belarus. Smolensk, 1920; He is. 1917 in Belarus and on the Western Front. Minsk, 1925; Dmitriev I. October in Orsha // Proletarian Revolution. 1922. No. 10; Petrov N. October days in the army // Proletarian revolution. 1925. No. 3(38); Myasnikov A.F. Preparation of October // Balshavik Belarus. 1927. No. 3; Fomin V. Congress of Deputies of the Armies and Rear of the Western Front in April 1917 // Proletarian Revolution. 1927. No. 4(63).

Leading Researcher
,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor

Born in 1940, p. Flat Top of the Dobrinsky district of the Lipetsk region, Russia. In 1970 he graduated from the Minsk State pedagogical institute them. A. M. Gorky. In 1977 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "The Socialist Revolution on the Western Front (July - November 1917)". Scientific adviser - Ignatenko Illarion Methodievich. In 2010 awarded academic title Associate Professor in History.

Labor activity:
At the Institute of History, he worked as a junior researcher from 1970 to 1973, scientific secretary from 1977 to 1984, senior researcher from 1984 to 1996, head of the Central Scientific Archive of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus from 1996 to 2007. Since 2007 - senior researcher at the Central Scientific Archive of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Since February 2016 - Leading Researcher of the Department military history Belarus.

awarded Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Explores problems of military history and the history of the February and October revolutions of 1917 in Belarus.

Publishing activity:
Monographs:
“Belarus in the First World War 1914–1918. M. Fund "Historical memory". 2017. - 415 p.
“Belarus in the First World War 1914–1918. Minsk: Belarus. science, 2014. - 317 p.

The All-People's Partisan Movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War (June 1941 - July 1944): in 3 volumes - Minsk, 1982. - Vol. 3 (compiled, co-authored);
The morale and combat state of the Russian troops of the Western Front in 1917. Minsk: Belarus. science, 2007.

Articles:
Smolyaninov, M.M. On the defense of the revolution / M.M. Smolyaninov // Belarusian Dumka. - 2018. - No. 2. - P.20-28.
Smolyaninov M. Belarus: the land of suffering, the land of courage... (to the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War of 1914-1918) // Science and Innovations. - February 2019. - No. 2. — S. 63-69.
Smolyaninov M. Belarus: the land of suffering, the land of courage... (to the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War of 1914-1918) (continued) // Science and Innovations. - March 2019. - No. 3. — S. 79-84.