Mikhail Katukov

Marshal of Armoured Troops Mikhail Yefimovich Katukov (Russian: Михаил Ефимович Катуков [katuˈkɔf] 17 September [O.S. 4 September] 1900 – 8 June 1976) served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.[2] His most notable command during the German-Soviet War was that of 1st Guards Tank Army which he commanded during the Battle of Kursk, Proskurov-Chernovtsy Operation, Lvov-Sandomierz Operation, the Vistula Oder Operation, and the Battle of Berlin. He also commanded 1st Guards Tank Brigade during the Battle of Moscow, and 3rd Mechanised Corps[3] during Operation Mars.

Mikhail Katukov
Born17 September [O.S. 4 September] 1900[1]
Bolshoe Uvarovo (now Moscow Oblast), Russian Empire
Died8 June 1976(1976-06-08) (aged 75)[1]
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance Soviet Russia (1919–1922)
 Soviet Union (1922–1963)
Years of service1919–1963
RankMarshal of the armoured troops
UnitArmoured Troops
Commands held
Battles/warsRussian Civil War
World War II
AwardsHero of the Soviet Union (twice)
Other workCommander of Armored Forces of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
Inspector General of the Army

Early life

Katukov was born on 17 September 1900 in the village of Bolshoe Uvarovo in Kolomensky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, now in the Ozyory Urban Okrug of Moscow Oblast, to an impoverished peasant family of five children. From a young age he worked on the local landowner's dairy farm. Katukov graduated from the primary rural school. In 1912 he was sent to relatives in Saint Petersburg, where he worked as a messenger boy in a dairy shop, and later in the factories of the city. Katukov participated in the October Revolution in 1917, after which he returned to Bolshoe Uvaravo to take care of his family after his mother's death.[1][4]

Military career

Katukov enlisted to the Red Army as a private in 1919. He served during the Russian Civil War, and later served as a tank formation commander before the war. In 1935 he graduated from the Stalin Military Academy and in July 1936 he was promoted to captain. In October 1938 came his first major command as acting commanding officer of the 5th Light Tank Brigade of the 45th Mechanized Corps. He survived the purges.[1]

Second World War

On the onset of the war he took command of the 4th Tank Brigade. In the battle of Moscow in 1941, it was Katukov's Tank Brigade, then part of the 1st Guards Rifle Corps, that checked the advance of Guderian's Panzergruppe 2 near Tula. To honor this achievement it became the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.[1]

Later during Operation Mars in December 1942, Katukov's command managed a deep penetration into the German lines in Rhzev. In January 1943 he took command of the 1st Guards Tank Army, a post he held for the duration of the war.[1]

In the battle of Kursk, Katukov's command was one of the two armies that were hardest-hit by the initial German advance on the southern shoulder. Through the use of well-defended and sited strong-points, dug in tanks, and judicious use of counterattacks, Katukov managed to extract a high toll from the German attackers breaking through the defensive system.[1]

He commanded his tank army in the Proskurov-Chernovtsy Operation, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive, the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin.[1]

Mikhail Katukov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union twice (23 September 1944 and 6 April 1945).[1][4]

Post-War

Following the war he became commander of the mechanized forces of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, and later Inspector General of the Army.[1]

In the 1970 film Patton, Katukov is portrayed drinking a toast with General Patton to celebrate their armies' mutual victory over Nazi Germany.

Awards and honors
Katukov's grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow
Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (№ 4585 - 23 September 1944) (№ 4585 - 6 April 1945)
Four Orders of Lenin (10 November 1941, 23 September 1944, 21 February 1945, 6 April 1945)
Order of the Red Banner, three times (3 May 1944, 3 November 1944, 1949)
Order of Suvorov, 1st class, twice (29 May 1944, 19 May 1945)
Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (27 August 1943)
Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 1st class (10 January 1944)
Order of the Red Star (28 October 1967)
Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd degree (30 April 1975)
Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" (1944)
Medal "For the Defence of Kiev" (1961)
Medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw" (1945)
Medal "For the Capture of Berlin" (1945)
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945)
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (1965)
Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1969)
Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (1938)
Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" (1948)
Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1958)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1968)
Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1976)
Foreign
Patriotic Order of Merit in gold (East Germany)
Medal “For Strengthening Friendship in Arms”, Golden class (Czechoslovakia)
Virtuti Militari, 3rd class (Poland)
Order of Polonia Restituta, 3rd class (Poland)
Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class (Poland)
Medal "For Oder, Neisse and the Baltic" (Poland)
Medal "For Warsaw 1939-1945" (Poland)
Distinguished Service Order (United Kingdom)
Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia)
Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia)
Order of Military Merit (Mongolia)
Medal "30 Years of the Victory in Khalkhin-Gol" (Mongolia)
Medal "40 Years of the Victory in Khalkhin-Gol" (Mongolia)
Medal "50 Years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (Mongolia)
Medal "30 Years of Victory over Militaristic Japan" (Mongolia)
Medal "50 Years of the Mongolian People's Army" (Mongolia)

References
  1. Катуков Михаил Ефимович. encyclopedia.mil.ru
  2. David Glantz, Jonathan House, The Battle of Kursk, University Press of Kansas, 1999 P62
  3. David Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat – The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars 1942, University Press of Kansas, 1998 P140
  4. "Mikhail Katukov". warheroes.ru (in Russian).
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