Vatutin Nikolay Fedorovich An outstanding Soviet military leader, general of the army (1943), Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously), who went through the path of a Red Army soldier to a commander. During the Great Patriotic War, he consistently led the troops of a number of fronts.
At the headquarters of Field Marshal Manstein N.F. Vatutin was nicknamed "Grandmaster". In the Red Army, they called him “General from Victory” behind his back.
Childhood[]
Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin was born in 1901 in the village of Chepukhino (now Vatutino), Voronezh province, into a large peasant family. He graduated from a rural school as the first student, then with honors a two-year zemstvo school in the city of Valuiki, entered a commercial school in the city of Urazovo and studied diligently, receiving a small scholarship from the zemstvo. However, when the scholarship was no longer paid, he was forced to return to his native village, where he immediately got a job in the volost government.
Joining the Red Army[]
After the establishment of Soviet power, as one of the most literate, he helped the peasants in the division of landlord property. At the age of 18 he joined the Red Army. In September 1920, he received a baptism of fire, participating in battles with the Makhnovists in the regions of Lugansk and Starobelsk, and proved to be a brave, resourceful fighter. In parallel, he continued to study: in 1922 he graduated with honors from the Poltava Infantry School, while simultaneously participating in battles against kulak gangs. In the same year he joined the RCP(b).
After graduating from the infantry school, Vatutin was appointed commander of a rifle regiment, then a platoon commander. And again, study. In 1924 he graduated from the Kyiv Higher United Military School, then continued his education in 1926-1929. at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. After graduating from the academy, Vatutin was sent to the headquarters of a rifle division in Chernigov, and from 1931 he became chief of staff of a mountain rifle division located in Ordzhonikidze. After two years of service as chief of staff, he was again sent to the Academy. M.V. Frunze to the operational faculty, which he graduated in 1934. And in 1937 Vatutin graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Labor and military talent do their job, he successfully moves up the career ladder: in 1938 he is appointed chief of staff of the Kyiv Special Military District, then corps commander.
In August 1940, when instead of B.M. Shaposhnikov, General of the Army K.A. Meretskov became Chief of the General Staff, Vatutin was transferred to work at the General Staff as Chief of the Operations Directorate, then appointed 1st Deputy Chief of Staff. The command notes in it the highest degree of responsibility, breadth of views and logic of thought. In February 1941, Lieutenant General Vatutin was awarded the Order of Lenin.
WWII[]
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, N.F. Vatutin goes to the front. From July 1941 to May 1942 - Chief of Staff of the North-Western Front. July 29, 1941, recommending his candidacy, G.K. Zhukov wrote that it was necessary: “to put an experienced and energetic commander at the head of the front. Specifically, I propose Vatutin.
In May - July 1942 Vatutin - Deputy Chief of the General Staff and representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on the Bryansk Front. In July - October 1942, he commanded the Voronezh Front, which, under his leadership, successfully defended itself against the Nazi troops in the Voronezh direction.
During the Battle of Stalingrad, Vatutin is entrusted with the command of the Southwestern Front, which is preparing for a powerful counteroffensive against the enemy grouping that has reached the Volga. Its troops, in cooperation with the troops of the Stalingrad and Don fronts, surround the 330,000-strong enemy grouping near Stalingrad, and in December 1942, in cooperation with the left wing of the Voronezh Front, carry out the Middle Don operation, inflict a decisive defeat on the enemy grouping on the Middle Don, finally frustrating the enemy’s plan to release troops surrounded at Stalingrad.
In March 1943 N.F. Vatutin was again appointed commander of the Voronezh Front. In the summer of 1943, during the defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge, units and formations of the front repel powerful enemy attacks, and during the counteroffensive they successfully solve the problem of breaking through the defense in depth of the German Army Group South. The soldiers said about their general: "Where Vatutin is, there is victory."
An outstanding military talent N.F. Vatutin manifested itself during the Great Patriotic War in the creation of powerful strike groups, the use of tank corps as mobile army groups, and tank armies as mobile front groups. This made it possible to ensure high rates in breaking through the enemy defenses and pursuing him. Under the leadership of Vatutin, the troops of the Voronezh (from October 1943 - the 1st Ukrainian) Front participated in the battle for the Dnieper, the liberation of Kiev (in November 1943), as well as in subsequent operations to expel the enemy from the Right-Bank Ukraine.
In cooperation with the 2nd Ukrainian Front (General of the Army I.S. Konev), the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in January - February 1944 surrounded a large enemy grouping in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky area. But after the enemy was in the "bag", the Headquarters ordered to transfer his destruction to the 2nd Ukrainian Front of General Konev. As a result of the operation, which ended on February 17, 1944, a group of Nazi troops on the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky ledge was liquidated, about 55 thousand were killed and wounded, more than 18 thousand enemy soldiers were taken prisoner. This operation went down in the history of military art as a brilliant example of the encirclement of enemy forces.
February 29, 1944 Vatutin N.F. left for the troops. Returning from the headquarters of the 13th Army, he was fired upon in the village. Milyatyn of the Ostrozhsky district, in his own rear, was wounded in the left thigh by Bendera. He was taken to a military hospital in the city of Rovno, from where he was transferred to Kyiv. The wound at first seemed not very dangerous, it seemed that things were on the mend, but then the general's condition deteriorated sharply. The best doctors fought for the life of the commander, including the famous surgeon N. Burdenko. Unfortunately, amputation did not help either. On the night of April 15, 1944, Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin died from blood poisoning.