The cavalryman who closed Stalingrad's southern pincer
In August 1941, taking command of the Bryansk Front, Yeryomenko promised Stalin personally: "I will smash that scoundrel Guderian." The promise failed; Guderian encircled Kiev instead.
Born to a poor Ukrainian peasant family, Yeryomenko rose from a conscript in the First World War to Marshal of the Soviet Union. He fought the Civil War in Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army and survived the purges as a cavalry officer. At Stalingrad he commanded the Southeastern (later Stalingrad) Front, planning the city's defence with Khrushchev and closing the southern pincer of Operation Uranus to trap Paulus's 6th Army. He led no fewer than eight fronts during the war, ending it at the head of the 4th Ukrainian Front liberating Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Made a Marshal in 1955, his battlefield record far outran his political weight. He was also a diarist: despite a ban on wartime journals, he kept one throughout.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1913–17Conscript, Imperial Army; NCO on Southwest and Romanian Fronts
- 1918–20Organised Markivka partisan detachment; 1st Cavalry Army in the Civil War
- 1935Graduated Frunze Military Academy
- 1938–39Commander 6th Cavalry Corps; led advance into eastern Poland
- 1941.6–7Acting Cdr Western Front; wounded at Smolensk
- 1941.8–10Cdr Bryansk Front; encircled in Typhoon, severely wounded
- 1942.8–1943.1Cdr Stalingrad Front; southern pincer of Operation Uranus
- 1943–44Cdr Kalinin, 1st Baltic, then 2nd Baltic Front
- 1944Cdr Separate Coastal Army; liberated Crimea
- 1945.3–5Cdr 4th Ukrainian Front; liberated Hungary and Czechoslovakia
- 1945–58Cdr Carpathian, West Siberian, North Caucasus Military Districts
- 1955Promoted Marshal of the Soviet Union
- 1958–70Inspector General, Ministry of Defence; wrote memoirs
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarFirst World War conscriptHe was conscripted into the Imperial Army and served as an NCO on the Southwest and Romanian Fronts.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCivil War veteran
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarStalingrad Front commanderHe commanded the Southeastern (later Stalingrad) Front during the Battle of Stalingrad and closed the southern pincer of Operation Uranus, trapping Paulus's 6th Army. He led eight fronts during the war and, as commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, completed the liberation of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
- 1942–1943Battle of StalingradCommander of the Southeastern and Stalingrad FrontsHe commanded the front and led Operation Uranus's southern pincer, helping encircle Paulus's 6th Army.
The Forbidden Wartime Diary: A Commander Who Left a Record
Yeryomenko kept a diary throughout the war. Wartime note-keeping was forbidden, since records falling into enemy hands could have handed over military secrets. He kept the banned diary anyway.
How far these entries stand as a source is disputed. Critics argue the 2013 edition is a mechanical conglomeration of Yeryomenko's writings from different periods and of different character, and that what he could actually write at the front was extremely brief: two or three sentences recording his location, and occasionally whom he met. That the diary was not written from the outset as a war memoir, and that its text rates the author's own role highly, should likewise be weighed. The documents themselves are nonetheless treated as valuable: fragments appeared in the 1990s and the full text was published for the first time in 2013.
His writing beyond the diary was substantial. In spring 1943, while recovering at a sanatorium in Tskhaltubo, he wrote a first draft of his book on Stalingrad. In the 1950s and 1960s he published the memoirs In the Beginning of the War (1965), In the Western Direction (1959) and Years of Retribution (1969), and in them he criticised many commanders with whom he had served. His books stand among the early examples of the wave of Soviet marshal memoirs.
Another document belongs to this record. He offered Khrushchev his own candidacy to deliver the report denouncing Stalin's cult of personality at the 20th Party Congress, and on 24 February 1956, after studying the draft, he sent Khrushchev a letter setting out his views. It described how Stalin first berated him for proposing that the Stalingrad and Southeastern Fronts be merged, then merged them soon afterwards, and it criticised Stalin's unadopted plan for defeating Manstein.
The diary and the books show how he wanted to be remembered. They also show, in a case as contested as Stalingrad, how a participant's own record becomes a historical source, and how far it can be trusted.
What is documented: the wartime ban on note-keeping; the partial publication in the 1990s and full publication in 2013; and the contents of the letter of 24 February 1956. What remains interpretation: scholarly assessments of how the 2013 volume was assembled and how much he actually wrote during the war.