Marshal and Defence Minister, 1957–1967
During the battle of Stalingrad he halted the 2nd Guards Army on his own initiative and sent it into combat from the march after a 200-km move against Manstein's relief force; the German breakthrough was stopped. This decision shaped the Kotelnikovo operation and the victory at Stalingrad.
Born out of wedlock in Odessa to a Ukrainian peasant mother, his father unrecorded; he left school at eleven for farm and shop work, taught himself French, and in 1914, not yet sixteen, forged his age to enlist. Wounded as a machine-gunner, he served in France with the Russian Expeditionary Corps and the Legion of Honour, earning the Croix de guerre, and joined the Red Army in November 1919 after nearly being shot as a spy. A Frunze Academy graduate and adviser in Spain under the pseudonym 'Colonel Malino', he became a marshal and one of the most effective Soviet field commanders of the war: Stalingrad and Kotelnikovo, Ukraine, the Balkans, Manchuria. Defence Minister from 1957 until his death, he oversaw strategic nuclear rearmament and, under party directive, a mass reduction of the armed forces.
Activities and affiliations
- 1942–1943 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1914–1919Serves in World War I and the civil war, rising as a Red Army commander
- 1942–1943Emerges as a key commander in the Stalingrad counteroffensive and southern operations
- 1944–1945Commands operations in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and Manchuria
- 1956–1957Deputy Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces; not documented as taking part in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in November 1956
- 1957–1967Defense minister managing the Soviet armed forces in the nuclear-missile age
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarRussian soldier on the French frontHe served in France with the Russian Expeditionary Corps and earned the Croix de guerre.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionRussian Civil War participant
- 1936–1939The Spanish Civil WarSoviet military adviserHis second foreign war after the French front; he survived the purge on his return
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarFront commanderHe blocked the German relief attempt in the Stalingrad counteroffensive and, as a front commander, led the liberation of Ukraine and the taking of Budapest.
- 1942–1943Battle of StalingradCommander of the 2nd Guards ArmyHe sent the 2nd Guards Army into combat against Manstein's relief force, stopping the German breakthrough.
- 1945.08The Soviet Entry into the War against JapanCommander of the Transbaikal FrontAppointed commander of the Transbaikal Front in July 1945. His 6th Guards Tank Army traveled 9,000 km from Czechoslovakia to Mongolia: 88 trains of 60 cars each, a 30-day journey.
- 1944–1948Romania: From 23 August to the People's RepublicNominal chairman of the Allied Control CommissionCommanding the Second Ukrainian Front in the Iași-Chișinău offensive, he became chairman of the Control Commission after the armistice, the work being done by Vinogradov and Susaikov.
- 1956The Hungarian Revolutionsuppression command
- 1957The Anti-Party GroupCentral Committee member
- 1962The Cuban Missile CrisisDefense minister, Operation AnadyrAs defense minister, he directed Operation Anadyr, which shipped the missiles and troops to Cuba.
Spanish Civil War (1937–1938): 'Colonel Malino'
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Malinovsky volunteered to support the Republican government. Arriving in Spain in January 1937, he operated under the pseudonym 'Colonel Malino' as a military advisor to the Republican Army, planning and directing combat operations. He distinguished himself in operations near Barcelona and Guadalajara, working alongside the International Brigades to strengthen the Republican forces' ability to fight Franco's army. His time in Spain held another significance: 1937–1938 was the height of the Great Purge in the USSR, during which the Red Army's senior commanders were being executed en masse. Historians note that Malinovsky's absence from Moscow likely saved his life. Upon returning home in May 1938, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner, and his dissertation analysing the Aragon Operation became the foundation for his subsequent role as an instructor at the Frunze Military Academy. The experience he gained in Spain provided practical lessons that he would later apply when planning and commanding large-scale mechanised operations during the Second World War.
Minister of Defence (1957–1967)
On 26 October 1957 Malinovsky was appointed Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union in succession to Georgy Zhukov, and he held the post until his death in 1967. That same October the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee dealt with Zhukov's 'Bonapartism' and his removal from the Central Committee, and at that meeting Malinovsky spoke in criticism of Zhukov.
As Defence Minister he pursued two tracks at once: strengthening Soviet military power and the priority development of strategic rocket and nuclear deterrence forces, and, on party leadership directive, a mass reduction of the armed forces. A strong advocate of the importance of conventional forces, he maintained a delicate balance with Khrushchev's missile-centred approach and retained considerable autonomy in military affairs after Khrushchev's fall in 1964.
In 1966 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; he entered hospital only after the 7 November 1966 parade. He died in Moscow on 31 March 1967, and after cremation his ashes were interred at the Kremlin Wall on Red Square on 3 April.
In his political career he was a party member from 1926, a candidate member of the Central Committee from 1952 and a full member from 1956, and an unchanging deputy of the Supreme Soviet from 1946 to the end of his life.
Russian Wikipedia's account that he sanctioned General Issa Pliyev to use troops in suppressing the 1962 Novocherkassk workers' demonstration carries the qualifier 'according to unconfirmed data'; it should be presented as an unconfirmed claim, not an established fact.