Commander of the 33rd Army at Moscow, encircled at Vyazma and shot himself when Stalin denied retreat
"I came here with soldiers, and with soldiers I will leave": he loaded the evacuation plane with wounded and banners and stayed inside the pocket.
From a Great War ensign to a Red Army lieutenant-general, Yefremov led the armored train raid that seized Baku in 1920 and hastened the Sovietization of Azerbaijan. During the battle of Moscow in late 1941, his 33rd Army crushed the German breakthrough at Naro-Fominsk and then liberated Naro-Fominsk, Borovsk, and Vereya in the counteroffensive. In January 1942 Zhukov ordered a reckless drive on Vyazma; the 33rd Army was cut off deep in the German rear, and by the time Stalin permitted a breakout it was too late. Yefremov refused the evacuation aircraft sent by the Stavka, loading it with wounded and the army's banners instead, and on 19 April 1942 shot himself rather than be taken prisoner.
Activities and affiliations
- 1921–1933 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1915–1917Imperial Army artillery ensign, fought in the Brusilov offensive
- 1917–1920Joined Red Guard, rose from company to brigade command in the Civil War; seized Baku with armored trains
- 1921–193333rd Rifle Division commander, military advisor in China, graduated Frunze Academy, rifle corps commander
- 1937–1940Commander of the Volga, Transbaikal, Orel, North Caucasus, and Transcaucasus Military Districts
- 1941.01–071st deputy inspector-general of infantry, 21st Army and Central Front commander
- 1941.10–1942.0433rd Army commander: defense of Moscow, crushed Naro-Fominsk breakthrough, killed in the Vyazma encirclement
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarArtillery ensign in the Brusilov OffensiveAs an Imperial Army artillery ensign, he fought in the Brusilov Offensive.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionArmored-train commander in the seizure of BakuDuring the Civil War, he led the armored-train raid that seized Baku.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeCommander placed under house arrest during the Great PurgeIn 1938, state security officers placed him under house arrest.
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarCommander of the 33rd ArmyStalin refused permission to retreat, leading to his encirclement at Vyazma; he committed suicide in April 1942.
The 1938 NKVD investigation and release
During the purge of the Red Army high command in 1937-1938, Yefremov was not spared. In 1938 he was urgently summoned to Moscow, lodged in the Hotel Moskva, and placed under house arrest by state security officers on suspicion of links with the "enemy of the people" Tukhachevsky. The interrogations lasted two and a half months. At a confrontation with the former commander of the Volga military district, Dybenko, he learned that he was alleged to have been recruited by Dybenko in Kuibyshev in April 1937.
At a dead end, Yefremov wrote to Voroshilov on 17 April 1938 asking for help, and a month later wrote to Mikoyan, his comrade from the armoured-train raid on Baku. He was released only after an interrogation attended by Stalin. Mikoyan's son Sergo later asserted that Yefremov's release was directly his father's doing. After his release he was confirmed on 7 October 1938 as a member of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defence, remaining part of the military leadership through the purge. The episode shows both how the purges swallowed commanders who had committed no offence and by what routes someone came out alive.