Soviet Colonel General who led Leningrad through the first blockade winter, then lost the 2nd Shock Army and his command
Stavka sacked him on 8 June 1942 for "paper-bureaucratic methods of troop management," citing his detachment from the troops that let the enemy cut the 2nd Shock Army's communications.
Mikhail Khozin was the son of a railway worker, fought in World War I, then joined the Red Army and saw action in the Civil War. After commanding the Leningrad Military District (1938) and heading the Frunze Military Academy (1939), he followed Zhukov to the Leningrad Front as chief of staff and concurrently commander of the 54th Army during the siege. He took command of the Leningrad Front in October 1941 and led the defence through the first blockade winter and the Tikhvin offensive, but was relieved in June 1942 for failing to extract the encircled 2nd Shock Army. He returned to field commands with the 33rd and 20th Armies and later headed Soviet military educational institutions.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1915Conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army; commissioned praporshchik
- 1918Joined the Red Army and the Bolshevik Party
- 1925Graduated Higher Academic Courses, Frunze Military Academy
- 1937Deputy Commander, Leningrad Military District
- 1938–1939Commander, Leningrad Military District
- 1939–1941Chief, Frunze Military Academy
- 1941.09Chief of Staff, Leningrad Front, concurrently CO 54th Army
- 1941.10–1942.06Commander, Leningrad Front
- 1942.06–10CO 33rd Army
- 1942.12–1943.01CO 20th Army, Operation Mars
- 1943Promoted Colonel General
- 1944–1945Commander, Volga Military District
- 1946–1963Headed military educational institutions
- 1963Retired
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarRussian Imperial Army soldierConscripted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1915, he served in the First World War.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionRed Army enlistment
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic Warcommander of the Leningrad Front
- 1941–1944Siege of LeningradLeningrad Front commanderFrom October 1941, he commanded the defence through the first blockade winter and the Tikhvin offensive.
Operation Polar Star and a second dismissal (1943)
Khozin's removal from the Leningrad Front in June 1942 did not end his field service. He commanded the 33rd and 20th Armies, was promoted to Colonel General on 19 January 1943, and was then handed one arm of a large north-western offensive.
After the partial breach of the Leningrad blockade on 18 January 1943, Stavka widened the offensive across the north-western direction. The plan, given the code name Polar Star, aimed to encircle and destroy German Army Group North and to liberate Leningrad Oblast completely. The North-Western Front and a special group formed under Khozin's command on 30 January were given the main role, while the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts were to support them. The operation ran from February to April and included attacks toward Demyansk and Staraya Russa. It ended in failure: not one of its objectives was achieved.
Khozin's subsequent command record was also uneven. From March to December 1943 he served as deputy commander of the North-Western and Western Fronts, took part in the Rzhev-Vyazma operation of March-April, and then prepared the 11th Army for a summer thrust into the rear of the German forces holding Oryol. On 8 December 1943, however, he was dismissed again, this time from the Western Front post, for "inactivity and a frivolous attitude to duty," and placed at the disposal of the People's Commissariat of Defence personnel directorate. From that December he took no further part in combat, and he was treated in hospitals at Smolensk and at Barvikha near Moscow. In March 1944 he was appointed commander of the Volga Military District, where he trained reserves for the front, closing out his field career.