The invisible commander who moved the war, the only supply general Stalin toasted as architect of victory
Kremlin victory banquet, May 1945. After all the toasts to the marshals, Stalin refilled his glass and said: 'Now a toast to the true commander and great toiler of the war, without whom there would have been no great victory. To Comrade Khrulev.'
A blacksmith's son who rose from a Petersburg goldsmith's apprentice to General of the Army and founder of the modern Soviet rear services. He created the Red Army's unified logistics system, the Rear (Тыл), on 1 August 1941 and directed it for the entire war, simultaneously serving as People's Commissar of Railways in 1942–43. He visited Stalin's Kremlin office 113 times during the war to coordinate supply directly with the Supreme Commander, and at the victory banquet Stalin raised a toast to 'the true commander and great toiler of the war, without whom there would have been no great victory.' After his death, Nikita Khrushchev opposed a Kremlin wall burial, but the military prevailed and his ashes were placed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Career Timeline
- 1918–1921Political commissar, 11th Cavalry Division, 1st Cavalry Army; Civil War
- 1930–1936Head of Central Military Finance Directorate → Chief of Administration, NKO
- 1939–1941Chief of Supply → Head of Main Intendant Directorate
- 1941–1951Deputy People's Commissar for Defence → Chief of the Rear Services of the Red Army
- 1942–1943People's Commissar of Railways
- 1943Promoted to General of the Army (7 November)
- 1955–1957Led rehabilitation of 98 purged commanders including Marshal Blyukher
- 1958–1962Military inspector-adviser, Group of General Inspectors, Ministry of Defence