Peasant-born Army General who led the 2nd Belorussian Front and was demoted after Bagration
Marshal Yeremenko judged: 'Zakharov has a decent head and great will, but he's a terrible brute — he'll shout at and sometimes beat a man without even grasping the situation.'
Born to a poor peasant family, he worked as a child labourer from age 11 before conscription in 1916. His soldiers elected him regimental commander in October 1917; he then joined the Red Army. Graduating from the Frunze and General Staff academies, he alternated between staff and field commands: as deputy commander of the Stalingrad Front he led the left-wing armies in the counteroffensive, and he commanded the 2nd Guards Army in breaking through the Mius defences and liberating Sevastopol. In 1944 he took the 2nd Belorussian Front into Operation Bagration, but the Stavka judged his performance inadequate and demoted him to the 4th Guards Army. Postwar he commanded the South Ural and East Siberian military districts. A general of sharp instinct and famously fiery temper.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1916–1917Conscripted into Imperial Army; ensign school. Elected regimental commander by soldiers, Oct 1917
- 1919Joins Red Army and Bolshevik Party; Civil War on the Eastern Front
- 1923–1939Graduates Vystrel, Frunze, and General Staff academies. COS Ural MD (1939–1941)
- 1941–1942COS 22nd Army → Cdr. Bryansk Front → Deputy Cdr. Western Front
- 1942–1943Deputy Cdr. Stalingrad Front — leads left-wing armies in counteroffensive
- 1943–1944Cdr. 2nd Guards Army — Mius breakthrough, Perekop, Sevastopol
- 1944Cdr. 2nd Belorussian Front, Army General. Demoted after Bagration
- 1945–1954Cdr. South Ural & East Siberian MDs, head of Vystrel, Supreme Soviet deputy
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCivil War veteran
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic Warcommander of the Bryansk Front, deputy commander of the Western Front
- 1942–1943Battle of StalingradFront deputy commander leading left-wing armiesAs deputy commander of the Stalingrad Front, he led the left-wing armies in the counteroffensive.
1916-1926: From soldier-elected regimental commander to the General Staff school
Called up in March 1916, he passed through the training command of the 133rd Reserve Infantry Regiment and the Chistopol ensign school in 1917, and in October of that year was elected regimental commander by his soldiers while holding the rank of second lieutenant. It was a case of soldiers choosing their own commander in the vacuum the October Revolution left in the officer corps; the starting point of his later command career was not appointment from above but the trust of those below him.
Returning from the front to Saratov, he entered the civil war in command of a local partisan detachment, joined the Red Army in August 1919 and fought White forces on the Eastern Front. Wounded on the Ural Front as commander of a rifle company of the 51st Independent Rifle Battalion, 4th Army, he was sent after treatment to Vladikavkaz to command a rifle battalion.
After the civil war he widened his path toward staff and teaching work. In July 1922 he was sent to the Higher Tactical-Rifle School of the Comintern, and in 1923, as a first-class graduate, he was appointed battalion commander of the United Military Kremlin School named for the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. From November 1926 he served as assistant head and then head of that school's organization department. He was also summoned by Lenin during this period, who questioned the regimental commander closely about the life of the cadets.
From 1932 he worked in supply and technical roles at the Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy, completed the Frunze Military Academy's evening course in 1933, and in 1937 was sent by decision of the Party Central Committee to the General Staff Academy, becoming chief of staff of the Ural Military District in April 1939. The regimental commander elected by his soldiers in 1917 had become a military district chief of staff twenty-two years later, the interval filled with field command, schooling and staff work.