The architect of communications at Stalingrad and Kursk: first Marshal of the Signal Troops
On the night of 22 July 1941, Stalin dismissed General Gapich on the spot, then told Peresypkin: 'You are appointed chief of communications. You will keep the post of People's Commissar for Communications.' Without asking, Stalin made him Deputy People's Commissar for Defence as well.
Born to a mercury miner in the Donbass, he joined the Red Army at fifteen and fought on the Southern Front during the Civil War. After graduating from the Kiev Military-Political School and the Red Army Electrical Engineering Academy, he rose through the signal troops and was abruptly appointed People's Commissar for Communications in 1939 at just 35. One month into the war, on 22 July 1941, Stalin added the posts of Deputy People's Commissar for Defence and Chief of Red Army Communications, placing wartime civilian and military communications under one man. He visited the front 24 times personally, ensuring stable contact between the Stavka and the field armies at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. In 1944, at age 39, he became the first Marshal of the Signal Troops, the youngest service-branch marshal rank in Soviet history.
Activities and affiliations
- 1919–1920 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1919–1920Joined the Red Army, fought on the Southern Front in the Civil War
- 1923–1925Re-enlisted; graduated Kiev Military-Political School; served in 1st Cavalry Division signals squadron
- 1937Graduated Red Army Electrical Engineering Academy; military commissar of the Communications Research Institute
- 1938–1939Military commissar then deputy chief of Red Army Communications Directorate (Colonel)
- 1939–1944People's Commissar for Communications of the USSR
- 1941–1944Deputy People's Commissar for Defence & Chief of Red Army Main Communications Directorate
- 1944–1946Marshal of the Signal Troops; Chief of the Main Communications Directorate
- 1946–1957Chief of Signal Troops, Ground Forces
- 1957–1978Scientific consultant to Deputy Defence Minister; Group of Inspectors General
Related historical events
After the war: military-scientific and literary work after leaving active command
Peresypkin remained at the head of the signal troops after the war. From 1946 to 1957 he commanded the signal troops of the Ground Forces; after a grave illness in 1956 he was relieved of that post in January 1957 and placed at the disposal of the Minister of Defence. He then served as a scientific consultant to a deputy defence minister, and from April 1958 as a military inspector-adviser in the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defence. Despite poor health he stayed organisationally active, chairing the Radio Sport Federation of the USSR and the Historical Commission of the A. S. Popov Scientific and Technical Society for Radio Engineering, Electronics and Communications, and he left a large body of books and articles on the history and current problems of communications. From 'Radio in the Service of the Country's Defence' (1946) to 'Signallers in the Years of the Great Patriotic War' (1972), and the series of articles he contributed to the Military-Historical Journal between 1968 and 1978 on the Dnieper crossing, the battle of Stalingrad and the Manchurian operation, this work carried his battlefield experience into documentary research. He died on 12 October 1978 and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.