Belarusian-born marshal who commanded the Warsaw Pact forces for nine years
Trapped inside the Mogilev pocket in 1941, Yakubovsky's tank battalion crushed an advancing German motorcycle convoy by ramming it with their tanks in the city streets.
Born to a Belarusian peasant family, he joined the Red Army in 1932 and led tank units through the defence of Minsk and Mogilev, Stalingrad, Kursk, the liberation of Kyiv, and the Berlin and Prague offensives, earning the title Hero of the Soviet Union twice. In 1967 he became First Deputy Minister of Defence and Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact, receiving his marshal's star. He commanded the Pact forces during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and remained, until his death, the officer with day-to-day responsibility for the alliance spanning Eastern Europe.
Career Timeline
- 1939–1940Tank company commander in the Polish campaign and Winter War
- 1941–1945Rose from tank battalion commander to deputy corps commander; twice Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1948Graduated from the General Staff Academy
- 1960–1961, 1962–1965Commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (through the Berlin Crisis)
- 1965–1967Commander of Kiev Military District
- 1967–1976First Deputy Minister of Defence and C-in-C Warsaw Pact; Marshal of the Soviet Union
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCivil War participant
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter Wartank company commander
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic Warcolonel
- 1968The Prague SpringCommander-in-Chief of Warsaw Pact forces who directed the invasionAppointed Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces in July 1967, he operationally directed the military preparations and execution of the invasion of Czechoslovakia (Operation Danube), commanding the entry of 250,000 troops from five Warsaw Pact states on the night of 20–21 August 1968.
The 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia: Operation Danube
Less than a year after assuming command of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces in July 1967, Yakubovsky faced the most controversial military operation of his career. In late April 1968, he visited Prague to prepare for Warsaw Pact exercises on Czechoslovak territory, a visit that coincided with the moment the Soviet leadership began weighing a military response to Alexander Dubček's 'socialism with a human face' reforms.
As commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact forces, Yakubovsky oversaw the military preparations for Operation Danube. On the night of 20–21 August 1968, roughly 250,000 troops from five Warsaw Pact states, the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria, crossed the Czechoslovak border. Days before the invasion, however, the Soviet leadership transferred operational command from Yakubovsky to General of the Army Ivan Pavlovsky, the commander-in-chief of Soviet Ground Forces. The last-minute switch revealed that operational control ultimately rested with the Soviet Defence Ministry and General Staff rather than the Warsaw Pact's joint command.
Yakubovsky remained commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact until his death in 1976, presiding over the military consolidation of the 'normalisation' regime in Czechoslovakia and the alliance's post-invasion restructuring. He was made a Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1970, yet the invasion he prepared endures as the definitive case in which the Warsaw Pact's collective military power was turned against one of its own members.