Lev Mikhaylovich Dovator

Лев Михайлович Доватор
Soviet Union state institutions Marxism–Leninism Soviet Union Belarus (Jewish) 1903–1941 ✕ Killed in action

Cavalry commander who raided the German rear and fell before Moscow, Hero of the Soviet Union

Born in Khotino, Vitebsk Governorate, he joined the Red Army in 1924, became a cavalry officer, and while at the military academy was sent to the Spanish Civil War. In August and September 1941 he led a cavalry group on a raid through the German rear in the Smolensk region; in November the group became the 3rd Cavalry Corps and then the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps. During the Moscow counteroffensive he was killed by machine-gun fire on 19 December 1941 attacking the village of Palashkino near Ruza, and was posthumously made Hero of the Soviet Union.

Also known as: Lev Mikhailovich Dovator

Activities and affiliations

Career Timeline

Holding the Volokolamsk road beside the 316th Division and Katukov

Dovator was not one of Mikhail Katukov's subordinates. From late October to the end of November 1941 his cavalry group served in Konstantin Rokossovsky's 16th Army, holding the road from Volokolamsk to Moscow alongside Major General Ivan Panfilov's 316th Rifle Division and Katukov's tank brigade (the 1st Guards Tank Brigade from 11 November). The three commanders held neighbouring sectors and fought side by side.

When the Germans resumed their drive on Moscow on 16 November, the first blow fell on the junction of the 316th Division and Dovator's cavalry group. Over the next two weeks the 16th Army fell back beyond the Istra reservoir under the cover of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade. In the meantime Dovator's group became the 3rd Cavalry Corps on 20 November and, given the guards title on the 26th, the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps.

In her memoir Pamyatnoye (Things Remembered, 2002), Katukov's wife Yekaterina Katukova likened the three formations standing together to the three heroes of an old Russian tale. By her account, in late November the guards division and Dovator's corps were ordered to withdraw while the tank brigade was told to hold its ground. Katukov sent Pyotr Molchanov's tank to help, and Dovator set it the task of destroying four approaching German tanks; while Molchanov fired on them from ambush at short range, the cavalry pulled back without losses.

Dovator was killed in the counteroffensive on 19 December and was buried beside Ivan Panfilov, who had fallen in November.