The most gifted front commander who never became a marshal
On 29 August 1941, Stalin cabled Molotov: 'Does it not seem to you that someone is deliberately opening the road to the Germans on this sector? What sort of man is Popov?' The vozhd's suspicion caught up three years later, in a demotion.
Born on the Don, he volunteered for the Red Army in 1920. He commanded the Northern and Leningrad Fronts in 1941, helping halt the German advance, and at Stalingrad served as deputy commander planning the encirclement. In 1943 his Bryansk Front liberated Oryol and Bryansk, winning him Army General rank, only for a stalled Baltic campaign and a clash with commissar Bulganin to bring demotion to colonel general. Post-war he served as Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces (1956–62) and received the Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Admired by Vasilevsky and Golovanov as a supreme talent, he remains the emblematic front commander who never wore a marshal's star.
Career Timeline
- 1939–41CO 1st Independent Red Banner Army (Far East)
- 1941.1–6CO Leningrad Military District
- 1941.6–9CO Northern Front, then Leningrad Front
- 1941.12–42.6CO 61st Army (Moscow counteroffensive)
- 1942.10–12Deputy CO Stalingrad Front; CO 5th Shock Army
- 1943.6–10CO Bryansk Front: liberated Oryol & Bryansk; promoted Army General
- 1943.10–44.4CO 2nd Baltic Front: demoted to Col. Gen. after stalled operations
- 1944–45Chief of Staff, Leningrad Front
- 1955–62Chief of Combat Training, then Chief of Staff & 1st Deputy C-in-C Ground Forces