Rokossovsky's indispensable chief of staff, planner of the great offensives
Summer 1941: bomb fragments tore into Malinin's skull and neck. Badly wounded, he refused evacuation and stayed at his post. Rokossovsky later recalled: 'He was my right hand through the whole war.'
A peasant-born carpenter who became one of the Red Army's premier staff officers, Malinin served as chief of staff to Konstantin Rokossovsky from the desperate days of the Smolensk encirclement through the triumphs of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, and Operation Bagration. Their close partnership (Rokossovsky the commander, Malinin the meticulous planner) made the 16th Army, Don, Central, and 1st Belorussian Front headquarters models of Soviet operational art. After the war he was chief of staff of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, then chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces before becoming First Deputy Chief of the General Staff in 1953, a post he held until his death. In that capacity he helped plan the Soviet military intervention in Hungary in 1956.
Career Timeline
- 1919Joins Red Army; fights in the Civil War
- 1931Graduates Frunze Academy; serves in armoured units
- 1939–40Chief of Operations, 9th Army, in the Winter War
- 1941–44Chief of Staff to Rokossovsky: 16th Army, Don, Central, 1st Belorussian Fronts
- 1945Hero of the Soviet Union; chief of staff, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
- 1948–50Chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces
- 1953–60First Deputy Chief of the General Staff; helps plan 1956 Hungary intervention