Commander of the 64th Army: Stalingrad's southern shield for six months
31 January 1943, Beketovka, 64th Army HQ. Field Marshal Paulus was led in before General Shumilov. It was the first time in history a German field marshal had surrendered — and it was Shumilov's soldiers who had taken him.
A veteran infantry officer of the First World War and the Civil War, Shumilov was appointed commander of the 64th Army in August 1942 and held the southern defence of Stalingrad for six months. While Chuikov's 62nd Army fought the close-quarters battle to the north, Shumilov's 64th Army stopped Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army on the southern approaches and, in January 1943, took Field Marshal Paulus prisoner. Shumilov personally conducted the interrogation. He then led the renamed 7th Guards Army through Kursk, the Dnieper crossing (for which he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union), Budapest, and Prague. After the war he commanded the White Sea and Voronezh military districts and was buried, at his request, on Mamayev Kurgan among the fallen of Stalingrad.
Career Timeline
- 1916Graduated Chuguyev Military School; served in WWI as praporshchik
- 1918Joined Red Army and Bolshevik Party
- 1918–20Civil War: rose from platoon to regiment commander
- 1938–39Soviet military adviser in Spanish Civil War
- 1938–41Commander, 11th Rifle Corps (Poland, Finland, Barbarossa)
- 1942.1–8Deputy commander, 21st Army (Kharkov, Don)
- 1942.8–1943.4Commander, 64th Army — southern Stalingrad defence
- 1943.4–1945.5Commander, 7th Guards Army (Kursk → Prague)
- 1949–55Commander, Voronezh Military District