After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, Gerasimov Valery Vasilievich, was targeted by the Western media. First he said he refused to take calls from U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, and later said he was killed in the war. Although the news is difficult to distinguish between true and false, it can be seen from this that the Attention of Western Countries to Gerasimov is very high, so what is so powerful about Gerasimov that makes Western countries so jealous?
First, the growth experience.
A native of Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Gerasimov was born in 1955.
In its early years, the Tatar Republic, in order to achieve independence, did not deal with Russia. Tatar itself is very rich in resources, not only rich in oil resources, but also vast and fertile land. Therefore, whether in energy or agriculture, Tatars have great advantages. This also made it one of the most economically developed countries in the autonomous republics of Russia after the end of World War II. Its capital, Kazan, was at the time the third largest city in Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg.
After Russia declared its independence, the Tatars had the idea of independence. At that time, it coincided with the Tatars, and also wanted independence from the Chechen Republic.
In order not to divide the country, the Government of the Russian Federation, while fighting against Chechnya, in order to win over the Tatars, Russia gave tatars the privilege of independent autonomy and foreign relations, promised to give a fairly generous government subsidy, and agreed to set aside 51 of the more than 200 seats in the Duma for tatars. Naturally, this greatly increased the Tatars' right to speak in state affairs.
Due to the favorable conditions and the fact that more than half of the Russians lived in Tatar territory, the Tatars eventually gave up their independence. However, compared with other autonomous republics in Russia, Tatar is not only the only country that can have a "president", but also the most privileged autonomous republic.
As a Tatar, Gerasimov was competitive from an early age and had a fighting national nature. However, in terms of national concept, Gerasimov has always believed that he is Russian and has inseparable feelings for Russia. Therefore, from a young age, he set the ambition to be a pillar of strength.
After graduating from secondary school, Gerasimov was admitted to the Kazan Tank Corps Senior Command School with excellent results.
There he not only learned professional military theory, but also a full range of military training to polish him into a qualified soldier with an iron will.
In 1977, after graduating from the Kazan Tank High Command School, Gerasimov became a recruit in the Far Eastern Military District. After continuous training, he quickly stood out and became a tank platoon leader, and then promoted to tank company commander and tank battalion chief of staff.
Gerasimov knew that to make a difference in the army, he not only needed to gain valuable experience from practice, but he also needed to continue to study in professional military schools so that he could have more professional military talents.
Therefore, after Gerasimov was promoted to the commander of the tank battalion, he went to higher military academies such as the Armored Corps Military Academy to study. After unremitting efforts, Gerasimov became a representative of both civil and military in the army, and he was also noticed by the soviet high command.
For a long time, Gerasimov has held different positions in the six military regions, and while gaining a lot of experience in leading and managing troops, his reputation in the army is growing, and his career is even more prosperous. It took him only 13 years to rise from division commander to deputy commander of the military district, and he was awarded the rank of general of the army. It has to be said that The speed of Gerasimov's promotion is very rare in the Russian army. However, there are very few military backbones like him who have rich professional theoretical knowledge, start from the grass-roots level, and have also held various positions in the six major sub-districts.
Second, hit Chechnya, hit Crimea.
In 1999, Putin was appointed acting president by Yeltsin as his successor.
The small Putin was originally a political amateur, and apart from his experience with the KGB, he was not known politically.
Apparently, Chechen militants bent on independence do not take Putin seriously. They have carried out various terrorist bombings in Russia, causing continuous casualties and panic for a while.
In order to achieve independence, extreme militants in Chechnya were already actively demanding independence from the Soviet Union as early as the 1980s, when the Soviet Union had not yet disintegrated. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya launched an armed revolution and established a government on its own, declaring its independence from Russia. Chechnya's approach has attracted the compliance of a number of other union republics. In order not to divide Russia like the Soviet Union, Russia decided to restore order in Chechnya by force, and the First Chechen War was born.
At this time, although the Russian army sent 100,000 troops and used a large number of heavy artillery and aircraft, because the army continued to use the old strategy and tactics when fighting, coupled with the passive response of soldiers. As a result, they were very passive in the war. On the other hand, although there were few Chechens, because they were fighting for "freedom", they dealt a heavy blow to the Russian army in the flexible way of guerrilla warfare, causing huge losses to the Russian army.
The collapse of the war led to a very high anti-war sentiment among the Russian people. In order to win re-election in the second presidential election and to quell the war, Yeltsin had to make concessions to Chechnya and agree to chechnya's conditions. At this time, although Chechnya was still subordinate to Russia, it was in fact highly autonomous and enjoyed the right to independence. Russia, which seems to be victorious, has lost its dignity as a great power in the world.
In 1999, in order to achieve complete independence, Chechnya repeatedly carried out terrorist attacks in Moscow and other cities, resulting in a large number of casualties.
At a time when Chechen militants were raging, Putin, 48, was appointed prime minister and became Yeltsin's successor.
At this time in Russia, the national economy almost collapsed due to the failure of economic reforms. The economic oligarchs born in economic reform not only control 50% of the country's national economy, but they also control politics to meet their greedy demands.
So at this time, Putin, in order to establish authoritarianism and let Russia regain its dignity, he decided not to tolerate the Chechen issue anymore. So he said in a tough posture: "If you catch a terrorist at the airport, you will be killed at the airport, and if you catch it in the toilet, you will drown in the toilet!" ”
Since the Second Chechen War was crucial for both Russia and Putin, Putin was even more selective in his employment. Gerasimov, then deputy commander of the 58th Army in the North Caucasus. It was at this time that he was "hand-picked" by Putin as the main commander of the Western Offensive.
In order to win the victory, Gerasimov made a meticulous analysis of the previously defeated war and changed the previous combat tactics of using tank troops to suppress the situation. He first ordered the Air Force to carry out large-scale bombing, so that through long-range strikes, not only destroyed chechen logistics warehouses and ammunition depots, etc., but then Gerasimov ordered the army to open tanks and artillery to sweep the remaining Chechen militants like autumn leaves.
Because Gerasimov has always maintained flexibility and changeability in strategic and tactical planning, and interlocking, in just 2 months, the Russian army completed the strategic task of encircling the chechen city. Four months later, the Russians occupied Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and the recalcitrant Chechen militants had to end the war by surrendering.
Gerasimov became famous in the First World War and was known as a "genius conductor", but also gained putin's respect and trust. Soon he was appointed commander of the 58th Army in the Caucasus.
In fact, Gerasimov was not only a god of soldiers, but also a great military theorist. During the Chechen War, he summed up a complete set of military theories. This theory, which not only guaranteed victory in combat, but also received high praise from Putin and was named "Gerasimov Tactics", which was effectively promoted in various armies.
In 2014, during the Crimean War, Gerasimov, who had been promoted to chief of the Russian army's general staff and first deputy minister of defense, once again took control of the Ukrainian military government stationed in Crimea in a short period of time with his superb command and strategy and tactics, and recaptured Crimea without a single soldier. This battle made Gerasimov a god in the first battle, and at the same time made the Western countries even more afraid to underestimate his military capabilities.
Third, fight Syria.
Interestingly, hardcore figures like Gerasimov are also threatened.
It happened during the Syrian civil war in 2020, when Syrian rebels launched a surprise attack on government coalition forces. Since the Syrian government has always been a good friend of Russia's allies, Russia has increased its military support in order to prevent the collapse of the Syrian government. The operational command this time is still Gerasimov.
This time, Gerasimov fought a beautiful Russian-style hybrid war, not only returning fire on the rebels from both air and land, but also abandoning traditional strategies and tactics, and through a modern large-scale combat network, orderly command of technical reconnaissance units, air defense detachments, artillery detachments, etc., thus winning continuous victories in joint operations.
In addition, Gerasimov also made corresponding adjustments in strategy and tactics in the combination of propaganda, spying, public opinion, and electronic information. This not only improves the combat effectiveness of the Russian army and shortens the war cycle, but also makes the combat command system of the Russian army more mature and efficient.
Turkey, which supports the Syrian rebels, has held a meeting with Russia on the war situation in Syria to boost the morale of the rebels. Turkish Defense Minister Hurusi Akar, who was involved in the talks at the time, publicly threatened: "Russia must give up its support for the Syrian government, otherwise the Turkish army will send troops to Syria to attack the Syrian capital Damascus, and then there will be no mercy to the Russian soldiers." ”
Akar had thought that with Turkey's strength and status as NATO's second-largest military power, it would surely shock Russia and get Russia to sign an agreement with them to stop supporting the Syrian government. Unexpectedly, as soon as his voice dropped, it caused The always unsmiling Gerasimov to grin.
This laugh directly made Gerasimov rush to the hot search, and this laugh was not very harmful to Turkey, but it was extremely insulting, so that they became the international laughing stock.
Fourth, the ending?
This time the Russo-Ukrainian war can be said to be a new test for Gerasimov. There are media reports that he has been killed. But others say he still commands operations on the front lines and continues to marvel. So what the end is, whether he can continue his good luck, let's wait and see.