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Rokossovsky, the Soviet god of war, was a prisoner on death row when he was awarded the rank of marshal.
In 1944, Rokossovsky, who already had the rank of general, was awarded the rank of marshal by the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Union, Stalin, because he showed great military talent in World War II and commanded his troops to win several major battles.
However, both the general and the marshal, when he was awarded these ranks, carried a death sentence on his back.
Why, then, was Rokossovsky sentenced to death, and how did he go from being a condemned prisoner to a Soviet god of war?
In 1937, the Soviet army's "purge" campaign continued, and many of them were dismissed from their posts and held in prison cells awaiting trial.
And among them, there is Rokossovsky, who has just been promoted to commander of the Fifth Cavalry Corps of the Kiev Military District. At that time, the Soviet Union was hostile to Poland, and Rokossovsky was accused of being a Polish spy because his grandfather was a Pole.
As a result, he and a group of high-ranking military officers were arrested and tortured in prison. At the end of the review, he was "confirmed" and finally sentenced to death.
He was reportedly taken to the execution ground shortly after his sentencing, where he was executed along with other condemned prisoners. But when the bullet hit him, it was discovered that it was an empty cartridge and that he had not been executed.
Later, his old superior, Marshal Timoshenko, came forward and demanded that his charges be re-examined, which saved his life.
But his death sentence has not been reversed, so he remains in prison awaiting the outcome of the review. In fact, he certainly did not commit the alleged crime of espionage, and before he was imprisoned, he was already a staunch Bolshevik advocate.
At the age of 16, he took part in the Warsaw workers' strike in Russia, and after being arrested and imprisoned, he came into contact with the Bolsheviks. At the age of 18, he lied about his age to join the army and participated in the First World War as a Russian private.
In this battle, he charged forward, received three commendations for his heroic fighting style, and accumulated a wealth of combat experience in the process.
After the outbreak of the October Revolution, he joined the Red Army and followed the main army to the north and south, resolutely defending Soviet power. In 1918, he was promoted to the commander of the 1st Cavalry Company of a cavalry regiment of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, and joined the Russian Communist Party half a year later.
The following year, he was promoted to battalion commander, and in a battle he commanded 30 cavalrymen to storm the enemy's artillery battery and capture a large number of artillery. After the battle, he was awarded an Order of the Red Banner.
In 1924, due to his outstanding performance on the battlefield, he was included in the list of cadres for further training by the Russian Communist Party and was sent to the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School to study Xi. Among his classmates was Marshal Zhukov, who later became Stalin's deputy.
After completing his studies, he returned to the army, where his position changed between regiment commander and brigade commander. In 1935, after the introduction of the rank system in the Red Army, his rank was assessed to the rank of division, and later he served as the commander of the 5th Cavalry Army of the Leningrad Military District.
However, after the start of the "purge" campaign in Russia, he did not rise in the ranks, he was deprived of the opportunity to go to war, and he was convicted of espionage and sentenced to death.
But fate still favored him in the end, and he was not killed by an empty bag on the execution field, and he waited for more than two years for the results of the review, and finally found out that the accusations were not true, and he was able to clear his grievances.
However, before his death sentence could be annulled, he was fished out by his old superiors and participated in the Soviet-Finnish war that broke out at the end of 1939.
From this moment on, as a condemned prisoner, he continued to perform miracles on the battlefield, and eventually became the god of war of the Soviet Union.
So, how did he fare on the battlefield after he was released from prison?
Rokossovsky was the Soviet god of war, but when he was awarded the rank of marshal, he was a death row prisoner.
In 1939, after the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish war, the Soviet army was underprepared for war and lacked excellent military command cadres.
To solve this problem, Stalin secretly released a group of high-ranking officers who had been imprisoned, including the former commander of the 5th Cavalry Army, Rosokovsky.
Earlier, he was accused of having links with Polish spy services and was sentenced to death.
However, the war was imminent, and his death sentence was not revoked, so he was reinstated as a death row prisoner, returned to the battlefield again, and ascended to the throne of marshal step by step.
So, how did he do it? How did he behave on the battlefield?
After Rokossovsky was released from prison, it was just in time for the Soviet army to reform the military rank system, and before he was imprisoned, he was already the commander of the first army, so he was rated with the rank of major general.
In 1940, after the formation of the mechanized units of the Soviet army, he left the cavalry unit and went to the Ninth Mechanized Army of the Kiev Military District as a corps commander.
On June 22 of the following year, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and within three months, the German army and its allies penetrated deep into Soviet territory at the speed of a blitzkrieg.
During this period, Rokossovsky fought to the death with the Germans in a desperate struggle due to poor combat preparation and harsh conditions, and captured German prisoners in a battle to defend Kiev.
But the Battle of Kiev was fought because of the large number of German troops, the Soviet army lost in this battle, and Leningrad was also surrounded by German troops.
When the Germans were preparing to storm Moscow, the commander of the Soviet 16th Army was captured due to serious wounds, and Rokossovsky was urgently transferred to the post and promoted to lieutenant general.
He was then sent to the northwestern part of Moscow for defense. But when he went to Volokolamsk, northwest of Moscow, there was only one infantry division, and the enemy they were about to face was a large German army.
He reported the situation to Zhukov, the commander of the Front at that time, and bluntly said that this little force could not hold a 100-kilometer line of defense.
But Zhukov did not send any more reinforcements, but let him be reorganized in the defense zone on the spot. If that's not enough, it's up to him.
After hanging up the phone, Rokossovsky looked embarrassed, but he had no choice but to rely on the only forces at hand to hold the northwest of Moscow and prevent the German army from entering the city.
On October 16, the defensive battle northwest of Moscow began, and under the overwhelming superiority of the German army, Rokossovsky's troops, without the assistance of mechanized troops, held out for 10 days on a 100-kilometer front of the defensive line.
The troops suffered heavy casualties, and the German offensive was still fierce, but Rokossovsky noticed that the German army's logistical supply lines were long, and Moscow had entered winter, and the German army's will was gradually weakening under their resistance.
In this situation, in order to deal with the German tank and heavy artillery, Rokovsky decided to abandon the defense zone and instead use the surrounding deep waterways to fight guerrilla warfare, and use the advantage of infantry mobility to carry out anti-tank defense.
This tactic was very effective, the German tanks and heavy artillery could not be fully utilized, and the soldiers failed to charge one after another, and they had already begun to retreat.
Based on the situation on the battlefield, Stalin, a month later, decided to launch a counteroffensive to completely crush the intentions of the German army to occupy Moscow.
On December 7, Rokossovsky moved directly from defense to offensive with two fast assault units. At the same time, the combination of frontal assault and roundabout outflanking tactics caught the Germans by surprise.
Just two days later, the Germans were forced back 16 kilometers by his troops. And Rokossovsky's troops were also the fastest advancing of all the counteroffensive units of the Soviet army.
However, during the battle, his command was unfortunately hit by an enemy shell, shrapnel hit him in the ribs, his lungs were pierced, and he was carried to the rear for rescue.
This injury almost cost him his life. But after he was rescued, before his body recovered, he secretly ran out of the hospital and returned to the army to command the operation.
So, what battles did he command, who had not recovered from his serious injuries?
Rokossovsky was known as the "Soviet god of war", but when he became a marshal, he was a condemned prisoner.
In 1941, the Soviet-German war broke out, and Rokossovsky, who had just been released from prison, immediately went into battle. Under his command, the Soviets managed to repel the Germans. But he was also unfortunately wounded in the battle.
However, after only two months of treatment, he dragged his sick body to continue fighting. During this period, his heroic battles finally caught Stalin's attention, and in later contacts he gradually became Stalin's confidant.
So, what is the intersection between Rokossovsky and Stalin, and what does he think of Stalin?
In the Battle of Moscow, Rokossovsky returned to the battlefield after being wounded, once again showing his outstanding military ability. The campaign also succeeded in bringing Stalin's attention to this excellent general.
In April 1942, the Nazi army of millions approached Stalingrad. In order to save the place, Stalin appointed Rokossovsky as commander of the Don Front, and his rank was promoted to army general, commanding and carrying out the "Ring" plan to encircle and annihilate 300,000 German troops.
In this campaign, he devised a set of "artillery offensive" tactics. This tactic was based on the two lines of defense set up by the German army, and the Soviet artillery attacked the main line, and when the German army was in the first line of defense, the Soviet artillery attacked the first line of defense.
When the Germans withdrew to the second line of defense, the Soviet infantry struck towards the first line of defense. At this time, the Germans would reinforce the first line of defense, while the Soviet artillery fire followed closely with the infantry, and always kept a distance of 200 meters from the charging soldiers, firing the barrage of bullet fire.
In this way, the Soviet artillery shells will slowly cover the German positions, and the Soviet follow-up troops will also follow the artillery forward.
With this aggressive tactic, Rokossovsky managed to crush the Nazi offensive and win the Battle of Stalingrad.
This made Stalin very happy, and when Rokossovsky returned from the battlefield, he trotted over 60 years old to meet him, grabbed Rokossovsky's hand and praised him for playing well.
After this battle, Stalin trusted him even more, and some even believed that he was already a confidant of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and Rokossovsky's military rank became that of a general, and he was only one step away from marshals.
And the battle that turned him from a general to a marshal was the Battle of Belarus in 1944. However, before the war, he and Stalin had a disagreement over the battle plan, and almost "lost their lives".
In May 1944, he submitted to Stalin his plan for a special campaign to liberate southern Belarus, but this plan was rejected by almost all the leaders, and Stalin did not agree.
But he still insisted on his point of view and did not give an inch. This displeased Stalin and advised him to go to the next room and think again.
A few minutes later, Stalin came to him again and asked him what he was thinking, but he still did not budge and insisted on his point of view.
Stalin did not understand why he was so stubborn and again kept him calm and calm. In fact, at this time, ordinary people will not work against the supreme commander, but as a general, he can't let the soldiers under him make senseless sacrifices.
So, when Stalin again asked for his opinion, he still did not flinch and insisted that his point of view was correct.
When those present heard this, they felt that he did not know how to be flexible, and they were afraid that he would be dismissed by Stalin.
However, when Stalin raised the badge on his shoulder, he whispered to Rokossovsky: "The commander of a front has always adhered to his personal opinion, which is enough to prove that his battle plan was well thought out."
In the end, Stalin unexpectedly agreed to his battle plan.
He also did not fail to live up to Stalin's trust, he led the 1st Belorussian Front, and fought fiercely with the Germans on a defensive line of 200 kilometers for 5 days, encircling and annihilating the German Bobruisk group, advancing 110 kilometers into the German depth.
After the war, he was awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union and served as a commander at the Victory Parade. At this time, the death sentence on his body was still not revoked.
A condemned prisoner on one side and a Soviet god of war on the other, Rokossovsky's career as a horse is undoubtedly legendary.
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