Perhaps in the impression of many friends, the Soviet army's weapons and equipment and tactical thinking are relatively backward, relying only on the huge numerical advantage to defeat the enemy. In fact, this understanding is wrong. In the early stages of World War II, the Soviet Army was very receptive to new things, and the Soviet Union was the first country to use paratroopers in actual combat, and it was also one of the first countries to try to vigorously develop armored forces.
However, it is irrefutable that the Soviet army on the eve of the outbreak of the Soviet-German war was very chaotic, and the senior officers did not look like the senior officers. I have previously written an article about Soviet Marshal Ivanovich Kulik, known as the "Tsaritsin Gun King", a general who had distinguished himself during the Russian Civil War, who was pushed to the center of the historical stage at the wrong time, and of course the end will not be too good.
Kulik had openly opposed the development of katyusha for the simple reason that he felt that the use of vehicles for artillery to pull was "unconventional" (in fact, the old thinking of the First World War) and believed that it should be pulled by horses. The marshal we are going to introduce in this article is named Yeliamenko, who is not as direct as Kulik's incompetence, but his deeds in history are not very glorious.
Like most Soviet generals, Yelemenko came from a poor family. However, he was conscripted into the army in 1913, and after the outbreak of World War I, he was baptized by the flames of war in a name-listed capacity, and by the time the Soviet-German War broke out, Yelemenko had been appointed deputy commander of the Western Front. In the first half of his career, Yeliamenko showed a relatively good professionalism. His position in the military at that time was not too inferior to Zhukov's.
In August 1941, Yelyommenko was appointed by the High Command as the head of the Bryansk side, with a front. Niyeryerommenko's opponent was the famous German general Heinz Wilhelm Guderian. Although Guderian's exploits in Europe at that time were numerous, and his armored corps became a nightmare for European countries, Yelemenko was very confident and planned an active attack on the German army.
However, his troops advanced less than 20 kilometers before they were trapped by the Germans, and at the same time, Guderian played a siege, and Yeliamenko's troops suffered heavy losses and he himself was wounded. The fall of Bryansk directly exposed the Soviet capital of Kiev to the Germans. The important political significance of Kiev made Stalin unable to give up, and then there was the largest siege in human history, in which the 6 armies of the Soviet Army were completely annihilated, and the commander and chief of staff were all killed.
Yeliamenko's escape was also very embarrassing, when he found a plane, but was shot down by the enemy halfway through. When a villager spotted the plane, Yeliamenko was frozen half to death. However, Yelemenko was much luckier than Pavlov, and Stalin simply removed him from office and did not pursue him more. It was not until the later Battle of Stalingrad that he was revived.
The Battle of Stalingrad was the pinnacle of Yelemenko's military career. The defensive operations he commanded blocked the German offensive, which became one of the key factors in the victory of the Soviet army at the Battle of Stalingrad. In addition, Yeliamenko's performance in other battles was either mediocre or a fiasco. Stalin may have seen this, and he neither punished nor praised too much. During Stalin's lifetime, Yeliamenko's rank remained above that of a general and did not move forward.
Yeliamenko, as a man, was very restless, and after Stalin's death, he earned the rank of field marshal by forging good relations with the upper echelons. Afterwards, he openly opened fire on Marshal Zhukov, saying that his art of combat was that "he must have 5 or 6 times the strength of the enemy, otherwise he would not have started to fight, without numerical superiority, he would not have fought at all, and his current position of prominence was exchanged for the blood of countless soldiers."
That being said, Zhukov didn't pay much attention to him. Yeremenko also tried to take the lead in some things, but the invited marshals just looked at it, and almost no one responded to him. Today, it seems that Yeliamenko's self-confidence, both during and after the war, came very blindly. You must know that whenever a battle comes, Zhukov, as a commander, must personally go to the front line to check the enemy's movements, check the readiness of his troops, and criticize the commander's carelessness. He was also supported by soldiers and became a "symbol of victory" for the Soviet army. Zhukov once said: "How great it is for a soldier to stand up and charge in the face of the enemy's bullets." He wrote in his own handwriting on the title page of his meeting minutes: Dedicate this book to Soviet soldiers.
Yelyommenko, on the other hand, Stalin gave him the same opportunity. However, his ability is limited, but he cannot control his words and deeds. In this way, it is not accidental that people are praised or disliked, and the position of Yelyommenko and Zhukov in history has been reasonably judged by everything that happened.