In the early days of the Soviet-German war, the Soviet Union was basically defeated by the German army, millions of troops could not even stop the German invasion, all kinds of Soviet famous generals were all kinds of embarrassment at the beginning of the war, even Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky, who were known as the Soviet troika, were no exception. However, the only person who was really shot for losing the battle was The former commander of the Western Special Military District and the commander of the South-West Front, Major General Dmitry Grigolyevich Pavlov, who was executed on July 28, 1941, for his defeat.
Some may think that Pavlov's execution was too hasty, and almost all the Soviet generals in the early days of the Soviet-German war suffered defeat, but only this Pavlov was convicted of "treason" and then dragged out and shot. However, considering that he lost more than four hundred thousand troops in a week and lost all of Belarus to the Germans, it does not seem surprising that Pavlov was dragged to be shot. After all, neither the Southwestern Front nor the Northwestern Front lost so quickly, and only if you Pavlov lost a bird's egg in a week, then the problem must be you Pavlov.
It is worth mentioning that, counting the Soviet-German war of 1941, Pavlov had already lost to the Germans three times. Yes, the Soviet general, who had been awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" in the Soviet Union, had lost to the Germans three times in his life, and each time it was more and more tragic.
Pavlov's first defeat to the Russians was during World War I, when Pavlov was a corporal in the Russian 202nd Reserve Infantry Regiment and had just joined the army as a corporal. It is also interesting to say that Pavlov was a corporal who deserved to be a new recruit, he should not have been a sergeant so quickly as a recruit, but he had studied primary school for two years before joining the army and was literate enough, so he was considered a "highly educated talent" in the Russian army full of illiterates. Therefore, the superiors felt that Pavlov was a malleable talent, so they promoted him to the rank of corporal.
Just joined the army to obtain the rank of corporal, which at that time the Russian army can be regarded as a flat step, if there is no accident, Pavlov may be promoted to a lieutenant from here on, but unfortunately, Pavlov's luck is not good, and soon fell bad luck on the battlefield. The 202nd Reserve Infantry Regiment participated in the "Brusilov Breakthrough" launched by the famous Russian general Brusilov in June 1916, which was supposed to be a large-scale campaign against the Austro-Hungarian army, which was supposed to be a tailwind battle in essence, but since the German army launched a counterattack in late July, the Russian army was gradually defeated, and many Russian soldiers were also captured by the fierce German Hans, including the unfortunate Pavlov.
Fortunately, the Germans did not find it too difficult for Pavlov, the same reason is that Pavlov attended primary school for two years, and most of the captured Russian soldiers were illiterate, so Pavlov was a standout, and if the German army wanted to manage these prisoners of war, then "cultural people" like Pavlov could be used well. Coupled with the fact that Pavlov was honest and did not cause anything in the prisoner-of-war camp, Pavlov was then taken to the factory to produce weapons and ammunition, and became a small foreman. It is worth mentioning that Pavlov learned German during this period, and also learned the production and processing technology of ammunition, which can be regarded as a different kind of study abroad.
After the end of World War I, Pavlov was released from a prisoner-of-war camp by the Germans and returned to Russia. Pavlov wanted to go home to farm, but Russia, which was fighting a civil war, obviously did not give him the opportunity to farm, so he had to choose to re-enter the army to fight. There were two ways to put pavlov in front of him, to join the Red Army of the Bolsheviks, or to join the White Guards. Pavlov was also a blessing in his heart, directly choosing to join the Red Army, and he himself also became a "senior talent" in the Red Army because he had a two-year primary school diploma, not only became a corporal again, but also was sent to a military school for further study.
After coming out, Pavlov started with the cavalry, which was also the standard promotion path for many famous generals in the Soviet Union, and Zhukov and Rokossovsky also started with cavalry. After a stint as a cavalry officer, Pavlov was sent to the Frunze Military Academy for repeated studies, and finally to the Leningrad Military Academy for military transport and strategic command. In the general environment of that year, military transport was that most of the commanders of armored forces had learned logistics and transportation, for example, Guderian, the "father of armor" in Germany, did logistics transportation work, so Pavlov became one of the first two tank regiment commanders in the Soviet Union after graduation. (The other is Zhukov)
After that, Pavlov excelled in the Kiev Military District Exercise in 1935 and became an expert in armored warfare in the Soviet Union, so in 1936 he was sent to Spain to command soviet armored forces to help the IRA fight. At that time, his opponents were mainly the Spanish dictator Franco, the Italian Intervention Army and the German "Vulture Legion", Franco and the Italians were certainly not his opponents, and he was defeated by his command of the T-26 light tank and the BT fast tank, but when he encountered the German "Condor Army", he completely reversed. Perhaps Pavlov had ordered the German Hans to defeat the Germans, so he suffered his second defeat in Spain, and the armored units he commanded were all wiped out by the Germans with anti-tank guns.
Fortunately, there were Franco and Italians at the bottom, so Pavlov was still quite successful, and after returning to the Soviet Union, he was awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union", received a "Gold Star Medal", and was promoted to general. Between 1939 and 1940, Pavlov not only contributed to the development of Soviet tanks, but also made valuable contributions to the Battle of Nomonhan and the Soviet-Finnish War, so he was promoted to general and in 1940 he was sent to the Western Special Military District as a commander. It has to be said that Stalin still attached great importance to Pavlov, otherwise he would not have handed over to him the strong and mighty Western Special Military Region.
Unfortunately, Stalin did not know what Pavlov had done after coming to power—Pavlov had shown no regard for the Germans' movements across the border, even if the intelligence services had sent him information, and claimed that if the Germans had called, he would have led his troops to drive the Germans back to Berlin. It has to be said that Pavlov was too inflated and unaware of the impending danger, and as a result, on June 22, 1941, when the German Army Group Center launched an attack on the Western Special Military District, Pavlov's troops were caught off guard, and he himself was completely confused.
The Tactic adopted by the Germans at that time was to encircle the Soviet forces in Belarus from the north and south flanks, with the primary focus on using armored forces to encircle the Soviet forces in the Bialystok salient, and then launch an attack on Minsk, the capital of Belarus. At this time Pavlov's Western Special Military District had been renamed the Western Front, and in the face of the sudden German offensive, the former armored warfare expert mistakenly believed that the Germans could not encircle the two wings of the Białystok salient, but would make a frontal assault on the Białystok salient, so he transferred his troops to the Białystok salient to try to block the Germans.
The move hit the Germans, and Pavlov sent all his troops into the Bialystok salient, trying to block his fantasy of a powerful German offensive here, while the rear was completely undefended. In this way, the two armored groups of the German army could easily go around the rear of the Soviet army and encircle the main Soviet army in the salient of Bialystok in one fell swoop, and the German army could rush to Minsk without hindrance, forming a larger encirclement and completely annihilating the Western Front. It is equivalent to saying that Pavlov has completely taken his troops to the land of death, and there is no hope of survival.
When Zhukov arrived in Minsk on 26 June, Zhukov discovered that German reconnaissance units had appeared outside Minsk, but Pavlov himself had disappeared – according to the Western Front Command, Pavlov had gone to the front. Zhukov consulted the map and found that the Western Front was already in a desperate situation, and it would not be long before it would be completely defeated, and the only chance of survival was to break through quickly. But it meant giving up all of Belarus and handing over the land and the people to the Germans.
But there was nothing left for the western front to break through, and our General Pavlov did a suffocating maneuver the next day—he realized the risk, wrote a rhetorical retreat order, left his troops and flew to Smolensk. Defeated by the Germans for the third time, Pavlov completely lost his courage as a soldier and became a coward who abandoned his troops and fled. And this move also sentenced him to death, the Soviet Union did not need a coward to escape from the battle, so the unfortunate Pavlov was sent to a military court, and finally sentenced to death.