During World War II, the tragic war gave birth to a large number of famous generals, Germany has the "Imperial Three Eagles", the Soviet Union has the "Troika", and the United States has eight "five-star generals". But in comparison, the United States, Britain, France and China have great respect for famous generals, giving them the treatment and honor they deserve; but the famous generals of Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan are worse than one.
But if you want to say that it is more tragic, if marshal Kulik of the Soviet Union calls himself the second, it is estimated that no one dares to call the first, and the ups and downs of a life are even more tortuous and bizarre than the novel; some people may have questions, first, who is this Kulik? Second, what merits does this Kulik have to be called a famous general? Third, what happened to him? Don't worry, let's take a look at The Miserable Life of Kulik.
Born into a very ordinary peasant family, he joined the army and took part in the First World War, where he made a small contribution to becoming a petty officer; at the age of 27 at the outbreak of the October Revolution, he joined the newly established Soviet regime without hesitation, and later became the artillery commander of the 14th Army, and played a great role in the defense of Tsaritsin.
But the greatest influence on Kulik's life was to become the artillery commander of the First Cavalry Army; those who knew the history of the Soviet Union, especially Stalin, knew how important the First Cavalry Army was to Stalin, and after Stalin came to power, he vigorously promoted the generals of the First Cavalry Army, Voroshilov, Temusingo, Apanashenko, Yelyommenko, Zhukov, Lelyuschenko, and so on.
According to statistics, from the First Cavalry Army, there were a total of 12 marshals, 5 generals, 5 generals, as well as a number of lieutenant generals, major generals, etc. It can be said that after Stalin took power, the people of the First Cavalry Army were in charge of most of the Soviet army, which is also the origin of Stalin's confidence. And the one to be said here, he also later took up a leadership position, serving as the head of the Soviet Ordnance Department.
During this period, Kulik did something that had a great influence on the Soviet Union, that is, the disbandment of the newly formed large mechanized forces, during which Kulik played a great role; at that time, the operational theory of mechanized corps was debated in various countries, and Kulik, influenced by the Spanish Civil War, believed that the mechanized corps was not suitable for the extremely primitive road network in Russia; which led to the repeated setbacks of the Soviet army in the early stages of the Soviet-German war.
But it cannot be said that he did nothing during his tenure, the famous T-34 medium tank and the BM-13 rocket launcher (Katyusha rocket) were developed during this period; in any case, he made great contributions to the establishment and development of the Soviet Union, and more importantly, he was a close confidant of Stalin, so in 1940 he was promoted to marshal with Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov and received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
But since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Kulik's good fortune has ended here, and Stalin sent three of his five marshals to the Central Front to supervise the Operations of the Western Army: Timoshenko, Commander of the Western Theater and Commander of the Western Front, Shaposhnikov, Chief of Staff of the Western Front, and Kulik, the representative of the base camp. Needless to say, Timoshenko was so accomplished that he proved his ability despite losing two battles in a row, while Shaposhnikov stayed only 10 days before returning to serve as chief of the general staff.
As for Kulik, he was sad, because Kulik fell into the chaos of the battlefield almost as soon as he went to the battlefield, and lost contact with the rear; Stalin and the high command were worried about what was wrong with him, after all, Kulik was a marshal, and if he was captured, it would become a disgrace to the Soviet Union, so he sent people to find him many times; and when he was finally found on the chaotic battlefield, the representative of the high command was performing the duties of a company commander, busy intercepting and organizing the scattered troops who had collapsed.
While that's right, is that what a marshal should do? Stalin began to doubt the old comrade's ability to master the troops and respond in complex situations. So soon after, Stalin sent Kulik to the Leningrad front as commander of the 54th Army, but due to the conflict with Zhukov, Stalin had no choice but to transfer him back. Later, when the German offensive began to point at the strategic point of Rostov on the southern front, Kulik was sent to guide the defense of Rostov as a representative of the base camp.
After on-the-spot investigation, he realized that due to the lack of necessary troops and means, it was impossible to turn the tide of the war and preserve the city of Kerch under the conditions of the time, so he led his men to evacuate the Kerch Peninsula, which could not be defended, resulting in the German occupation of the entire Crimean Peninsula except Sevastopol; in fact, Kulik was too cautious this time, he did not know that Manstein's troops were insufficient, and before he captured Sevastopol behind him, Manstein had no strength to cross the strait to attack the caucasus hinterland.
But in any case, he completely angered Stalin, and after Kulik returned to Moscow, he immediately went to court-martial on the charge of "command error", and then went to the end, deprived of the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and all the state-level rewards; The example of Kulik's sudden demotion from Marshal to a Private Soldier is really unique and unique, because although Stalin has dictatorship, he is actually more tolerant of his subordinates, especially the old subordinates of the First Cavalry Army.
For example, Konev, Yelyommenko, Malinovsky and other famous generals have actually lost on the battlefield, and some even almost lost the entire front, but Stalin chose to give the other side a chance; and for Kulik, a beloved general, Stalin gave the opportunity again and again, but Kulik did not seize it once, so that Stalin finally could not bear it. But do you think this is the end? If it is so simple, how can it be called a twist and turn?
After all, Stalin was nostalgic for the past, so after more than a month, he was asked to re-award him the rank of major general and become an artillery commander of an army, after all, this is his old job, and he will not go wrong. It is true that it was not long before he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed commander of the 8th Assault Army; but unfortunately, the 8th Assault Army was subordinate to Zhukov, and Zhukov really did not like him, and as a result, Kulik's army group commander was dismissed after less than a month, and the rank was demoted to major general to take up logistical organization.
After the war, Kulik was promoted to lieutenant general and served as the deputy commander of a remote military district, but the commander of this remote military district was also a frustrated guy, and the two were considered to be "assigned" people together, and suddenly they were like confidants, they would get together to drink, get drunk when they drank, talk nonsense when drunk, complain and so on; unfortunately, the complaints of the two of them were reported, so it was not long before they were arrested together and executed for treason and espionage...
Hey, speaking of Kulik's life experience, it was really a "handful of snot and a handful of tears" heartache, originally just a mediocre person, the position of minister of the Ordnance Department is also very good, look at how powerful the T-34 and Katyusha rockets are, cheap and easy to use; the result was sent to the battlefield by Stalin to fight, although Kulik is a marshal, but this marshal is a lot of moisture after all, followed by ups and downs, military ranks are suddenly high and low, but it can also be regarded as a pension, after all, Stalin is still good to the old subordinates But he encountered the "confidant" in his life, and as a result, he also went down to the Yellow Spring with the "confidant", is it difficult to believe that this is the legend that he does not seek to be born on the same day of the same month of the same year, but to die on the same day of the same month of the same year?