Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (12 February 1900 – 18 March 1982) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and a Lieutenant-General of the Red Army during World War II. He was a successful commander of Soviet troops during the Russian Civil War, Winter War, Second Sino-Japanese War, and World War II.
Biography[]
Vasily Chuikov was born on 12 February 1900 in Serebryanye Prudy in the Tula Governorate of the Russian Empire (south of Moscow, present-day Russia). Chukov was the fifth of eight brothers, and all eight fought for the Red Army during the Russian Civil War of 1917-1921. Chuikov took over the Soviet 40th Infantry Regiment under Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Soviet 5th Army on the Southern Front, also fighting Alexander Kolchak's White Army forces in Siberia. From 1921 to 1925 he attended the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow and took over the Soviet 4th Army during the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II in 1939.
He also led the Soviet 9th Army in 1940 in the Winter War with Finland and gained experience against Nazi Germany in World War II while defending Volgograd from German, Italian, and Romanian troops during Operation Blue in 1942. Chuikov's Soviet 64th Army defended the Volgograd region capital of Stalingrad from late 1942 to 1943 in the Battle of Stalingrad, in which Chuikov proved that a modern city could defeat even the most advanced of armies. His soldiers hugged the walls and fought the Germans in streets and buildings, and in February 1943 the German 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus was itself besieged in the city and forced to surender.
Chuikov in 1945
After the surrender of German forces in Stalingrad, Chuikov became a hero. He was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal and led the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front as it pushed into Poland. On 10 April 1944 he captured Odessa and proceeded to invade Romania proper before seizing the city of Poznan (Posen) in 1945. His army was one of the many that besieged the German capital city of Berlin in the final redoubt of major German resistance in Germany, and in April–May 1945 he met with the German general Hans Krebs to discuss surrender terms. Chuikov's demands for unconditional surrender were ignored and Krebs and many other generals killed themselves as Berlin fell. Chuikov accepted Helmuth Weidling's surrender on 2 May 1945, and Berlin fell to the Soviets.
From 1949 to 1953, Chuikov commanded the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and in 1953 was made the leader of the Kiev Military District. From 1960 to 1964 he was commander-in-chief of the Soviet Union's ground forces. Chuikov entered politics in 1961 as a member of the central committee of the CPSU. He was buried in Stalingrad after his death.