Tukhachevskiy Mikhail

(1893-1937)
Born 4 (16) February 1893 in the estate Aleksandrovskoe Dorogobuzhskaya district of Smolensk province in a noble family. In 1914 he graduated from the Alexander Military School. Participated in the First World War with the rank of lieutenant. In 1915 he was captured, in 1917 fled to Russia.
After the October Revolution, defected to the Soviet authorities in 1918 joined the Bolshevik Party. He worked in the military department of the Central Executive Committee, with the May 1918 military commissar of defense of the Moscow region, in June - December 1, commanded the First Army of the Eastern Front. In December 1918 - January 1919 Assistant Commander of the Southern Front, . January - March 1919 Commander of the 8 th Army, the Southern Front, . from April to November - Commander of 5 th Army, . who participated in the counterattack of the Eastern Front, . in Zlatoust, . Chelyabinsk and other operations for the release of the Urals and Siberia from the troops of Kolchak,
.

In January - April 1920 - Commander of the Caucasus Front, under his leadership carried Egorlykskaya and the North Caucasus operation. In April 1920 - August 1921 during the Russo-Polish War, commanded the Western Front, the victim of a heavy defeat on the White Poles at Warsaw. As later noted in the Soviet military literature, one of the reasons for this defeat was the refusal of command of the Southwestern Front (AI Egorov, Stalin) to provide the operational control of the Tukhachevsky First Horse Army. In March 1921, commanded the assault on the rebel Kronstadt, . where monopoly power against the communists rose sailors of the Baltic Front, . in April - May was the commander of the Tambov region, . the task of eliminating mass peasant uprising (antonovschiny),
. During the Civil War showed how organizational abilities and military talent, and ruthlessness in suppressing anti-Soviet speeches.

After the war Tukhachevskiy was appointed Chief of the Military Academy of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), from January 1922 to April 1924 - Commander of the Western Front. Assistant, and from July 1925 to May 1928 Chief of Staff of the Red Army, took an active part in carrying out military reform 1924-1925. In May 1928 the commander of the Leningrad Military District. Since 1931 the Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, the head of Red Army, from 1934 Deputy Commissar of Defense, since 1936, First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and the Chief of Combat Training.

Tukhachevsky deserves much credit for retooling of the Soviet army, the development of new species and genera of forces - aviation, mechanized and airborne troops, the navy, in the preparation of commanders. He initiated the creation of a number of military academies. As military leaders and theorists paid much attention to predict the nature of future war and the development of military doctrine of the Soviet Union.

Already in the mid 1920's public security authorities began to accumulate dirt on Tukhachevsky. Thus, in 1930, received testimony from some relatives Tukhachevsky war on his belonging to a right-wing opposition. There is a version that Nazi intelligence specially prepared fake documents (the so-called 'Red Folder') Tukhachevskogo cooperation with foreign intelligence services and its plans for a military coup. These documents were brought to the attention of the Soviet leadership by the Czechoslovak president Benes.

May 11, 1937 Tukhachevskiy was removed from the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and was appointed to command the troops of the Volga Military District. Two weeks later he was arrested, declared the head of the branched military-fascist conspiracy in the Red Army. The structure of 'the center of the conspiracy', . except Tukhachevsky, . I entered Army commanders rank Yakir and Uborevich, . corps commanders AI Cork, . RP Eideman, . BM Feldman, . VM Primakov and VK Putna, . but also committed suicide May 30, 1937 Chief Political Commissar of the Red Army Army Commissar of the first rank JB Gamarnik,
.

From 1 to 4 June 1937 an enlarged meeting of the military council at the People's Commissariat of Defense with the participation of members of the Politburo of the CPSU (b). Before the meeting of the Military Council, all participants were familiarized with a receipt obtained using physical force 'confessions' Tukhachevskogo, Yakir, Uborevich and other. These same fraudulent testimony widely cited KE Voroshilov in the report, . which he began with the approval, . that 'bodies Commissariat disclosed in the army long existed, and with impunity wield, . strictly conspired, . counter-revolutionary fascist organization, . headed people, . who stood at the head of the army ',
. At the meeting of the Military Council was made by Stalin. Referring to the testimony of detainees, he concluded that there was a 'political-military conspiracy against the Soviet authorities, encouraged and funded by the Germanic fascists'.

The investigation was conducted in haste and was completed on June 9, 1937 already, when the Attorney General of the USSR A. Vyshinsky formally interviewed the accused. On the same day, after an audience with Stalin he signed the indictment. June 11 before the start of the trial at the reception of Stalin's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR NI Ezhov and Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR Court V. Ulrich.

Before the trial investigators were instructed by any means untried to persuade them to show the court the testimony given by them during the investigation, and to assure that this will ease their plight. These instructions were carried. Investigators, fabricated charges, accompanied by the accused at his trial, were with them in the waiting rooms and in the courtroom.

During the processing of the accused were allowed to make a declaration of repentance in the name of Stalin, who is alleged to have mercy on them. At one of these statements, written Yakir June 9, 1937, Stalin wrote: 'a scoundrel and a prostitute'. Voroshilov and Vyacheslav Molotov joined this, and Voroshilov wrote: "absolutely precise definition ', and LM Kaganovich added:' Bastards, bastards, and b. ... one punishment - death penalty '

. June 11, 1937 A special bench of the Supreme Court of the USSR V. Ulrich, . Marshals of the Soviet Union Blyukher and Budionov, . commanders YI Alksnis, . Shaposhnikov, . IP Belova, . Dybenko and ND Kashirina considered the case Tukhachevsky and other military leaders and sentenced them to death,
. The sentence was executed the next day.

The trial of Tukhachevsky and the other was used by the Stalinist leadership to further strengthen the repression in the Army and Navy. So, . only nine days after the trial Tukhachevski and others were arrested as members of the military conspiracy 980 commanders and political, . including 29 brigade commanders, . 37 divisional commanders, . 21 Corps Commander, . 16 regimental commissars, . 17 Brigade and 7 Divisional Commissioners,
.

In 1957 Tukhachevskiy was rehabilitated.