1. Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin was a Soviet military commander during World War II who was responsible for many Red Army operations in the Ukrainian SSR as the commander of the Southwestern Front, and of the Voronezh Front during the Battle of Kursk.
Nikolai Vatutin was ambushed and killed in February 1944 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Nikolai Vatutin was born in Chepukhino village in the Valuysky Uyezd, Voronezh Governorate, into a peasant family of Russian ethnicity.
In 1939, Nikolai Vatutin planned operations for the Soviet invasion of Poland in conjunction with the German invasion.
Nikolai Vatutin served as Chief of Staff of the Red Army Southern Group.
In that role, Nikolai Vatutin did not try to claim success for himself in battles, but he made a point of identifying and promoting talented subordinates.
Nikolai Vatutin took command of the Soviet forces near Novgorod, rallied them for offense, and attempted to encircle a large German force.
Nikolai Vatutin overestimated the capacities of his troops and created overly ambitious objectives, and his coordination of his forces and control over the unfolding of the battle were poor.
In January 1942, during the Soviet winter offensive after the Red Army victory at the Battle of Moscow, Nikolai Vatutin's forces trapped two German corps in Demyansk and achieved the first large Soviet encirclement of German forces.
From early May to July 1942, Nikolai Vatutin served briefly as deputy of the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army until the German Army Group South embarked on its huge strategic offense, Operation Blau.
Nikolai Vatutin unloaded one of his brigades and, without waiting for the rest of his troops, led that brigade against the German forces, and threw them back.
However, Nikolai Vatutin finally convinced Stalin to promote Cherniakhovsky, who would rapidly rise to become one of the major Red Army field commanders.
On 22 October 1942, Nikolai Vatutin received command of the newly-formed Southwestern Front and played an important role in planning the Soviet counter-offensive and the encirclement of the German 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad.
In December 1942, to secure the Soviet ring around Stalingrad, Nikolai Vatutin's forces encircled and destroyed two thirds of the 130,000-strong Italian 8th Army in operation Little Saturn.
Nikolai Vatutin's actions enabled the Voronezh Front under General Filipp Golikov to capture Kharkov, but he had overextended his depleted troops and not paid sufficient attention to the changing strategic situation.
Nikolai Vatutin's audacity made Stalin award him the rank of Army General.
On 28 March 1943, Nikolai Vatutin took command of the Voronezh Front, which was preparing for the momentous Battle of Kursk.
Nikolai Vatutin regrouped his forces and surprised Manstein by sweeping tank forces through swampland and scattering the Germans from the unexpected direction.
Nikolai Vatutin relentlessly exploited his victory in Kiev, pushed deep into the German defenses, and destroyed the German defensive line.
On 28 February 1944, Nikolai Vatutin, regrouping for a new operation and heading to Slavuta, was ambushed by Ukrainian Insurgent Army insurgents far behind the front lines near the village of Myliatyn in Ostroh Raion.
Nikolai Vatutin died of sepsis, caused by the injuries, in a hospital at Kiev six weeks later.
Erickson says that Nikolai Vatutin left Rovno for Slavutain in a convoy of a dozen men in three light cars; branching off the Rovno highway they were attacked by a hundred guerrillas.
Nikolai Vatutin ordered his staff officer to withdraw but refused to leave.
At sunset they were disengaging but Nikolai Vatutin was seriously wounded, and one truck refused to start.
Nikolai Vatutin was buried in Kiev's Mariinskyi Park near the Ukrainian Parliament.
At Kursk, Nikolai Vatutin was able to stop Manstein's powerful armoured spearheads well short of their objectives and then shift to a counteroffensive that shattered the German front.
Nikolai Vatutin demonstrated great flexibility during the Korsun offensive, taking advantage of fleeting opportunities rather than reinforcing failure, which resulted in his armour encircling two German corps.
However, Nikolai Vatutin was unable to prevent Manstein from relieving the Korsun Pocket, but this limited success squandered Manstein's last operational reserves.
Nevertheless, Nikolai Vatutin had demonstrated that Manstein's style of Bewegungskrieg did not work against a steady opponent and that the Red Army had some commanders who could turn the tables and conduct a form of manoeuvre warfare that astonished even Manstein.
On 11 November 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine removed the status of monument from the grave of Nikolai Vatutin that was still existing at the feet of the then already removed monument in order to comply with 2023 derussification-laws.