44 Facts About Rodion Malinovsky

Rodion Malinovsky served as Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1967, during which he oversaw the strengthening of the Soviet Army.

Rodion Malinovsky emerged as one of the few competent Soviet generals in the opening phase of the German invasion.

Rodion Malinovsky then commanded the Soviet drive into the Balkans, forcing Romania to switch to the Allies side, for which he was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin.

Rodion Malinovsky further took part in the liberation of Budapest, Vienna and Prague, cementing Soviet military supremacy in Central Europe.

Rodion Malinovsky received the Soviet Union's highest distinction, the title Hero of the Soviet Union, as a reward.

Rodion Malinovsky was a strong advocate for the importance of conventional forces, and maintained a delicate balance with Khrushchev's missile-based approach regarding Soviet military policy.

Rodion Malinovsky retained considerable autonomy in military affairs following the fall of Khrushchev in 1964.

Rodion Malinovsky died in March 1967 from pancreatic cancer, and is remembered as one of the most important military leaders in Russian and Soviet history.

Rodion Malinovsky nevertheless convinced the commanding officers to enlist him as a volunteer, and served in a machine-gun detachment in the frontline trenches.

Rodion Malinovsky fought in a hotly contested sector of the front near Fort Brion and was promoted to sergeant.

Rodion Malinovsky suffered a serious wound in his left arm, and received a decoration from the French government.

Rodion Malinovsky fought against the Germans until the end of the war.

Rodion Malinovsky returned to Odessa in 1919, where he joined the Red Army in the Civil War against the White Army and fought with distinction in Siberia.

Rodion Malinovsky remained in the army after the end of the conflict, studying in the training school for the junior commanders, and rose to commander of a rifle battalion.

In 1927, Rodion Malinovsky was sent to study at the elite Frunze Military Academy.

Rodion Malinovsky graduated in 1930, and during the next seven years he rose to the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, where his commander was Semyon Timoshenko.

Rodion Malinovsky participated in planning and directing several main operations.

Rodion Malinovsky was promoted to Major General, and took command over the freshly raised 48th Rifle Corps, 9th Army in the Odessa Military District.

While, as a rule, Red Army generals would lead their forces from behind the frontline, Rodion Malinovsky went to the crucial sectors of the battles to be with his soldiers and encourage them.

Unable to stop the Wehrmacht, Rodion Malinovsky had to retreat along the Black Sea shore, while frustrating enemy attempts to encircle his troops.

The Germans succeeded in cornering his corps in Nikolaev, but Rodion Malinovsky breached their ring and retreated to Dnipropetrovsk.

Rodion Malinovsky halted the German advance in his section of the front and was promoted to Lieutenant General.

In December 1941, Rodion Malinovsky received command of the Southern Front, consisting of three weak field armies and two division-sized cavalry corps.

Stalin ordered Rodion Malinovsky to stop the intrusion of the German Army Group A towards Rostov-on-Don and the vital oilfields of Caucasus; the Germans had a sizeable technical superiority over Rodion Malinovsky, and cut through his weak defenses.

The 66th Army had no combat experience, but this was the first time in the war Rodion Malinovsky had commanded a unit that was near full strength in both troops and equipment.

Rodion Malinovsky led the powerful Soviet Second Guards Army against Hoth.

Rodion Malinovsky's victory sealed the fate of 250,000 German and other Axis Powers soldiers trapped in the Stalingrad pocket.

In February 1943, Rodion Malinovsky resumed his command of Southern Front, and in less than two weeks he expelled Manstein from Rostov-on-Don, opening the road to Ukraine to the Red Army.

From December 1943 to April 1944, Rodion Malinovsky smashed the German Army Group South, and liberated much of the southern Ukraine, including Kherson, Nikolaev and his home city of Odessa.

In May 1944, Rodion Malinovsky was transferred to the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Rodion Malinovsky expelled the Germans from the remaining Soviet territory and participated in an unsuccessful invasion of the Balkans together with Marshal Ivan Konev and Army General Fyodor Tolbukhin.

Rodion Malinovsky was nominal head of the Allied Commission in Romania.

Rodion Malinovsky continued his offensive drive, crossed the Southern Carpathians into Transylvania, and on 20 October 1944, captured Debrecen, defended by a large Axis force.

Rodion Malinovsky's troops were tired after several months of combat and needed to be replenished and resupplied, but Stalin ordered Malinovsky to take the Hungarian capital Budapest, in order to open the road to Vienna and take Vienna before the Western Allies.

Rodion Malinovsky ended his campaign in Europe with the liberation of Brno in the Czech lands, observing a jubilant meeting of his and American advance forces.

Rodion Malinovsky was awarded the Soviet Union's greatest honor, the order of a Hero of the Soviet Union, and was appointed a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union by Stalin himself.

In October 1957, Khrushchev, who had grown apprehensive of Zhukov's political ambitions, ousted him and entrusted his post as minister to Rodion Malinovsky, who served in this position until his death.

Rodion Malinovsky supported the adoption of strategic nuclear missiles, but saw them as a useful deterrent of war, rather than as a main weapon within it.

Rodion Malinovsky developed the concept of a broad based military and vigorously argued that while the nature of war had changed, the decisive factor would still be a standing army proficient in modern military technology and capable of conquering and controlling the enemy's territory.

Rodion Malinovsky was a staunch opponent of US involvement in the Vietnam War, accusing the Americans of waging a "murderous war against the Vietnamese people".

Rodion Malinovsky criticized China's involvement in the war, accusing the Chinese government of obstructing Soviet aid to North Vietnam.

Rodion Malinovsky was honoured with a state funeral and cremated.

Rodion Malinovsky's urn was placed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Rodion Malinovsky continued to be regarded as one of the most important military leaders in the history of Russia even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.