22 Facts About Vasily Sokolovsky

Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky was a Soviet general, military theorist, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and a commander of Red Army forces during World War II.

Vasily Sokolovsky served as head of the Soviet Forces in East Germany and the Soviet Chief of the General Staff.

Vasily Sokolovsky held a number of staff positions, eventually becoming Deputy Chief of the General Staff at the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

In 1949, Vasily Sokolovsky became the Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense, and in 1952 he was made Chief of the General Staff.

Vasily Sokolovsky had effectively retired by 1960 but achieved renewed international fame with his volumes on military strategy.

Vasily Sokolovsky was born into a Belarusian peasant family in Kozliki, a small town in the province of Grodno.

Vasily Sokolovsky worked as a teacher in a rural school, where he took part in a number of protests and demonstrations against the Tsar.

Vasily Sokolovsky began his formal military schooling in 1919, but was frequently called up by the Red Army and forced to leave his schoolwork.

Vasily Sokolovsky graduated in 1921 and became the chief of staff of a division stationed in Turkmenistan.

Vasily Sokolovsky was wounded during a battle near Samarkand and subsequently decorated for bravery.

In December 1941, with German forces a mere 20 kilometers from Moscow, Vasily Sokolovsky was made the chief of staff of the Soviet Western Front, where he was able to help co-ordinate the Soviet winter counter-attacks that forced the Germans away from Moscow.

Vasily Sokolovsky remained in this position until February 1943, when he became the commander of the Western Front.

Vasily Sokolovsky led this front through the Battle of Kursk.

The Bryansk Front, under the command of Markian Popov, attacked the eastern face of the Orel salient while the Western Front, commanded by Vasily Sokolovsky, attacked from the north.

Vasily Sokolovsky remained in this position until the end of the war in 1945.

Vasily Sokolovsky sat next to Zhukov as he accepted the German Instrument of Surrender in Berlin.

On that day Vasily Sokolovsky was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and made commander-in-chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and head of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.

Vasily Sokolovsky's walking out of a meeting of the Allied Control Council on 20 March 1948 as the Soviet representative on that body effectively immobilized it from that date.

In 1960 Vasily Sokolovsky became the Inspector-General of the Ministry of Defense.

Vasily Sokolovsky retained this position until his death in 1968.

Vasily Sokolovsky became widely known in the West with the publication in 1962 of Military Strategy, a book that contained rare detail on Soviet thinking about war, particularly nuclear war.

Vasily Sokolovsky was a key member of the Soviet war command during World War II and known as an excellent planner and exceptional military leader.