Soviet commander, who took part in three wars, and in two of them, the Civil and the Great Patriotic War, he fought from the very beginning to victory. Army General Zakharov Georgy Fedorovich became the only front commander who did not receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Stalin considered him guilty of breakthroughs of German troops in the rear of the Soviet troops near Bryansk and Stalingrad.
Early years
Georgy Zakharov was born on April 23 (May 5), 1897 in the small village of Shilovo, Saratov province, in a poor peasant family of 13 people. At the age of eleven, the father took his son to the provincial town. At first, he worked as an apprentice at a factory that produced nails, then in a tailor's and shoemaker's workshop, doing any work that was assigned to him. The guy worked as a packer in a warehouse for five years. During these years, he attended Sunday school.
I signed up as a volunteer in the First World War, trying to get onfront. However, at first he was sent to study at the Chistopol ensign school, which the future General Zakharov graduated in 1916. With the rank of second lieutenant, he commanded a half-company on the Western Front.
On the fronts of the civil war
After arriving in his hometown from the front, he was elected commander of a small partisan detachment formed in Saratov, which was soon sent to fight on the Ural front. He was enlisted in the Red Army in 1919, at the same time he joined the Communist Party. In the first year he commanded a company of the 51st separate rifle battalion. In 1920 he graduated from infantry courses in Saratov. In one of the battles with the Whites in the Urals, he was wounded. After the hospital, he was sent to Vladikavkaz, where he already commanded a battalion.
In 1922, Zakharov was sent to study at the famous Higher Tactical Shooting Course "Shot". As a graduate in the first category, he was appointed to command a battalion, then a cadet regiment. In 1923, in the biography of General Zakharov, a memorable meeting took place with the leader of the revolution, V. I. Lenin, who summoned the commander and asked him about the service and life of the cadets. Since the autumn of 1926, he served in the Joint Military Kremlin School named after. All-Russian Central Executive Committee, as assistant to the head of the combat department.
Between the wars
In 1929, the future General Zakharov was appointed to command the second regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Division. At the same time, he entered the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze for evening courses, after which he becamedeputy commander of an infantry division. The military unit was then commanded by I. S. Konev. Later he led the economic service, then the logistics of the unit.
In the spring of 1933 he moved to teaching at the Military Engineering Academy. V. V. Kuibyshev, where he headed various departments. From 1936 he served under the command of F. I. Tolbukhin in Leningrad, chief of staff of the 1st Rifle Corps. By decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in 1937 he was sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff. After graduating, he served in the Urals Military District as chief of staff, with which he went to fight. In 1939 he was awarded the next rank - colonel, Zakharov became a general a year later in 1940.
In the early years of the war
In June 1941, he was appointed chief of staff of the 22nd Army formed in the Urals District, which already on June 25 entered the battle with German troops. According to the memoirs of Marshal A. I. Eremenko, who visited the army command post in the forest near Nevel, General Georgy Zakharov showed himself to be a competent staff officer, but a little rude and quick-tempered.
Since August 1941, he was the chief of staff, and since October, the commander of the Bryansk Front. For six months he served as deputy commander on the Western Front and chief of staff of the North Caucasian Front. From August 1942, under the command of A. I. Eremenko, he was the chief of staff of the Stalingrad Front. At this time, I. Stalin sent a telegram to Malinovsky, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the actionsfront leaders Eremenko, Zakharov and Rukhle. Of these, only the last one was arrested. And General Zakharov became deputy commander a few months later.
Leading the front
Since the winter of 1943, he commanded the 51st Army, which participated in the offensive operation on the Mius River. Then, for almost a year, he led the Guards Army operating on the Southern Front.
In 1944, General Zakharov Georgy Fedorovich, two weeks before the offensive, was appointed commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, which he led during the offensive operations "Bagration" and Lomzha-Rushanskaya. Then the troops of the front took part in the elimination of German troops in the "Minsk Cauldron", and went to the western borders of the Soviet Union.
The course of military operations of the front in the direction of Mogilev - Minsk, during the liberation of Belarus, was described in detail in the works of Konstantin Simonov. At the end of July, he was awarded the high rank of Army General. According to the memoirs of I. S. Anoshin, General Zakharov is a well-known, honored man in the army, with great talent and abilities, but also self-confident and proud.
Post-war years
He met the victory in the position of deputy commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front. In the first post-war years, General Zakharov commanded the troops of various military districts, the Shot command staff courses. Since the autumn of 1954, he led the combat training of the Ground Forces, as head of the Main Directorate. From 1950 to 1954 he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the SovietUnion.
Died General Zakharov Georgy Fedorovich in 1957. At that time he was only 59 years old. Streets in the cities of Grodno and Volkovysk, as well as a square in the northern part of Sevastopol, are named after him.
