Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky , 1898-1967, Soviet marshal, b. Ukraine. He joined the Communist party in 1926. In World War II Malinovsky commanded an army in the Stalingrad (later Volgograd) offensive and later in Ukraine. He became (1956) a member of the central committee of the Communist party and commander in chief of Soviet land forces. In 1957, upon the demotion of Marshal Zhukov, Malinovsky was made minister of defense of the USSR. He held that post until his death.

Malinovsky, Marshal Rodion (1898–1967),Red Army officer who was an infantry corps commander when the German–Soviet war broke out in June 1941, and who by the following December had risen to the command of an army group (South front). However, a succession of defeats culminated in South front's complete disintegration in July 1942. The disasters that befell him were probably inescapable, but Stalin did not acknowledge a distinction between misfortune and incompetence. His career might have languished permanently had Stalin not had to call on him to take over the reconstituted South front in February 1943 when the commander, General Eremenko, suddenly fell ill at the height of the Soviet offensive after Stalingrad.

Subsequently, Malinovsky competently commanded army groups in secondary sectors in the Ukraine and the Danube Basin. In September 1944, after his Second Ukrainian front had taken Bucharest, he was advanced to Marshal of the Soviet Union, probably to give him rank befitting the anticipated conqueror also of Budapest and Vienna. In August 1945, he commanded the Transbaikal front against the Japanese Kwantung Army (see Japanese–Soviet campaigns).

Earl Ziemke