Commander Voroshilov biography. What was Kliment Voroshilov like? With a Mauser in hand
We will not tell his biography, since it is more or less truthfully, with greater or lesser details, set out in books of recent years:
R. Medvedev “They surrounded Stalin”, M, 1990,
F. Volkov “The Rise and Fall of Stalin”, M, 1992,
V. Rogovin “Party of the Executed”, M, 1997,
D. Volkogonov “Etudes about time”, M, 1998,
O. Souvenirov “Tragedy of the Red Army. 1937-1938“, M. 1998,
Y. Rubtsov “Marshals of Stalin”, R-on-Don, 2000, etc.
Academician of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, honorary academician O. F. Suvenirov and Yu. Rubtsov in the above books called Voroshilov the executioner of the Red Army.
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For most of his life, Voroshilov was in military work; moreover, from 1925, after the death of Frunze, he became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, and from 1934 to 1940 he was People's Commissar of Defense. And before that, in February 1918, in his homeland in Lugansk, he formed a partisan detachment of 600 people. The detachment a few months later turned into the 5th Ukrainian Army, which Voroshilov commanded. Then he commanded the 10th Army, the 14th Army, and was a member of the RVS of the First Cavalry Army. In 1921-1924 he commanded the North Caucasus and Moscow military districts.
The assessment of his military activities is always negative.
The Cossack magazine “Don Wave” wrote in February 1919: “We must do justice to Voroshilov that if he is not a strategist in the generally accepted sense of the word, then, in any case, he cannot be denied the ability to resist stubbornly.”
Even earlier, A.E. Snesarev, military commander of the North Caucasus Military District and commander of the detachments defending Tsaritsyn, wrote in his memorandum addressed to the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council: “...t. Voroshilov, as a military commander, does not have the necessary qualities. He is not sufficiently imbued with the duty of service and does not adhere to the basic rules of commanding troops.”
Speaking at the Eighth Party Congress in 1919, Lenin said: “Voroshilov cited facts that indicate that there were terrible traces of partisanship... Comrade Voroshilov is to blame for the fact that he does not want to give up this old partisanship.”
In the summer of 1919, the 14th Army, commanded by Voroshilov, defended Kharkov. The army surrendered the city to Denikin's troops. The tribunal, examining the circumstances of the surrender of the city, came to the conclusion that the knowledge of the army commander did not allow him to be entrusted with even a battalion.
Chekist Zvederis - beginning. of the special department of the 1st Cavalry Army, whose path through Ukraine was called bloody and was accompanied by numerous pogroms, especially against Jews, came to the conclusion: banditry will not be eradicated in the army as long as such a person as Voroshilov exists.
An accurate description of Voroshilov was given by the first chairman of the Revolutionary Military Union and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs L. D. Trotsky: “Voroshilov is a fiction. His authority was artificially created by totalitarian agitation. At a dizzying height, he remained what he had always been: a narrow-minded provincial without an outlook, without education, without military abilities and even without administrative abilities.”
And the results of the military service of the first red marshal are summed up in the recently extracted from the archives “Decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (Protocol 36, paragraph 356) On the work of K. E. Voroshilov, April 1, 1942.”
1. War with Finland in 1939-1940. revealed great problems and backwardness in the leadership of NPOs. During this war, NPOs were unprepared to ensure the successful development of military operations. The Red Army did not have mortars and machine guns, there was no correct accounting of aircraft and tanks, there was no necessary winter clothing for the troops, the troops did not have food concentrates. It revealed the great neglect of such important NGO departments as the Main Artillery Directorate, the Combat Training Directorate, the Air Force Directorate, the low level of organization in military educational institutions, etc.
All this affected the prolongation of the war and led to unnecessary casualties. Comrade Voroshilov, being at that time the People's Commissar of Defense, was forced to admit at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the end of March 1940 the revealed insolvency of his leadership of the NGO.
Taking into account the state of affairs in the NGO and seeing that it was difficult for Comrade Voroshilov to cover such a big matter as the NGO, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considered it necessary to relieve Comrade Voroshilov from the post of People's Commissar of Defense.
2. At the beginning of the war with Germany, comrade. Voroshilov was sent as commander-in-chief of the North-Western direction, whose main task was the defense of Leningrad. In his work in Leningrad, Comrade Voroshilov made serious mistakes.
In view of all this, the State Defense Committee recalled Comrade Voroshilov from Leningrad and gave him work on new military formations in the rear.
3. In view of the request of Comrade Voroshilov, he was sent in February to the Volkhov Front as a representative of Headquarters to assist the front command and stayed there for about a month. However, Comrade Voroshilov’s stay on the Volkhov Front did not give the desired results.
In view of the above, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides:
1. Admit that Comrade Voroshilov did not justify himself in the work entrusted to him at the front.
Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks I. Stalin.”
According to the prominent historian R. Medvedev, as a political personality, Voroshilov was significantly inferior to many of his “colleagues” in influence: he did not have the intelligence, cunning and business qualities of Mikoyan, he did not have the organizational abilities, activity and cruelty of Kaganovich, as well as the clerical efficiency and “stone ass” Molotov. Voroshilov did not know how to navigate, like Malenkov, the intricacies of apparatus intrigues; he lacked the enormous energy of Khrushchev, he did not have the theoretical knowledge and claims of Zhdanov or Voznesensky.
Such incompetence had to be worked out, and Voroshilov tried.
Already at the XIV Party Congress, in 1925, he stated: “Comrade Stalin, obviously, by nature or fate, is destined to formulate questions somewhat more successfully than any other member of the Politburo. Comrade Stalin is - I affirm this - the main member of the Politburo.”
In 1929, on the occasion of Stalin’s 50th anniversary, Voroshilov wrote an article “Stalin and the Red Army,” in which he wrote: “...In the period 1918-1920, Comrade Stalin was, perhaps, the only person whom the Central Committee threw from one battle front to another, choosing the most dangerous, most terrible places for the revolution...”
In 1935, speaking at the All-Union Congress of Stakhanovites, he called Stalin “the first marshal of the socialist revolution,” “the great marshal of victories on the fronts and the civil war and the socialist construction and strengthening of our party,” “the marshal of the communist movement of all mankind,” and even “the true marshal Communism."
In 1939, in the article “Stalin and the Construction of the Red Army,” Voroshilov writes: “Many volumes will be written about Stalin, the creator of the Red Army, its inspirer and organizer of victories, the author of the laws of strategy and tactics of the proletarian revolution.”
On Stalin’s 70th birthday in 1949, Voroshilov came to the conclusion that “the victorious Great Patriotic War will go down in history... as the triumph of the military-strategic and military genius of the great Stalin.”
Voroshilov was one of the first who began to glorify Stalin and instill his cult of personality. And when the tragic thirties approached, Voroshilov turned into a resigned and zealous executor of Stalin’s criminal policies.
He was among those who stirred up passions. Thus, at the February-March Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1937, he said: “... it is not excluded, on the contrary, even certain, and in the ranks of the army there are still many unidentified, undisclosed Japanese-German, Trotskyist-Zinovievite spies, saboteurs and terrorists "
From June 1 to June 4, 1937, at an extended meeting of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense, Voroshilov made a report “On the disclosure by the NKVD of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy in the Red Army.” He stated in the report:
“The bodies of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs have uncovered in the army a long-existing, strictly clandestine counter-revolutionary fascist organization, operating with impunity, headed by people who were at the head of the army.” Voroshilov in his report called for “checking and purifying the army literally to the very
the last cracks...” This speech, like Stalin’s, was perceived by the NKVD as a direct directive for the mass purge of the army and navy.
A little over a year passed and he reported on the results of the cleaning. At a meeting of the Military Council held on November 29, 1938, Voroshilov said: “When last year a group of despicable traitors to our Motherland and the Red Army led by Tukhachevsky was discovered and destroyed by the court of the revolution, it could not have occurred to any of us, it did not occur, unfortunately that this abomination, this rot, this betrayal is so widely and deeply entrenched in the ranks of our army. Throughout 1937 and 1938, we had to mercilessly cleanse our ranks... we cleaned out more than 4 tens of thousands of people.” Such is the scale of the tragedy, such is the price of Voroshilov’s crime together with Stalin. Suffice it to say that after Tukhachevsky, all the other deputy people's commissars of defense - Egorov, Alksnis, Fedko and Orlov - were arrested and shot. Of the 837 people who were awarded personal military ranks from colonel to marshal in November 1935, 720 were repressed. Of the 16 people who received the ranks of army commanders and marshals, three survived the great purge: Voroshilov himself, Budyonny and Shaposhnikov. During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army lost 180 senior command personnel from the division commander and above, and in several pre-war years, mainly in 1937-1938, more than 500 commanders with the rank of brigade commander to Marshal were arrested on far-fetched political charges. of which 412 were shot and 29 died in custody. But none of the prominent military leaders could be arrested without the knowledge and consent of the People's Commissar of Defense.
As you know, Ya. Gamarnik is the first deputy people's commissar of defense, beginning. Political department of the Red Army, committed suicide on the eve of his inevitable arrest. This happened on May 31, 1937 after the deputy sent to Gamarnik on behalf of Voroshilov. beginning PU Red Army Bulin and the beginning. The administration of the NGO Smorodinov announced to Gamarnik an order from the NGO to dismiss him from the Red Army. In an order dated June 12, 1937, Voroshilov called him “a traitor and a coward who was afraid to appear before the court of the Soviet people.” The People's Commissar did not indicate in the order that all the accusations were a figment of the imagination of Stalin and the NKVD investigators, that physical and moral methods of coercion were used against those arrested, cruelly extorting false confessions and testimonies.
By a Politburo resolution of April 17, 1937, Voroshilov was included in the “permanent commission,” which was entrusted with preparing for the PB, and “in case of special urgency” with resolving “issues of a secret nature.” Only the members of this commission (Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Yezhov) developed the strategy and tactics of the great purge and had a complete understanding of its scale. In addition, since 1926 he was a member of the Politburo.
At first, he tried to protect some of his subordinates, but after the Tukhachevsky trial, Voroshilov began, as a rule, to endorse arrest lists without objection. As Khrushchev reported at the 20th Congress, Yezhov alone sent 383 lists, including thousands of names of persons whose sentences required approval by members of the PB. Of these lists, 362 were signed by Stalin, 373 by Molotov, 195 by Voroshilov, 191 by Kaganovich, and 177 by Zhdanov.
Voroshilov took an active part in the murder of Marshal Tukhachevsky, 1st rank army commanders Yakir and Uborevich, 2nd rank army commander Kork, corps commanders Eideman, Feldman, Primakov, Putna. In April-May 1937, he sent Stalin one after another a series of notes with the following content:
“Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) comrade. Stalin
I ask you to exclude from the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR: M.N. Tukhachevsky, R.P. Eideman, R.V. Longva, N.A. Efimov, E.F. Appog, as expelled from the ranks of the Red Army.
Then “expelled” were replaced with “dismissed”.
In the following days, he sent the same notes to Stalin, in which he included Gorbachev, Kazansky, Kork, Kutyakov, Feldman, Lapin, Yakir, Uborevich, Germanovich, Sangursky, Oshley and others. He apparently did not care that the entire Military Council turned out to be “spy”, “fascist”.
Before making the final decision to arrest Tukhachevsky, Stalin listened to Molotov, Voroshilov and Yezhov. Voroshilov did not hide his long-standing hostility towards Tukhachevsky. Voroshilov took part in a meeting with Stalin where the indictment was considered. Voroshilov predetermined their verdict; in order No. 972 of June 7, 1937, he wrote: “...The agent of Japanese-German fascism, Trotsky, will learn this time that his faithful henchmen, the Gamarniks and Tukhachevskys, Yakirs, Urevichi and other bastards, who lackeyly served capitalism, will be wiped off the face of the earth, and their memory will be cursed and forgotten.” Voroshilov, just like Stalin and Molotov, was sent all the interrogation protocols, he took part in confrontations and, as it recently became known from V. Leskov’s book “Stalin and the Tukhachevsky Conspiracy,” he personally SHOOT Yakir. There is a start message. Directorate of Higher Educational Institutions of the Red Army A.I. Todorsky that Voroshilov, a few days after the execution, spoke about the behavior of those doomed to death before execution. This is further evidence of his participation in the execution.
The June trial of 1937, after which Tukhachevsky and others were shot on June 12, 1937, became the signal for the launch of a extermination campaign against military personnel. Just 9 days after this execution, 980 commanders and political workers were arrested, including 29 brigade commanders, 37 division commanders, 21 corps commanders, 16 regimental commissars, 17 brigade and 7 divisional commissars.
And this seemed insufficient to Voroshilov. At a special meeting of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense on November 21, 1937, dedicated to the “cleansing” of the army, Voroshilov reproached the commander of the Belorussian Military District, I.P. Belov, who was later executed, that the “cleansing” in the Belorussian District was being carried out poorly.
Here are some of Voroshilov’s personal instructions on group arrests:
On May 28, 1937, the NKVD of the USSR compiled a list of employees of the Art Directorate of the Red Army, who had testimony from those arrested as participants in a military-Trotskyist conspiracy. The list contained the names of 26 commanders of the Red Army. The list contains Voroshilov’s resolution: “Comrade. Yezhov. TAKE ALL THE SCASTERS. 28. V. 1937. K. Voroshilov.”
June 5, 1937 beginning. From the special department of the GUGB NKVD, Leplevsky asks Voroshilov for consent to arrest 17 people at once - “participants in the anti-Soviet military-Trotskyist conspiracy. Resolution: “I don’t mind. KV. 15.VI. 37.”
On June 11, 1937, Leplevsky asks Voroshilov for consent to arrest the commander of the 26th Cavalry Division, Zybin. Two days later a resolution appears: “Arrest. KV. 13.VI. 37".
June 29, 1937 is already a new beginning. The special department of the GUGB Nikolaev-Zhurid applies for permission to arrest another victim. We are talking about the head of the department of military communications of the Military Transport Academy of the Red Army, military engineer 2nd rank G. E. Kuni. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “Arrest. KV. 1. VIII. 37“.
In August 1937, the following letter was sent from the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR to the NKVD of the USSR about the arrest of a number of prominent senior military officials:
“I inform you of the resolution of the People’s Commissar of Defense of the USSR based on Leplevsky’s information:
1. About the deputy. beginning political department of the KVO corps commissar Khorosh M. L.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
2. About the commander-commissar of the 1st cavalry. corps division commander Demichev.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
3. About the beginning Communications Department KVO brigade commander Ignatovich Yu. I.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
4. About the cavalry commander. corps division commander Grigoriev P.P.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
5. About the commander of the 58th SD, brigade commander G. A. Kaptsevich.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
6. About the head of the 2nd department of the headquarters of the KVO, Colonel M. M. Rodionov.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
Etc., in total this list included Voroshilov’s decisions to arrest 142 leading military officials. I tried to trace the fate of the named commanders: Khorosh and Ignatovich were shot on October 15, 1937, Rodionov on October 16, 1937, Demichev on November 19, 1937, Grigoriev on November 20, 1937, Kaptsevich on October 17, 1938.
On January 29, 1938, Nikolaev-Zhurid sent Voroshilov a request for the arrest of brigade commander Khlebnikov. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “Arrest Khlebnikov. KV. 7. II. 38“.
May 17, 1938 Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD Frinovsky writes to Voroshilov “about the need to arrest” 15 people. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “I agree to the arrest of these persons. KV. 19. V. 38“.
Here are a few of his personal telegrams out of many hundreds of similar ones:
“Sverdlovsk. Goilita. At No. 117. Find, arrest and judge strictly." July 1, 1937 K. Voroshilov.
“Vladivostok. Kireev, Okunev. At No. 2454. Fire him, and if there are suspicions that he is involved in his wife’s affairs, arrest him. July 21, 1937 K. Voroshilov”
"Tbilisi. Kuibyshev, Anse. At No. 342. Fire. At No. 344. Judge and shoot. At No. 346. Fire. October 2, 1937 K. Voroshilov."
On a report that corps commissar N.A. Savko called the arrest of one of the military leaders a misunderstanding at a party meeting, Voroshilov wrote: “Arrest.” On October 5, 1937, he was sentenced to death.
Voroshilov has many other vile acts on his conscience: he summoned Yakir and Uborevich to Moscow for a meeting, ordering them to travel by train; on the way they were arrested in Bryansk and Smolensk, respectively; he sent Marshal Blucher to Sochi to rest at his dacha, and there he and his wife were arrested; Deputy Commander of the PriVO Troops Kutyakov I.S. resisted the NKVD agents during arrest, but having received a telegram from the People’s Commissar “I order you to surrender and go to Moscow,” Kutyakov surrendered, was arrested and shot on July 28, 1938; First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Fedko I.F. resisted the NKVD workers during the arrest and called Voroshilov, who offered to stop resisting and promised to look into it. Fedko was arrested and shot on February 26, 1939, etc. Stalin in a narrow circle - with Molotov and Voroshilov - discussed the results of the “investigation” in the case of Marshal Egorov. He was arrested and shot on February 23, 1939. On a letter from Army Commander 2nd Rank Dybenko, Stalin wrote: “Voroshilov.” Dybenko was shot on July 29, 1938. Etc.
The arrested commanders and their wives turned to Voroshilov, asking them to sort things out and help. On August 21, 1936, Major Kuzmichev wrote to Voroshilov, on September 26, corps commander Primakov, on June 9, 1937 - by Army Commander 1st Rank Yakir, on September 12, 1937 - by Army Commander 1st Rank I. Belov, in mid-September - by Army Commander 2nd Rank Sedyakin, on December 5, 1937 - brigade commander Kolosov, in early 1938 - Marshal Egorov, in April 1938 - division commander Kokhansky, division commissar Kropichev, in May 1939 - division commander Turzhansky, in December 1939 - Major Kulik, February 12, 1940 - corps commissar Berezkin, etc. .
On March 23, 1937, Voroshilov received a letter from the wife of the arrested commander of the troops of the Ural Military District Garkavoy, on June 3 - the wife of the arrested Yakir wrote, on September 10 - the wife of the arrested commander of the Kharkov Military District Dubovoy, on June 14, 1939 - the wife of the arrested commander of the Kiev Military District Fedko and etc.
There is no evidence that Voroshilov responded to any of these appeals.
All this allowed the former member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, former Secretary of the Central Committee A.N. Yakovlev to give the following characterization of Voroshilov:
“Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov. With his sanction, the extermination of senior military leaders and political workers of the Red Army was organized. In the 1930s, out of 5 marshals - 3, out of 16 army commanders - 15, out of 67 corps commanders - 60, out of 199 division commanders - 136, out of 4 fleet flagships - 4, out of 6 first-rank flagships - 6, out of 15 flagships of the second rank - 9. All 17 army commissars of the first and second rank, as well as 25 of the 29 corps commissars, were shot. When Voroshilov was People's Commissar of Defense in the Red Army, over 36 thousand middle and senior commanders were repressed in 1936-1940 alone. The FSB archive revealed more than 300 sanctions from Voroshilov for the arrest of prominent army commanders. In fact, before World War II, the country’s armed forces were decapitated.” (“Krestosev”, M., 2000). The result of this is known: 27 million Soviet people died during the war.
And in conclusion, one more touch to Voroshilov’s characterization. Victoria Yanovna (Gamarnik’s daughter) recalled many years later: “Upon returning from exile, Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan helped me a lot. After exile, Anastas Ivanovich helped me and Mira (Vladimir Ieronimovna Uborevich - daughter of I. Uborevich. I.P.) with money, an apartment, care. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, I know, warmed Yakir’s family. Not everyone, not everyone, rushed to our aid even when it became possible. At the same time, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov refused to accept Svetlana Tukhachevskaya. I don't know why. Maybe you didn’t have the courage to look Svetlana in the eyes?”
Voroshilov - a mirror of the politics of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus
plotsi 18.12.2010 04:08:01
Despite my relatively young age by historical standards, I would like to add that I knew, or rather, saw in 1974 close to the man whom Voroshilov in 1937 sent as an enemy of the people to the camps to certain death. But this brigade commander (last name can be specified) survived. There were purple bumps on his back, probably formed after being beaten with metal rods. The view is creepy. But, surprisingly, in public he said that our leadership had to do this, otherwise they would not have held on, built and won. I still can’t understand whether he was speaking sincerely or whether he was so scared to death. But then for the first time I understood the cost of building our communism. And this was the merit of Stalin’s sycophants like Voroshilov. And for this he and his followers must answer. And no less severe than their “troikas”.
Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov is a world-famous personality.
The first revolutionary, red officer, Stalin's People's Commissar. This is approximately how he was remembered in history.
Anti-Stalinists describe Voroshilov as a stupid executor of Stalin’s will, a horseman who understands nothing about the development of the army.
Stalinists, on the contrary, describe him as a competent specialist, although more of a political figure.
But behind all this there was actually another person.
The real Klim Voroshilov committed too many contradictory actions to be invested in the image of either the “bloody Stalinist People’s Commissar” or the “ideal favorite of the people.”
He almost lost the Finnish War, but saved Helsinki from destruction.
Under his command, Leningrad was almost lost in the fall of 1941; only a change of command saved the situation.
He easily handed over his supporters in the Red Army to Yezhov and his security officers - Egorov, Blucher, Belov, Fedko, Goryachev, Kashirin and many others...
Who supported him in the fight against Tukhachevsky and was his faithful support
Not to mention the fact that Voroshilov took an active part in the annexation of Crimea to Ukraine.
Namely, in 1954, as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, he signed a decree on the inclusion of Crimea in the Ukrainian SSR, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada.
And unlike the soapy Universal of Sobornost of 1919, which never came into effect, the document signed by Voroshilov still remains a confirmation of the territorial borders of Ukraine.
Ukrainian nationalists could appreciate such a great contribution of a fellow countryman to the territory of Ukraine.
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
It is often written that Voroshilov considered himself Russian - but it is unclear on what this opinion is based
Voroshilov never said that he was Russian and did not consider himself as such
Soviet biographers avoided naming the surname of Kliment Efremovich’s parents, using a masterpiece of party casuistry:
"Voroshilov's father, Voroshilov's mother."
The problem, however, was the nationality of the beloved People's Commissar.
In fact, his parents were Ukrainians. The first marshal himself was proud of his belonging to the Ukrainian nation.
General Pyotr Grigorenko recalled:
“I introduce myself when it’s my turn. Kliment Efremovich offers his hand. Then he hugs the waist and we walk side by side: “Grigorenko? Ukrainian? Haven’t you forgotten your language?”
Grigorenko responded in verse:
How can you forget
The language I taught you
We are all very happy to say,
Our nenka is sweet!
Voroshilov replied:
“I’m also Ukrainian. Oh, you and Shevchenko know! That's right! There is no need to forget yours!
I'm not Voroshilov. Then the Russians added more “v”.
And I am Voroshilo. My grandfather is still alive, so in the village they call him Grandfather Voroshilo.”
DURING THE CIVIL WAR
After the February Revolution of 1917, he was a member of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, a delegate to the Seventh (April) All-Russian Conference and the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(b).
From March 1917 - Chairman of the Lugansk Bolshevik Committee, from August - Chairman of the Lugansk Council and City Duma (until September 1917)
In November 1917, during the days of the October Revolution, Voroshilov was a commissar of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (for city administration). Together with F. E. Dzerzhinsky, he worked on organizing the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK).
At the beginning of March 1918, Voroshilov organized the First Lugansk Socialist Detachment, which defended the city of Kharkov from German-Austrian troops.
During the Civil War - commander of the Tsaritsyn group of forces, deputy commander and member of the Military Council of the Southern Front, commander of the 10th Army (October 3 - December 18, 1918)
There he became close to I. Stalin and two more Ukrainians were there - G. Kulik and S. Timoshenko
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR (January - June 1919), commander of the Kharkov Military District, commander of the 14th Army and the internal Ukrainian Front.
He could not be denied courage and bravery.
Voroshilov was more suitable than anyone else for the fight in Ukraine. He was an opponent of the Germans, an opponent of Petliura and a supporter of the sovereignty of Ukraine.
An interesting aspect from his personal life.
29-year-old Voroshilov met his wife, exiled Socialist-Revolutionary Golda Grobman, in the settlement of Kholmogory, where he was sent at the beginning of the 20th century by the Russian police for repeated escapes from prison.
According to his recollections, it was an extremely happy time.
The archives of the Higher Party School preserved a biography written by Golda in her own hand:
“I, Golda Davidovna Grobman, was born in 1887 into a Jewish family. My father David Leibovich Grobman was a commission agent, or rather, did not have any specific occupation. He was ill for many years and died in 1910. The family lived in poverty, and the mother often helped out by serving the tenants. In 1897 I entered school in Odessa, from which I graduated in 1902.
After graduating from college, I went to a ladies' dress workshop, but soon began sewing for customers at home on a daily basis. In 1904 she began to take part in the revolutionary movement. From 1906 to 1907 she was arrested twice...”
Before meeting Voroshilov, Golda Grobman met with another famous Bolshevik, Avel Enukidze.
In practically photographs of Voroshilov from Stalin, one feature is clearly visible - he always tried to stand next to Stalin, closer than anyone else... emphasizing his position
Which, by the way, was not noticed by Stalin’s other associates
Ukrainian nationalist Voroshilov to the left of Stalin, Russian nationalist Malenkov to the right of Stalin
Column Hall of the House of Unions. Funeral of Zhdanov. In the guard of honor are Malenkov, Voroshilov, Stalin. 1948.
The role of the Ukrainian Voroshilov is purely symbolic. Now the pro-Russian group of G. Malenkov has power
IN FINNISH AND DOMESTIC
He showed himself very poorly in both companies.
The Finnish war was clearly a failure and he was replaced from the post of commander to another Ukrainian - Tymoshenko
The results of the Finnish campaign were considered in April 1940 at an extended meeting of the Main Military Council.
At this meeting, L. Z. Mehlis spoke a lot and quite sharply about the mistakes of the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov.
Decisions were made aimed at strengthening the combat capability of the Red Army. Unofficially, Stalin gave instructions to rehabilitate and release some of the repressed Red Army commanders. At the same time, a decision was made to relieve Voroshilov from his duties as People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
S.K. Timoshenko was appointed to this post. During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Timoshenko commanded a regiment; in the First Cavalry Army he was a division commander. After the death of I.E. Yakir, Timoshenko headed the Kiev Military District, and from January 1940 he commanded troops on the Soviet-Finnish front.
In order to somehow soften the blow to Voroshilov’s prestige, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars.
In February 1941, the name of Voroshilov was given to the Academy of the General Staff. However, his real influence in the party and military hierarchy has clearly diminished.
During the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO) with its formation on June 30, 1941, and from July 10, 1941, Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Direction.
The general results of his leadership can be summarized as follows:
1. The Baltic states are occupied by the Wehrmacht
2. The Wehrmacht came close to Leningrad and the capture of the city became almost a done deal.
3. The Baltic fleet is destroyed
There is correspondence between Zhdanov-Voroshilov and Stalin during the critical days of September 1941.
Stalin accused Voroshilov of not using resources to protect the city and not reporting the state of affairs
In the end, Voroshilov was removed from command and sent to lead the rear...in his place they sent a Russian, G.K. Zhukov
He became the first Ukrainian to lose trust
AFTER THE WAR
After the war, Voroshilov was almost completely removed from important government decisions.
Now Voroshilov was put in charge of the Bureau of Culture under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. This Bureau was in charge of the activities of the country's theaters. Committee for Cinematography, book publishing.
In Voroshilov’s office in the Kremlin one could now meet not generals, but directors, directors of large publishing houses, and some artists. Of course, the main cultural issues were also being resolved today apart from Voroshilov.
Stalin not only alienated Voroshilov from himself, but repeatedly expressed to him in the presence of other members of the Central Committee political
So at one of the Politburo meetings after the war, the question of ways to develop the Soviet Navy was discussed.
This was an extended meeting to which the commanders of the main fleets were invited. As usual, Stalin invited everyone present to speak out.
Voroshilov's opinion, however, did not coincide with the opinion of the majority.
Concluding the debate, Stalin not only rejected Voroshilov’s proposals, but at the same time
“I don’t understand why Comrade Voroshilov wants to weaken the Soviet Navy.”
Stalin repeated this phrase two more times.
After the meeting, all its participants went, at Stalin’s invitation, to watch the film “City Lights,” which Stalin had already seen many times.
When the lights came on after the end of the film, Stalin turned around and, seeing Voroshilov sitting alone, suddenly stood up and, approaching, put his hand on his shoulder.
Deputy Navy Admiral of the USSR Fleet I.S. Isakov, who was present at this Politburo meeting, wrote down his impressions immediately upon arriving home.
Often he was not invited to Politburo meetings.
Nevertheless, in 1952, Voroshilov chaired some meetings of the 19th Party Congress and closed this congress with a short speech (Stalin spoke after the formal closing of the congress).
Voroshilov was elected to the expanded Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and to the Bureau of the Presidium of nine people.
CONCLUSION
Marshal of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov does not in any way fit the image of a “bloody executioner” or a talented marshal or an impeccable patriot.
He perfectly remembered V.I. Lenin’s unequivocal promise to give independence to Ukraine and probably counted on this.
But years passed, and his beloved Ukraine did not gain independence, and the next one who gave “guarantees” was Hitler....so to think what these very Leningrad oddities of Voroshilov were.
Stalin probably understood this and perhaps suspected him of something and removed him from the leadership of the country
In this case, Stalin’s hint at the post-war meeting on fleet issues is understandable. He warned him...
Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov is a happy man. He lived a long life, went through two wars and was not even wounded, did not suffer from anything special, experienced, of course, troubles, but in words, did not serve time, was not shot, and his relatives were not harmed.
It must be said that Voroshilov was never a military leader at all. That is, he was not suitable for military affairs. And the point here is not only that he never studied (Voroshilov had two classes of education), but that he had no talent. He was not fit to be a military leader. Of course, this sounds ridiculous about a man who was the Minister of War of a huge power for a decade and a half. But that's true.
Voroshilov owes his entire military-state career to Stalin. Firstly, our hero was from a simple family. Secondly, his political temperament was incredible. Kliment Efremovich joined the revolutionary movement very early. In 1903, he joined the Social Democratic Party and became a Bolshevik. Then arrest after arrest, exile after exile...
In 1917, Voroshilov became the military commandant of Petrograd. In 1918, at the head of the Lugansk detachment, he was sent to fight the Ukrainian nationalists, as they said then. But to his misfortune... After all, not only Soviet Russia, but also Ukraine signed peace with the Germans. By virtue of this peace concluded by Kiev, German troops enter the territory of Ukraine, kick out Voroshilov, who with his detachment retreats in disgrace to Tsaritsyn. And at this very moment, the Commissioner for Food Procurement, People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs, and member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, Joseph Stalin, arrives in Tsaritsyn.
Tsaritsyn is a key place in the biography of Stalin. Why? 1917 He is invisible, not a speaker, no one knows what he does. The post of People's Commissar for National Affairs is far from being one of the first and not the most important. He is sent to procure food. There, with a mandate signed by Lenin, with the title of member of the Central Committee of the party, he suddenly feels that he is a leader. And he begins to take on the responsibilities of a military leader. And there Krasnov advances, the Cossacks, and someone else. There are battles near Tsaritsyn because this is a key point. This is the Volga, through which food goes to the center of Russia. The key issue is to preserve Tsaritsyn for the Bolsheviks. Professional soldiers resist Stalin's orders. It was then, in Tsaritsyn, that Stalin’s hatred of the career officers arose. He begins to destroy it there. And he will carry this contempt for career officers, for military professionals, throughout his entire life. And then Voroshilov comes at the head of a defeated detachment. He also does not want to obey the officers. Why on earth would he follow the orders of the gold chasers? That is, they found each other.
And this, I must say, was a choice for life. Voroshilov himself was a very soft, comfortable person, clinging to a strong figure. The latter is key to his political character. If he had gotten to someone else, he would have stuck to him. But he ended up with Stalin.
Voroshilov was not a bad person. He wasn't mean or evil. For example, he raised the children of the early deceased, Tatyana and Timur. Stepan Mikoyan, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, lieutenant general, said: “I really liked Voroshilov as a person. He was a very nice, very friendly person...”
During the Civil War, under Stalinist pressure, Voroshilov was placed several times in one or another command position. Every time without success. There is a review by Antonov-Ovseenko, who fought on the Ukrainian front, that Voroshilov is credited with victories that did not exist, that he failed, and so on. But Voroshilov and Budyonny are at the head of the First Cavalry Army. And these, as you know, are Stalinist cadres.
Voroshilov became a member of the Central Committee very early. Then Stalin brought him into the Organizing Bureau and appointed him People's Commissar of Defense. For three and a half decades, Kliment Efremovich was a member of the top leadership of the party and state.
People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov meets with Komsomol members, 1935. (Pinterest)
After this, which became another military failure for Voroshilov, Stalin removed him from the post of People's Commissar of Defense. But then, when the war began, when Joseph Vissarionovich fell into complete despair and sent everyone who was there to the front, our hero suddenly received a military position again - he became the commander-in-chief of the troops of the North-Western direction.
The question involuntarily arises: “Why did Stalin forgive Voroshilov again?” There are two explanations for this. Firstly, Kliment Efremovich at that time was a legendary figure who entered national mythology. “And the first marshal will lead us into battle!” - this is about Voroshilov. Voroshilov breakfast, Voroshilov salvo, “Voroshilov shooter” and so on. Stalin could not do without Voroshilov, so he did not touch him. Until 1944, he symbolically kept it at Headquarters, in the Defense Committee, and then, in the mood, he threw it out, which he had never done before.
After 1945, Voroshilov headed the occupation commission in Hungary. Then Stalin made him deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. That is, the removal has already begun. Voroshilov’s wife has an entry in her diary where she complains about what times there used to be when we visited Joseph Vissarionovich, there was dancing there, music, but now it’s so difficult... Voroshilov is worried: Stalin stopped communicating with him, and besides, he didn’t misses the chance to punch him in the nose in public.
For example, after (naturally) Stalin’s sanction, Voroshilov signed an order to open a certain number of Orthodox churches. As soon as he did this, the Politburo issued a devastating resolution: “How dare you?” Who is to blame? Voroshilov, who else?
Khrushchev tries Pepsi during a visit to the United States in 1959. Next to him are Richard Nixon and Kliment Voroshilov. (Pinterest)
But the worst time for our hero comes after the 19th Congress, although he is elected to the Presidium of the Central Committee (instead of the Politburo). The bureau of the Central Committee included mostly new people (Salin himself compiled the lists), the old ones were removed. The leader confuses Molotov and Mikoyan with mud at the plenum. And then, this is recorded, he says, looking at Voroshilov: “How did this English spy get to our presidium?” They answer him: “Joseph Vissarionovich, Comrade Stalin, that’s what you yourself called his name.” "Yes?" - Stalin is surprised.
Of course, today we can only guess what Stalin planned, but, apparently, he was preparing to completely get rid of the old members of the party leadership: Molotov, Mikoyan and Voroshilov, among others. Therefore, a very sad fate awaited Kliment Efremovich. But luckily for him, the “father of nations” died in March 1953.
Under Khrushchev, Voroshilov was again, as young people say, in chocolate. Honor, respect... Although our hero most likely did not love Nikita Sergeevich, he clung to him.
For seven years, until 1960, Voroshilov was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. And perhaps it would have been even longer, but... I got burned by the story of the reception of the Iranian ambassador. The story is wonderful! The new Iranian ambassador presented him with his credentials. Handed it over. And then Voroshilov simply tells him: “We also had Nikolashka until 1917. We threw it off and healed well. You should do the same.”
The shocked ambassador returned and wrote a telegram. How did you find out about this? Telegrams were intercepted. Our KGB read the Iranian correspondence and put it on the table. He made a scandal: “Well, what are you doing?” “What are you talking about! “I know how to talk to this public,” Voroshilov began to justify himself. “I dealt with her back in the First Russian Revolution!” Here they got rid of our hero - he was transferred to a member of the Presidium. Everyone is very tired of him.
Voroshilov died at the age of 89. He was buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall.
We will not tell his biography, since it is more or less truthfully, with greater or lesser details, set out in books of recent years:
R. Medvedev “They surrounded Stalin”, M, 1990,
F. Volkov “The Rise and Fall of Stalin”, M, 1992,
V. Rogovin “Party of the Executed”, M, 1997,
D. Volkogonov “Etudes about time”, M, 1998,
O. Souvenirov “Tragedy of the Red Army. 1937-1938“, M. 1998,
Y. Rubtsov “Marshals of Stalin”, R-on-Don, 2000, etc.
Academician of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, honorary academician O. F. Suvenirov and Yu. Rubtsov in the above books called Voroshilov the executioner of the Red Army.
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For most of his life, Voroshilov was in military work; moreover, from 1925, after the death of Frunze, he became People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, and from 1934 to 1940 he was People's Commissar of Defense. And before that, in February 1918, in his homeland in Lugansk, he formed a partisan detachment of 600 people. The detachment a few months later turned into the 5th Ukrainian Army, which Voroshilov commanded. Then he commanded the 10th Army, the 14th Army, and was a member of the RVS of the First Cavalry Army. In 1921-1924 he commanded the North Caucasus and Moscow military districts.
The assessment of his military activities is always negative.
The Cossack magazine “Don Wave” wrote in February 1919: “We must do justice to Voroshilov that if he is not a strategist in the generally accepted sense of the word, then, in any case, he cannot be denied the ability to resist stubbornly.”
Even earlier, A.E. Snesarev, military commander of the North Caucasus Military District and commander of the detachments defending Tsaritsyn, wrote in his memorandum addressed to the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council: “...t. Voroshilov, as a military commander, does not have the necessary qualities. He is not sufficiently imbued with the duty of service and does not adhere to the basic rules of commanding troops.”
Speaking at the Eighth Party Congress in 1919, Lenin said: “Voroshilov cited facts that indicate that there were terrible traces of partisanship... Comrade Voroshilov is to blame for the fact that he does not want to give up this old partisanship.”
In the summer of 1919, the 14th Army, commanded by Voroshilov, defended Kharkov. The army surrendered the city to Denikin's troops. The tribunal, examining the circumstances of the surrender of the city, came to the conclusion that the knowledge of the army commander did not allow him to be entrusted with even a battalion.
Chekist Zvederis - beginning. of the special department of the 1st Cavalry Army, whose path through Ukraine was called bloody and was accompanied by numerous pogroms, especially against Jews, came to the conclusion: banditry will not be eradicated in the army as long as such a person as Voroshilov exists.
An accurate description of Voroshilov was given by the first chairman of the Revolutionary Military Union and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs L. D. Trotsky: “Voroshilov is a fiction. His authority was artificially created by totalitarian agitation. At a dizzying height, he remained what he had always been: a narrow-minded provincial without an outlook, without education, without military abilities and even without administrative abilities.”
And the results of the military service of the first red marshal are summed up in the recently extracted from the archives “Decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (Protocol 36, paragraph 356) On the work of K. E. Voroshilov, April 1, 1942.”
1. War with Finland in 1939-1940. revealed great problems and backwardness in the leadership of NPOs. During this war, NPOs were unprepared to ensure the successful development of military operations. The Red Army did not have mortars and machine guns, there was no correct accounting of aircraft and tanks, there was no necessary winter clothing for the troops, the troops did not have food concentrates. It revealed the great neglect of such important NGO departments as the Main Artillery Directorate, the Combat Training Directorate, the Air Force Directorate, the low level of organization in military educational institutions, etc.
All this affected the prolongation of the war and led to unnecessary casualties. Comrade Voroshilov, being at that time the People's Commissar of Defense, was forced to admit at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the end of March 1940 the revealed insolvency of his leadership of the NGO.
Taking into account the state of affairs in the NGO and seeing that it was difficult for Comrade Voroshilov to cover such a big matter as the NGO, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considered it necessary to relieve Comrade Voroshilov from the post of People's Commissar of Defense.
2. At the beginning of the war with Germany, comrade. Voroshilov was sent as commander-in-chief of the North-Western direction, whose main task was the defense of Leningrad. In his work in Leningrad, Comrade Voroshilov made serious mistakes.
In view of all this, the State Defense Committee recalled Comrade Voroshilov from Leningrad and gave him work on new military formations in the rear.
3. In view of the request of Comrade Voroshilov, he was sent in February to the Volkhov Front as a representative of Headquarters to assist the front command and stayed there for about a month. However, Comrade Voroshilov’s stay on the Volkhov Front did not give the desired results.
In view of the above, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides:
1. Admit that Comrade Voroshilov did not justify himself in the work entrusted to him at the front.
Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks I. Stalin.”
According to the prominent historian R. Medvedev, as a political personality, Voroshilov was significantly inferior to many of his “colleagues” in influence: he did not have the intelligence, cunning and business qualities of Mikoyan, he did not have the organizational abilities, activity and cruelty of Kaganovich, as well as the clerical efficiency and “stone ass” Molotov. Voroshilov did not know how to navigate, like Malenkov, the intricacies of apparatus intrigues; he lacked the enormous energy of Khrushchev, he did not have the theoretical knowledge and claims of Zhdanov or Voznesensky.
Such incompetence had to be worked out, and Voroshilov tried.
Already at the XIV Party Congress, in 1925, he stated: “Comrade Stalin, obviously, by nature or fate, is destined to formulate questions somewhat more successfully than any other member of the Politburo. Comrade Stalin is - I affirm this - the main member of the Politburo.”
In 1929, on the occasion of Stalin’s 50th anniversary, Voroshilov wrote an article “Stalin and the Red Army,” in which he wrote: “...In the period 1918-1920, Comrade Stalin was, perhaps, the only person whom the Central Committee threw from one battle front to another, choosing the most dangerous, most terrible places for the revolution...”
In 1935, speaking at the All-Union Congress of Stakhanovites, he called Stalin “the first marshal of the socialist revolution,” “the great marshal of victories on the fronts and the civil war and the socialist construction and strengthening of our party,” “the marshal of the communist movement of all mankind,” and even “the true marshal Communism."
In 1939, in the article “Stalin and the Construction of the Red Army,” Voroshilov writes: “Many volumes will be written about Stalin, the creator of the Red Army, its inspirer and organizer of victories, the author of the laws of strategy and tactics of the proletarian revolution.”
On Stalin’s 70th birthday in 1949, Voroshilov came to the conclusion that “the victorious Great Patriotic War will go down in history... as the triumph of the military-strategic and military genius of the great Stalin.”
Voroshilov was one of the first who began to glorify Stalin and instill his cult of personality. And when the tragic thirties approached, Voroshilov turned into a resigned and zealous executor of Stalin’s criminal policies.
He was among those who stirred up passions. Thus, at the February-March Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1937, he said: “... it is not excluded, on the contrary, even certain, and in the ranks of the army there are still many unidentified, undisclosed Japanese-German, Trotskyist-Zinovievite spies, saboteurs and terrorists "
From June 1 to June 4, 1937, at an extended meeting of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense, Voroshilov made a report “On the disclosure by the NKVD of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy in the Red Army.” He stated in the report:
“The bodies of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs have uncovered in the army a long-existing, strictly clandestine counter-revolutionary fascist organization, operating with impunity, headed by people who were at the head of the army.” Voroshilov in his report called for “checking and purifying the army literally to the very
the last cracks...” This speech, like Stalin’s, was perceived by the NKVD as a direct directive for the mass purge of the army and navy.
A little over a year passed and he reported on the results of the cleaning. At a meeting of the Military Council held on November 29, 1938, Voroshilov said: “When last year a group of despicable traitors to our Motherland and the Red Army led by Tukhachevsky was discovered and destroyed by the court of the revolution, it could not have occurred to any of us, it did not occur, unfortunately that this abomination, this rot, this betrayal is so widely and deeply entrenched in the ranks of our army. Throughout 1937 and 1938, we had to mercilessly cleanse our ranks... we cleaned out more than 4 tens of thousands of people.” Such is the scale of the tragedy, such is the price of Voroshilov’s crime together with Stalin. Suffice it to say that after Tukhachevsky, all the other deputy people's commissars of defense - Egorov, Alksnis, Fedko and Orlov - were arrested and shot. Of the 837 people who were awarded personal military ranks from colonel to marshal in November 1935, 720 were repressed. Of the 16 people who received the ranks of army commanders and marshals, three survived the great purge: Voroshilov himself, Budyonny and Shaposhnikov. During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army lost 180 senior command personnel from the division commander and above, and in several pre-war years, mainly in 1937-1938, more than 500 commanders with the rank of brigade commander to Marshal were arrested on far-fetched political charges. of which 412 were shot and 29 died in custody. But none of the prominent military leaders could be arrested without the knowledge and consent of the People's Commissar of Defense.
As you know, Ya. Gamarnik is the first deputy people's commissar of defense, beginning. Political department of the Red Army, committed suicide on the eve of his inevitable arrest. This happened on May 31, 1937 after the deputy sent to Gamarnik on behalf of Voroshilov. beginning PU Red Army Bulin and the beginning. The administration of the NGO Smorodinov announced to Gamarnik an order from the NGO to dismiss him from the Red Army. In an order dated June 12, 1937, Voroshilov called him “a traitor and a coward who was afraid to appear before the court of the Soviet people.” The People's Commissar did not indicate in the order that all the accusations were a figment of the imagination of Stalin and the NKVD investigators, that physical and moral methods of coercion were used against those arrested, cruelly extorting false confessions and testimonies.
By a Politburo resolution of April 17, 1937, Voroshilov was included in the “permanent commission,” which was entrusted with preparing for the PB, and “in case of special urgency” with resolving “issues of a secret nature.” Only the members of this commission (Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Yezhov) developed the strategy and tactics of the great purge and had a complete understanding of its scale. In addition, since 1926 he was a member of the Politburo.
At first, he tried to protect some of his subordinates, but after the Tukhachevsky trial, Voroshilov began, as a rule, to endorse arrest lists without objection. As Khrushchev reported at the 20th Congress, Yezhov alone sent 383 lists, including thousands of names of persons whose sentences required approval by members of the PB. Of these lists, 362 were signed by Stalin, 373 by Molotov, 195 by Voroshilov, 191 by Kaganovich, and 177 by Zhdanov.
Voroshilov took an active part in the murder of Marshal Tukhachevsky, 1st rank army commanders Yakir and Uborevich, 2nd rank army commander Kork, corps commanders Eideman, Feldman, Primakov, Putna. In April-May 1937, he sent Stalin one after another a series of notes with the following content:
“Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) comrade. Stalin
I ask you to exclude from the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR: M.N. Tukhachevsky, R.P. Eideman, R.V. Longva, N.A. Efimov, E.F. Appog, as expelled from the ranks of the Red Army.
Then “expelled” were replaced with “dismissed”.
In the following days, he sent the same notes to Stalin, in which he included Gorbachev, Kazansky, Kork, Kutyakov, Feldman, Lapin, Yakir, Uborevich, Germanovich, Sangursky, Oshley and others. He apparently did not care that the entire Military Council turned out to be “spy”, “fascist”.
Before making the final decision to arrest Tukhachevsky, Stalin listened to Molotov, Voroshilov and Yezhov. Voroshilov did not hide his long-standing hostility towards Tukhachevsky. Voroshilov took part in a meeting with Stalin where the indictment was considered. Voroshilov predetermined their verdict; in order No. 972 of June 7, 1937, he wrote: “...The agent of Japanese-German fascism, Trotsky, will learn this time that his faithful henchmen, the Gamarniks and Tukhachevskys, Yakirs, Urevichi and other bastards, who lackeyly served capitalism, will be wiped off the face of the earth, and their memory will be cursed and forgotten.” Voroshilov, just like Stalin and Molotov, was sent all the interrogation protocols, he took part in confrontations and, as it recently became known from V. Leskov’s book “Stalin and the Tukhachevsky Conspiracy,” he personally SHOOT Yakir. There is a start message. Directorate of Higher Educational Institutions of the Red Army A.I. Todorsky that Voroshilov, a few days after the execution, spoke about the behavior of those doomed to death before execution. This is further evidence of his participation in the execution.
The June trial of 1937, after which Tukhachevsky and others were shot on June 12, 1937, became the signal for the launch of a extermination campaign against military personnel. Just 9 days after this execution, 980 commanders and political workers were arrested, including 29 brigade commanders, 37 division commanders, 21 corps commanders, 16 regimental commissars, 17 brigade and 7 divisional commissars.
And this seemed insufficient to Voroshilov. At a special meeting of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense on November 21, 1937, dedicated to the “cleansing” of the army, Voroshilov reproached the commander of the Belorussian Military District, I.P. Belov, who was later executed, that the “cleansing” in the Belorussian District was being carried out poorly.
Here are some of Voroshilov’s personal instructions on group arrests:
On May 28, 1937, the NKVD of the USSR compiled a list of employees of the Art Directorate of the Red Army, who had testimony from those arrested as participants in a military-Trotskyist conspiracy. The list contained the names of 26 commanders of the Red Army. The list contains Voroshilov’s resolution: “Comrade. Yezhov. TAKE ALL THE SCASTERS. 28. V. 1937. K. Voroshilov.”
June 5, 1937 beginning. From the special department of the GUGB NKVD, Leplevsky asks Voroshilov for consent to arrest 17 people at once - “participants in the anti-Soviet military-Trotskyist conspiracy. Resolution: “I don’t mind. KV. 15.VI. 37.”
On June 11, 1937, Leplevsky asks Voroshilov for consent to arrest the commander of the 26th Cavalry Division, Zybin. Two days later a resolution appears: “Arrest. KV. 13.VI. 37".
June 29, 1937 is already a new beginning. The special department of the GUGB Nikolaev-Zhurid applies for permission to arrest another victim. We are talking about the head of the department of military communications of the Military Transport Academy of the Red Army, military engineer 2nd rank G. E. Kuni. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “Arrest. KV. 1. VIII. 37“.
In August 1937, the following letter was sent from the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR to the NKVD of the USSR about the arrest of a number of prominent senior military officials:
“I inform you of the resolution of the People’s Commissar of Defense of the USSR based on Leplevsky’s information:
1. About the deputy. beginning political department of the KVO corps commissar Khorosh M. L.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
2. About the commander-commissar of the 1st cavalry. corps division commander Demichev.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
3. About the beginning Communications Department KVO brigade commander Ignatovich Yu. I.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
4. About the cavalry commander. corps division commander Grigoriev P.P.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
5. About the commander of the 58th SD, brigade commander G. A. Kaptsevich.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
6. About the head of the 2nd department of the headquarters of the KVO, Colonel M. M. Rodionov.
"To arrest. K.V.“.
Etc., in total this list included Voroshilov’s decisions to arrest 142 leading military officials. I tried to trace the fate of the named commanders: Khorosh and Ignatovich were shot on October 15, 1937, Rodionov on October 16, 1937, Demichev on November 19, 1937, Grigoriev on November 20, 1937, Kaptsevich on October 17, 1938.
On January 29, 1938, Nikolaev-Zhurid sent Voroshilov a request for the arrest of brigade commander Khlebnikov. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “Arrest Khlebnikov. KV. 7. II. 38“.
May 17, 1938 Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD Frinovsky writes to Voroshilov “about the need to arrest” 15 people. Resolution of the People's Commissar: “I agree to the arrest of these persons. KV. 19. V. 38“.
Here are a few of his personal telegrams out of many hundreds of similar ones:
“Sverdlovsk. Goilita. At No. 117. Find, arrest and judge strictly." July 1, 1937 K. Voroshilov.
“Vladivostok. Kireev, Okunev. At No. 2454. Fire him, and if there are suspicions that he is involved in his wife’s affairs, arrest him. July 21, 1937 K. Voroshilov”
"Tbilisi. Kuibyshev, Anse. At No. 342. Fire. At No. 344. Judge and shoot. At No. 346. Fire. October 2, 1937 K. Voroshilov."
On a report that corps commissar N.A. Savko called the arrest of one of the military leaders a misunderstanding at a party meeting, Voroshilov wrote: “Arrest.” On October 5, 1937, he was sentenced to death.
Voroshilov has many other vile acts on his conscience: he summoned Yakir and Uborevich to Moscow for a meeting, ordering them to travel by train; on the way they were arrested in Bryansk and Smolensk, respectively; he sent Marshal Blucher to Sochi to rest at his dacha, and there he and his wife were arrested; Deputy Commander of the PriVO Troops Kutyakov I.S. resisted the NKVD agents during arrest, but having received a telegram from the People’s Commissar “I order you to surrender and go to Moscow,” Kutyakov surrendered, was arrested and shot on July 28, 1938; First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Fedko I.F. resisted the NKVD workers during the arrest and called Voroshilov, who offered to stop resisting and promised to look into it. Fedko was arrested and shot on February 26, 1939, etc. Stalin in a narrow circle - with Molotov and Voroshilov - discussed the results of the “investigation” in the case of Marshal Egorov. He was arrested and shot on February 23, 1939. On a letter from Army Commander 2nd Rank Dybenko, Stalin wrote: “Voroshilov.” Dybenko was shot on July 29, 1938. Etc.
The arrested commanders and their wives turned to Voroshilov, asking them to sort things out and help. On August 21, 1936, Major Kuzmichev wrote to Voroshilov, on September 26, corps commander Primakov, on June 9, 1937 - by Army Commander 1st Rank Yakir, on September 12, 1937 - by Army Commander 1st Rank I. Belov, in mid-September - by Army Commander 2nd Rank Sedyakin, on December 5, 1937 - brigade commander Kolosov, in early 1938 - Marshal Egorov, in April 1938 - division commander Kokhansky, division commissar Kropichev, in May 1939 - division commander Turzhansky, in December 1939 - Major Kulik, February 12, 1940 - corps commissar Berezkin, etc. .
On March 23, 1937, Voroshilov received a letter from the wife of the arrested commander of the troops of the Ural Military District Garkavoy, on June 3 - the wife of the arrested Yakir wrote, on September 10 - the wife of the arrested commander of the Kharkov Military District Dubovoy, on June 14, 1939 - the wife of the arrested commander of the Kiev Military District Fedko and etc.
There is no evidence that Voroshilov responded to any of these appeals.
All this allowed the former member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, former Secretary of the Central Committee A.N. Yakovlev to give the following characterization of Voroshilov:
“Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov. With his sanction, the extermination of senior military leaders and political workers of the Red Army was organized. In the 1930s, out of 5 marshals - 3, out of 16 army commanders - 15, out of 67 corps commanders - 60, out of 199 division commanders - 136, out of 4 fleet flagships - 4, out of 6 first-rank flagships - 6, out of 15 flagships of the second rank - 9. All 17 army commissars of the first and second rank, as well as 25 of the 29 corps commissars, were shot. When Voroshilov was People's Commissar of Defense in the Red Army, over 36 thousand middle and senior commanders were repressed in 1936-1940 alone. The FSB archive revealed more than 300 sanctions from Voroshilov for the arrest of prominent army commanders. In fact, before World War II, the country’s armed forces were decapitated.” (“Krestosev”, M., 2000). The result of this is known: 27 million Soviet people died during the war.
And in conclusion, one more touch to Voroshilov’s characterization. Victoria Yanovna (Gamarnik’s daughter) recalled many years later: “Upon returning from exile, Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan helped me a lot. After exile, Anastas Ivanovich helped me and Mira (Vladimir Ieronimovna Uborevich - daughter of I. Uborevich. I.P.) with money, an apartment, care. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, I know, warmed Yakir’s family. Not everyone, not everyone, rushed to our aid even when it became possible. At the same time, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov refused to accept Svetlana Tukhachevskaya. I don't know why. Maybe you didn’t have the courage to look Svetlana in the eyes?”
Voroshilov - a mirror of the politics of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus
plotsi 18.12.2010 04:08:01
Despite my relatively young age by historical standards, I would like to add that I knew, or rather, saw in 1974 close to the man whom Voroshilov in 1937 sent as an enemy of the people to the camps to certain death. But this brigade commander (last name can be specified) survived. There were purple bumps on his back, probably formed after being beaten with metal rods. The view is creepy. But, surprisingly, in public he said that our leadership had to do this, otherwise they would not have held on, built and won. I still can’t understand whether he was speaking sincerely or whether he was so scared to death. But then for the first time I understood the cost of building our communism. And this was the merit of Stalin’s sycophants like Voroshilov. And for this he and his followers must answer. And no less severe than their “troikas”.
On February 4, 1881, Kliment Voroshilov was born - one of the most legendary People's Commissars of the Soviet Union
“I don’t believe in predestination, but I am grateful to my fate that I was given exactly the path that I happened to go through,” with these words, Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov began his first book of memoirs, “Stories about Life,” in 1968. one of the most legendary military leaders of the USSR. This book was published a little over a year before the death of the “first red officer” (he died on December 2, 1969) and 20 years before the murky wave of “revelations” and “research” hit Voroshilov.
Meanwhile, among the leaders of the USSR from the end to the end of the 1950s, Kliment Voroshilov was one of the most lively and humane figures. It is no coincidence that it was he who received the sincere love and respect of the common people, including ordinary Red Army soldiers, whose appeals the marshal always paid attention to. It is no coincidence that his family can safely be called an exemplary Soviet family with devoted and sincere love, with the ability to take responsibility for other people's children. And even the fact that many posthumous researchers blamed Voroshilov for his undying devotion (which, however, did not stop him from criticizing his actions and decisions openly and behind his back), also deserves respect against the backdrop of the ease of changing orientations that was demonstrated by many of the marshal’s contemporaries.
Kliment Voroshilov and Joseph Stalin, 1935.
Source: http://imagesait.ru
Farm laborer, son of a farm laborer
Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was born on February 4 (January 23, old style) 1881 in the village of Verkhneye, Bakhmut district, Yekaterinoslav province, into the family of farm laborers Efrem and Maria Voroshilov. In “Stories about Life” he writes: “This is a volost village, and the farmsteads adjacent to it have never been subject to serfdom. They were inhabited by state peasants. It was very difficult to engage in agriculture on the sands, but rye was still sown here and there, although the yields were low. Potatoes and various vegetables were grown more often. In order to somehow make ends meet, Russian peasants engaged in various crafts.” And many more went to work as farm laborers, because large peasant families could not feed themselves on the meager lands on the left bank of the Northern Donets.
A similar fate awaited Efrem Voroshilov, who returned after ten years of military service. While he was pulling the army strap, his clothes were divided among the rest of the family members, and he had no other future than that of a farm laborer. And given the heavy hand and hot temper of the former soldier, who responded to the injustice that often awaited farm laborers during settlements with his fists, it is not surprising that the family of the future marshal almost constantly wandered from place to place. “At the age of 6-7, I had already seen a lot and felt a lot like a child. Of course, I still could not understand why this was happening, but these and other impressions were deposited somewhere in the subconscious. This was facilitated by the family’s frequent moves from place to place,” says Klim Voroshilov about his childhood.
Young Social Democrat Kliment Voroshilov during the 1905 revolution.
Source: memoirs of K.E. Voroshilov «
Stories about life »
Knowing all this, is it any wonder that Voroshilov was little like a proletarian, whom he spent less time than a peasant son. Rather, one should be surprised how a boy who grew up in such inhuman conditions retained trust in people and the ability to see the good in them. This skill distinguished Kliment Voroshilov until his last days, and it was this ability that attracted ordinary people to him. She helped him in the pre-revolutionary years, when, after joining the Social Democratic Party in 1904, he completely switched to party work and became one of the most famous Bolshevik agitators and propagandists.
“It’s these years that are most dear to me...”
This success came at a cost to Voroshilov: in the 13 years that separated the beginning of his political activity from , he managed to be in prison and exile several times, which seriously undermined his health. Already being the People's Commissar of Defense, Kliment Efremovich amazed people unfamiliar with him by the fact that in his free time he could practice for several hours on uneven bars or a horizontal bar. And few people knew that in this way the People's Commissar was getting rid of the problems that he was provided with in one of the police stations, when during the next arrest a young Bolshevik was seriously beaten. The severe injury left its mark forever - serious auditory hallucinations: Voroshilov heard conversations, a dog barking, the noise of a passing train... And only physical activity made it possible to escape from the intrusive sound.
“Comrade Volodin” - Kliment Voroshilov - in the pre-revolutionary years. 1911
Source: memoirs of K.E. Voroshilov “Stories about Life”
But among the sad events that filled the days of the exiled settler Voroshilov (or Comrade Volodin, as they called him in the RSDLP, following the strict rule of secrecy), there were also bright moments. One of them was a meeting with his future wife Ekaterina Davidovna. Then her name was Golda Grobman, and she was the same exile: a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the young woman also ended up in the Arkhangelsk village of Kholmogory for her political activities. And she was not in the best physical condition: shortly before her exile, while in prison, Golda ended up on the operating table with an unwanted pregnancy (the result of an affair with one of her party comrades) and forever lost the opportunity to have children.
“Perhaps this is the destiny of every person in old age - to remember his youth, the best time of his life. But, honestly, these years are the most precious to me. Years of struggle, successes and defeats, maturation and accumulation of revolutionary experience. For their sake it was worth sacrificing everything: youth and life itself,” Kliment Voroshilov would write in his memoirs half a century later. And this will not be an exclusively political statement: those who knew the Red Marshal closely said that for him the time of meeting the young Socialist-Revolutionary was truly one of the happiest episodes in his life. And it changed her forever. Voroshilov returned from exile married. Moreover, the wife took a very serious step in order to link her fate with the future People's Commissar of Defense: Jewish by blood and faith, she was baptized, became Orthodox, changed her name (became Catherine), while losing the opportunity to maintain relations with her family.
Kliment Voroshilov with his wife Ekaterina Davidovna. Source: https://24smi.org/
Petya, Timur and Tatiana
Ekaterina Davidovna told her young husband about everything, without hiding anything. “Golda never deceived me, and during our first dates she honestly told me that she would never be able to have children,” Voroshilov recalled much later. “But I was firmly convinced that I loved this woman and wanted to connect my destiny with her...”
Since the Voroshilovs could not have their own children, they, who sincerely and faithfully loved each other, had adopted ones. True, this happened already during the Civil War, when Ekaterina Davidovna lived in Moscow, where Voroshilov also visited from time to time from the front. The first was four-year-old Petya, whom Kliment Efremovich took from the Tsaritsyn orphanage in 1918. In 1925, the orphaned children of Mikhail Frunze - Timur and Tatyana - came to the family. Here and there there are references to two more adopted children: Ekaterina Davidovna’s niece named Gertrude and Kliment Efremovich’s nephew named Nikolai, but no information about them was found in official sources.
Kliment Voroshilov with the first of his adopted children, his son Peter, 1920s. Source: http://www.polarpost.ru
Everyone who knew the Voroshilov family closely unanimously noted that true love reigned in the relationship between the adoptive parents and children - the same as between Clement and Catherine themselves. Suffice it to say that one day in the late 1930s, Kliment Efremovich took up a saber to prevent his wife, who was suspected of state crimes, from being taken away from home. And he achieved his goal! And the story of Ekaterina Davidovna’s last days could even look like a melodrama if it weren’t real. She hid from her husband until the very end that she had cancer, and he found out about the disease only when it was no longer possible to cope with it. And this was on the eve of the Voroshilovs’ golden wedding. The legendary People's Commissar, as eyewitnesses recall, spent days and nights at his wife's bedside, sang her songs from their common youth and held her hand until the last minute. They were no longer destined to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their family life...
« Master of the Red Army
In post-Soviet times, it has become fashionable to blame Kliment Voroshilov for, if not all, then almost all of the failures of the Red Army in wars and military conflicts during his leadership of the People's Commissariat of Defense. In fact, thanks to Voroshilov, the Red Army in the pre-war period received many types of equipment, making it one of the strongest armies in Europe.
He had two classes of education and compensated for the lack of knowledge by constant reading (“Books and life itself became my universities, my academy. And everything that I happened to know and what I managed to achieve, I owed mainly to books and reading,” Voroshilov later wrote) , the People's Commissar well understood the limits of his competence. He was not, unlike some of his subordinates, carried away by obviously failed ideas in the field of armaments; he preferred more realistic proposals. Thus, when Voroshilov was People’s Commissar of Defense, the Red Army received one of the best in its class light tank T-26 (adopted into service in 1931), high-speed tanks of the BT series (adopted into service from 1931 to 1935), and in December 1939 year - the legendary T-34. During the same period, the legendary three-line rifle was modernized, Simonov and Tokarev self-loading rifles, the DP-27 light machine gun and its tank and aircraft variants were adopted. Then the I-16 fighter and the SB high-speed bomber took to the skies, and the creation of airborne units began. And the Soviet submarine fleet, under the leadership of Voroshilov, grew at such a pace that it became the largest in number among the fleets of all powers that entered the Second World War!
People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov at a meeting with Komsomol members. Source: http://rushist.com
When Voroshilov already held the post of People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, L.D. Trotsky gave him a scathing description: they say, “although Voroshilov was from the Lugansk workers, from the privileged elite, but in all his habits he always resembled an owner more than a proletarian.” But those who knew Kliment Voroshilov well considered him not a master, but a master. It was this trait that allowed him to saturate the Red Army with modern equipment and weapons. Without knowing how to command, Voroshilov knew how to see what his farm needed.
People's Commissar, but not a commander
As for the military leadership talents of Kliment Voroshilov, there are still no cases when he himself insisted on being given command of large formations. Yes, in 1918 he was one of the members of the military council of the First Cavalry Army under the command of Semyon Budyonny. And at that moment, he, an experienced and experienced underground agitator, was in his place. During the Civil War, the ability to propagandize the Red Army often played a more important role than the ability to think tactically. And then Voroshilov’s career followed political tracks: it was important for the country’s leadership to have a sincerely and completely devoted person as Kliment Efremovich in the post of People’s Commissar of Defense.
Kliment Voroshilov among the commanders of the First Cavalry Army. Source: https://redsearch.org
By the way, you couldn’t call him overly loyal either: sometimes the interests of his subordinates outweighed the interests of the party in him. There is a known case when, while discussing the progress of collectivization, Voroshilov placed on the table in front of Stalin a stack of letters he had received from Red Army soldiers concerned about the news from home, with the words: “You want to restore all peasant Russia against us!” And - nothing, he was not threatened with execution. He was the only one allowed not only to call Stalin by name and first name, but also to argue with him in public. The price was personal devotion, but Voroshilov simply did not know how to do it any other way.
Apparently, this same personal devotion, along with the awareness of his inability to command, did not allow Voroshilov to interfere in the preparations for military operations against Finland, and as a result he was made responsible for the failures of the first period of this war. Meanwhile, the Red Marshal was not directly involved in planning military operations, and was not responsible for analyzing incoming information about the level of preparedness of the Finns (in particular, the “action plan for the destruction of the ground and naval forces of the Finnish army” was presented to the People’s Commissar of the Leningrad Military Command on October 29, 1939 districts). And the People’s Commissar did not directly command the troops during this period either. Nevertheless, he was still removed from his post. And during the Great Patriotic War, issues of personal loyalty faded into the background: the country needed talented military leaders, to whom Voroshilov did not consider himself...
Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, 1960s.
Source: https://ruspekh.ru
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3 Comments
Golovanov Boris
Voroshilov did not become particularly famous at the beginning of the war, but the troops he led did not find themselves in grand encirclement. And at that time this was a great merit. The entire army retreated before a strong enemy and there were not many generals who corresponded to that situation. And Voroshilov was not the worst, despite the lack of military education.
Belova Elena
Almost everything that was good in the Red Army was done under Frunze, the most talented military leader, who died so opportunely for Stalin. Or under Tukhachevsky. Voroshilov was not only an absolute mediocrity, having neither military education nor military experience (in the Civil War he was only a commissar under Buden), but he also signed arrest warrants for senior commanders. It was impossible to arrest senior commanders without the signature of the People's Commissar of Defense. And although Voroshilov initially resisted this, he then resignedly signed everything, not forgetting to pour tons of oil towards his patron, Stalin. And then the arrested, who were tortured, humiliated, beaten in prison, wrote pleas to Voroshilov, whole sacks of letters. And he was silent. This is well written about in Suvenirov’s book “The Tragedy of the Red Army” and in Vadim Rogovin’s book “The Party of the Executed.” One of the reasons for our defeat in the first months of the war was Voroshilov. It was Voroshilov, in his complete stupidity, who handed over Tukhachevsky’s note to Shaposhnikov so that he would make the calculations, and Shaposhnikov did everything wrong, which discredited Tukhachevsky and now the Stalinists are running around with this note and waving, they say, Tukhachevsky was a fool, he wanted us to build 100 thousand tanks . Only Tukhachevsky had no intention of imposing these 100 thousand tanks. We were talking exclusively about preliminary calculations and only at the time of full mobilization of the army. But Voroshilov did not understand anything. It’s good that Stalin finally understood this. And he returned Tukhachevsky, who at least managed to do something for our army. True, after the war game of 1936, Voroshilov still finished off Tukhachevsky. Who criticized everyone, trying to push through at least some kind of modernization for our army.
During the war, Voroshilov failed everything he could. Stalin's patience ran out and he removed both the "horsemen" Voroshilov and Budyonny from command.
Regarding love among ordinary people, this is funny. The PR campaign was launched extensively. Poems and ballads were composed about Voroshilov. But in the army they openly laughed at him. Watch the film “Countdown. Maneuvers of 1936. Generals are accused,” how Voroshilov makes his final speech, how he cannot connect two words.
“It was this trait that allowed him to saturate the Red Army with modern equipment and weapons.”
“In reality, thanks to Voroshilov, the Red Army in the pre-war period received many types of equipment, making it one of the strongest armies in Europe.”
Thanks to Voroshilov?! Are you kidding me?! Thanks to Tukhachevsky! And not Voroshilov. Voroshilov knew nothing about modern weapons. He was as dumb as a plug. It was Tukhachevsky who studied modern models of technology and tried to introduce them. It was he who tried to conclude an agreement with France so that we could receive modern aircraft engines.
"The creation of airborne units began."
Voroshilov has nothing to do with the development of the Airborne Forces. It was Tukhachevsky, when he was commander of the Leningrad Military District, who conducted exercises. And this was reflected in the 1936 game. Unique footage of the paratroopers' performance can be seen in the film "Countdown. Maneuvers of 1936." And Tukhachevsky sent reports to Stalin, trying to prove the need for this type of troops. You can read about this in the book “Mosaic of a Broken Mirror” by Shilo and Glushko. But after the execution of Tukhachevsky, work with the Airborne Forces began to decline. Because Voroshilov was precisely against it.