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Mihail KirponosSoviet military leader, colonel general, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Date of Birth: 12.01.1892
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
Biography of Mikhail Kirponos
Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos was a Soviet military leader, a Lieutenant General, and a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the title for his skillful command of a division and his heroism in battle, as stated in the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 21, 1940. Kirponos was born on January 12, 1892, in the village of Vertievka (now in the Nezhin district of the Chernigov region, Ukraine) into a poor peasant family.
Early Life and Military Career
Kirponos attended a church-parish school for a year and then spent three years in a district school. Due to his family's financial difficulties, he was unable to continue his education. Until 1915, he worked as a forester. In 1915, he was drafted into the army and participated in World War I on the Romanian front. In 1917, he graduated from a military medical school and worked as a company paramedic. In October 1917, he conducted propaganda among soldiers in favor of Bolshevism. He was elected as the chairman of the regimental committee and became a member of the divisional revolutionary committee. In 1918, he joined the Red Army and became one of the organizers of insurgent detachments in Ukraine, fighting against the German occupiers, Petliurists, and White Guards.
After the war, Kirponos held various positions, including battalion commander, chief of staff, assistant commander, and regiment commander. He also worked as the chairman of the revolutionary tribunal. In 1920, due to illness, he was declared unfit for active service. In 1927, he graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy and became the chief of staff of the 51st Rifle Division, then the chief and military commissar of the Kazan Military School named after the Supreme Soviet of the Tatar ASSR.
In his autobiography of 1938, Kirponos admitted to actively participating in exposing enemies of the people and fighting against opposition. He always adhered to the party's general line. During the Soviet-Finnish War, Colonel General Kirponos commanded the 70th Rifle Division of the 7th Army, which stormed Vyborg.
Later Military Career and Death
For his skillful command of the division and displayed heroism in battle, Kirponos was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, along with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 21, 1940. From April 1940, Kirponos served as the commander of a rifle corps and from June as the commander of the Leningrad Military District. With the introduction of general ranks in the Red Army on June 4, 1940, Kirponos was given the rank of Lieutenant General. From February 22, 1941, he was appointed as the commander of the Kiev Special Military District.
After the transformation of the district into the Southwest Front and the start of the Great Patriotic War, Colonel General Kirponos became the commander of the Southwest Front. The front's troops fought heavy defensive battles in Right-Bank Ukraine. The steadfast defensive actions on important operational-strategic lines and directions were combined with counterattacks. In conditions of deep encirclements and envelopments by enemy tank and mechanized formations, the troops of the Southwest Front, divided into detachments and groups, maneuvered, escaping from under the strikes to intermediate and rear defensive lines, and fought intense battles.
Despite the major operational success of the Germans near Uman, the front retained its combat readiness and continued to retreat, stopping at the Dnieper River line. During the Kiev Operation, despite the insistence of Kirponos, Vasilevsky, Shaposhnikov, and Budyonny on the immediate withdrawal of troops from Kiev, the Stavka did not give permission to retreat from the operational pocket around Kiev. Without reserves at that time, the front was unable to halt the advance of the redirected 2nd Tank Group from the Moscow direction to the south. By September 14, the 5th, 21st, 26th, and 37th Armies were encircled.
On September 20, a combined column of the staffs of the Southwest Front and the 5th Army approached the village of Dryukovshchina, 15 km southwest of Lokhvitsa. There, it was attacked by the main forces of the German 3rd Tank Division. Losing several guns and armored vehicles, the remnants of the column withdrew to the Shumeykovo Grove. The commander of the 5th Army, General V.N. Sotensky, along with his entire staff, was captured by the enemy. The group had no more than a thousand people, including around 800 commanders, including Front Commander Kirponos, members of the Military Council Burmistenko and Rykov, Chief of Staff Tupikov, front management generals Dobykin, Danilov, Panyukhov, commander of the 5th Army Potapov, army's Military Council members Nikishev, Kalchenko, and army's Chief of Staff Pisyarevsky.
The transport and personnel were dispersed along the edge of the ravine crossing the grove, and armored vehicles took up positions on the edge. German tanks and infantry attacked the grove from three sides. Everyone, from soldier to front commander, participated in hand-to-hand combat. Kirponos was initially wounded in the leg, and shortly afterward, shell fragments pierced his chest. The commander died immediately. The battle lasted for five hours. The unconscious Kirponos was taken prisoner, while the commander of the 5th Army, Potapov, survived. Tupikov and Pisyarevsky were killed.
In 1911, Kirponos married Olympiada Polyakova, the daughter of a shoemaker. They divorced in 1919, but their daughter was raised by Kirponos. In the same year, he remarried Sofia Piotrovskaya. Many of her relatives were repressed in the 1930s, but Kirponos did not divorce her.
Kirponos was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. His remains, along with the remains of Major General Tupikov, were transferred to Kiev in 1943, to the Eternal Glory Park.
In Kiev and Chernigov, monuments to General Kirponos were erected. In Kiev, a street is named after him. In his hometown of Vertievka, there is a museum dedicated to Mikhail Kirponos. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class, and the Medal "For 20 Years of the Red Army."
