Konstantin Rokossovsky: Difference between revisions
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}}'''Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky''' (Russian: Константин Константинович (Ксаверьевич) Рокоссовский; Polish: ''Konstanty Rokossowski''; 21 December 1896 is a Soviet and Polish officer who became rose to the rank of General.
The leader of the 3rd Soviet Army after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rokossovsky would lead his army into West Siberia, ending up in the West Siberian People's Republic. As part of the [[West Russian War]], Rokossovsky would lead West Siberian troops into battle.
However, due to the factionalism that arose from the West Russian War, Rokovssovky would find in conflict with Lazar Kaganovich, breaking away from the People's Republic with his 3rd Army and taking control of Sverdlovsk
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Konstanty Ksaweriewicz Rokossowski (Konstantin Ksaveryevich Rokossovsky) was born in Velikiye Luki; or in Warsaw, then part of Congress Poland under Russian rule; or in the village of Telekhany, Brest Region in modern Belarus (then the Russian Empire). His family had moved to Warsaw following the appointment of his father as the inspector of the Warsaw Railways. The Rokossovsky family were members of the Polish nobility (of the Oksza coat of arms), and over generations had produced many cavalry officers. But Konstantin's father, Ksawery Wojciech Rokossowski, worked as a civil railway official in the Russian Empire. His mother, Antonina Ovsyannikova, was Russian and a teacher.
Orphaned at 14, Rokossovsky started working in a stocking factory. In 1911, at age 15, he became an apprentice stonemason. When Rokossovsky enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army at the start of the First World War, his patronymic ''Ksaveryevich'' was Russified to ''Konstantinovich''. This was easier for his fellow troops
=== World War 1 and Russian Civil War ===
On joining the Kargopolsky 5th Dragoon Regiment, Rokossovsky soon showed himself a talented soldier and leader.
On August 2, 1914, 18-year-old (lying on the enlistment form as a 20-year-old) Konstantin volunteered for the 5th Dragoon Kargopol Regiment of the 5th Cavalry Division of the 12th Army and was enrolled in the 6th Squadron, commanded by Captain Zankovich. 6 days later, on August 8, 1914, Rokossovsky distinguished himself while conducting mounted reconnaissance near the village of Yastrzhem, for which he was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th Class and promoted to corporal.
He served in the cavalry throughout the war, ending with the rank of a junior non-commissioned officer. He was wounded twice during the war and awarded the Cross of St George.
On August 24, 1917, he was presented and on November 21 (December 4), 1917, he was awarded the St. George Medal, II degree. The dragoons elected Rokossovsky to the squadron and then to the regimental committee, which decided issues of the regiment. In October 1917, he was elected to the regimental St. George's holders Duma and served as secretary there.
In 1917, he supported the Bolshevik Party In December 1917, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Adolf Yushkevich and other dragoons joined the Red Guard, it was here he and fellow Kargopol dragoons would form the Kargopol Red Guard detachment.. At the end of December, the Kargopol regiment was transferred to the rear to the east. On April 7, 1918, at the Dikaya station , west of Vologda, the 5th Kargopol Dragoon Regiment was disbanded.
From November 1917 to February 1918, as part of the Kargopol Red Guard cavalry detachment, as an assistant to the detachment chief, Rokossovsky participated in the suppression of counter-revolutionary uprisings in the area of Vologda, Buym Galich and Soligalich. From February to July 1918, he took part in the suppression of anarchist and Cossack counter-revolutionary protests in Slobozhanshchina (in the area of Kharkov , Unecha , Mikhailovsky Farm) and in the Karachev - Bryansk area .
In July 1918, still in the calvary detachment, he was transferred to the Eastern Front near the city of Yekaterinburg in the Perm province and participated in battles with the White Guards and Czechoslovaks near the Kuzino station, Yekaterinburg, Shamary and Shalya stations until August 1918. Since August 1918, the detachment was reorganized into the 1st Ural Cavalry Regiment named after Volodarsky, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 1st squadron.
On March 7, 1919, he joined the Communist party of Bolsheviks as an official party member.
Initially the commander of a squadron , he would rise through the ranks to command a separate division . On August 3, 1919, Rokossovsky's 2nd Ural Cavalry Division took part in the capture of the city of Shadrinsk , then the cavalry division moved along with other units of the 30th Infantry Division through the Kurgan district of the Tobolsk province to the village of Emurtlinskoye, Yalutorovsky district, Tobolsk province and further to the village of Chastoozerye, however due to a White counterattack, the 2nd Ural Cavalry Division retreated to the village of Shelepovo, Kurgan district.
Throughout September 1919, Rokossovsky's Division was on the defensive, covering the retreat of the Red Army. By October, the 2nd Ural Cavalry Division had only consisted of 16 commanders and 437 soldiers.
On October 14, 1919, the 30th Division went on the offensive, under this offensive orders, the 2nd Ural Cavalry Division of Rokossovsky and the 264th Verkhneuralsky Regiment attacked the village of Borovskoye , Kurgan district, from the village of Romanovskoye and the village of Pesyano, but stopped their advance 5-6 kilometers south of the village. Throughout October, the 2nd Ural Cavalry Division would capture White-controlled villages.
On November 4, 1919, leading a group of 30 horsemen in a battle near the village of Vakorinsk in Ishim Uyezd, Rokossovsky led a charge that broke through the White infantry chain and captured their artillery battery. On November 7, 1919, just south of Mangut station in Tobolsk, Rokossovsky fought with the commander of the 15th Omsk Siberian Rifle Division of Admiral Kolchak’s army, which Rokossovsky killed. although he himself was wounded in the shoulder
For these action in 1919, Rokossovsky received Soviet Russia's highest military decoration at the time, the Order of the Red Banner.
On January 23, 1920, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the 30th Cavalry Regiment of the 30th Infantry Division. In May, the regiment was moved to the Russian-Mongolian border in Transbaikalia. On August 18, 1920, he was transferred to the post of commander of the 35th Cavalry Regiment of the 35th Infantry Division.
Until June 1921, the 35th Cavalry Regiment did not participate in battles, however in the summer of 1921, commanding the 35th Cavalry Regiment, in the battle near Troitskosavsk he defeated the 2nd Brigade of General Boris Petrovich Rezukhin under Baron R. F. von Ungern-Sternberg and in a subsequent battle he was seriously wounded. For this battle, Rokossovsky was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner. In 1921, he commanded the 35th Independent Cavalry Regiment stationed in Irkutsk and played an important role in bringing Damdin Sükhbaatar, the founder of the Mongolian People's Republic, to power. By October 1921, he was transferred to commander of the 3rd brigade of the 5th Kuban Cavalry Division .
In October 1922, with the reorganization of the 5th Kuban Cavalry Division into the 5th sSparate Kuban Cavalry Brigade, he was voluntarily appointed to the post of commander of the 27th Cavalry Regiment of the same brigade.
=== World War 2 ===
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