Mikhail Tukhachevsky: Difference between revisions
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On March 20 1920, Red Army Chief Kamenev would report to Lenin that he planned to appoint Tukhachevsky as commander of the Western Front ,stating that he was the one “who skillfully and decisively carried out the last operations to defeat the armies of General Denikin."
=== Inter-War Era ===
▲He was then named one of the first 5 Field Marshals of the [[Soviet Union]].
In the Inter-War era, Tukhachevsky would not stagnate in his role in the Red Army. After the Polish Soviet War, where Tukhachevsky was defeated at the Vistula, he would be dedicated to reforming the Red Army.
In his role as Marshal, Tukhachevsky fervently criticised the Red Army's performance during the 1926 Summer manoeuvres. He criticised the officers' inability to determine what course of action to take and communicate that with their troops especially harshly. Tukhachevsky noted that initiative among officers was lacking, that they responded slowly to changes in the situation and that communication was poor.
This was not purely the officers' fault as the only way of communication from local unit headquarters to the field positions was a single telephone line. In contrast German divisions mobilised shortly after during the interwar period had telephones, radio, horse, cycle and motorcycle messengers, signal lights and flags and pieces of cloth with which messages were to be conveyed mostly to aircraft.
Tukhachevsky reached the position of 1st deputy commissar for defence, subordinate to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. However, Voroshilov disliked Tukhachevsky. It was clear to many members, especially future colleague Georgy Zhukov, that it was Tukhachevsky and not Voroshilov who ran the ministry in practice. While Voroshilov disliked Tukhachevsky, his perception of military doctrine was nonetheless impacted significantly by Tukhachevsky's ideas.
Tukhachevsky would also write several books on modern warfare and, in 1931, after the Politburo had accepted the need for an industrialized military, Tukhachevsky was given a leading role in reforming the army. He held advanced ideas on military strategy, particularly on use of tanks and aircraft in combined operations.
He also closely followed the development of military thought in England, France, and Germany, and highly valued the developments of Fuller, Liddell Hart and de Gaulle, noting that their ideas were not accepted by the official military doctrines of England and France. Additionally, Tukhachevsky took part in military cooperation between the USSR and Germany in the period from 1922 to 1933; in 1932 he attended large maneuvers in Germany.
Tukhachevsky also took a keen interest in the arts, and became a political patron and close friend of composer [[Shostakovich|Dmitri Shostakovich]]; they met in 1925 and subsequently played music together at the Marshal's home (Tukhachevsky played the violin).
=== The Second World War and the West Russian War ===
During World War II, at the outset of Operation Barbarossa, Tukhachevsky like many Soviet Generals fought hard against the German invaders, however he could not stop the Wehrmacht's march on Russia. Despite his best efforts, counterattacks would be beaten back, and soon the Red Army would be in full retreat, all the way to the Archangel-Astrakhan Line.
After the defeat of the [[Red Army]], he would join the [[West Russian Revolutionary Front]] which was formed by the remnants of the [[Red Army]]. It was here he would plan the recapture of lost lands in the subsequent West Russian War, codenamed Operation Suvorov.
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== Trivia ==
In OTL, Tukhachevsky was executed in what would be the start of the Great Purge, however, he was noted as one of the key men who reformed the Red Army prior to his execution. He would be politically rehabilitated during the Krushchev Era, at the insistence of the Red Army and the current Minister of Defence, Georgy Zhukov.
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