Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Quotes

• “According to one account, his chief of staff reported to him on looting and damage. 'Comrade Marshall,' he said, 'the soldiers are not behaving themselves. They break furniture, mirrors and dishes. What are your instructions in this connection?' Vasilevsky, perhaps the most intelligent and cultivated of all Soviet commanders, was apparently silent for a few moments. 'I don't give a fuck,' he said eventually. 'It is now time for our soldiers to issue their own justice.'”
• “I did not decide to become an officer to start a military career. I still wanted to be an agronomist and work in some remote corner of Russia after the war. I could not suppose that my country would change, and I would.”
• “Why I should be in Romania in the name of unknown to me goal. There was a time when I led soldiers to battle, thinking I was doing my duty as a Russian patriot. However, I understood that we have been cheated, that people needed peace. The old army and Soviet Union are not compatible, therefore, my military career had to end. With no remorse, I could go back to my favorite occupation, working in the field.”
• “Conditions to the north of us, in the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts zone of action, and our offensive on Kharkov demands that we not lose time and we commit all forces so that we can draw off as many divisions as possible from Kharkov. And even if we do not draw them off, at least we will not give Manstein the ability to take any of his units from our part of the front. If we attract one or two German tank divisions - it will be the best contribution to the defeat of the enemy in the south.”
• “By seizing the formerly little-known Height 102.0 – the Mamayev Hill - the Red Army fought its way to the fascists' den – Berlin. We are proud to say that our victory in Stalingrad radically changed the whole situation in the Second World War. And this victory meant that our Motherland had withstood one of the most difficult tests in its history.”

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Key dates

Born

30 September 1895

Died

5 December 1977

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

Aleksandr

Gender

male

Citizenship

Russia

Place of birth

Vichuga

Place of death

Moscow

Occupation

soldier

Educated at

Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia

Political party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Languages spoken

Russian

Participant in

20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Conflict

Soviet–Japanese War

Military branch

Soviet Ground Forces

Military rank

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Image

Marshal of the USSR 1980 CPA 5117.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0