Iona Yakir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about a person. For the Israeli settlement, see Yakir.
 |
Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Iona Emmanuilovich Yakir, (August 3, 1896, Kishinev, Bessarabia province, Russian Empire – June 11, 1937, Moscow, Soviet Union), was the Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Yakir was born in well to do family of Jewish pharmacist. Because governmental restriction on Jewish access to higher education he studied abroad at University of Basel in Switzerland. During WWI he returned to Russia and worked on military factory in Odessa. In 1915 - 1917 he was a student of Kharkov Technological Institute. Like millions of other peoples of Russia he was radicalized by the war and became follower of Lenin. In 1917 he returned to Kishinev, became member of Communist party and took active part in Bolshevik seizure of power in Bessarabia. When in 1918 Romania intervened to annex Bessarabia, Yakir led Bolshevik resistance but his small force was overwhelmed by regular Romanian army.
[edit] At the Civil War
Yakir retreated to Ukraine and fought against Austro-Hungarian occupation forces as a commander of Chinese mercenaries. In March 1918 he was wounded. At beginning of the Russian Civil War between Bolshevik forces, the White Army and various other anti-Bolshevik movements, Yakir was member of Bolshevik party committee in Voronezh province and started his service in the Red Army as commissar. He showed military talent and got assignment as a field commander. In October 1918 he served as a member of Revolutionary Council of 8th army in the Southern Front and simultaneously commanded Southern Front's several key formations in operations against Don Cossacks of Pyotr Krasnov. He carried out Lenin's order of persecution of Cossack civilian population. The war against armed combatants and terror against civilian population were coming together in the Russian civil war. Encouraged by the Bolshevik theory of class struggle Yakir, like other members of the Communist party took part in terror. For this record of military deeds accompanied by terror, he became second individual to receive the highest Soviet military award of that time the Order of the Red Banner.
In summer 1919 Yakir was sent to Ukraine to command the 45th rifle division, in August 1919 he became commander of the Southern Group of 12th army which included 45th and 58th rifle divisions. Both divisions were surrounded in Odessa by the White forces. Yakir undertook one of the most remarkable Civil War military operations. He breached encirclement and led his forces through enemy rear for distance of 400 kilometers to join the Red Army in Zhitomir. Like other Bolshevik commanders who did not have military education, he was assisted in this operation by former tsarist army officers on his staff but this fact does not negate his own role in planning and leading the campaign. For this campaign he received his second Order of Red Banner, both his divisions received Red Banners of Honor. Yakir took part in actions against the White forces of Yudenich in defense of Petrograd, in suppression of Ukrainian anarchist partisans of Nestor Makhno and in Polish-Soviet War. He was awarded third Order of the Red Banner and became one of the most decorated Red Army commanders.
[edit] Military reformer
After the war Yakir commanded army formations in Ukraine. Yakir was a close associate of Mikhail Frunze and belonged to his inner circle of the innovative Red Army officers who assisted Frunze in starting far reaching military reform. Among these reformers was Mikhail Tukhachevsky who became Yakir's friend. In April 1924 Yakir was appointed a head of Main Directorate of Military Academies of the Red Army and simultaneously editor of major military periodical devoted to development of military theory "Voennyi Vestnik."
In November 1925, after Frunze's death Yakir was appointed commander of the most powerful territorial formation of the Red Army, the Ukrainian military district. Yakir in close coordination with Tukhachevsky and other reformers made his district into a laboratory of wide range experiences in strategy, tactical, operational techniques, army formations and equipment. In training his troops, Yakir encouraged his officers' initiative and ability make their own judgments. In 1928-1929 Yakir studied in Higher Military Academy in Berlin, this was possible because the intensive military cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany. Yakir innovative approaches to the military art impressed his German colleagues; German Field Marshal of WWI fame Paul von Hindenburg praised him as one of the most talented military commander of the post-WWI era.
After returning to his district Yakir continued military reform. He was one of the creators of first in the world large tank and air force formations. Not a military theorist by himself, Yakir strongly supported Tukhachevsky's endeavor in developing the theory of deep operations. Military historians across the world now consider this theory the most outstanding theoretical innovation in entire history of military art. In 1934 Yakir requested that Tukhachevsky would be appointed to conduct advanced courses on operational theory for high-ranking officers of the Red Army General Staff and commanders of military districts. He did it even though he knew about Stalin's dislike of Tukhachevsky. In retribution Stalin instructed his crony Kliment Voroshilov who was a Peoples Commissar of Defense to barre Yakir from the membership in prestigious Advisory Council of the Defense Commissariat. In 1935 in order to diminish Yakir power Ukrainian military district was divided into two new districts, Kiev under Yakir command and Kharkov.
In 1935 Yakir conducted famous Kiev military maneuvers with forces of Kiev and Kharkov military districts. The major aim of maneuvers was to test theory of deep operations and the latest technology. In maneuvers participated 65,000 troops, including 1, 888 paratroopers, 1,200 tanks and 600 aircraft. These were first maneuvers in the world that used combine operation of large tank, airfoce and airborne formations. The troops acted on front of 250 kilometers and a depth of 200 kilometers. The representatives of major world armies attended maneuvers. The British General Archibald Wavell reported to his government: "If I had not witnessed this myself I would never have believed such an operation possible." German Wehrmacht copied Soviet innovations in preparation for the WWII. The reform started by Frunze and continued by Yakir, Tukhachevsky and many other commanders made the Red Army into most advanced army in the world. It is common opinion of the Western military experts that if German-Soviet war would start in 1937 before the Stalin purge the Red Army would be more than match for Germans. During these years Yakir regularly gave lectures to the Red Army General Stuff Academy, informing the students about newest developments in military affairs. In 1935 he received the second highest Soviet military rank of that time Komandarm of first rank.
[edit] Political involvements
Stalin who was consolidating his power over country, approved Yakir's appointment to Ukrainian Military District in 1925, but he did not trust him fully and instructed his political allay Lazar Kaganovich to became friend with Yakir and to report about his activities. Yakir as a true believer of Communist case was actively involved in internal politics. He was member of the party Central Committee in Moscow and member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Ukraine. While an ingenious and independent in his thinking as military commander, in Soviet politics he was one of docile party members and followed party Stalinist line. During famine in Ukraine caused by Stalin's "forced collectivization" of agriculture during 1932-1933, Yakir was alarmed by tragedy and approached Stalin with request to soften official policies. Stalin was outraged and instructed Kaganovich to advise Yakir to limit his activities to his party assignment which was military service. Yakir obeyed. As a party member he lacked power of conviction and independent thinking to defy Stalin.
The blind obedience did not spare Yakir. Stalin would not allow to his military commanders any independent thinking even in area of their professional expertise. While on the surface Stalin's attitude toward Yakir was friendly, the dictator could not tolerate people like Yakir in the Stalinist totalitarian state. With start of the Great Purge in 1936 Soviet secrete police NKVD arrested many close associates and subordinates of Yakir. Yakir was one of few top Soviet commanders who appealed to Stalin, claiming about innocence of these officers. Yakir's appeals alienated Stalin even more and Yakir was marked for persecution. To remove Yakir from his power base in June 1937 Stalin sent him to command Leningrad military district. During the Great purge it was a clear sign of forthcoming persecution.
[edit] Trial and death
 |
The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. |
In 1937 NKVD accused him of participating in Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization. Charged with, among other things, being a Nazi agent, he maintained his innocence both in correspondence to Stalin and at his trial but was executed together with Tukhachevsky and several other outstanding Soviet officers. His wife was subsequently arrested and executed, as were several of his relatives. His son, then fourteen years old, was arrested shortly after his father's execution and spent a number of years in prison camps.
[edit] Yakir's legacy
After Yakir's execution the purge wiped out large number of the officer who had served under him. Much of Yakir's work, including his reforms and preparations for guerrilla activities in the event of an invasion of the Ukraine and were dismantled. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 the Red Army was incapable of modern warfare and unprepared to face an enemy who used military art which Yakir and other Soviet innovators pioneered. It took for Soviets terrible defeats, huge human and territorial losses to master modern operational approaches and tactics. Yakir's disciples who survived the purge used the experiences which they gained under Yakir to make vital contribution to Soviet victory over Germany. Among them were Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Aleksei Antonov, Front commanders Andrei Yeremenko and Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Army commander Aleksandr Gorbatov.
During Nikita Khruschev's de-Stalinisation Yakir was rehabilitated on January 31, 1957.
[edit] Sources
- A. V. Gorbatov, Years of My Life. The Memoirs of General of the Soviet Army (New York, 1964)
- Harold Shukman, Stalin's Generals (New York, 1993)
