Galitsky, Kuzma Nikitovich

Kuzma Nikitovich ^{[2] [3] [4]} Galitsky was born on October 12 (24), 1897 in the city of Taganrog in a working class family. Russian

Born in the family of a peasant in the village of Ryazhenoye , who arrived in Taganrog for the construction of the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant and who remained to work on it. He graduated from a four-year primary school, a vocational school in 1912. Since 1912 he worked as a locksmith apprentice and a locksmith in the mechanical workshop of Kerber, then became an assistant locomotive driver in the railway depot of the Taganrog station.

In April 1917 he was drafted into the Russian army , he served in the 274th reserve infantry regiment in Taganrog. In October 1917 he was demobilized as a junior non-commissioned officer .

He returned to work as an assistant driver at the depot. In the spring of 1918, Taganrog was occupied by German-Austrian invaders . In June 1918, Kuzma Galitsky participated in a strike against the interventionists, was fired and, under the threat of arrest, fled the city with a group of railway workers. They managed to get to the city of Lgov occupied by the red troops.

In August 1918, he entered the Red Army in Lgov. Member of the Civil War in Russia . He joined the formed 2nd Ukrainian Insurgent Division , was the platoon and company commander of the 9th Soviet Ukrainian Regiment of this division. Since June 1919, he was the battalion commander of the 1st strike regiment of the 7th Zadniprovsky Ukrainian Rifle Division on the Southern Front (it is noteworthy that at that time the division was commanded by Nestor Makhno , who once again entered into an agreement with the Soviet government). He fought on the Ukrainian front against the German and Austro-Hungarian occupation forces, the troops of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic S. V. Petlyura and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General A. I. Denikin . Member of the CPSU (b) since October 1918 . In early September 1919, in heavy battles against Denikinites in the area of Kupyansk and Ilovayskaya station, he was seriously wounded. After the hospital, he was sent on leave to improve health in Taganrog , but there, due to the difficult situation, he entered the units of the CHON , commanded the battalion, and was the head of the political department of the railway defense section of the Chon of the Taganrog region.

In July 1920 he was enlisted as the battalion commander in the 397th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division , and was sent to the Soviet-Polish Front ( South-Western Front ). As part of the Fastov group, he participated in battles near the White Church , in the attack on Shepetivka and Dubno , in the Lviv operation , and then in defensive battles. In November 1920, he participated in battles against the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic S. Petliura and parts of the army of General P.N. Wrangel . After the end of hostilities, his battalion guarded sugar factories in Ukraine from bandits. In June 1921, K. N. Galitsky was sent to study.

In 1922 he graduated from the Higher Tactical Rifle School named after the Comintern "Shot" . From August 1923 to August 1924 he served in the 67th Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division of the Ukrainian Military District (the regiment was located in Kharkov ) as battalion commander and assistant regiment commander. Then he again went to study, in 1927 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army named after M.V. Frunze .

At the end of the academy, from August 1927 - chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Infantry Division , from August 1928 - chief of the scientific and editorial unit of the Military Academy of the Red Army MV Frunze , from May 1930 - adjunct of this academy in Department of Civil War History. From May 1931 - commander-commissar of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Infantry Division, from January 1934 - Deputy Head of the Combat Training Division of the Moscow Military District Headquarters. Since May 1934 - assistant commander of the 3rd Crimean Rifle Division in the Kharkov Military District (division headquarters - Simferopol ). In September-November 1937 - the chief of staff of the Kharkov military district. Since November 1937 - commander of the 90th Infantry Division in the Leningrad Military District .

In July 1938 he was arrested and was in prison under investigation until May 1939 . Then he was fired from the Red Army. He pleaded not guilty and was released in May 1939 for lack of evidence of guilt during a partial review of the cases of those arrested after the appointment of L.P. Beria as the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. On May 21, he was reinstated in the Red Army, but until December 1939 he did not receive a new appointment, remaining at the disposal of the Office for the Composition of the Red Army.

In December 1939 he was sent to the front of the Soviet-Finnish war and on December 23, 1939 he was appointed commander of the 24th Samaro-Ulyanovsk Iron twice Red Banner Rifle Division to replace the killed division commander P. E. Veschev . He distinguished himself during the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line , after the war he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. At the end of the fighting, he continued to command the division, which in 1940 was transferred to the Western Special Military District and was deployed in Molodechno and its environs.

With the outbreak of World War II, his 24th Infantry Division became part of the 13th Army of the Western Front , marched from Molodechno to the indicated area of ​​concentration near Lida . Faced with the advanced German 19th Panzer Division , the division attacked them and rejected them, conducting active offensive operations from June 25 to June 29, 1941 . But in view of the catastrophic development for the Red Army of the Bialystok-Minsk battle, she was surrounded. In mid-July 1941, Major General Galitsky removed the remnants of the division from the encirclement, and the Battle Banner of the division was lost (in 1944, the Banner was returned by the locals who found it at the funeral of the killed soldiers on the body of the political worker who carried it out). Galitsky himself immediately after leaving the circle was appointed commander of the 67th Rifle Corps as part of the 21st Army of the Central Front and participated in the Battle of Smolensk . During the defense of Gomel on August 13, 1941, he was seriously wounded; he spent several months in a hospital in Sverdlovsk .

Since February 1942, he was deputy commander of the 1st shock army on the North-Western Front , but exactly 10 days after taking office, he was seriously injured a second time. Ironically, he was evacuated to the same hospital in Sverdlovsk, from which he was recently discharged. Since September 18, 1942 - commander of the 3rd shock army of the Kalinin Front . Under his command, the army participated in the Velikiye Luki operation and in the Nevelsk operation .

In November 1943 - July 1945 - commander of the 11th Guards Army on the 2nd Baltic Front and 3rd Belarusian Front . He participated in the Gorodok operation , the Vitebsk operation , the Belarusian strategic offensive operation , the Gumbinnen-Goldap operation .

The army under the command of K. N. Galitsky took an active part in the battles in East Prussia during the East Prussian strategic offensive operation . During the assault on Königsberg ( April 6–9 , 1945 ), the army was faced with the task of breaking up the German group and taking control of the southern part of the city . On the first day of the fighting, the army advanced three kilometers, destroying more than 20 German strong points and capturing the areas of Ponart , Rosenau , Nasser Garten . On April 8, the Pregolya River was forced in the area of the seaport . 41 army soldiers for these battles received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union . General Galitsky himself became a Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945 ^[2] .

The Guards Army of General K.N. Galitsky completed the Great Patriotic War by assault on a large naval base of Pillau during the Zemland offensive operation , landing on the Frisch-Nehrung spit . On May 9, the army accepted the surrender of a large enemy group on the Frisch-Nehrung Spit . In Königsberg, he organized the construction of the country's first memorial to fallen soldiers . During the war he was wounded three times.

After the war, from July 1945 he commanded the troops of the Special Military District , from March 1946 - again the troops of the 11th Guards Army, from October 1946 - the troops of the Carpathian Military District , from November 1951 - the troops of the Odessa Military District , from May to August 1954 - troops of the Moscow district air defense . Then, due to illness, he was at the disposal of the Main Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Since April 1955 - Commander of the Northern Group of Forces in Poland . Since January 1958, he commanded the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District . Since June 1961 he was at the disposal of the Minister of Defense of the USSR .

He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 2–5 convocations (1946–1962), a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR of 2–3 convocations (1947–1955).

In January 1962, he was dismissed due to illness. He lived in Moscow , in the House on the embankment . The author of several memoirs. He was chairman of the military scientific society at the Central House of the Soviet Army .

He died on March 14, 1973 . He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery .

I respected him for his mind and energy, I greatly appreciated his iron perseverance in achieving his goals. Therefore, ... at the time, without hesitation, he recommended Kuzma Nikitovich to the post of commander of the 11th Guards Army ... And I was not mistaken: the army under the command of Galitsky strengthened its military glory.

- Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union Baghramyan I.Kh. So we went to victory. - M: Military Publishing House, 1977.- S. 514.

• Colonel (11.26.1935)
• brigade commander (02.20.1938)
• major general (06/04/1940)
• lieutenant general (01.30.1943)
• Colonel General (06.28.1944)
• army general (03/11/1955)

• Hero of the Soviet Union ( Golden Star medal No. 5036, 04/19/1945);
• 4 orders of Lenin (02.21.1945, 04.19.1945, 05.05.1945, ...);
• 4 Orders of the Red Banner (03/21/1940, 04/12/1942, 11/3/1944, ...);
• Order of Suvorov 1st degree (11/10/1943);
• Order of Kutuzov 1st degree (02/20/1943);
• Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree (07/04/1944);
• Order of the Red Star ;
• USSR medals
• Polish Order;
• medals of foreign states.

• In the battles for East Prussia. Notes of the commander of the 11th Guards Army. - M .: Nauka, 1970 .-- 500 p.
• Years of harsh testing. 1941-1944 (notes of the commander of the army) - M .: Nauka, 1973. - 600 p.
• Our victory was forged by the people / Storm of Koenigsberg. - Kaliningrad: Kaliningrad Book Publishing House, 1973. - S. 120-129. - 384 p. - 50,000 copies.

• The bust of K. N. Galitsky was installed in Kaliningrad.
• The names of K. N. Galitsky are streets in Taganrog , Molodechno , Gorodok ^[5] and Kaliningrad (where a memorial plaque is also installed on his street).

• List of Heroes of the Soviet Union of the Rostov region .

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1987.- T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN comp., Reg. RCP No. 87-95382.
• Arseniev B. Galitsky Kuzma Nikitovich // "Yakimanka". - 2007. - No. 2.
• The Great Patriotic War. The commanders. - M., Zhukovsky, 2005.
• Team of authors . World War II: Divisional Commanders. Military Biographical Dictionary / Ed. Coll .: N. B. Akberdin, I. I. Basik, S. A. Botzvin, n. I. Nikiforov, I. A. Permyakov, M. V. Smyslov . - M .: “Kuchkovo Field”. Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation , General Directorate of Personnel, State Institution for Work with Personnel, Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff. The Central Archive ., 2014 .-- T. III. Commanders of rifle, mountain rifle divisions, Crimean, polar, Petrozavodsk divisions, Rebolsky divisions, fighter divisions. - S. 565-567. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9950-0382-3 , UDC 94, BBK 63.3 (3) 722.78.
• Heroes of the fiery years. Prince 6. - M .: Moscow Worker, 1983.
• Gorbachev A.N. 10000 Country Generals: A Brief Biobibliographic Reference. 5th ed. - M., Infogans, 2017.
• Drigo S.V. Kaliningrad Prince Publishing House. 1984.
• Zvyagintsev V.E. Tribunal for Heroes. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2005.
• Ivanov B. On the heroes of bygone days ... // "Taganrog truth" . - 2007. - October 16.
• People of the Don land. - Rostov-n / D, 1983. - S.176-178.
• They glorified the Motherland. Prince 2. - Rostov-n / D, 1975. - P.318.
• Pavlov I.N. They glorified the Iron Division. A Brief Biographical Reference (1918-1998). - M., 1998.
• Petrikin A.I., Strokin V.N. Names in street names. - Kaliningrad: Kaliningrad book publishing house, 1988. - 176 p.
• Sverdlov F. D. The road of courage: [About K. N. Galitsky]. - M.: Moscow Worker, 1984. - 112 p. - (Bogatyrs. Ser. Book on the Heroes of the Soviet Union - Muscovites).
• Sverdlov F. Army General K. N. Galitsky // Military History Journal. - 1977. - No. 9.
• Soloviev D. Yu. All the generals of Stalin. Volume 3. - M., 2019 .-- ISBN: 9785532106444. - S.39-41.
• Encyclopedia of Taganrog. - Rostov-on-Don: Rostizdat, 2003 .-- 512 p. - ISBN 5-7509-0662-0 .
• North Stalingrad. Great Luke in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. (collection of authors) / Compiled by V. N. Pavlov. - Great Luke, 2008 .-- 568 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-350-00153-2
• Cherushev N. S. From the Gulag - into battle. - M .: Veche , 2006 .-- S. 290-315. - 512 s. - (Military secrets of the XX century). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-9533-1588-0 .

• Galitsky, Kuzma Nikitovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• K. N. Galitsky on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
• Biography of K. N. Galitsky on the Baltiysk-Pillau website .
• Heroes of the Soviet Union are natives of the Don .
• Taganrog (Collection) .
• Galitsky Kuzma Nikitovich on the site "Historical Taganrog" .