Varentsov, Sergey Sergeevich

He studied at the Dmitrov city ​​elementary school, then at accounting courses. In the Red Army since March 1919 . He fought as a Red Army soldier on the Southern Front , then served in the Dmitrov garrison . In March 1921 he participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising .

In 1921 he graduated from the Detskoselskoe command courses of heavy artillery, in 1926 he externally passed the exam for the full course of the First Artillery School, in 1931 he graduated from the Advanced Training Courses for Artillery Command. Since 1921, he served in artillery , commanded a platoon , was an assistant to the battery commander , and chief of communications for the special-purpose heavy artillery division of the Higher Artillery School of Special Forces in the city of Luga . Since 1927 - commander of the battery, then head of the regimental school of the 25th artillery regiment of the 25th rifle division of the Ukrainian military district .

Since 1934 - assistant commander of the artillery regiment of the 41st Rifle Division of the Kharkov Military District , since 1937 - the commander of this regiment, and since March 1939 - the head of artillery of this division. In 1940, in the 41st Infantry Division, People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko conducted an inspection review , not a high, but a positive assessment of her combat training was received. Divisional artillery , which operated in combat training exercises with very clear and successful marks, received a higher rating. For excellent preparation of the artillery of the compound, the chief of artillery of the division S. S. Varentsov was awarded a golden watch ^[1] . Since November 1940 - Deputy Chief of Artillery of the 6th Army in the Kiev Special Military District . Since March 1941 - chief of artillery of the 6th Rifle Corps in the same district.

In this position, Colonel Varentsov entered the Great Patriotic War as part of the troops of the South-Western Front . Participated in defensive battles in Ukraine . In the Kiev catastrophe he managed to save a significant part of the artillery of the corps and with battles to withdraw it from the encirclement, while adding several thousand Red Army soldiers from the broken parts to their units. For this he was awarded his first order, promoted to major general of artillery (11/09/1941) and in office - in November 1941 he was appointed chief of artillery of the 40th Army of the Southwestern Front . He participated in the offensive of the Yelets operation and the Barvenkovo-Lozovo operation , in the defensive of the Kharkov operation and the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation . Since September 1942 - chief of artillery of the 60th army of the Voronezh Front . On February 4, 1943 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of artillery, and already on October 20, 1943 - colonel general of artillery.

From October 1942 until the end of the war he was the permanent artillery commander of the Voronezh Front (after renaming the front in October 1943 - the 1st Ukrainian Front ). He proved to be an excellent artillery chief. He organized and carried out artillery support for the combat operations of the front forces in the Ostrogozh-Rossoshanskoy operation , in the Kharkov offensive and in the Kharkov defensive operations in the winter-spring campaign of 1943, in the Battle of Kursk , in the battle for the Dnieper , in Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya , Rivne-Lutsk , Proskurovsko - Chernivtsi , Lviv-Sandomierz , Vistula-Oder , Berlin , Prague offensive operations.

Since July 1945 he was commander of artillery of the Central Group of Forces of the 1st formation, deployed in Austria and Hungary . Since January 1947 - commander of the artillery of the Carpathian Military District . In 1951 he graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff . Since October 1951 - commander of artillery of the Transcaucasian Military District . From January 1952 he was the head of the Main Artillery Directorate , and simultaneously from January 1952 to May 1953 he was deputy commander of artillery of the Soviet Army .

From March 1955 - the commander of artillery, and from January 1961 - the commander of the missile forces and artillery of the Ground Forces . Marshal of Artillery (03/11/1955). Chief Marshal of Artillery (05/06/1961). At the XXII Congress of the CPSU (1961) he was elected a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th convocation (1958-1962).

At the end of 1962, Colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate O. V. Penkovsky , who was adjutant of S. S. Varentsov, was arrested for spying for the United States and Great Britain. After the war, they lost sight of each other for several years, having met in the mid-50s. At the request of Penkovsky, Varentsov helped him with employment by securing the appointment of the head of the course at the F.E.Dzerzhinsky Military Academy . At that time, Penkovsky was not yet recruited by foreign intelligence. When Penkovsky returned to service with the GRU, he began to visit the marshal’s house from time to time, however, during the investigation of his case it was not established that Penkovsky obtained any information from Varentsov or using his acquaintance with Varentsov.

During the investigation of the Penkovsky case and in the trial of him, Varentsov passed only as a witness, no charges were brought against him. However, he was subjected to extremely difficult disciplinary measures: by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 12, 1963, S. S. Varentsov was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin ; By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 13, 1963, he was demoted in four ranks to the rank of major general of artillery ; By a resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU of June 21, 1963, he removed Varentsov from the list of candidates for membership in the Central Committee of the CPSU. The reasons for all these penalties were indicated standard: "for the loss of political vigilance and unworthy actions." Moreover, the fact that Varentsov assisted Penkovsky even before he was recruited by foreign intelligence, when Penkovsky was not tarnished in front of his homeland by a front-line soldier and cavalier of several orders, was not taken into account at all, and what the “unworthy actions” consisted of was not specified at all. Then, in 1963, he was dismissed. Regarding the deprivation of other state awards - different sources provide different information, the text of the relevant resolution was not published.

“Another important source of classified data was Penkovsky’s relative, S. Varentsov, marshal of the missile forces and artillery of the country. During an informal conversation in the family circle, Penkovsky received from him invaluable data for Western intelligence agencies about the real state and technical characteristics of the latest Soviet nuclear missile weapons, the effectiveness and combat efficiency of which at that time was actually not as impressive as official propaganda tried to imagine ” ^{[ 2]} .

According to some reports, such an unusually harsh punishment was caused by disagreements between Varentsov and N. S. Khrushchev and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I. Chuikov .

He lived and died in Moscow , was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery . Numerous attempts by relatives and colleagues of Varentsov to achieve his rehabilitation in the Soviet period were rejected immediately. He was also not rehabilitated in the post-Soviet period, since he was not subjected to judicial or criminal prosecution, and all reprisals against the marshal were carried out in an administrative and disciplinary manner. Even justice was not restored in terms of returning to Varentsov the title of Hero of the Soviet Union , despite the fact that the deprivation of this title could be made only on the basis of a court decision, and no decisions or rulings were issued in respect of Varentsov.

• Hero of the Soviet Union (05/29/1945)
• Four Orders of Lenin (11/11/1941, 02/21/1945, 05/29/1945, 09/14/1961), one of the orders deprived of March 12, 1963
• Three Orders of the Red Banner (08/27/1943, 11/03/1944, 06/20/1949)
• Order of Suvorov 1st degree (01/10/1944)
• Two orders of Kutuzov 1st degree (11/08/1943, 08/25/1944)
• Order of the Red Star (02/14/1943)
• Medals of the USSR
• Order of the White Lion “For Victory” ( Czechoslovakia )
• "Military Cross of 1939" ( Czechoslovakia )
• Order of Military Valor ( Poland )
• Order of the Grunwald Cross ( Poland )
• Medals of foreign countries
• The Golden Watch (1940) ^{[1] [3]}

• Ripenko Yu. Marshal Varentsov. The path to the heights of glory and long oblivion. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf , 2011. - ISBN 978-5-227-02894-5
• Prytkov Yu. A. "And overthrown by an imperious hand." // Military History Journal, 1992, No. 4-5, 6-7, 8.

Varentsov, Sergey Sergeevich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".

• The case of Marshal Varentsov - an article from the newspaper Trud on the FLB.RU website
• Eremin N. The first days of fighting in the Rava-Russian direction (Memoirs of the former chief of staff of the 41st Infantry Division) // Military History Journal , No. 4, 1959. - P. 61-75.