Rybalko, Pavel.

Rybalko, Pavel, born on 23-10-1892 894 in the family of a factory worker in Malyy Istorop of Lebedinsky district, Sumy region. A Ukrainian. A member of the CPSU Communist Party since 1919. When he was 13 he began working at a sugar factory, then he was a turner’s student and attended Sunday school. Called to the army in 1914, he went through the first world war as a common soldier. After the October Revolution he joined the Red Guard. He was assistant commander of the guerrilla group during the occupation of the Ukraine by the German Army in 1918. In 1919 he joined the RCP. He participated in the civil war as a commissar of the regiment and brigade in the 1^st Cavalry Army fighting on the Southern Front, and in the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. He took advanced courses for command personnel in 1926 and 1930, graduated from the Military Academy named after M. Frunze in 1934. He commanded a squadron, regiment, brigade, was assistant commander of mountain cavalry division. In 1937 – 1940 served as a military attaché in Poland and China, and then started to teach. During the Great Patriotic War after repeated reports with a request to be sent to the front, from July 1942 he commanded the 5^th, 3^rd from October 1942 and the 3^rd Guards from May 1943, tank armies and participated in many military operations, including offensive ones at Kiev, Zhitomir, Proskurov, Lvov, Berlin, Dresden and Prague. Very surprising, and to his extreme frustration, Rybalko spent the first year of the war as a lecturer in Kazan. He finally got an operational assignment in May 1942 as deputy commander of the 3^rd Tank Army of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.  All through the war, Rybalko’s name was closely associated with the 3^rd Tank Army. In the winter of 1942–1943, included in the Voronesh Front, his Tank Army spearheaded the different operations that tried to exploit and transform the Germans’ defeat in Stalingrad in a large-scale strategic victory in the southern theater of operations. This included Operation Star in February, aimed at the liberation of Kharkov – one of the first major Soviet cities to be reconquered by the Red Army. But Erich von Manstein’s counter attack offensive recaptured the city and inflicted serious damages to an exhausted and over-extended 3^rd Tank Army. Great parts of his army was destroyed by the forces of Generalmajor der Panzertruppen and commander of the 7^th Panzer Division, Adalbert Schulz. Adalbert Schulz who had succeeded Generalmajor Hasso von Manteuffel was succeeded by Oberst Wolfgang Gläsemer , as commander of the 7^th Panzer Division. Gräsemer died old age 100 on 10-04-1999 in Bad Tölz. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on 17-11-1943 for successful crossing of the Dnieper, his leadership at the Battle of Kursk and Kiev offensive operation, Lieutenant-General of armoured forces Pavel Rybalko was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on April 06-04-1945 for distinguished service in the final stages of the war in Berlin and Prague operations, and for his personal heroism, Generaloberst of armoured forces Pavel Rybalko was awarded the second Gold Star medal. On June 01-06-1945 Pavel Rybalko was promoted to the highest military rank of Marshal of Armoured Troops. In 1946 he was elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the second convocation. After the war he commanded the army, and in 1947 was commander of the armoured and mechanized forces of the Soviet Army

Death and burial ground of Rybalko, Pavel.

 He died on 19-02-1948 after a long and painful illness. He was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Close by the graves of Nikita Khrushchev   , Ukrainian writer and war-inciter, he came with the shout ”Kill the Germans”, Ilya Ehrenburg, General Ivan Chernakhosky, Russian General, Defender of Moscow, Lev Dovator, Commanding General of the 1^st Belorussian’s 3^rd Shock Army, Vasily Kuznetsov, Air Marshal, Ivan Mykytovych Kozhedub, and the Russian Foreigh Minister 1942 who signed the agreement with the Germans in 1939, Viacheslav Molotov.

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