Ivan Stepanovich Konev (Soviet Marshal) commanded post-World War II Soviet ground forces, served as a member of the Communist Party Central Committee, and enforced the military arm of the Warsaw Pact. During World War II he was instrumental in repelling Germany’s invasion of Russia and preventing a German occupation, and he led the first Allied troops into Berlin, crushing the final Nazi resistance in the world’s most destructive war.
Born on December 16, 1897, to peasant parents in Lodcino, near Archangel, in far northern Russia, Konev joined the czarist army at age fifteen. In 1916 he served on the southwestern front as an artillery sergeant and, after the Revolution, joined the Bolshevik Party and the Red Army in 1918. Konev earned a commission and during the next two decades advanced through the ranks, commanding a regiment in 1926-30, a division in 1934-37, and a corps in 1937-38 and surviving the purges of Joseph Stalin, which executed or exiled much of the army’s leadership.
Early in World War II, Konev led an army group which suffered setbacks against the Germans at Smolensk and outside Moscow. Gen. Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov [70] replaced him, creating a rivalry that would continue for the rest of their careers. Although he remained subordinate to Zhukov, Konev took command of the Kalinin Army Group and launched the Soviet counteroffensive from Moscow on December 5, 1941. During a year of bitter battles, with massive casualties on both sides, Konev succeeded in pushing the Germans back one hundred miles.
In late 1943, Konev assumed command of the Second Ukrainian Front, a position and unit technically subordinate to Zhukov’s First Ukrainian Front. Stalin deliberately allowed the intense rivalry between Konev and Zhukov to motivate them, placing neither in charge of the ultimate goal: capturing Berlin. Konev and Zhukov surrounded two German army corps at Korsun in early 1944 and killed or captured more than one hundred thousand enemy soldiers. They then swung westward along a 350-mile front and, while driving the Germans from Soviet territory, killed more than 380,000 and captured 158,000 of Hider’s Finest troops. On February 20, 1944, Stalin promoted Konev to marshal of the Soviet Union.
In the fall of 1944, Konev and the Soviet advance slowed to allow their overextended supply lines to catch up before renewing their attack on January 12, 1945. Konev reached the Oder-Neisse Line on February 15, halted again for resupply, and then moved toward Berlin on April 16. Nine days later, Konev’s lead units linked up at the Elbe River, with Americans attacking from the east. Soon afterward, Konev’s troops were the first Allied soldiers to enter Berlin. On May 2, Konev and Zhukov accepted the surrender of the city.
Shortly after the war, Zhukov fell out of favor with Stalin, and in 1946, Konev replaced his rival as commander in chief of Soviet land forces. In 1955, Konev became the Soviet deputy minister of defense and served as one of the architects of the military alliance of Eastern Communist-bloc countries. When the Warsaw Pact was formalized, the organization named Konev its supreme military commander.
Konev retained his rank and powers after Stalin’s death and continued to advise the army’s inspector general after his semi- retirement in 1960. Except for a brief recall to full active duty during the 1961 Berlin crisis, he remained in that position until his death on May 21, 1973, at age seventy-five. With great honors from the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact nations, and Communist countries around the world, Konev was buried in the walls of the Kremlin.
Konev earned a reputation on the battlefield as an extremely competent commander. Before, during, and after World War II, he proved to be adept in getting along with Stalin and maintaining a reputation as a loyal, dedicated Communist. His personal valor and meritorious service earned him two awards of Hero of the Soviet Union, five awards of the Order of Lenin, and the Order of Victory with Diamonds—the latter an award presented to only eleven Soviet officers.
From his humble peasant beginnings, Konev advanced to the zenith of the Soviet military ranks. He had a unique understanding of massive, total warfare using armor and air support and willingly sacrificed the men and resources required to achieve victory. Without the efforts of Konev and the other Soviet leaders on the Eastern Front, it is extremely doubtful that the Allied efforts on the Western Front would have been as successful.
Although his career-long rival Zhukov outranked him during World War II and later displayed an equal talent for surviving in the postwar years, Konev ultimately proved the most influential. His organization and leadership of the Warsaw Pact military forces provided the principle opposition to the United States and NATO for more than a quarter century.
While Konev’s role in stopping the Nazi threat and his later impact on the Warsaw Pact were significant, the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union diminishes his influential ranking. The Communist party that Konev joined as a young man has lost much of its power, and the Soviet way of life he defended has collapsed and no longer exists.