Nikolai Vatutin

Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin (Николай Фёдорович Ватутин; 16 December 1901 – 15 April 1944) was a Soviet military commander during World War II who was responsible for many Red Army operations in the Ukrainian SSR as the commander of the Southwestern Front, and of the Voronezh Front during the Battle of Kursk.

During the Soviet offensive to retake right-bank Ukraine, Vatutin led the 1st Ukrainian Front, which was responsible for the Red Army's offensives to the west and the southwest of Kiev and the eventual liberation of the city.

Commissioned in 1920 to the Red Army, he fought against the peasant partisans of the anarchist Nestor Makhno.

The following year, he became a member of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and served diligently in junior command positions.

From 1926, he spent the next decade alternating service with studies in the elite Frunze Military Academy and the General Staff Academy.

One striking exception to that pattern of deficiency was the brilliance of Ivan Chernyakhovsky, an obscure young colonel in command of the 28th Tank Division.

Both men had much in common, most prominently their penchant for unorthodox approaches to military art, and soon became close friends.

The 1937–1938 purge of Red Army commanders opened the road to his promotion.

In 1938, he received the rank of Komdiv, and he was appointed Chief of Staff of the important Kiev Special Military District.

Throughout that period, Vatutin combined military service with intensive party activities.

In 1939, Vatutin planned operations for the Soviet invasion of Poland in conjunction with the German invasion.

He served as Chief of Staff of the Red Army Southern Group.

In 1940, under the command of Georgy Zhukov, that group seized Bessarabia from Romania.

As a reward for the non-combat campaigns, Joseph Stalin promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general and appointed him to the critical post of Chief of the Operational Directorate of the General Staff.

Vatutin was, however, not up to his new appointment.

While innovative and hard-working, he lacked any combat experience, and his knowledge of operational art and strategy was too abstract.

Still, his peasant roots, relative youthful age and party zeal made him one of Stalin's few favorites in the Soviet military.

Vatutin, together with the rest of the Red Army high command, failed to prepare the army for the German attack of 22 June 1941.

On 30 June 1941, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the North-Western Front, which enabled him to exercise his better qualities.

In that role, Vatutin did not try to claim success for himself in battles, but he made a point of identifying and promoting talented subordinates.

He was notable for his audacity.

Most of the Soviet generals, shattered by defeats, were then reluctant to carry out offensive operations, but Vatutin thrived on attack.

The Northwestern Front was defending Leningrad from the approaches by the German Army Group North, spearheaded by the armored corps led by Erich von Manstein.

Vatutin took command of the Soviet forces near Novgorod, rallied them for offense, and attempted to encircle a large German force.

He surprised Manstein, put him on the defensive, and forced the entire German Army Group North to regroup its troops to halt the Soviet offensive.

The Wehrmacht lost the precious summer season needed for an effective attack on Leningrad, and the Red Army got additional time to strengthen the fortifications of the city.

The Germans thus failed in their best shot to capture Leningrad, one of the key German strategic failures during the early phase of war.

Vatutin's immediate operational results were far less impressive.

He overestimated the capacities of his troops and created overly ambitious objectives, and his coordination of his forces and control over the unfolding of the battle were poor.

Additionally, he did not take into account the difficult terrain, which benefited the German defenses and slowed his attack.

Vatutin's casualty figures were staggering and in one army reached nearly 60%.

The ineptitude of his subordinate commanders exacerbated Vatutin's own shortcomings.

In January 1942, during the Soviet winter offensive after the Red Army victory at the Battle of Moscow, Vatutin's forces trapped two German corps in Demyansk and achieved the first large Soviet encirclement of German forces.

The German and the Soviet Armies were equal in size.

During the battle, Vatutin employed innovative tactics and actions, but the Germans responded more conventionally.

The Red Army was unable to destroy the German defenses, mainly because of the weakness of the Soviet Air Force.

In April 1942, Vatutin finally breached the German lines just as a German relief force arrived.

However, post-war American experts have evaluated the result of that operation as a draw.

He was ambushed and mortally wounded in February 1944 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Vatutin was born in Chepukhino village in the Valuysky Uyezd, Voronezh Governorate (named Vatutino, Belgorod Oblast after him in 1968), into a peasant family of Russian ethnicity.