Kirill Meretskov

Meretskov was appointed Commander of the 4th Army which fought in the defense of Leningrad against the Army Group North of von Leeb. After stopping the German Tikhvin offensive, his forces, together with the neighboring 52nd and 54th Armies, counterattacked and pushed the German forces back to their starting positions, recapturing Tikhvin on December 10, 1941. This victory was the first Soviet large scale success during the war. The battle also assisted the Battle of Moscow, as significant German forces were tied down in heavy attrition fighting in the marshes and forests between Tikhvin and Tosno and were not able to assist during the Soviet counteroffensive. Notably, the battle locked down two German panzer divisions and two motorized divisions and inflicted serious casualties to the army group overall.[13]

During the counteroffensive of the battle, Stavka ordered Kirill Meretskov to organize a new Volkhov Front, which he commanded until February 1944 (with the exception of May and June 1942).[1]

In January 1942, Meretskov started a new offensive near Lyuban, aimed at lifting the siege of Leningrad and encircling a large number of German forces. The advance was very slow, however, as the German forces were well dug in, reinforced and no longer overextended. By March the two Soviet armies trying to close the encirclement were less than 25 kilometres (16 mi) apart, but could advance no more.[14] On March 15, German forces began a counteroffensive and cut off the Soviet 2nd Shock Army. Soviet forces managed to restore communications by March 30 after heavy fighting. However, when Meretskov reported this to the Stavka, he omitted that the corridor that was linking the 2nd Shock Army to the rest of the Soviet forces was no more than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) wide, under constant German air strikes and artillery bombardment, and therefore, had a very poor transport capacity. As a result, the Stavka did not extract the 2nd Shock Army, when it was still possible.[15] During late April and all of May, the Volkhov front was temporarily subordinated to lieutenant general Khosin's Leningrad Front, and Meretskov was sent as deputy high commander to the Western Front.[16]

By May 1942, the 2nd Shock Army was experiencing supply shortages and low morale. On May 30, the German forces began a second offensive and again cut it off. After part of the encircled force broke out on June 5, the rest of the army was systematically destroyed, with 33,000 men becoming prisoners, about the same number killed, and about 10,000 men who broke out.[17]

Immediately after the battle, Meretskov placed the blame on the captured 2nd Shock Army commander, Andrey Vlasov, whom he himself recommended to the post in April, a claim that was echoed in his post-war memoirs. Since Vlasov went on to collaborate with the German forces, there were few attempts to revisit this claim during the Soviet era. However, David Glantz points out that, irrespective of Vlasov's decision to collaborate with German forces, his level of command in May and June 1942 was not different from most other army commanders.[18] Furthermore, Meretskov does bear some responsibility for the defeat as the commander of the front who planned the operation and carried it out. Khosin, the commander of the Leningrad Front, was removed from command on June 8, reduced in rank and never commanded a front again, humiliatingly assigned from March 1944 to the rear line Volga Military District.[19] Meretskov, who was arrested less than a year earlier, knew that his life may be at risk if he accepted responsibility for the disaster.[20]

After the defeat at Lyuban, Meretskov remained in command of the Volkhov Front. Together with the new Leningrad Front's commander, Leonid Govorov, Meretskov planned a new offensive to break the siege of the city. Volkhov and Leningrad fronts would break the blockade of the city by eliminating the German positions south of Lake Ladoga, where only 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) separated the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts. This position was called "the bottleneck". At the same time, German forces were planning Operation Northern Light (German: Nordlicht) to capture the city and link up with Finnish forces. To achieve that, heavy reinforcements arrived from Sevastopol, which the German forces had captured in July 1942.[21] Both sides were unaware of the other's preparations. As a result, the Soviet Sinyavino Offensive failed and the 2nd Shock army was decimated for the second time in a year, but the German forces suffered heavy casualties and canceled Operation Northern Light.[22] Meretskov wanted to conduct further local attacks, but this request was categorically denied by the Stavka, in addition to a formal critique he received on October 15, 1942, for his conduct of the operation.[23]

Operation Iskra, January 1943

In late November 1942, Govorov commenced planning the next operation to break the blockade of Leningrad. Meretskov soon joined the planning. In December, the plan was approved by the Stavka and received the codename Operation Iskra (Spark).[24] Operation Iskra began on January 13, 1943, and on January 18, Soviet forces linked up, breaking the blockade. By January 22, the front line stabilized. The operation successfully opened a land corridor 8–10 km wide to the city. A railroad was swiftly built through the corridor that allowed far more supplies to reach the city than the "Road of Life", eliminating the possibility of the capture of the city and a German-Finnish link up.[25] On January 28, both Meretskov and Govorov were awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st Class.[1]

Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts tried to follow up their success with a much more ambitious offensive operation named Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda (Polar Star). This operation had the aim of decisively defeating Army Group North, but achieved very modest gains.[26] Several other offensives were conducted by Meretskov in the area in 1943, slowly expanding the corridor, and making other small gains.[27] In November 1943, Meretskov and Govorov began planning the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive which would drive Army Group North out of the Leningrad region.[28]

On January 14, 1944, the Soviet offensive started. By March 1, the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic Fronts had driven Army Group North back up to 300 kilometres (190 mi) on a 400 kilometres (250 mi) front, liberating the southern Leningrad region and part of the Kalinin region.[29] Meretskov and Govorov were once again awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st Class together.[1]

In February 1944, Meretskov was transferred to the Karelian Front. Here, he participated in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive that started in June 1944. His front liberated the city of Petrozavodsk and East Karelia.[30] In October, Meretskov was ordered to clear the city of Petsamo, in northern Finland, of Germans and to drive the German army back into Norway. Meretskov was able to use his knowledge of Arctic warfare to launch a co-ordinated offensive called the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive that drove the Germans back from their positions. After this offensive Meretskov was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, on October 26, 1944.[1]

Meretskov (left) with Marshals Rodion Malinovsky (center) and Aleksandr Vasilevsky, at an airfield in Dalian, China

Meretskov's next major command was in Manchuria in 1945, in the Far East, where he was selected to lead the 1st Far East Front during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, under the overall command of Aleksandr Vasilevsky. According to the plan, the main force of the 1st Far East Front Army of set out from Primorsky Krai, broke through the Japanese defense line set up in the East Manchuria, and carried out assaults against the Kwantung Army in Jilin, in order to compete with Marshal Rodion Malinovsky's Transbaikal Front. The Transbaikal Front Army cooperated and advanced towards Changchun.

Meretskov's Far East First Front Army and Maksim Purkayev’s 2nd Far East Front jointly enclosed the Kwantung Army at Harbin in an area with a circumference of 1,500 kilometers. Before the attack on August 9th, there was a heavy rain. Meretskov decisively ordered the attack without artillery fire as planned. The sudden attack worked and the Soviet army successfully seized the forward position. Within a week, the 1st Far East Front Army broke through. The Kwantung Army's 1st Front Army permanently prepared fortifications and penetrated 120 km-150 km. The Japanese headquarters completely lost command of the team and did not organize strong resistance until August 15th. After August 15th, the Japanese tried to organize heavy resistance in Mudanjiang, but they still could not stop the advancement of Meretskov's 1st Far East Front Army. On the 18th, the commander of the Kwantung Army Otozō Yamada did not reply to Meretskov's telegram requesting him to surrender. Meretskov ordered the airborne troops to be dropped at Harbin and other airports. The Kwantung Army surrendered on August 19th.

In addition to military work, Meretskov also did political work. At the end of August, he went to the Chinese brigade inspection training led by Zhou Baozhong and asked his subordinates to provide the report of the North Korean battalion commander by future leader of North Korea Kim Il-sung. In September, Meretskov inspected the liberated cities of Changchun, Shenyang and Dalian, and assisted the Chinese Communist Party in restoring the party organization in the Northeast China and the establishment of the Northern Manchurian Committee of CCP. Meretskov was awarded the Order of Victory.[1] As commander of Soviet forces in Korea, he launched the career of Kim Il-Sung.