Grechko, Andrei
Grechko, Andrei Antonovich
Born Oct. 4 (17), 1903, in the village of Golodaevka, present-day Kuibyshevo, in Matveev Kurgan Raion, Rostov Oblast. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1955). Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 1, 1958). Became a member of the CPSU in 1928. Son of a peasant.
Grechko joined the Soviet Army in 1919 and took part in the Civil War in the First Horse Cavalry Army. He graduated from cavalry school (1926). the Frunze Military Academy (1936), and the Military Academy of the General Staff (1941). During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), he led the 34th Cavalry Division and in January 1942 took command of the V Cavalry Corps on the Southern Front. From April to August 1942 he commanded the Twelfth Army, which was waging defensive battles in the Donbas and the Northern Caucasus. From September to December 1942 he commanded the Forty-seventh and Eighteenth armies on the Novorossiisk and Tuapse lines. From January to October 1943 he commanded the Fifty-sixth Army, which took part in liberating the Northern Caucasus. In October 1943 he became deputy commander of the First Ukrainian Front. From December 1943 to the end of the war he commanded the First Guards Army, which took part in liberating the Ukraine. Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
From 1945 to 1953, Grechko was commander of the troops in the Kiev Military District. From 1953 to 1957 he was chief commander of the Soviet Troop Group in Germany. In November 1957 he became first deputy minister of defense of the USSR and commander in chief of ground forces. In April 1960 he became first deputy minister of defense of the USSR, and from July 1960 to July 1967 he was simultaneously commander in chief of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact countries. In April 1967 he became minister of defense of the USSR. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1952 to 1961 and has been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1961. He has been a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU since April 1973. He was a deputy to the second through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He has been awarded five Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov First Class, two Orders of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, and many foreign orders, as well as medals.
WORKS
Bitva za Kavkaz, 2nd edition. Moscow, 1969.Cherez Karpaty. Moscow, 1970.