This is the reason they did not go into Warsaw until the SS stamped out the revolt by the Free Polish forces. he wanted them destroyed and not a threat to Communism !
In his mind, not giving into confessing to be a traitor, WAS being loyal to the Soviet Union. He was only proving his loyalty. There never was a question whether or not he would "stay" loyal to the Soviet Union. He probably thought those that locked him up WERE the traitors, not him. If he was to sign a confession, he would've become a traitor. He was, for some reason, unshakeably loyal to the Soviet Union.
Because he was a political revolutionary who fought for the red army during the civil war. He was a Marxist Leninist and a party man, and he helped build the USSR as it was that day.
After Rokossovsky was released from NKVD custody in 1940, he wore a revolver every moment of the rest of his life: he did not intend to be taken alive if they came for him again.
@@plrc4593 Rokossovsky was a soviet citizen and my feeling doesn't matter, the value of a man is dictated by his accomplishments and character, both of which Rokossovsky excel upon.
He also masterminded operation bagration. Probably the greatest military victory ever. After the war he allegedly built himself a huge house and had a warming party. Stalin seeing this grand house was unimpressed and said to him ' I like the new orphanage you've built' the next day he donated it to a charity.
It basically ended the german army, but if you look at the forces involved it's hard to call it the greatest military victory ever. Moscow and stalingrad were more unlikely victories for the red army
@@Ukraineaissance2014 yea you have a point but the point I'm making is 2 out of the 3 German armies were destroyed or rendered useless. Centre was destroyed and north was encircled it also freed eastern Europe for the Soviets to take and ensured the Germans had no chance of holding them off with almost 1 million germans killed, captured, wounded or missing as well as trapped north.
Zhukov didn't hate Rokossovsky. That's just wrong! Zhukov reccomended Rokossovky's appointment to key commands during the war. The competed to come first but they weren't rivals!
Since the Soviet Red Army was adamant when they stormed the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945, I always read that it was Rokossovsky's forces that had raised the Soviet Communist flag over the Reichstag building instead of the other Russian commander Georgi Zhukov because I know they were both in Berlin in May 1945 when Russian victory was declared. I always heard that the two men hated each other, but I am most likely wrong on all of the details of this statement that I just made in the comments section.
@@cheeto8960 Not to forget, if there was a *rivalry* ... it was between Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Konev. Knowing it was Ivan Konev who was the first official head commander of the Western Front in Autumn 1941, but following the Nazi capture of Smolensk, he was almost executed before Zhukov stepped in and prevented it, for Stalin had appointed him to replace Konev.
@@michaelverbakel7632 You're mistaken it with Konev. He was commanding the 1st Ukrainian Front, which began the assault near Cottbus, went all the way to Potsdam and liberated the South-Western parts of Berlin. All the while Rokossovsky's forces of the 2nd Belarussian Front were heading towards Hamburg and were nowhere near Berlin.
@@victorsamsung2921 yup, konev was a careerist, he didn't mind bring his colleagues down to rise to the top, I think he eventually did bring zhukov out of power under nikita khrushchev
@@StarsBandswithRockstar he died in 1986 because of heart failure but my mom told me his stories and he recalled that he was a good general and cared for his soliders
When US intelligence questioned Saddam's generals after the Gulf war, everyone of them said the same thing: they would never tell him the truth, but only what he wanted to hear. Otherwise, he would have you shot immediately.
"oh, you're thinking for yourself are you General?" *Sound of pistol being cocked* Seems about right as you say, they want strong men if they don't think for themselves.
Uhh no anybody who is an asshole dont want strong men as rivals this also applies to democracy even more so than in monarchies and totalitarian states. Also by default in monarchies nobody has a right to challenge the monarch for his position as ruler sure you can critique that monarch buta thats it.
@@tatianalyulkin410 Politics and history is rarely sendimental to the individual; I don't agree with many of Russia/Soviet Communist history. But I respect this man, Konstantin Konstanovich, for his military acumen and for remaining true to his choice in life to fight for a motherland of his choosing. He remain faithful, loyal and dignified. Я чувствую плохо за ваша врат и семья. А я думаю Маршал К.К Рокоссовский еше один великий воеенченик и герой второй мировой военной.
@@Lukeclout Rokossowski fought for Poland first, simply because Poland was closer to Germany and under german occupation since 1939. He considered himself a Pole and was raised by both parents as Polish patriot, on this motivation he volunteered to Russian Army, along with cousin and friends, in August 1914. His wife was Russian, but he spoke excellent Polish all his life but Russian with Polish accent. Calling him communist does not make much sense, he was never an ideologue, his connection to communism was incidental. His exclamation has been misinterpreted and manipulated..
@@Lechoslaw8546 Soviets were enemy of Poland. He made a career in Soviet Army which invaded Poland. This disqualifies him as a Polish patriot even though he didn’t participate in fighting Poles.
@@CrazyLeiFeng Soviets were enemies of Poland, enemies of Russia as well, don't forget. But in 1918 things were not so clear yet and later it was too late for him to flee to homeland, Bolshevik Russia gradually became a locked concentration camp. Political situation in Poland was not clear too, at least until June 1919 Poland was ruled by foreign invaders. So do not blame him, thousands other patriots followed same path. He did not commit any sin against his homeland. Plus it is easy to spell judgments 105 years afterward sitting in an armchair while he paid with his blood for his "mistake", a mistake that turned salutary for Poland. BTW, are you Chinese or Asian?
There is another one. There is a man in Ukraine who in 2014 was brutally tortured by the Gestapo/SBU but became one of the most influential Loyalist leaders after 2022.
Not mentioned: he had a full set of metal teeth because the NKVD broke all his teeth during his torture. And he was apparently partially the model for the character "Boxer" in Orwell's Animal Farm. "Comrade Napoleon is always right", and, "I will work harder."
@@cyberman5469 I'm an Alaskan native, and I can tell you truthfully that there've been older Kodiak bears that, when they finally fell to a hunter had 25 bullets from over the years in them. This general made them look like wimps
Nonsense. Vlasov was more prepared to move and become the second in command to Rokossovsky. And there is no way the State Department would have given him up. Who knows- we could have had a Senator Rokossovsky or an Admiral Rokossovsky. Oh, well- instead we have Bandera.
@@redengineer4380 true, it’s amazing how a harmful ideology can abuse their most ardent believers and the abused act like a battered spouse and never leave.
@@vthompson1987 In his defense where else would he have fled? He was a high ranked military official in a police state, and he’d never lived outside of Russia. People live entire lives and die in dangerous nations every day.
He's an interesting character. He grew up in Poland, had a Polish father, a Russian mother and spoke both Polish and Russian fluently. To me it's a mystery of why he chose one identity over the other- although perhaps being a communist he didn't see it as a choice of nationality and instead saw himself as an example of the New Soviet Man
He was a brilliant officer but a primitive politician. Soviets gave him a career. We Poles considered him a traitor and after a couple of years of holding high offices in Stalin-occupied Poland he returned to USSR.
I recall reading somewhere that when Von Paulus surrender he gave Rokossovsky his personal pistol which Rokossovsky kept at his side and even slept with it under his pillow. When asked about why he did this he said something along the lines of they arrested me once, they won’t arrest me a second time.
he was not just released without reason, but it was one of Stalin's loyalist generals, namely *Semyon Timoshenko* who asked Stalin to release Rokossovsky from detention because Timoshenko was Rokossovsky's senior in military cadets. And Timoshenko saw that Rokossovsky had a careful talent in leading the battle ( Luckily Timoshenko was right in seeing his talent) and Timoshenko was a trio of Generals who were loyal to Stalin along with 2 other idiots namely Budyonny and Voroshilov.
Budyonny wasn’t an idiot. He proved to be a great cavalry general during the civil war. But his strategy was just too old in 1940s. Voroshilov on the other hand is certainly a complete imbecile.
I wouldn't call Budyonny or Voroshilov idiots. Budyonny was a very good civil war commander that was stuck in the past. There is a reason he was nicknamed "The Cavalry General". Voroshilov was more of an ideologue than a general, but due to the fact the Red Army had severe officer shortages and Stalin needed loyal men inside the army he became one himself. The bigger issue weren't the Soviet generals, but the junior officers who were underprepared due to the wars start.
@@utkarshtrivedi8870 Correct. He was a tactical genius and he was much more caring of his officers and men than many others. Without his attack right into Stalingrad on the launch of Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the 6th Army might not have been possible. He actually shaped the battlefield and allowed the pincers to move south-west and west and reach Kalach, thus closing the cauldron.
Not underrated at all - if there were real military geniuses during WWII they were von Manstein and Rokossovsky - rated about equal. Both of them were excellent as planists as well as as field commanders. While working on a high operational level, they both had full understanding of strategic effects of their plans. Such characteristics are not particularly usual among staff officers. Both Fall Gelb and Operation Bagration were the ultimate military masterpieces from the point of view of planning and execution.
@@boguslawgajdeczko6207 Vasilevski never seems to get any credit in the history books but he was the Soviet general that planned and implemented the greatest military victory of the Soviet army in 1945, the battle of Manchuria. He also had a lot to do with the push to Berlin but, like Eisenhower for the Western Allies he was a planner and organiser, not a slashing battlefield warrior. As for von Mannstein, he lost. That's a big downcheck on anyone's standing as a military genius. There are usually a lot of excuses trotted out for their inability to achieve a winning position, especially in their autobiographies but losers are losers. See also Rommel and Guderian -- many attempts to rewrite history but losers in the end.
I think, it's because he was loyal to the Russian/Polish people and wanted to fight German occupation/extinction programs. He probably had disloyalty to Stalin/Soviet but worked with them as it was Russia's only chance. It is due to this that he possibly was sent to the nkvd, but spared because he still was valuable and THEY KNEW he was on their side.
Why'd he fight the Whites in the civil war, maybe because everyone saw the Tsar/empire as a struggling gov that needed to be somehow fixed. Remember, the Tsar enacted reforms near the end to basically start becoming a democracy because the Kingdom was not cutting it.
He was a simple man who had no guile, they surrounded themselves with men who lacked the capacity for intrigue. His mindless loyalty was his saving grace.
We all have different eyes and there may be some first source context that's going to be more revealing but from just watching this video I'd have to disagree with you. With many other great armies filled before him and defeated 75% of the German military. To call him mindless or stupid is clearly inaccurate. I expect he was much more of a survivalist and an evolved survivor of a very dangerous time. He was pragmatic.
@@steelrain9159 he was of the time that Poland allied with Hitler to stab Czechoslovakia in the back (1938). What exactly did he do that was worse than allying with Hitler to carve up your neighbour and give him the world's largest arm's factory?
I don't know the veracity of this anecdote, but I seem to recall that Rokossovsky remembered his tormentors and when he was elevated to his command, he arranged to have them all transferred to his command, and he used them to clear minefields - namely he had them walk out into the minefields to set them off. If said mine clearers tried to run he had soldiers stationed nearby to shoot them anyway.
No, not exactly. One of his torturers was arrested by the NKVD ( what a surprise ) sometime during the war when Rokossovsky was already Stalin's darling. He was actually begging Uncle Kostya to save him- if you can believe that kind of gall. Rokossovsky read the letter and told his " executive assistant " to ignore it.
Thank you so much for this episode. As a kid, when I used to read WW2 history, for some reasons I always liked Marshal Rokossovsky. Growing up, I have always thought that historians and online channels tend to stick to Marshal Zhukov. Even though there's always other Soviet generals who were quite talented like Rokossovsky, Vatutin, Malinovsky, Chuikov and so on. I am very thankful to you for this episode although you could have added a couple of points. Rokossovsky's part in Operation Bagration, his inaction/inability during Warsaw Uprising and the fact that Stalin used to address him by his patronomyic which he did only with one more person, Marshal Shaposhnikov.
@@avia1295 You are completely misinformed. He was the bravest and most courageous general not only on battlefield but in openly challenging such men as Stalin, disagreeng with Stalin. accusing him of unauthorized arrests of scores of innocent men - this is what he did, summer of 1947, at the banquet at Stalin's mansion - face to face to Stalin. Everyone got frozen from fear expecting he's going to be shot before the dawn. What happened in turn, Stalin left the room and after a while returned with a bunch of roses he personally cut in the garden wounding his hands, gave to him saying "these are for your wife, you are right, we had many great men".
@@avia1295 No different than British generals who implemented concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War II. None of them cared about the Boer civilians and only outside influence helped the poor imprisoned civilians. This kind of callousness has been seen everywhere and all the time.
Stalin intentionally stalled the advance of the red army and removed Rokossovsky from the command. After all the preparations were done by other people, Stalin gave command to Zhukov@Emil.Fontanot
Rokossovsky was a beast. As was Zhukov. Despite my opposition to the ideology they fought under, I can acknowledge the awesomeness of these commanders, and the sheer physical and mental strength of Rokossovsky in particular. To keep his wits about him and his spirit strong in the face of torture by his government, that's strength.
@@Дмитрий-х9з4г do not forget that wasnt any mercy... They helped to create that evil since very beggining. No other country let the Germans to train on its fields... No other country signed pacts with secret articles about "sphere of influence".
I never knew of him before this video. Only became familiar with Zhukov recently. Only began looking into the sacrifices Soviets made during WWII recently. As a child of the Cold War from the West, the Soviets were always our enemies. We seldom heard of their sacrifice and heroism because it seemed like Communism was as great a threat as Fascism.
@@cedricgist7614 very nice. Welcome to the WW2 East edition. I recommend you check out the "Soviet Storm" documentary series. It goes into a lot more detail about every single operation on the eastern front as well as the men and generals behind it. Probably the best one you'll be able to find on the subject.
Serge Korolev, the father of the Soviet Space Program, was imprisoned for more than 6 years including one at the infamous Kolyma gold mines. After he was released in 1944 he became a senior engineer in the Soviet rocket program eventually became know as its Chief Designer who led the effort to launch Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space and if he had not died in 1966 (at age 59) the Soviets may well have made it to the moon.
Putting yourselves or being forced through a very difficult struggle for survival slows down time and makes you ultra alert and potentially focusable. mad dogs, have a much fiercerer bite capacity.
@@treblebbb3388 The N1 design was radically different from Saturn V in that there were many more 30+ engines in the first stage that had to work together unlike Saturn V which only had 5 engines on its first stage. However If anyone could have fixed the issue it would have been Korolev IMHO
KR was the most talented general ever produced by a military school in modern times. I wiil add he also behave more carefull with troops, and he understood to protect the foot soldiers.
He was overlooked for so long by modern history but since the fall of the USSR and the Red Army's full war records open, he has finally got his due along with Zhukov and other Red Army leaders.
@@user-lq5yx1ke5k you cannot compare Vasilevsky and Zhukov. Vasilevsky wasn't a combat general. He was the chief planner. He never led troops into battle in WW2. How can you compare the two? Don't get me wrong, he was a brilliant planner who made sure supply lines of Soviets didn't stretch thin going to Berlin in 1944-45 and managed to keep arms and distribution of front troops fluid enough to withstand German advances in 1941, 1942, and 1943. But he never won a single battle in the war.
@@mrvk39 All three you mentioned wouldn't have won either without Vasilevsky, you are not arguing with me, you are arguing with David Glantz and I trust his choice MUCH more than you, random youtube commentator
@@user-lq5yx1ke5k I am not arguing with Glantz. I think he gets that Vasilevsky cannot be compared head-on with someone like Zhukov. He did totally different things. It's a bit of a silly argument. You are comparing apples and oranges. A military planner and a combat general are very different skillsets.
Why was he the most human? It sounds like he willfully ran his men into a meat grinder, because Soviet soldier’s were plentiful, cheap, and easy to replace
@@hc8719 bro, it's 2023. Stop repeating cold war 1960's propaganda. The only time the soviets were losing men by the boatload was in 1941 due to shortages, desperation and a very poorly trained junior officer corps.
@Emil Fontanot not really, out of all the Soviet generals, Zhukov has by far the lowest percentage of units that he lost compared to other Soviet generals. The only meatgrinder Zhukov was a part of was Rhzhev, and even then he inherited that desperate situation.
@Emil Fontanot soviet archives. I'm not sure why you bring up human wave tactics considering the Zhukov himself said back in 1941 that the officers that will order criminal frontal assaults will be present in front of a military tribunal. As for the Berlin operation, let's make a quick comparison: Zhukov commanded the 1st Bielorussian Front estimated at around 908500 soldiers while Koneev commanded the 1st Ukranian Front estimated at 550900 men. After the battle of Berlin, Zhukov lost 37610 men while Koneev lost 27580 men. Now the kicker is percentage wise Zhikov lost 4.14% of his men while Koneev lost 5.01% of his men. So I don't see how these human wave tactics work, since the force that was storming the city itself lost fewer men(perecentage wise) than the force that was responsible for securing the flank of the said group.
THANK YOU!! Literally nobody mentioned this. Bagration is THE most under-rated campaign of all of WW2, and Rokossovsky was the mastermind behind it. Bagration is the reason why I believe that Rokossovsky is the best Soviet commander of the war. In only 1,5 months he managed to take ALL of Byelorussia, destroy Army Group Centre, kill/wound/capture/incapacitate almost 1,000,000 Germans, destroy 3,000 tanks, 800 aircraft, and he would've taken Warsaw if Stalin had allowed him to. Its one of the few battles where the Germans had significantly more casualties than the Soviets, and was the reverse Barbarossa, where Rokossovsky put together all the lessons learned about blitzkrieg, logistics, deep operations, maneuver warfare, air operations, communications, and the SYNERGY between tanks, infantry, recon, artillery, supply units and air power. In my opinion its in the top 3 most important battles of the Eastern front along with Stalingrad and Kursk (in which he also played huge parts in) He even had the balls to stand up to Zhukov and Stalin (!!!) by convincing him to go ahead with two initial pincer movements around Bobruisk and Vitebsk, which shattered the German lines and allowed his tanks to start deep penetrating and wreak havoc on the German supply lines.
The best Soviet General of WWII was Alexander Vasilevsky, who was also Stalin's principal military adviser in the post-war years, until Stalin's death in 1953. Pretty much the only active-duty general between 1945-1953 who had one-on-one meetings with Stalin.
I also read that part of Zhukov's and Rokossovsky's success was that they looked amazingly good on horseback, when part of the job of a cavalry officer was to look great in parades.
He was also the only competent Soviet commander who respected the lives of soldiers and did not treat them like cannon fodder. He had the lowest mortality rate in the Red Army. Everyone wanted to fight under his command. Maybe he respected the lives of soldiers because he was a Pole and not a Russian? He was "Bolshevized," communist, but he grew up in a completely different culture than the Russian one. The mentality of both these nations is very different and the fundamental differences concern, among other things, the value of human life.
One more thing to mention was that Rokossovsky actually also had balls to compromise with Stalin. During the planning of Bagration, he told Stalin that instead of a single pincer manouver they should attack with two, to which almost everyone in the room thought would get him killed. But Stalin said "If a general believes so much in victory of his plan, then let him do as he wishes" which was pretty telling Rokossovsky "You either win, or you get killed".
Quiet the opposite. When the war broke out and with all the chaos that ensued, Stalin didn't know who to trust. He thought that it is impossible for the Red Army to be this weak, and it must be traitorous generals that were working for the enemy that were responsible for the poor performance.(See Pavlov) Eventually after the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kharkov, Stalin learned to trust his own generals. Rokossovsky's bold insistence on a 2 prong assault only shows just how much Stalin has mellowed and how he became trusting of his generals, which is in complete antithesis of Hitler who started the war trusting his generals fully, only to become completely paranoid towards the end.
Well, alot of lies attacked zuikov from stalin and soviet leaders bc they saw him a biggest threat and the west also used to degrade soviet victories. Zuikov always recon by himself near battle line and write report about generals wasted soldier lives. Ofcause soviet idelogy didnt value invidual lives, but also generals willing to die in battle as same as soliders.
The topic of why Rokossovsky was sent to Poland as Minister of Defense was omitted here. He was of Polish descent. He came from an impoverished Polish noble family. And above all, Rokossovsky's greatest child, Operation "Bagration" was omitted! And it was one of the most important operations of World War II.
❤ great video as always. Bout time Roskossovsky got some love and is proof that you guys are the best at what you do. Can you guys also cover Yekaterina Budanova, the only other woman in history to be credited as a fighter ace.
Indeed, although they could've mentioned Operation Bagration - one of the most successful offensives of the entire war - I'm happy Rokossovsky finally got the video that he rightfully deserved.
Lydia Litvyak: The First Female Fighter Ace Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak was a spitfire, a double flying ace with an estimated 12-14 kills, and a spunky nationalist who was determined to make a difference in the war against her country. As a woman, Lydia made history by scoring the most kills of any female fighter pilot, and cemented herself in the minds and hearts of her comrades by never letting go of the passion and fight that took her so far, made her a Hero of the Soviet Union, and a gifted, valued asset to the Red Army. Nickname(s): Lilya; "White Lily of Stalingrad"; "White Rose of Stalingrad"
@@janiceduke1205 Lydia was the first and a total badass but many forgot Budanova who was the second and had a similar though unlike Lydia she survived the war.
@@crocodiledundee8685 On 19 July 1943 Budanova flew her last mission, near Novokrasnovka. That morning she took off for an escort mission and near Antracit in Luhansk Oblast she was involved in a dogfight with Bf 109s. Inna Pasportnikova later recalled: "She spotted three Messerschmitt going on the attack against a group of bombers. Katia attacked and diverted the enemy. A desperate fight developed in the air. Katia managed to pick up an enemy aircraft in her sight and riddle him with bullets. This was the fifth aircraft she killed personally. Katia's fighter rapidly soared upward and swooped down on a second enemy aircraft. She "stitched" it with bullets, and the second Messer, streaming black smoke, escaped to the west. But Katia's red starred fighter had been hit; tongues of flame were already licking at the wings."[1] Budanova managed to put out the fire and force landed in no-man's land. By the time local farmers came to pull her from the aircraft, she was already dead. They buried her on the outskirts of the village of Novokrasnovka.
0:24 - Haha, this was probably intentional - as you tell us of how Marshal Rokossovsky was affected by Stalin's Great Purge, you use a picture of Stalin that is itself a representation of the purge. This is a picture that Stalin's 1930s era NKVD chief, Nikolai Yezhov, was airbrushed out of, following Yezhov's falling out of favor with Stalin and his execution in 1940
Well if you torture and mess someone up enough who was loyal to you and they are still blindly loyal after all the crap that you put them through then you have yourself a great tool.
He wasn't loyal to Stalin, he was loyal to the Soviet cause. He also believed that Stalin had a point and that enemies have infiltrated the control aparatus of the USSR, hence his obidience.
@@ArmaDino22 Indeed, you can hate aspects of the system or things the system has done in the past, and still hold out hope and drive for it to change for the better.
You left out one of the most dramatic event in his career. When he stood up to Stalin and the Stavka to get permission to carry out Operation Bagration.
I would say Gen. Chuikov was as loyal as Rokossovsky, not because he was caught up in the purge but because he was put in such horrible military positions over and over again in Stalingrad, he was even demoted from 4 star to 3 star General for mistakes not of his own making, yet he continued his duty as if nothing had changed. Later he was promoted back to his four star rank and put in ultimate charge of the defense of the sliver that was left of Soviet run Stalingrad and held on to it until relieved by Operation Uranus. Chuikov, after being the punching bag of the Germans for so many months now became the anvil which they were crushed against. I don't know if he was more loyal, but equally so in a far different type of loyalty test which found many other Soviet Generals fall apart.
The only reason of him remaining loyal seems to be that it was his only bet for survival. And, besides, he knew that he had a bright future after imprisonment. His tale seems to be the same as the Soviet pioneer Rocket Scientist/Engineer Sergei Korolev.
THe USSR wasn't a police state like the western propaganda wants you to believe. Read Prof. Grover Furr's books about Stalin: Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation Against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands is False Stalin: Waiting for ... the Truth
He wasn’t technically tortured by Stalin as the very same Yezhov who masterminded the Purge was executed on the basis that the arrests had no evidence to be used of
14:14 In The Gulag Archipelago, there's a certain brand of prisoner in gulags that cannot accept their fate. The torture was always a mix-up at the office, the NKVD would eventually realise their mistake and release them etc etc, even if they were being violated for years. Accepting that the the Union had betrayed them would have been too much and break their psyche, and so they didn't.
The NKVD did eventually release him, so he was right. In his mind it wasn't the Soviet Union that was torturing him it was a bunch of fools in the NKVD. He was loyal to his country while holding them in contempt. Apparently he got a number of his torturers moved to his unit where he used them to clear minefields.
In 1953 Konstantin Rokossovsky gave a speech in Warsaw, it was a May Day celebration, I happened to be there as I was attending Technical school. Never forgot on his chest, there was no empty space available to hang another medal. Before coming to Poland as Defense Minister he served on the borders of the USSR and China. After an attempt on his life in Poland, Rokossovsky went back to his original post in the USSR .Zhukov was a MoD of USSR at the parade of Victory in Moscow, Zhukov assigned Rokossovssky to inspect the Army as the Victor in defeating Nazism, and take his place next to Stalin to partake the salute of the Red Army. The portrayal of Marshall Rokossovsky in this "documentary "seems distorted from the real historical facts. His life and accomplishments are recorded in "A Polac fighting for Russia".(In 1916/17 he attended Officers Academy, quite and joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 Revolution.)
Poland was an independent country from 1918 to 1939 and Communism was extremely unpopular, particularly among ethnic Poles. Even though he was a gifted military leader who distinguished himself in a war against Hitler, and even though he was tortured by Soviets for being a Pole, we Poles still consider him a traitor of Poland.
@@defendfreedom1390 Jak chcesz to dla ciebie może być zdrajcą. To był człowiek radziecki. Jak dla mnie to dobrze, że nie widział podziałów narodowych. Szkoda, że nasz kraj go nie docenił. Ale jak zwykle Polacy muszą wszystko spierdolić jak najgorzej. Pilecki szpiegował dla Brytoli ale ja osobiście nie uważam go za zdrajcę, po prostu miał inną wizję i tak ją chciał zrealizować. Nie zgadzam się z nim, ale mogę to jakoś respektować. To był jednak człowiek z zasługami odważny. Natomiast Jack Strong to zwykły zdrajca. Zdradzał tajemnice wojskowe ludziom którzy nie mieli problemu rzucić atomówki na Polsce. To był prawdziwy zdrajca. Jednak Pileckiego i Rozkosza nigdy tak nie nazwę. A solidarnościoij hurra husarze ze steropianowym zapaleniem mózgu mają takiego człowieka za bohatera. Czy Rokossowski osobiście powziął się jakiejś odpowiedzialności wobec Polski i jej nie wykonał? Czy zdradził naród? Przecież Tusk czy Sikorski to więksi zdrajcy niż Rokossowski! Nie mówiąc już o steropianowym narodzie wybrancym którzy naobiecywali robotnikom banany na gruszach a dali same cytryny. Mam nadzieję, że się zgodzisz, chce mieć jakąkolwiek nadzieję w ten naród. Ja też już przestaje utożsamiać się z Polską jak widzę co tu się dzieje, co tu ludzie mówią, czego nie robią. To, że ktoś nie chciał polski klerykalnej, sanacyjnej, feudalnej, pańszczyźnianej czy nacjolskie nie czyni go zdrajcą
@@defendfreedom1390Independent... Maybe too much. We overdosed on independence. Atleast now we only talk about Independence, while being vassals. Independence cost us really badly. We tried to play an european superpower. We've had bad relations with every neighbour except Romania. Debile z II RP, chcieli kolonii nawet jeśli to mialo byc na debet. Jeśli w kraju była bieda to mieliśmy mieć kolonie. Takie mocarstwo.
@@user-vs6oe8fl3m Soviets mass-murdered Poles (hardly any Poles in USSR survived 1938). Germans mass-murdered Poles. Only Polish independence prevented Poles from being murdered. While Rokossovsky was a victim of Soviets he also helped Stalin subjugate Poland. Wiki: "Rokossovsky played a key role in the regime's suppression of an independent Poland through Stalinization and Sovietization in general, and in the Polish Army in particular. As the de facto supreme commander of the Polish Army, he introduced various methods for the suppression of anti-Soviet activity, real or imagined. Among the most notorious were the labour battalions of the army, to which all able-bodied men found socially or politically insecure or guilty of having their families abroad were drafted. It is estimated that roughly 200,000 men were forced to work in these labour camps in hazardous conditions, often in quarries, coal mines, and uranium mines, and 1,000 died in their first days of "labour", while tens of thousands became crippled. Other groups targeted by these repressive measures were former soldiers of the pre-war Polish Army as well as the wartime underground Home Army."
Your vids are usually great, but this isn't one of your better ones. Rokossovsky couldn't have been sent to Stalingrad in October (presumably 1942) to mop up the Germans. They were still very much on the offensive at that time - it was the Russians who were on the verge of collapse in Stalingrad that October. Wasn't until Operation Uranus the following month that the Germans were encircled and things got bad for them. That encirclement was the major deal in Stalingrad, not the mopping up that came after. You make it sound as if Rokossovsky played a vital role in that dramatic victory and turnaround, when in reality he was tasked with stepping in after the heavy lifting had already been done, to take care of already surrounded and starving foes in a hopeless situation, whose surrender was only a matter of time, regardless of which Russian general was in charge. Rokossovsky did great things before and after Stalingrad, but to single out his work at Stalingrad as if that was special, when it was actually the most routine and ho hum/ least dramatic of his wartime performances, is odd.
@@imrankh68 yeah, true story. He also went to Frunze Military Academy during the war and studied in the same class as Alexander Pokryshkin. My granduncle would end his career as a colonel in reserves
I really recommend that anyone here read any book on Kursk, Stalingrad, and Bagration. I really enjoyed the book on Kursk I read... There Rokossovsky was exceptional at victory and was the quintessential leader! If there was a general to serve under, it would be Rokossovsky
3:07 there is a podcast called Lions lead by donkeys they did a great series on the bloody white baron he's way more insane then saying he believes he was Genghis reincarnated
You forgot to mention about his greatest strategic plan in WW2 - operation "Bagration" which ended up with liberation of Belarus and Lithuania and distracted the majority of German reserves which otherwise could be send to strengthen their Western Front.
"In Poland, they think of me as Russian; in Russia, they consider me Polish" Rokossovsky, or rather Konstaty Rokosowski, was one of many soviet leaders of polish ethnicity, such as Felix Dzerzhynsky (Feliks Dzierżyński), Mikhail Tukhachevsky (Michał Tuchaczewski) or Stanislav Kosior (Stanisław Kosior), but despite his irrational loyalty to the soviet regime - in comparison to those other "people", one may say he was quite a decent man, and, of course, brilliant soldier, but not a brilliant polititian, though. His career as a Polish Minister for National Defence wasn't as bright as he would have wanted too, he was a militaryman destined to fight, not sit in an office. And, as some have pointed out below, you forgot his major achievement in WWII - Operation "Bagration".
I agree. Marshal Tolbukhin was a great military commander. His greatest decision was personally forbiding the use of heavy artillery and air bomber attacks during the offensive into Austria against German forces in March 1945 saving Vienna from destruction.
He did not stay loyal to the government (!?!?!), he served and was loyal to his country he loved more than his life. I know, I know, difficult to understand for Western souls!
I think it was because it was all he knew. Rokossovsky was exposed and lived in the Soviet system most of his life. It’s likely he didn’t know anything outside of that.
The first thing we should know that ethnicity does not mean nationality. A Polish person can consider himself as a Soviet citizen and can submit to Soviet Union. And Rokossovky, as a man who was born in Warsaw but raised in Russia, was a member of Russian society just like other 200 ethnicity members who live in Russia. Erwin Rommel's cousin was a general of Polish Army and defended his country against Wehrmacht although he was a German, too. In the first war, many generals of Russian imperial Army were ethnic Germans. The commander of American forces in Europe was a German for example, and afterwards, he was elected as the president of the USA. In short, the blood you carry cannot determine your nationality,your moral values, your devotion,your trustiness.
You should read his book in russian called the soldiers duty. You will see everything about why he stayed loyal. Great memoirs. I don't know of any translations in English, I have them in russian. I don't even know of a polish copy
Baltic-German noble with Hungarian blood in Mongolia fighting the Bolsheviks while thinking he's the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Like you actually can't make this stuff up 😂.
A beaten and starved dog on a chain will lick the hand that beats it and will bite off the hand of any stranger even if the stranger tries to take his chain off. There is not much difference between raising a slave and a watch dog. Torture and tooth extraction helped Rokosovsky better understand who his master is.
Good video, but there is a mistake, general Friedrich Paulus didn't ask for permission to surrender but he wanted to be allowed to break out of the encirclement in case he would be able to regroup his forces in Stalingrad and would come to the conclusion that such a step would be better than to stay in the only partial taken city at the volga. Hitler even promoted him later a higher rank, this step is seen by many as an order to commit suicide because never before a German 'Feldmarschall' was taken prisoner. Paulus surrendered a few weeks later.
This whole video is pretty much a audio book for the wiki page on Rokossovsky. The events presented in the video match up exactly to what’s on the wiki and its fairly word for word.
@@Nickauboutte 🗿 I know. I’m saying it’s lazy to make a historical video and state the facts off of just 1 source, don’t get me wrong I don’t mind wiki I use it for my research but it’s bad practice to just use 1 source that’s how people never hear the whole story and you don’t know how accurate the facts are.
Rokossovsky is more in favour of infiltration and deep striking while Zhukov favoured mass assult across the entire front. Two VERY different approach to conducting an offensive. It appears that infiltration is more effective looking at Stalingrad, and the failed mass assult offensive in Rhzev directly overseen by Zhukov. In defense of Zhukov however, during the battle of moscow, there is absolutely nothing covering the northern flank of the retreating route for 16th army, a retreat sounds as suicidal as defending the previous line. Rokossovsky himself almost got hit by artillery and german tanks when he first traveled down south to oversee 16th army operations. Before the frontline of moscow stabilized, there was absolutely no available units or any reinforcement between the moscow canal and the city itself. Retreating to a position as bad as current would have no advantage as no regrouping could happen. In addition, Zhukov was also under immense pressure, directly from Stalin. It was a mess for everyone involved (even the Germans)
The picture of Stalin by the Canal in the beginning of the video was actually an doctored photo, where the Russian commander of the stasi was once in the photo but was altered to have him removed by placing the Canal over him ( sry I don't remember the guys name) after he became a victim of the purges. There are tons of altered photos like this during the stalinist era. One photo even every member of the politburo with a face replaced with their predecessors. It was quite insane I'll post links of examples in this post if I can find them on the internet, as my current sources are from books. *Updated* I found them and tried to get the links to copy, but the is no option. Just look up Stalin's altered photos. Take care
Although not suffering the ordeal that Rokossovsky endured two German officers exhibited the same level of patriotism and loyalty as their fates collided at Stalingrad. I am referring to General Karl Strecker and his Chief of Staff Helmut Groscurth. Although an ethnic Pole Rokossovsky was born in the Soviet Union and identified as a Soviet. The German officers were anti-Nazis and military men loyal to Germany itself. Groscurth risked a court martial attempting to save a large group of Jewish children from S.S. Nazis that followed the army through the invasion. He was not successful.
In Antony Beevor's "The Fall of Berlin 1945" soldiers of the 2nd Belorussian Front under Rokossovsky's command were described to be some of the worst when it came to committing acts of rape and looting.
the rus raped women in berlin,the germans killed or starved 20million civilian.this time i hope they let the germans pay with murder not rape,the time for partying is over
An eye for an eye. The Belorussians have seen some of the worst atrocities by the Nazis in their homeland. It's only fitting they have their revenge. Pity the Chinese didn't have the same chance on Japanese civilians.
The most violent and chaotic plunderers were committed by Soviet soldiers in East Prussia. These were the first areas inhabited by the Germans, reached by the Soviet army. In addition, these troops were stuffed with propaganda invented (on Stalin's orders) by the famous film director Sergei Eisenstein, which dehumanized the Germans (including infants and old people) and made the Soviets take revenge for the bestiality committed by the Germans, especially in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. This is where the "record" of Rokossovsky's troops came from (the "fault" of the marshal was only that he was better and faster than others in defeating the Germans). Some time later, Stalin suddenly changed his attitude: he ordered less rape (he even issued an order to shoot rapists, which was in effect for several months), and looting became more controlled and better organized by the Soviet state. Special units were formed, which specialized in these plunders, mainly robbing Poland (theoretically "liberated") and Germany. And why did Stalin order rape to be limited? Well, the Soviet soldiers began to suffer from syphilis en masse, which excluded them from the fight. At some point, this became a problem for the further progress of the Red Army. Rokossovsky's "fault" was that he was the first Soviet commander to reach the territories inhabited by the Germans with his army at the time of the apogee of propaganda spread by Eisenstein (mainly with the help of newspapers such as "Pravda" or "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and with the help of special leaflets and political officers, reporting to the NKVD, not to Rokossovsky).
@@Pilosoposporo, The name of the operational command had nothing to do with nationalities. The 1st an 2nd Belorussian Fronts, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. Ukrainian Fronts; Baltic Fronts where named after geographical factors (as they were formed there, or were operating in those directions. There were no national composites in the Soviets armies at all. The only exemptions were Polish Armies, Romanians, Czechoslovakians and Romanians, but these were "formally" independent allied forces.
3:47 small mistake, Stalin didn't organize the purge. It was the NKVD that organized it mostly, with very little accountability to Stalin. The purges were not some planned out plot to eliminate dissenters, they were extremely chaotic and spontaneous.
So, cool story. I studied and Rokossovky's Mechanized Corps as part of my introduction to historiography in undergrad. I read his... uh.... rather poorly translated memoir but what came across to me was how poorly prepared the logistics of the Red Army were at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Rokossovsky wrote about how his Mechanized Corps had plenty of equipment but not enough ammunition or fuel or motor transport, and during the first week his command lacked adequate maps and knowledge of the local terrain in Western Ukraine/Eastern Galicia. Also Rokossovsky blaming the police comes across to me as one hundred percent a survival mechanism. He didn't write about his own torture and did not say much about the purges so much as "Mistakes were made but it was all good." Very illustrative of how ranking officials coped with... truth telling (yikes) under the communist system. Anyways. Fascinating individual, especially given that he survived the purges when so many didn't. His memoir is full of color and interesting when combined with academic military studies of the Red Army.
Rokossovsky (Rokossowski) was not only born in Poland, but his father was Polish and the last of an old gentry, but then destitute, family, which derived its name from the little town of Rokosowo in central Poland. His mother was Russian, however, and he was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox faith. His parents are buried at Warsaw’s largest cemetery. Rokossovsky didn’t “enlist” in the Russian army in 1914 (1:55), but was drafted when WWII broke out, along with about 150,000 other Polish young men, as Poland didn’t exist as an independent country at the time and most of its territories were then part of the Russian Empire. Rokossovsky had had some contacts with the labor movement before the war and was even jailed for participating in a May Day procession in 1912. He was radicalized by the experience of the war, and this is probably the reason why he remained in Russia and took part in its revolution. By the time the purges came along, he had become a senior career officer with 25 years of service. That would go a long way to explain his loyalty, not so much to Stalin or even to the Soviet Union, but to the system, in which he believed, despite the treatment he had been subjected to. As he was at least half Polish and spoke Polish fluently, he was the ideal candidate to be entrusted by Stalin with the task of enforcing Soviet military power over Poland, the largest of the Soviet Union’s post WWII satellites in E\astern Europe.
@@PavelAVasilevich All this is very strange. The Polish Wiki page gives the specific grave at the Bródno Cemetery where his parents (in the plural) are buried: "kw. 15G, rząd 1, grób 6." Except that the woman buried there is not Antonina Ovsiannikova (the mother's name as given by Wiki), but one Konstancja Rokosowska (burial on Oct. 22, 1918, 16 years after the father). So you may be right. Just as curiously, at some point Rokossovsky's patronimic (ochestvo) was changed from Ksaverovich (his father's first name was Ksawery) to Konstantinovich (also according to Wiki). Did this come from Konstancja ("machestvo")? :D On nage dans le mystère... :)
Stalin once took Rokossovsky to his garden and gave a rose to Rokossvsky. His hands were bleeding when poked by a rose thorn. After operatation Bagration he started to call Rokossvsky by his patronymic. He also said "I have no Suvorov but Rokossovsky is my Bagration".
His loyalty and love for service speak of something great, far greater and alien then the average human that refuses to say die. Very impressive strength of will and loyalty. That speaks far more about him then his incredible tactics, instincts, and success, though those say a great deal beyond the normal as well.
Why slander the man? He was loyal not to a man, but to his ideas and country. And Stalin was one of the people who got rid of the criminal Yezhov and released Rokossovsky.
@@gnas1897 He happily took part in the oppression of Poland, his ancestral home at the behest of a man who tortured him and only stopped out of desperation. And Stalin replaced Yezhov with the far worse Beria
Rokossovsky was a Pole, not a Russian. Poles can be quite strong willed. My Grandfather, a Pole born in Lomza, was in the exact same position, but as soon as he could, he left the Russian Army, returned to Poland, and immigrated (Legally) to the United States.
hated by zhukov? i doubt it。if truly so，why rokossovsky was chosen to ride a horse to accompany zhukov's horse riding ceremony on victory march parade day at the red square in moscow? rokossovsky was also seen accompanying zhukov while meeting with western allies high ranking commanders。during the war，their working relationship was tense but not to the point of considerable hate to the guts。
Ironically. Stalin destroyed Zhukov's career because of that ceremonial ride. The horseman that was chosen to make the ride was ill, or injured and couldn't make it, so, Stalin 'ordered' Zhukov to make the ride. The public response to Zhukov's ride was so overwhelming, Stalin, out of petty jealousy, destroyed his career from that point on, almost sent him to a Gulag. However, nothing happened to Rokossovsky, the man accused, tortured and imprisoned by Stalin for being a traitor and feared competitor. Ain't life grand.
@@chrismichael6048 Possible, but Stalin had a partially paralyzed left arm from a childhood injury. It was withered and he wouldn't have been able to ride if he wanted to (though no doubt he did want to make that ride and hated Zhukov for getting the honor). He was always afraid of being viewed as physically weak because of the arm. He never would have risked such a public display of his handicap by attempting to ride a horse.
"The German army is a machine, and machines can be broken!"
- Konstantin Rokossovsky
This is the reason they did not go into Warsaw until the SS stamped out the revolt by the Free Polish forces. he wanted them destroyed and not a threat to Communism !
Very good 👍
And machines can go on forever when proper maintained.
@@opoxious1592 that "When" is very big when Hitler comes in the equation.
Hitler was a bad driver of the German war machine!
In his mind, not giving into confessing to be a traitor, WAS being loyal to the Soviet Union. He was only proving his loyalty. There never was a question whether or not he would "stay" loyal to the Soviet Union. He probably thought those that locked him up WERE the traitors, not him. If he was to sign a confession, he would've become a traitor.
He was, for some reason, unshakeably loyal to the Soviet Union.
Stalin- Threatens Rokossovsky
Rokossovsky- "What are you going to do? Re-kill me?"
Exactly. For a man of his moral and physical strength and stature, there would never have been any alternative to being anything but loyal to Stalin
Because he was a political revolutionary who fought for the red army during the civil war. He was a Marxist Leninist and a party man, and he helped build the USSR as it was that day.
Pure unadulterated BS. Malyshkin was convinced Rokossovsky was gonna surrender at the first opportunity.
More BS. Stalin actually apologized to Rokossovsky. But he still slept with a gun up until 1953 when Stalin died.
After Rokossovsky was released from NKVD custody in 1940, he wore a revolver every moment of the rest of his life: he did not intend to be taken alive if they came for him again.
Jesus, folks, please, write Rokossowski. He was Polish and Polish is written with latin alphabet. My eyes are bleeding when I'm seeing "Rokossovsky" 😵
@@plrc4593 Polish is a shit language anyway.
@@pigmalion3433 "Joined 26 sep 2022"
Thank you Ivan for your oppinion 👍 Tell me, how does it feel that your best commander in the WWII was Polish? 🤓
@@plrc4593 Rokossovsky was a soviet citizen and my feeling doesn't matter, the value of a man is dictated by his accomplishments and character, both of which Rokossovsky excel upon.
Rokossowski. He was polish
He also masterminded operation bagration. Probably the greatest military victory ever. After the war he allegedly built himself a huge house and had a warming party. Stalin seeing this grand house was unimpressed and said to him ' I like the new orphanage you've built' the next day he donated it to a charity.
That’s the most Soviet thing I think I’ve ever heard.
Just looked up operation bagration. Almost half a million casualties and took 350 thousand germans into a pocket they couldnt break out from.
@@snugglecity3500 yep. Army group centre was destroyed completely and army group north trapped in the north.
It basically ended the german army, but if you look at the forces involved it's hard to call it the greatest military victory ever. Moscow and stalingrad were more unlikely victories for the red army
@@Ukraineaissance2014 yea you have a point but the point I'm making is 2 out of the 3 German armies were destroyed or rendered useless. Centre was destroyed and north was encircled it also freed eastern Europe for the Soviets to take and ensured the Germans had no chance of holding them off with almost 1 million germans killed, captured, wounded or missing as well as trapped north.
Zhukov didn't hate Rokossovsky. That's just wrong! Zhukov reccomended Rokossovky's appointment to key commands during the war. The competed to come first but they weren't rivals!
Zhukov just didn't like rokossovsky once because rokossovsky disobeyed orders. Not a big deal
Since the Soviet Red Army was adamant when they stormed the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945, I always read that it was Rokossovsky's forces that had raised the Soviet Communist flag over the Reichstag building instead of the other Russian commander Georgi Zhukov because I know they were both in Berlin in May 1945 when Russian victory was declared. I always heard that the two men hated each other, but I am most likely wrong on all of the details of this statement
that I just made in the comments section.
@@cheeto8960 Not to forget, if there was a *rivalry* ... it was between Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Konev. Knowing it was Ivan Konev who was the first official head commander of the Western Front in Autumn 1941, but following the Nazi capture of Smolensk, he was almost executed before Zhukov stepped in and prevented it, for Stalin had appointed him to replace Konev.
@@michaelverbakel7632 You're mistaken it with Konev. He was commanding the 1st Ukrainian Front, which began the assault near Cottbus, went all the way to Potsdam and liberated the South-Western parts of Berlin. All the while Rokossovsky's forces of the 2nd Belarussian Front were heading towards Hamburg and were nowhere near Berlin.
@@victorsamsung2921 yup, konev was a careerist, he didn't mind bring his colleagues down to rise to the top, I think he eventually did bring zhukov out of power under nikita khrushchev
I’m an Uzbek. During world war 2 my great grandfather served under Rokossovsky
Wow. Respectful bow because of your grandfather 💚
wtf ☠️
what are the chances of this
A very profound phrase.
did you ask him how good of a general he was?
@@StarsBandswithRockstar he died in 1986 because of heart failure but my mom told me his stories and he recalled that he was a good general and cared for his soliders
It's quite simple, dictators and kings never want strong men, they want strong slaves.
America just wants weak vassals who brown nose them and back up their bullying of other countries and the theft of their resources
When US intelligence questioned Saddam's generals after the Gulf war, everyone of them said the same thing: they would never tell him the truth, but only what he wanted to hear. Otherwise, he would have you shot immediately.
Wondering what the other two replies were? deleted?
"oh, you're thinking for yourself are you General?" *Sound of pistol being cocked*
Seems about right as you say, they want strong men if they don't think for themselves.
Uhh no anybody who is an asshole dont want strong men as rivals this also applies to democracy even more so than in monarchies and totalitarian states. Also by default in monarchies nobody has a right to challenge the monarch for his position as ruler sure you can critique that monarch buta thats it.
In Russia they called me a Pole. In Poland they call me Russian.
Well, my murdered brother had the same problem. Sasha identified as Russian but " Zakharchenko " is not a Russian last name.
@@tatianalyulkin410 Politics and history is rarely sendimental to the individual;
I don't agree with many of Russia/Soviet Communist history. But I respect this man, Konstantin Konstanovich, for his military acumen and for remaining true to his choice in life to fight for a motherland of his choosing. He remain faithful, loyal and dignified.
Я чувствую плохо за ваша врат и семья. А я думаю Маршал К.К Рокоссовский еше один великий воеенченик и герой второй мировой военной.
@@Lukeclout Rokossowski fought for Poland first, simply because Poland was closer to Germany and under german occupation since 1939. He considered himself a Pole and was raised by both parents as Polish patriot, on this motivation he volunteered to Russian Army, along with cousin and friends, in August 1914. His wife was Russian, but he spoke excellent Polish all his life but Russian with Polish accent. Calling him communist does not make much sense, he was never an ideologue, his connection to communism was incidental. His exclamation has been misinterpreted and manipulated..
@@Lechoslaw8546 Soviets were enemy of Poland. He made a career in Soviet Army which invaded Poland. This disqualifies him as a Polish patriot even though he didn’t participate in fighting Poles.
@@CrazyLeiFeng Soviets were enemies of Poland, enemies of Russia as well, don't forget. But in 1918 things were not so clear yet and later it was too late for him to flee to homeland, Bolshevik Russia gradually became a locked concentration camp. Political situation in Poland was not clear too, at least until June 1919 Poland was ruled by foreign invaders. So do not blame him, thousands other patriots followed same path. He did not commit any sin against his homeland. Plus it is easy to spell judgments 105 years afterward sitting in an armchair while he paid with his blood for his "mistake", a mistake that turned salutary for Poland.
BTW, are you Chinese or Asian?
He might be hated by the People's Marshall and the Great Leader, but he always have a friend on his back, General Pavel Batov.
@@choreani It's a real story tho
Another underrated General
To Serve Russia intensifies
Another great general
@@gameryazov8327 He was not really underrated. He was made a Marshall of the Sov. Union before WW2 ended.
Rokossovsky will always be a curious case study of loyalty.
There is another one. There is a man in Ukraine who in 2014 was brutally tortured by the Gestapo/SBU but became one of the most influential Loyalist leaders after 2022.
@@tatianalyulkin410 Gestapo in 2014?
@@MarkhasSteelfort
Dude supports the invasion. Not calling them "Gestapo" would create a cognitive dissonance for him
He got to live and see his ideal prosper...
@@tatianalyulkin410 Mans living in the high castle timeline.
Not mentioned: he had a full set of metal teeth because the NKVD broke all his teeth during his torture. And he was apparently partially the model for the character "Boxer" in Orwell's Animal Farm. "Comrade Napoleon is always right", and, "I will work harder."
Jesus.
В ещё его 40 раза расстреляли
@@cyberman5469 I'm an Alaskan native, and I can tell you truthfully that there've been older Kodiak bears that, when they finally fell to a hunter had 25 bullets from over the years in them. This general made them look like wimps
I'm gonna use your comment for uses later.
And where did you get this info lol?
Why was Roskossovsky so loyal, put it simply probably that was his best bet for both survival and to thrive in the Soviet Union.
Might have had something to do with the fact that he was also personally speaking a communist.
Nonsense. Vlasov was more prepared to move and become the second in command to Rokossovsky. And there is no way the State Department would have given him up. Who knows- we could have had a Senator Rokossovsky or an Admiral Rokossovsky. Oh, well- instead we have Bandera.
@@redengineer4380 true, it’s amazing how a harmful ideology can abuse their most ardent believers and the abused act like a battered spouse and never leave.
@@vthompson1987 Honestly, the states, and many modern nations, do the exact same thing. It's kind of par for the course.
@@vthompson1987 In his defense where else would he have fled? He was a high ranked military official in a police state, and he’d never lived outside of Russia. People live entire lives and die in dangerous nations every day.
He's an interesting character. He grew up in Poland, had a Polish father, a Russian mother and spoke both Polish and Russian fluently. To me it's a mystery of why he chose one identity over the other- although perhaps being a communist he didn't see it as a choice of nationality and instead saw himself as an example of the New Soviet Man
He was a brilliant officer but a primitive politician. Soviets gave him a career. We Poles considered him a traitor and after a couple of years of holding high offices in Stalin-occupied Poland he returned to USSR.
@@defendfreedom1390
He could not choose both because Polish people hated the communists
@@defendfreedom1390"he was born in Warsaw, Russian Empire" - isn't this phrase is beautiful, brother?
@Harry-mp8vi Traitor
@Harry-mp8vi it's everyone's fault but not Polish, am I right?
I recall reading somewhere that when Von Paulus surrender he gave Rokossovsky his personal pistol which Rokossovsky kept at his side and even slept with it under his pillow. When asked about why he did this he said something along the lines of they arrested me once, they won’t arrest me a second time.
Slight correction. It is not Von Paulus. His last name was just Paulus. He was of common birth.
he was not just released without reason, but it was one of Stalin's loyalist generals, namely *Semyon Timoshenko* who asked Stalin to release Rokossovsky from detention because Timoshenko was Rokossovsky's senior in military cadets. And Timoshenko saw that Rokossovsky had a careful talent in leading the battle ( Luckily Timoshenko was right in seeing his talent) and Timoshenko was a trio of Generals who were loyal to Stalin along with 2 other idiots namely Budyonny and Voroshilov.
It's ironic, considering how incapable Timoshenko as a commander is.
Budyonny wasn’t an idiot. He proved to be a great cavalry general during the civil war. But his strategy was just too old in 1940s. Voroshilov on the other hand is certainly a complete imbecile.
I wouldn't call Budyonny or Voroshilov idiots. Budyonny was a very good civil war commander that was stuck in the past. There is a reason he was nicknamed "The Cavalry General".
Voroshilov was more of an ideologue than a general, but due to the fact the Red Army had severe officer shortages and Stalin needed loyal men inside the army he became one himself.
The bigger issue weren't the Soviet generals, but the junior officers who were underprepared due to the wars start.
By 1940, after Stalin had so many high officers killed, Stalin needed all he could get.
Timoshenko administered the first German defeat of the war - at Rostov, 1941.
Very underrated general. A huge part of the Soviet victory in ww2.
@@utkarshtrivedi8870 Correct. He was a tactical genius and he was much more caring of his officers and men than many others. Without his attack right into Stalingrad on the launch of Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the 6th Army might not have been possible. He actually shaped the battlefield and allowed the pincers to move south-west and west and reach Kalach, thus closing the cauldron.
Not underrated at all - if there were real military geniuses during WWII they were von Manstein and Rokossovsky - rated about equal. Both of them were excellent as planists as well as as field commanders.
While working on a high operational level, they both had full understanding of strategic effects of their plans.
Such characteristics are not particularly usual among staff officers. Both Fall Gelb and Operation Bagration were the ultimate military masterpieces from the point of view of planning and execution.
@@boguslawgajdeczko6207 Vasilevski never seems to get any credit in the history books but he was the Soviet general that planned and implemented the greatest military victory of the Soviet army in 1945, the battle of Manchuria. He also had a lot to do with the push to Berlin but, like Eisenhower for the Western Allies he was a planner and organiser, not a slashing battlefield warrior. As for von Mannstein, he lost. That's a big downcheck on anyone's standing as a military genius. There are usually a lot of excuses trotted out for their inability to achieve a winning position, especially in their autobiographies but losers are losers. See also Rommel and Guderian -- many attempts to rewrite history but losers in the end.
I think, it's because he was loyal to the Russian/Polish people and wanted to fight German occupation/extinction programs. He probably had disloyalty to Stalin/Soviet but worked with them as it was Russia's only chance. It is due to this that he possibly was sent to the nkvd, but spared because he still was valuable and THEY KNEW he was on their side.
Why'd he fight the Whites in the civil war, maybe because everyone saw the Tsar/empire as a struggling gov that needed to be somehow fixed. Remember, the Tsar enacted reforms near the end to basically start becoming a democracy because the Kingdom was not cutting it.
He was a simple man who had no guile, they surrounded themselves with men who lacked the capacity for intrigue. His mindless loyalty was his saving grace.
Mindless being the operative word. Sad.
LMAO classic braindead youtube comment take
We all have different eyes and there may be some first source context that's going to be more revealing but from just watching this video I'd have to disagree with you.
With many other great armies filled before him and defeated 75% of the German military. To call him mindless or stupid is clearly inaccurate.
I expect he was much more of a survivalist and an evolved survivor of a very dangerous time. He was pragmatic.
@@steelrain9159 Well, he isnt Polish though. The land which is Poland today is part of the Russian empire when he was born and raised.
@@steelrain9159 he was of the time that Poland allied with Hitler to stab Czechoslovakia in the back (1938). What exactly did he do that was worse than allying with Hitler to carve up your neighbour and give him the world's largest arm's factory?
I don't know the veracity of this anecdote, but I seem to recall that Rokossovsky remembered his tormentors and when he was elevated to his command, he arranged to have them all transferred to his command, and he used them to clear minefields - namely he had them walk out into the minefields to set them off. If said mine clearers tried to run he had soldiers stationed nearby to shoot them anyway.
Honestly, I would probably do the same thing.
Rokkosovsky was probably laughing like the GLA scud launcher unit while doing that
Not sure how much truth was behind such anecdotes, but I do hope that was the truth
No, not exactly. One of his torturers was arrested by the NKVD ( what a surprise ) sometime during the war when Rokossovsky was already Stalin's darling. He was actually begging Uncle Kostya to save him- if you can believe that kind of gall. Rokossovsky read the letter and told his " executive assistant " to ignore it.
@@qui-gonjinn3322I think I would do worse than making them walk over a minefield.
Thank you so much for this episode. As a kid, when I used to read WW2 history, for some reasons I always liked Marshal Rokossovsky. Growing up, I have always thought that historians and online channels tend to stick to Marshal Zhukov. Even though there's always other Soviet generals who were quite talented like Rokossovsky, Vatutin, Malinovsky, Chuikov and so on. I am very thankful to you for this episode although you could have added a couple of points. Rokossovsky's part in Operation Bagration, his inaction/inability during Warsaw Uprising and the fact that Stalin used to address him by his patronomyic which he did only with one more person, Marshal Shaposhnikov.
Rokossovsky was an obedient servant not a strong character. You do you like him !
@@avia1295 You are completely misinformed. He was the bravest and most courageous general not only on battlefield but in openly challenging such men as Stalin, disagreeng with Stalin. accusing him of unauthorized arrests of scores of innocent men - this is what he did, summer of 1947, at the banquet at Stalin's mansion - face to face to Stalin. Everyone got frozen from fear expecting he's going to be shot before the dawn. What happened in turn, Stalin left the room and after a while returned with a bunch of roses he personally cut in the garden wounding his hands, gave to him saying "these are for your wife, you are right, we had many great men".
@@avia1295 No different than British generals who implemented concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War II. None of them cared about the Boer civilians and only outside influence helped the poor imprisoned civilians. This kind of callousness has been seen everywhere and all the time.
@Emil Fontanot True. The point is worth further research. But a mention of that here would have been nice.
Stalin intentionally stalled the advance of the red army and removed Rokossovsky from the command. After all the preparations were done by other people, Stalin gave command to Zhukov@Emil.Fontanot
Whether you hate him or love him, he was a remarkable and brave man, and a Patriot.
Excellent 🎉 👍🏽
Rokossovsky was a beast. As was Zhukov. Despite my opposition to the ideology they fought under, I can acknowledge the awesomeness of these commanders, and the sheer physical and mental strength of Rokossovsky in particular. To keep his wits about him and his spirit strong in the face of torture by his government, that's strength.
Эта идиалогия победила фашизм. Советский человек победил зло.
@@Дмитрий-х9з4г do not forget that wasnt any mercy... They helped to create that evil since very beggining.
No other country let the Germans to train on its fields... No other country signed pacts with secret articles about "sphere of influence".
They didn't even fought for communism bro. They fought against invasion and extermination considering how nazis viewed slavic people.
@@Дмитрий-х9з4г Да что вы говорите.
Rokossovksy is not unappreciated. Anyone who knows about WW2 can tell you that he was one of the best.
I never knew of him before this video. Only became familiar with Zhukov recently. Only began looking into the sacrifices Soviets made during WWII recently. As a child of the Cold War from the West, the Soviets were always our enemies. We seldom heard of their sacrifice and heroism because it seemed like Communism was as great a threat as Fascism.
@@cedricgist7614 very nice. Welcome to the WW2 East edition. I recommend you check out the "Soviet Storm" documentary series. It goes into a lot more detail about every single operation on the eastern front as well as the men and generals behind it. Probably the best one you'll be able to find on the subject.
@@cedricgist7614 also David Glantz is very good.
th-cam.com/video/7Clz27nghIg/w-d-xo.html
Lecture he gave on war in east to US Army War College
@@ArmaDino22 *west
east is asian front.
@@QWERTY-gp8fd west is France, UK, Italy and Germany lol
Asia is the Pacific front
Serge Korolev, the father of the Soviet Space Program, was imprisoned for more than 6 years including one at the infamous Kolyma gold mines. After he was released in 1944 he became a senior engineer in the Soviet rocket program eventually became know as its Chief Designer who led the effort to launch Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space and if he had not died in 1966 (at age 59) the Soviets may well have made it to the moon.
Putting yourselves or being forced through a very difficult struggle for survival slows down time and makes you ultra alert and potentially focusable. mad dogs, have a much fiercerer bite capacity.
Didnt he die because of the long term effects of the gulag?
With you all the way until you said the moon 🙄
@@treblebbb3388 The N1 design was radically different from Saturn V in that there were many more 30+ engines in the first stage that had to work together unlike Saturn V which only had 5 engines on its first stage. However If anyone could have fixed the issue it would have been Korolev IMHO
This has nothing to do with the main subject (Rokossowskij).
6:22 common thing the soviets did that a lot people think is not true but it was. Happened to my great grandfather twice when he was in Siberia.
KR was the most talented general ever produced by a military school in modern times. I wiil add he also behave more carefull with troops, and he understood to protect the foot soldiers.
Agreed. Well said
He was overlooked for so long by modern history but since the fall of the USSR and the Red Army's full war records open, he has finally got his due along with Zhukov and other Red Army leaders.
He was always considered one of the 3 top Soviet generals, along with Zhukov (who was undisputed #1) and Konev.
@@mrvk39 Zhukov is not the undisputed #1, David Glantz himself said that Vasiliveskiy is the "premier soviet commander of WW2"
@@user-lq5yx1ke5k you cannot compare Vasilevsky and Zhukov. Vasilevsky wasn't a combat general. He was the chief planner. He never led troops into battle in WW2. How can you compare the two? Don't get me wrong, he was a brilliant planner who made sure supply lines of Soviets didn't stretch thin going to Berlin in 1944-45 and managed to keep arms and distribution of front troops fluid enough to withstand German advances in 1941, 1942, and 1943. But he never won a single battle in the war.
@@mrvk39 All three you mentioned wouldn't have won either without Vasilevsky, you are not arguing with me, you are arguing with David Glantz and I trust his choice MUCH more than you, random youtube commentator
@@user-lq5yx1ke5k I am not arguing with Glantz. I think he gets that Vasilevsky cannot be compared head-on with someone like Zhukov. He did totally different things. It's a bit of a silly argument. You are comparing apples and oranges. A military planner and a combat general are very different skillsets.
Rokkossovsky Is the truly big brain in the red army. And was the most human and careful of the red army
Why was he the most human? It sounds like he willfully ran his men into a meat grinder, because Soviet soldier’s were plentiful, cheap, and easy to replace
@@hc8719 That was Marshall Konev, he was just crazy!
@@hc8719 bro, it's 2023. Stop repeating cold war 1960's propaganda. The only time the soviets were losing men by the boatload was in 1941 due to shortages, desperation and a very poorly trained junior officer corps.
@Emil Fontanot not really, out of all the Soviet generals, Zhukov has by far the lowest percentage of units that he lost compared to other Soviet generals.
The only meatgrinder Zhukov was a part of was Rhzhev, and even then he inherited that desperate situation.
@Emil Fontanot soviet archives. I'm not sure why you bring up human wave tactics considering the Zhukov himself said back in 1941 that the officers that will order criminal frontal assaults will be present in front of a military tribunal.
As for the Berlin operation, let's make a quick comparison: Zhukov commanded the 1st Bielorussian Front estimated at around 908500 soldiers while Koneev commanded the 1st Ukranian Front estimated at 550900 men.
After the battle of Berlin, Zhukov lost 37610 men while Koneev lost 27580 men. Now the kicker is percentage wise Zhikov lost 4.14% of his men while Koneev lost 5.01% of his men.
So I don't see how these human wave tactics work, since the force that was storming the city itself lost fewer men(perecentage wise) than the force that was responsible for securing the flank of the said group.
Bagration was his greatest victory
THANK YOU!! Literally nobody mentioned this. Bagration is THE most under-rated campaign of all of WW2, and Rokossovsky was the mastermind behind it. Bagration is the reason why I believe that Rokossovsky is the best Soviet commander of the war.
In only 1,5 months he managed to take ALL of Byelorussia, destroy Army Group Centre, kill/wound/capture/incapacitate almost 1,000,000 Germans, destroy 3,000 tanks, 800 aircraft, and he would've taken Warsaw if Stalin had allowed him to. Its one of the few battles where the Germans had significantly more casualties than the Soviets, and was the reverse Barbarossa, where Rokossovsky put together all the lessons learned about blitzkrieg, logistics, deep operations, maneuver warfare, air operations, communications, and the SYNERGY between tanks, infantry, recon, artillery, supply units and air power. In my opinion its in the top 3 most important battles of the Eastern front along with Stalingrad and Kursk (in which he also played huge parts in)
He even had the balls to stand up to Zhukov and Stalin (!!!) by convincing him to go ahead with two initial pincer movements around Bobruisk and Vitebsk, which shattered the German lines and allowed his tanks to start deep penetrating and wreak havoc on the German supply lines.
@@alexveropoulos9927 damn.
@@alexveropoulos9927 The original Roc was had to deal with the egos of his fellow Marshalls while he was a humble soldier.
@@alexveropoulos9927 The bomb plot on Hitler happened during Bagration...it was that bad
There were no 3000 german tanks there at that time anymore @@alexveropoulos9927
Stalin: "Time to initiate the Purge."
Everyone in Soviet Union: "We are in danger."
In case of Rokossovsky it was an extermination of ethnic Poles in USSR in 1937-38.
Which eliminated the best and brightest military mindd.
Purges didn't concern 95% of population.
The best Soviet General of WWII was Alexander Vasilevsky, who was also Stalin's principal military adviser in the post-war years, until Stalin's death in 1953. Pretty much the only active-duty general between 1945-1953 who had one-on-one meetings with Stalin.
This man's story would make a fantastic biographical movie.
I also read that part of Zhukov's and Rokossovsky's success was that they looked amazingly good on horseback, when part of the job of a cavalry officer was to look great in parades.
I read some time ago and quote ( inaccurately) a contemporary saying Rokossovsky is the only truly fearless man they ever met.
He was also the only competent Soviet commander who respected the lives of soldiers and did not treat them like cannon fodder. He had the lowest mortality rate in the Red Army. Everyone wanted to fight under his command. Maybe he respected the lives of soldiers because he was a Pole and not a Russian? He was "Bolshevized," communist, but he grew up in a completely different culture than the Russian one. The mentality of both these nations is very different and the fundamental differences concern, among other things, the value of human life.
One more thing to mention was that Rokossovsky actually also had balls to compromise with Stalin. During the planning of Bagration, he told Stalin that instead of a single pincer manouver they should attack with two, to which almost everyone in the room thought would get him killed. But Stalin said "If a general believes so much in victory of his plan, then let him do as he wishes" which was pretty telling Rokossovsky "You either win, or you get killed".
Quiet the opposite. When the war broke out and with all the chaos that ensued, Stalin didn't know who to trust. He thought that it is impossible for the Red Army to be this weak, and it must be traitorous generals that were working for the enemy that were responsible for the poor performance.(See Pavlov)
Eventually after the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kharkov, Stalin learned to trust his own generals. Rokossovsky's bold insistence on a 2 prong assault only shows just how much Stalin has mellowed and how he became trusting of his generals, which is in complete antithesis of Hitler who started the war trusting his generals fully, only to become completely paranoid towards the end.
@@ArmaDino22 Stalin learned who the good generals were and then trusted them.
He's my most capable Soviet commander as well. He didn't seem to require the number of casualties to achieve an objective that Khukov did.
Well, alot of lies attacked zuikov from stalin and soviet leaders bc they saw him a biggest threat and the west also used to degrade soviet victories. Zuikov always recon by himself near battle line and write report about generals wasted soldier lives. Ofcause soviet idelogy didnt value invidual lives, but also generals willing to die in battle as same as soliders.
The topic of why Rokossovsky was sent to Poland as Minister of Defense was omitted here. He was of Polish descent. He came from an impoverished Polish noble family. And above all, Rokossovsky's greatest child, Operation "Bagration" was omitted! And it was one of the most important operations of World War II.
He is a prime real life example of the trope "My Master, Right or Wrong"!
❤ great video as always. Bout time Roskossovsky got some love and is proof that you guys are the best at what you do. Can you guys also cover Yekaterina Budanova, the only other woman in history to be credited as a fighter ace.
Indeed, although they could've mentioned Operation Bagration - one of the most successful offensives of the entire war - I'm happy Rokossovsky finally got the video that he rightfully deserved.
Lydia Litvyak: The First Female Fighter Ace
Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak was a spitfire, a double flying ace with an estimated 12-14 kills, and a spunky nationalist who was determined to make a difference in the war against her country. As a woman, Lydia made history by scoring the most kills of any female fighter pilot, and cemented herself in the minds and hearts of her comrades by never letting go of the passion and fight that took her so far, made her a Hero of the Soviet Union, and a gifted, valued asset to the Red Army. Nickname(s): Lilya; "White Lily of Stalingrad"; "White Rose of Stalingrad"
@@janiceduke1205 Lydia was the first and a total badass but many forgot Budanova who was the second and had a similar though unlike Lydia she survived the war.
@@kiwigaming1605 G’Day mate. Nice to see you.
@@crocodiledundee8685 On 19 July 1943 Budanova flew her last mission, near Novokrasnovka. That morning she took off for an escort mission and near Antracit in Luhansk Oblast she was involved in a dogfight with Bf 109s. Inna Pasportnikova later recalled:
"She spotted three Messerschmitt going on the attack against a group of bombers. Katia attacked and diverted the enemy. A desperate fight developed in the air. Katia managed to pick up an enemy aircraft in her sight and riddle him with bullets. This was the fifth aircraft she killed personally. Katia's fighter rapidly soared upward and swooped down on a second enemy aircraft. She "stitched" it with bullets, and the second Messer, streaming black smoke, escaped to the west. But Katia's red starred fighter had been hit; tongues of flame were already licking at the wings."[1]
Budanova managed to put out the fire and force landed in no-man's land. By the time local farmers came to pull her from the aircraft, she was already dead. They buried her on the outskirts of the village of Novokrasnovka.
0:24 - Haha, this was probably intentional - as you tell us of how Marshal Rokossovsky was affected by Stalin's Great Purge, you use a picture of Stalin that is itself a representation of the purge. This is a picture that Stalin's 1930s era NKVD chief, Nikolai Yezhov, was airbrushed out of, following Yezhov's falling out of favor with Stalin and his execution in 1940
Well if you torture and mess someone up enough who was loyal to you and they are still blindly loyal after all the crap that you put them through then you have yourself a great tool.
Or somesome who really, really, REALLY hates you
He wasn't loyal to Stalin, he was loyal to the Soviet cause. He also believed that Stalin had a point and that enemies have infiltrated the control aparatus of the USSR, hence his obidience.
@@ArmaDino22 Indeed, you can hate aspects of the system or things the system has done in the past, and still hold out hope and drive for it to change for the better.
He was loyal to his country, not the people who tortured him. He could distinguish between the two.
" but Stalin had little need for heros "
- Reznov
You left out one of the most dramatic event in his career. When he stood up to Stalin and the Stavka to get permission to carry out Operation Bagration.
I would say Gen. Chuikov was as loyal as Rokossovsky, not because he was caught up in the purge but because he was put in such horrible military positions over and over again in Stalingrad, he was even demoted from 4 star to 3 star General for mistakes not of his own making, yet he continued his duty as if nothing had changed. Later he was promoted back to his four star rank and put in ultimate charge of the defense of the sliver that was left of Soviet run Stalingrad and held on to it until relieved by Operation Uranus. Chuikov, after being the punching bag of the Germans for so many months now became the anvil which they were crushed against. I don't know if he was more loyal, but equally so in a far different type of loyalty test which found many other Soviet Generals fall apart.
The only reason of him remaining loyal seems to be that it was his only bet for survival. And, besides, he knew that he had a bright future after imprisonment. His tale seems to be the same as the Soviet pioneer Rocket Scientist/Engineer Sergei Korolev.
Absolutely 💯
In Soviet Russia you were either a sadist or a masochist. Everyone else suffered, emigrated, or died. Roskossovsky learned to love Big Brother.
Your reply explains it from philosophical and psychological perspective.
Yevgeni prigoshin should learn a lesson here😆
THe USSR wasn't a police state like the western propaganda wants you to believe. Read Prof. Grover Furr's books about Stalin:
Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation Against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands is False
Stalin: Waiting for ... the Truth
What about Prigozhin? He's my hero.
@@tatianalyulkin410 If that is the case, you are morally bankrupt. Go join the wagner cattle.
Zhukov is one if those people who looks like an entirely different person in every photo
That’s so true.
He wasn’t technically tortured by Stalin as the very same Yezhov who masterminded the Purge was executed on the basis that the arrests had no evidence to be used of
14:14 In The Gulag Archipelago, there's a certain brand of prisoner in gulags that cannot accept their fate. The torture was always a mix-up at the office, the NKVD would eventually realise their mistake and release them etc etc, even if they were being violated for years. Accepting that the the Union had betrayed them would have been too much and break their psyche, and so they didn't.
The NKVD did eventually release him, so he was right. In his mind it wasn't the Soviet Union that was torturing him it was a bunch of fools in the NKVD. He was loyal to his country while holding them in contempt. Apparently he got a number of his torturers moved to his unit where he used them to clear minefields.
@@Pushing_Pixels Yes, it worked out for him. Although going through that kind of torture is kind of a permanent L
Rokossovysky really rocked
One of the most underrated human beings in history.
Stalin liked him. He was one of two people he addressed with full patronymic.
The other one was Boris Shaposhnikov.
But which patronymic?: Konstantin Konstantinovich (fake, taken to avoid continued anti-
Polish repressions) or Konstantin Ksaveryevich (a real one)?
@@defendfreedom1390 Most likely the former since that was the one used by Rokossovsky during his service in Red/Soviet Army.
In 1953 Konstantin Rokossovsky gave a speech in Warsaw, it was a May Day celebration, I happened to be there as I was attending Technical school. Never forgot on his chest, there was no empty space available to hang another medal. Before coming to Poland as Defense Minister he served on the borders of the USSR and China. After an attempt on his life in Poland, Rokossovsky went back to his original post in the USSR .Zhukov was a MoD of USSR at the parade of Victory in Moscow, Zhukov assigned Rokossovssky to inspect the Army as the Victor in defeating Nazism, and take his place next to Stalin to partake the salute of the Red Army. The portrayal of Marshall Rokossovsky in this "documentary "seems distorted from the real historical facts. His life and accomplishments are recorded in "A Polac fighting for Russia".(In 1916/17 he attended Officers Academy, quite and joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 Revolution.)
I hear you, man! You are spot-on! Bad video, a bit like a slander
Poland was an independent country from 1918 to 1939 and Communism was extremely unpopular, particularly among ethnic Poles. Even though he was a gifted military leader who distinguished himself in a war against Hitler, and even though he was tortured by Soviets for being a Pole, we Poles still consider him a traitor of Poland.
@@defendfreedom1390
Jak chcesz to dla ciebie może być zdrajcą. To był człowiek radziecki.
Jak dla mnie to dobrze, że nie widział podziałów narodowych. Szkoda, że nasz kraj go nie docenił. Ale jak zwykle Polacy muszą wszystko spierdolić jak najgorzej.
Pilecki szpiegował dla Brytoli ale ja osobiście nie uważam go za zdrajcę, po prostu miał inną wizję i tak ją chciał zrealizować. Nie zgadzam się z nim, ale mogę to jakoś respektować. To był jednak człowiek z zasługami odważny.
Natomiast Jack Strong to zwykły zdrajca. Zdradzał tajemnice wojskowe ludziom którzy nie mieli problemu rzucić atomówki na Polsce. To był prawdziwy zdrajca. Jednak Pileckiego i Rozkosza nigdy tak nie nazwę.
A solidarnościoij hurra husarze ze steropianowym zapaleniem mózgu mają takiego człowieka za bohatera.
Czy Rokossowski osobiście powziął się jakiejś odpowiedzialności wobec Polski i jej nie wykonał? Czy zdradził naród? Przecież Tusk czy Sikorski to więksi zdrajcy niż Rokossowski!
Nie mówiąc już o steropianowym narodzie wybrancym którzy naobiecywali robotnikom banany na gruszach a dali same cytryny.
Mam nadzieję, że się zgodzisz, chce mieć jakąkolwiek nadzieję w ten naród. Ja też już przestaje utożsamiać się z Polską jak widzę co tu się dzieje, co tu ludzie mówią, czego nie robią.
To, że ktoś nie chciał polski klerykalnej, sanacyjnej, feudalnej, pańszczyźnianej czy nacjolskie nie czyni go zdrajcą
@@defendfreedom1390Independent...
Maybe too much. We overdosed on independence. Atleast now we only talk about Independence, while being vassals.
Independence cost us really badly. We tried to play an european superpower. We've had bad relations with every neighbour except Romania.
Debile z II RP, chcieli kolonii nawet jeśli to mialo byc na debet. Jeśli w kraju była bieda to mieliśmy mieć kolonie. Takie mocarstwo.
@@user-vs6oe8fl3m Soviets mass-murdered Poles (hardly any Poles in USSR survived 1938). Germans mass-murdered Poles. Only Polish independence prevented Poles from being murdered. While Rokossovsky was a victim of Soviets he also helped Stalin subjugate Poland. Wiki: "Rokossovsky played a key role in the regime's suppression of an independent Poland through Stalinization and Sovietization in general, and in the Polish Army in particular. As the de facto supreme commander of the Polish Army, he introduced various methods for the suppression of anti-Soviet activity, real or imagined. Among the most notorious were the labour battalions of the army, to which all able-bodied men found socially or politically insecure or guilty of having their families abroad were drafted. It is estimated that roughly 200,000 men were forced to work in these labour camps in hazardous conditions, often in quarries, coal mines, and uranium mines, and 1,000 died in their first days of "labour", while tens of thousands became crippled. Other groups targeted by these repressive measures were former soldiers of the pre-war Polish Army as well as the wartime underground Home Army."
Your vids are usually great, but this isn't one of your better ones. Rokossovsky couldn't have been sent to Stalingrad in October (presumably 1942) to mop up the Germans. They were still very much on the offensive at that time - it was the Russians who were on the verge of collapse in Stalingrad that October. Wasn't until Operation Uranus the following month that the Germans were encircled and things got bad for them. That encirclement was the major deal in Stalingrad, not the mopping up that came after. You make it sound as if Rokossovsky played a vital role in that dramatic victory and turnaround, when in reality he was tasked with stepping in after the heavy lifting had already been done, to take care of already surrounded and starving foes in a hopeless situation, whose surrender was only a matter of time, regardless of which Russian general was in charge.
Rokossovsky did great things before and after Stalingrad, but to single out his work at Stalingrad as if that was special, when it was actually the most routine and ho hum/ least dramatic of his wartime performances, is odd.
Also didn't mention his brilliant delaying action holding open the way for troops to escape the Smolensk Kessel.
@@revanofkorriban1505 It was Semion Timoshenko led tactical move , but, indeed, Rokossovsky was one of his leading officers.
My granduncle saw Rokossovsky and Zhukov first hand, as he took part in the 45, 46, 47th victory parade
Wow
@@imrankh68 yeah, true story. He also went to Frunze Military Academy during the war and studied in the same class as Alexander Pokryshkin. My granduncle would end his career as a colonel in reserves
This man was Jon Snow levels of loyal.
Did he also stab his Queen in the back?😁
@@AaSs-ln9mmAcTuAlLy Jon stabbed her in the chest 🤓
I really recommend that anyone here read any book on Kursk, Stalingrad, and Bagration. I really enjoyed the book on Kursk I read... There Rokossovsky was exceptional at victory and was the quintessential leader! If there was a general to serve under, it would be Rokossovsky
I mean he probably has a family he was protecting. The Soviet Union had more leverage than he did
3:07 there is a podcast called Lions lead by donkeys they did a great series on the bloody white baron he's way more insane then saying he believes he was Genghis reincarnated
Listened to that episode last week!
@@kgizzle92 hell yeah!
You forgot to mention about his greatest strategic plan in WW2 - operation "Bagration" which ended up with liberation of Belarus and Lithuania and distracted the majority of German reserves which otherwise could be send to strengthen their Western Front.
Dont ask what your country can do for you..
Ask what you can do for your country
Or ask what your country can do to you lol
@@n8zog584 or perhaps, ask what you can do *to* your country
Or ask, how much has my government stolen from me?
@@choreani bro just repeated the comment
@@SiJullianToGuys (anarchy)
"In Poland, they think of me as Russian; in Russia, they consider me Polish"
Rokossovsky, or rather Konstaty Rokosowski, was one of many soviet leaders of polish ethnicity, such as Felix Dzerzhynsky (Feliks Dzierżyński), Mikhail Tukhachevsky (Michał Tuchaczewski) or Stanislav Kosior (Stanisław Kosior), but despite his irrational loyalty to the soviet regime - in comparison to those other "people", one may say he was quite a decent man, and, of course, brilliant soldier, but not a brilliant polititian, though. His career as a Polish Minister for National Defence wasn't as bright as he would have wanted too, he was a militaryman destined to fight, not sit in an office.
And, as some have pointed out below, you forgot his major achievement in WWII - Operation "Bagration".
Could you make a video about Nikolai Vatutin? He is one of my favourites and doesn't get enough application.
dude kursk wasnt one of the largest tank battles of ww2 it was the largest tank battle in HISTORY!
Battle of Dubno - Brody in 1941 was probably even larger but remains largely forgotten.
No this battle on WOT I played last night. That was the largest tank battle in history.
@@gratius1394
Correct, as confirmed by David Glanz.
Dammit, you're back on the force, Rokossovsky !!!
Nicely done. This kind of work stands alone, but is also complements Tik’s work on the battles and campaigns of the Eastern Front.
Make a video on Fyodor Tolbukhin he is a really forgotten hero of the war.
I agree. Marshal Tolbukhin was a great military commander. His greatest decision was personally forbiding the use of heavy artillery and air bomber attacks during the offensive into Austria against German forces in March 1945 saving Vienna from destruction.
@@Skymaster.47 His Romania/Bulgaria/Yugoslavia/Hungary campaign is even more impressive.
Wow finally the man himself Rokossovsky, bravo!
He did not stay loyal to the government (!?!?!), he served and was loyal to his country he loved more than his life. I know, I know, difficult to understand for Western souls!
I think it was because it was all he knew. Rokossovsky was exposed and lived in the Soviet system most of his life. It’s likely he didn’t know anything outside of that.
Rokossovsky 💪
The first thing we should know that ethnicity does not mean nationality. A Polish person can consider himself as a Soviet citizen and can submit to Soviet Union. And Rokossovky, as a man who was born in Warsaw but raised in Russia, was a member of Russian society just like other 200 ethnicity members who live in Russia. Erwin Rommel's cousin was a general of Polish Army and defended his country against Wehrmacht although he was a German, too. In the first war, many generals of Russian imperial Army were ethnic Germans. The commander of American forces in Europe was a German for example, and afterwards, he was elected as the president of the USA. In short, the blood you carry cannot determine your nationality,your moral values, your devotion,your trustiness.
You should read his book in russian called the soldiers duty.
You will see everything about why he stayed loyal. Great memoirs. I don't know of any translations in English, I have them in russian. I don't even know of a polish copy
The original title was "in ancestors' land"
@@niepowaznyczlowiek no, the original title is the soldiers duty. It is the man's memoirs he wrote it himself. It is his title.
@Robert53area
He had to change the name of it, because of censorship.
@Robert53area
Or maybe I'm confusing him with another general
3:18 Wait, some dude who thought he was gengis kahn? A battle? USSR forces in mongolia?..... You should make this into a video of it's own!
Baltic-German noble with Hungarian blood in Mongolia fighting the Bolsheviks while thinking he's the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Like you actually can't make this stuff up 😂.
Very interesting the video .
Thank you for sharing and teaching me something new.
A beaten and starved dog on a chain will lick the hand that beats it and will bite off the hand of any stranger even if the stranger tries to take his chain off. There is not much difference between raising a slave and a watch dog. Torture and tooth extraction helped Rokosovsky better understand who his master is.
Good video, but there is a mistake, general Friedrich Paulus didn't ask for permission to surrender but he wanted to be allowed to break out of the encirclement in case he would be able to regroup his forces in Stalingrad and would come to the conclusion that such a step would be better than to stay in the only partial taken city at the volga. Hitler even promoted him later a higher rank, this step is seen by many as an order to commit suicide because never before a German 'Feldmarschall' was taken prisoner. Paulus surrendered a few weeks later.
It’s sadly ironic that after the war, Rokossovsky became the type of Soviet military leader that put him into prison in the first place. 😡
You are misinformed.
It's not Rokossovsky's fault that Khrushchev was a traitor... And Khrushchev even mistreated Zhukov. Khrushchev was a monster.
Thank you for this very interesting documentary about one of the most decisive and intriguing generals.
This whole video is pretty much a audio book for the wiki page on Rokossovsky. The events presented in the video match up exactly to what’s on the wiki and its fairly word for word.
Some people prefer to listen as they're being read to as opposed to reading on their own. :)
@@Nickauboutte 🗿 I know. I’m saying it’s lazy to make a historical video and state the facts off of just 1 source, don’t get me wrong I don’t mind wiki I use it for my research but it’s bad practice to just use 1 source that’s how people never hear the whole story and you don’t know how accurate the facts are.
Rokossovsky did the Operation Bagration, too. And pushed towards Berlin, along side Konev as I remember...
He was a careerist. No matter what obstacles he faced, his career objectives were above everything else.
He wasn't a careerist, he was a patriot and loyal to his ideas and values!
@@gnas1897 no, he wasn't. He didn't defend his values at the Nuremberg trial or anywhere else at all.
Rokossovsky is more in favour of infiltration and deep striking while Zhukov favoured mass assult across the entire front. Two VERY different approach to conducting an offensive. It appears that infiltration is more effective looking at Stalingrad, and the failed mass assult offensive in Rhzev directly overseen by Zhukov.
In defense of Zhukov however, during the battle of moscow, there is absolutely nothing covering the northern flank of the retreating route for 16th army, a retreat sounds as suicidal as defending the previous line.
Rokossovsky himself almost got hit by artillery and german tanks when he first traveled down south to oversee 16th army operations.
Before the frontline of moscow stabilized, there was absolutely no available units or any reinforcement between the moscow canal and the city itself. Retreating to a position as bad as current would have no advantage as no regrouping could happen.
In addition, Zhukov was also under immense pressure, directly from Stalin. It was a mess for everyone involved (even the Germans)
I think he also know that to remain stubbornly loyal was his greatest chance of survival
Good to know such a good chanel! I have just subcribed 👍🏼
You skipped out on Op Bagration
Thanks for the revisiting history
>Rokossovsky
Is there a chance he served alongside a certain Pavel Batov too?
He did and Batov always one of his best friend until his death
The picture of Stalin by the Canal in the beginning of the video was actually an doctored photo, where the Russian commander of the stasi was once in the photo but was altered to have him removed by placing the Canal over him ( sry I don't remember the guys name) after he became a victim of the purges. There are tons of altered photos like this during the stalinist era. One photo even every member of the politburo with a face replaced with their predecessors. It was quite insane I'll post links of examples in this post if I can find them on the internet, as my current sources are from books. *Updated* I found them and tried to get the links to copy, but the is no option. Just look up Stalin's altered photos. Take care
Rokossowski's Army liberated / captured Danzig Gdańsk fighting Armée Weichsel in February March 1945, I'm native of that city
Although not suffering the ordeal that Rokossovsky endured two German officers exhibited the same level of patriotism and loyalty as their fates collided at Stalingrad. I am referring to General Karl Strecker and his Chief of Staff Helmut Groscurth. Although an ethnic Pole Rokossovsky was born in the Soviet Union and identified as a Soviet. The German officers were anti-Nazis and military men loyal to Germany itself. Groscurth risked a court martial attempting to save a large group of Jewish children from S.S. Nazis that followed the army through the invasion. He was not successful.
In Antony Beevor's "The Fall of Berlin 1945" soldiers of the 2nd Belorussian Front under Rokossovsky's command were described to be some of the worst when it came to committing acts of rape and looting.
the rus raped women in berlin,the germans killed or starved 20million civilian.this time i hope they let the germans pay with murder not rape,the time for partying is over
An eye for an eye. The Belorussians have seen some of the worst atrocities by the Nazis in their homeland. It's only fitting they have their revenge. Pity the Chinese didn't have the same chance on Japanese civilians.
The most violent and chaotic plunderers were committed by Soviet soldiers in East Prussia. These were the first areas inhabited by the Germans, reached by the Soviet army. In addition, these troops were stuffed with propaganda invented (on Stalin's orders) by the famous film director Sergei Eisenstein, which dehumanized the Germans (including infants and old people) and made the Soviets take revenge for the bestiality committed by the Germans, especially in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. This is where the "record" of Rokossovsky's troops came from (the "fault" of the marshal was only that he was better and faster than others in defeating the Germans). Some time later, Stalin suddenly changed his attitude: he ordered less rape (he even issued an order to shoot rapists, which was in effect for several months), and looting became more controlled and better organized by the Soviet state. Special units were formed, which specialized in these plunders, mainly robbing Poland (theoretically "liberated") and Germany. And why did Stalin order rape to be limited? Well, the Soviet soldiers began to suffer from syphilis en masse, which excluded them from the fight. At some point, this became a problem for the further progress of the Red Army. Rokossovsky's "fault" was that he was the first Soviet commander to reach the territories inhabited by the Germans with his army at the time of the apogee of propaganda spread by Eisenstein (mainly with the help of newspapers such as "Pravda" or "Komsomolskaya Pravda" and with the help of special leaflets and political officers, reporting to the NKVD, not to Rokossovsky).
@@Pilosoposporo, The name of the operational command had nothing to do with nationalities. The 1st an 2nd Belorussian Fronts, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. Ukrainian Fronts; Baltic Fronts where named after geographical factors (as they were formed there, or were operating in those directions. There were no national composites in the Soviets armies at all. The only exemptions were Polish Armies, Romanians, Czechoslovakians and Romanians, but these were "formally" independent allied forces.
@@Pilosoposporo You're one twisted mofo.
I got his book "a soldiers duty " from the British library...very interesting
3:47 small mistake, Stalin didn't organize the purge. It was the NKVD that organized it mostly, with very little accountability to Stalin. The purges were not some planned out plot to eliminate dissenters, they were extremely chaotic and spontaneous.
So, cool story. I studied and Rokossovky's Mechanized Corps as part of my introduction to historiography in undergrad. I read his... uh.... rather poorly translated memoir but what came across to me was how poorly prepared the logistics of the Red Army were at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Rokossovsky wrote about how his Mechanized Corps had plenty of equipment but not enough ammunition or fuel or motor transport, and during the first week his command lacked adequate maps and knowledge of the local terrain in Western Ukraine/Eastern Galicia. Also Rokossovsky blaming the police comes across to me as one hundred percent a survival mechanism. He didn't write about his own torture and did not say much about the purges so much as "Mistakes were made but it was all good." Very illustrative of how ranking officials coped with... truth telling (yikes) under the communist system. Anyways. Fascinating individual, especially given that he survived the purges when so many didn't. His memoir is full of color and interesting when combined with academic military studies of the Red Army.
Rokossovsky (Rokossowski) was not only born in Poland, but his father was Polish and the last of an old gentry, but then destitute, family, which derived its name from the little town of Rokosowo in central Poland. His mother was Russian, however, and he was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox faith. His parents are buried at Warsaw’s largest cemetery. Rokossovsky didn’t “enlist” in the Russian army in 1914 (1:55), but was drafted when WWII broke out, along with about 150,000 other Polish young men, as Poland didn’t exist as an independent country at the time and most of its territories were then part of the Russian Empire. Rokossovsky had had some contacts with the labor movement before the war and was even jailed for participating in a May Day procession in 1912. He was radicalized by the experience of the war, and this is probably the reason why he remained in Russia and took part in its revolution. By the time the purges came along, he had become a senior career officer with 25 years of service. That would go a long way to explain his loyalty, not so much to Stalin or even to the Soviet Union, but to the system, in which he believed, despite the treatment he had been subjected to. As he was at least half Polish and spoke Polish fluently, he was the ideal candidate to be entrusted by Stalin with the task of enforcing Soviet military power over Poland, the largest of the Soviet Union’s post WWII satellites in E\astern Europe.
Your wrong about Rokossovsky's mother, she is buried in Belarus. In have personally seen her grave and tombstone.
@@PavelAVasilevich All this is very strange. The Polish Wiki page gives the specific grave at the Bródno Cemetery where his parents (in the plural) are buried: "kw. 15G, rząd 1, grób 6." Except that the woman buried there is not Antonina Ovsiannikova (the mother's name as given by Wiki), but one Konstancja Rokosowska (burial on Oct. 22, 1918, 16 years after the father). So you may be right.
Just as curiously, at some point Rokossovsky's patronimic (ochestvo) was changed from Ksaverovich (his father's first name was Ksawery) to Konstantinovich (also according to Wiki). Did this come from Konstancja ("machestvo")? :D
On nage dans le mystère... :)
Stalin once took Rokossovsky to his garden and gave a rose to Rokossvsky. His hands were bleeding when poked by a rose thorn. After operatation Bagration he started to call Rokossvsky by his patronymic. He also said "I have no Suvorov but Rokossovsky is my Bagration".
Rossosvky cared about the health of his men and they were loyal to him
His loyalty and love for service speak of something great, far greater and alien then the average human that refuses to say die. Very impressive strength of will and loyalty. That speaks far more about him then his incredible tactics, instincts, and success, though those say a great deal beyond the normal as well.
It’s blindly loyal soldiers like him that remind us all of why we value individualism. We must disobey unjust orders and stand against oppression
Preach.
Blind loyalty to authority is how you had German officers at Nuremberg attempting to justify war crimes and acts of genocide with “Orders are order”
how
Why slander the man? He was loyal not to a man, but to his ideas and country. And Stalin was one of the people who got rid of the criminal Yezhov and released Rokossovsky.
@@gnas1897 He happily took part in the oppression of Poland, his ancestral home at the behest of a man who tortured him and only stopped out of desperation. And Stalin replaced Yezhov with the far worse Beria
Rokossovsky was a Pole, not a Russian. Poles can be quite strong willed. My Grandfather, a Pole born in Lomza, was in the exact same position, but as soon as he could, he left the Russian Army, returned to Poland, and immigrated (Legally) to the United States.
hated by zhukov? i doubt it。if truly so，why rokossovsky was chosen to ride a horse to accompany zhukov's horse riding ceremony on victory march parade day at the red square in moscow? rokossovsky was also seen accompanying zhukov while meeting with western allies high ranking commanders。during the war，their working relationship was tense but not to the point of considerable hate to the guts。
Ironically. Stalin destroyed Zhukov's career because of that ceremonial ride. The horseman that was chosen to make the ride was ill, or injured and couldn't make it, so, Stalin 'ordered' Zhukov to make the ride. The public response to Zhukov's ride was so overwhelming, Stalin, out of petty jealousy, destroyed his career from that point on, almost sent him to a Gulag. However, nothing happened to Rokossovsky, the man accused, tortured and imprisoned by Stalin for being a traitor and feared competitor. Ain't life grand.
@@eLEMENTARYimage i read that stalin himself wanted to ride the horse instead of zhukov. Stalin felt jealous as zhukov stole his moment of glory
@@chrismichael6048 Possible, but Stalin had a partially paralyzed left arm from a childhood injury. It was withered and he wouldn't have been able to ride if he wanted to (though no doubt he did want to make that ride and hated Zhukov for getting the honor). He was always afraid of being viewed as physically weak because of the arm. He never would have risked such a public display of his handicap by attempting to ride a horse.