If you like this article, please click "Follow" in the upper right. Thank you for your support and encouragement, and hope it will bring you a comfortable reading experience.
In February 2020, Putin went to visit a sick old man. The old man felt that his deadline was approaching, so he held Putin's hand tightly and said his last words earnestly: "Russia should follow the Chinese path."
Putin
Although Putin did not give the old man a clear answer, he was moved by the old man who was still concerned about Russia's future at the moment of his life.
This old man was the last marshal of the Soviet Union Yazov .
Be brave and planner to become a general, and leniency and strictness are combined to refine reforms
Yazov was born in Yazov Village, Omsk Prefecture in November 1923. When Yazov was born, his family was already very poor, but at least he could barely maintain it; and when he was 11 years old, his father suddenly died of illness and there was no pillar at home.
Yazov could only drop out of school and go home, mow grass and threshing grain during busy farming, and be a postman during slack farming, earning money to supplement the family income to reduce the burden on his mother.
Yazov
941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Yazov, who had just turned 17, responded to the call to join the Soviet Red Army, and since then he began his long military career.
After joining the army, Yazov was assigned to the 483rd Infantry Regiment. He was quickly promoted to the platoon leader because of his bravery in combat, but the veterans in the platoon were not convinced and always called him "haired child".
942, the 483rd Regiment was ordered to block the German army in the Volkhov area near Leningrad. At the beginning, the battle went very smoothly, and the Soviet army quickly drove the German army out of the first trench. But just as they relaxed their vigilance, the German army suddenly launched a counterattack. Just as the defenseless Soviet army retreated step by step and was about to lose its position, Yazov stepped forward and led the entire platoon to repel the enemy's attack and reverse the situation.
Yazov
In this battle, Yazov won everyone's respect and trust with his fearless courage, strong will and superb command ability. From then on, everyone no longer called him "haired child", but respectfully called him "Lt. Lieutenant Comrade". The commander of the regiment also called him "brave in combat and pioneering spirit", and soon promoted him to company commander.
Yazov is not only brave in combat, but also good at learning.
At the end of 1942, the Soviet army issued a new infantry combat code. When everyone was still discussing the content of the regulations, Yazov was able to recite the full text. More importantly, Yazov did not recite it mechanically, but also knew how to integrate it and use it flexibly, which was praised by the whole group.
Yazov
After the end of the Patriotic War, Yazov was first selected to Fulongzhi Military Academy to study, and then went to the Military Academy of General Staff to study.
967, after graduating from the General Staff Military Academy, Yazov was directly promoted to the colonel commander of the garrison division of the post-Baikal region.
After that, Yazov entered the fast lane of his career as a rising official. In just ten years, he became a general and became a commander of the Far East Military Region.
Yazov's military management emphasizes the combination of leniency and severity. On the one hand, he has very strict requirements for his subordinates. He not only personally reviews the troops' training plans and exercise plans, but sometimes personally operates and demonstrates them.
He will also ask subordinate leading cadres questions about detailed questions such as regulations and technical preparations. Once the subordinates cannot answer, they will be severely criticized by him.
Yazov
On the other hand, he loves soldiers very much. Not only do we always care about their lives, but we also understand and understand their sufferings and often solve their problems.
Under his governance, the software and hardware conditions of the military camp have greatly improved, and problems such as schooling of officers and soldiers and their families have been well solved.
So wherever you go, Yazov can always be loved by the officers and soldiers.
In addition, Yazov, who became famous in the old Soviet system, was not satisfied with the existing military system and was a recognized reformist faction in the military.
As early as 1978, Yazov published an article in the Red Star Newspaper, pointing out the disadvantages of the training system of the Soviet army's commanders.
Yazov
At the same time, he also listed the seven qualities he believed that commanders should have, namely initiative, creativity, innovative spirit, competitive consciousness, maintaining good relationships with soldiers, discipline and "taking responsibility for decisions".
Since then, he has published articles many times, talking about the need to adapt the military to the scientific and technological revolution; innovative measures should be taken in military training, etc.
In order to save the Soviet Union, they finally withdrew their troops with mercy on the people
985, Gorbachev was elected as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As soon as he came to power, he proposed the so-called "acceleration policy", trying to accelerate the development of the Soviet Union's social economy by adjusting the socialist economic management forms and reforming the party and government bureaucracy.
However, the senior Soviet army leaders always lacked enthusiasm for Gorbachev's reform plan, so Gorbachev began to plan to reorganize the military's leadership.
In July 1986, Gorbachev went to the Far East Military Region to inspect and met Yazov for the first time.
Gorbachev
Before this, he had read Yazov's articles, and through the thoughts revealed in Yazov's articles, he believed that Yazov was the ally he was looking for.
During this inspection, he held many private talks with Yazov. As expected, Yazov was very supportive of his reform policy. At this time, he had the intention to promote Yazov to be the Minister of Defense, but he had always lacked a reasonable reason to exempt the current Minister of Defense Sokolov .
Soon, this reason was delivered to the door by myself.
In May 1987, a Federal German young man named Rust had a sudden idea and drove a small plane through the Soviet air defense network, which was known as the "most strictest in the world", and safely landed on Moscow Red Square, and the Soviet military was unaware of this.
Gorbachev was furious and took the opportunity to remove Sokolov from his position at the time, skipped a group of senior vice ministers, and directly appointed Yazov as Minister of Defense.
German aircraft landed in Red Square
After Yazov was appointed as Minister of Defense, he did a lot of work in eliminating military waste and corruption and improving the overall efficiency of the military according to Gorbachev's reform ideas.
Gorbachev was also very satisfied with him, so he was awarded the rank of marshal in 1990. But the Soviet Union broke down after the Chinese New Year. As a result, Yazov became the last marshal of the Soviet Union.
Yazov was awarded the marshal by Gorbachev, which was not only the pinnacle of the cooperation between the two, but also the end of the cooperation between the two. Since then, the differences between Yazov and Gorbachev have become increasingly greater.
First, on the issue of withdrawing troops from Hungarian and Czechoslovak . At that time, Yazov proposed the plan to complete the withdrawal within four to five years.
However, Gorbachev privately reached an agreement with Hungary to complete the withdrawal within one year without notifying the Ministry of Defense, which made Yazov's Ministry of Defense very passive and caused great difficulties in the resettlement of retreating officers and soldiers.
Yazov
Later, in the independence movement of to join the Republic , the army was seriously attacked and humiliated, and the army's weapons and equipment were also stolen in large quantities, and local armed forces even appeared in many republics.
Yazovdo asked Gorbachev to take necessary measures, but Gorbachev's reaction always disappointed Yazov.
In July 1991, Gorbachev negotiated with Yeltsin and other republics behind the central authority, and agreed to sign a new alliance treaty by August 20.
The new treaty will not only change the nature of the alliance and completely disintegrate the Soviet Union, but also put the political careers of a large number of senior officials, including Yazov, at threats. Therefore, some government officials, led by Yanaev, , have planned to take measures to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the country.
On August 4, 1991, while Gorbachev was on vacation in Foros, Crimea, they gathered at a secret facility on the Moscow Ring Road to discuss countermeasures.
In the end, everyone unanimously decided that a state of emergency must be implemented nationwide before the signing of the new alliance treaty of .
Yazov also participated in the rally and was appointed as the leader of the expert group, responsible for analyzing the domestic situation, predicting the possible responses of residents to the implementation of a state of emergency, and formulating measures to implement a state of emergency. Soon, they developed a state of emergency plan.
Soviet high-level photo
At first they did not want to replace Gorbachev, but when they found Gorbachev and tried to persuade him to sign the "state of emergency" order, they were strongly rejected by Gorbachev. They were under house arrest in a difficult situation.
In this way, they have no way out.
So, at 4 a.m. on August 19, Vice President Yanayev signed the order to perform the post of the Soviet Union and the order to implement a state of emergency. The
order stipulates that a state of emergency will be implemented in some areas of the Soviet Union starting from 4:00 on August 19. Subsequently, according to Yanayev's instructions, Yazov issued an order to transfer Taman Motorized Division and the Kantemil Tank Division into Moscow to General Kalinin, the commander of the Moscow Military Region.
At one time, more than 4,600 soldiers, more than 300 tanks, more than 270 infantry fighting vehicles, more than 150 armored vehicles, and more than 430 cars drove to Moscow.
Russian armored vehicle
But it was on this day that Yazov was disappointed with the "new leader" for the first time.
In order to plan this operation, Yazov stayed up all night, but to his surprise, Yanayev, who had announced his head of state, and Prime Minister Pavlov, not only went to work after noon, but also were slightly drunk.
When the press conference was held at 5 pm, Yanayev and Pavlov were obviously lacking in confidence and even trembled with nervousness. At this time, Yazov realized that there would be even less hope for the country to hand it over to them.
At noon that day, Yeltsin, who was elected Russian President not long ago, also heard about the news of the coup.
He quickly rushed to the front of the Russian Parliament Building, climbed onto a tank of the Taman Division, and read out the famous Order No. 59 to the surrounding people:
"All decisions made in the name of the so-called Emergency Committee are illegal and invalid on the territory of the Russian Federation", and called on the general public to "rise and defend democracy, the law and the regime elected by the people."
Yeltsin issued an order
Under Yeltsin's call, more and more people gathered around the parliament building to denounce the illegal acts of the State of Emergency Committee.
Seeing that the actions of the opposition to the State of Emergency Committee were unpopular, Yazov felt very entangled. On the one hand, he did not want the Soviet Union to disintegrate under Gorbachev's tossing, and on the other hand, he did not want the bleeding and casualties of innocent civilians because of his actions.
After a fierce psychological struggle, in the early morning of August 21, Yazov rejected the order of the State of Emergency Committee to "the army shows its strength" and ordered all troops stationed in Moscow to withdraw.
Yazov
Losing the support of the army, the State of Emergency Committee had only one dead end. They found Yazov angrily and accused him of saying:
" This is betrayal.We gave people hope, workers supported us, but you betrayed them... You should take out your pistol, and it would be better to kill yourself now! "
At this time, Yazov was still having fantasies about Gorbachev, so he suggested that everyone say:
"We only have one way out, which is to go to Foros and restore contact with Gorbachev. "
But they still thought it was too simple. They waited for 5 hours in the reception room of Gorbachev Foros, but Gorbachev did not summon them.
In the afternoon of the same day, Yazov was removed from his post as Minister of Defense, and was later arrested and imprisoned for "state crimes". It was not until 1994 that he was pardoned by Russian State Duma .
Yazov
has a conclusion in history. He will never forget Russia until his death. Although the August 19th Incident failed, it undermined Gorbachev and made Yeltsin a hero supported by ten thousand people, and became a catalyst for the accelerated disintegration of the Soviet Union.
From this perspective, Yazov was still a contribution to Yeltsin's coming to power, but when Yeltsin was alive, he did not like this "membersman". It was just for the legitimacy of the Russian regime that he reluctantly quelled the August 19th Incident and released Yazov.
Until Putin After taking office, Yazov's situation changed a lot.
014, when Yazov's 90th birthday, Putin personally led the Minister of Defense Shoigu to attend his birthday party. Not only did he award him the Alexander Nevsky Medal , he also presented Yazov with his name and a saber.
Yazov and Shoigu
020, Yazov, who was 96 years old Husband died of illness at Moscow's home.
Putin visited his home in person before his death.
Azov, who had a strong sense of national crisis, was always worried about Russia, and China's rise from weak to strong had a great impact on him.
So, the first defense minister to visit China in the history of the Soviet Union, held Putin's hand tightly and said his last words earnestly: "Russia should take the Chinese path." "
As for how to go, he did not say it clearly, but Putin, who knows better about China, should know it well.
Marshal Yazov is an important figure in Soviet history that cannot be ignored. He made countless contributions throughout his life and received 45 medals of various types.
Yazov
In order not to disintegrate the country and collapse the army, he resolutely participated in the coup that overthrew Gorbachev. .
But when facing the unarmed people, he was able to insist on "not shooting", which won the respect of the Russian people.
As a reformist faction, he always cared about China's development and sent out a call to "take the Chinese road" at the end of his life.
As for how the Russian government chooses, the Russian people cannot control it. But it is certain that a nation that knows how to think will not sink forever.
