Marshal of the Soviet Union


Marshal of the Soviet Union was the highest military rank of the Soviet Union.
The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in 1991, and forty-one people held this rank. The equivalent naval rank was until 1955 admiral of the fleet and from 1955 Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. Both ranks were comparable to NATO rank codes OF-10.
While the supreme rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, which would have been senior to Marshal of the Soviet Union, was proposed for Joseph Stalin after the Second World War, it was never officially approved.

History of the rank

The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars, on 22 September 1935. On 20 November, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik Kliment Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Alexander Ilyich Yegorov, and three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher, Semyon Budyonny, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
Of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevsky, and Yegorov were executed during Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. On 7 May 1940, three new Marshals were appointed: the new People's Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, and Grigory Kulik.
During World War II, Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was given to a number of military commanders who earned it on merit. These included Georgy Zhukov, Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1945, he was joined by his intelligence and police chief Lavrenti Beria. These non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin.
Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, and Ustinov, who was prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 during the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Marshals fell into three generational groups.
All Marshals in the third category had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev, who had been a commissar and Ustinov, who had been People's Commissar for Armaments. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander.
The rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, which has been held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, who was Russian Defence Minister from 1997 to 2001.

List of Marshals of the Soviet Union

Note: All Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Non-Military Marshals, had at least started their military careers in the Army. The Service Arms listed are the services they served in during their respective tenures as Marshals of the Soviet Union.
NamePhotoLifespanPromotedService Arm or Background
Voroshilov, KlimentKliment Voroshilov1881–1969Political
Tukhachevsky, MikhailMikhail Tukhachevsky1893–1937Army
Yegorov, AlexanderAlexander Yegorov18831025–1939Army
Budyonny, SemyonSemyon Budyonny18830425–1973Army
Blyukher, VasilyVasily Blyukher18901201–1938Army
Timoshenko, SemyonSemyon Timoshenko18951218–1970Army
Kulik, GrigoryGrigory Kulik18901109–1950Army
Shaposhnikov, BorisBoris Shaposhnikov1882–1945Army
Zhukov, SergeiGeorgy Zhukov18961201–1974Army
Vasilevsky, AleksandrAleksandr Vasilevsky18950930–1977Army
Stalin, JosephJoseph Stalin1878–1953Political
Konev, IvanIvan Konev18971228–1973Army
Govorov, LeonidLeonid Govorov18970222–1955Army
Rokossovsky, KonstantinKonstantin Rokossovsky18961220–1968Army
Malinovsky, RodionRodion Malinovsky18981123–1967Army
Tolbukhin, FyodorFyodor Tolbukhin1894–1949Army
Meretskov, KirillKirill Meretskov18970607–1968Army
Beria, LavrentiyLavrentiy Beria1899–1953NKVD/MGB
Sokolovsky, VasilyVasily Sokolovsky18970721–1968Army
Bulganin, NikolaiNikolai Bulganin18950530–1975Political
Bagramyan, IvanIvan Bagramyan18971202–1982Army
Biryuzov, SergeySergey Biryuzov19040821–1964Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
Grechko, AndreiAndrei Grechko19030117–1976Army
Yeremenko, AndreiAndrei Yeremenko1892–1970Army
Moskalenko, KirillKirill Moskalenko1902–1985Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
Chuikov, VasilyVasily Chuikov19000212–1982Army
Zakharov, MatveiMatvei Zakharov18980817–1972Army
Golikov, FilippFilipp Golikov19000629–1980Army
Krylov, Nikolay IvanovichNikolay Krylov19030429–1972Army/Strategic Rocket Forces
Yakubovsky, IvanIvan Yakubovsky1912–1976Army
Batitsky, PavelPavel Batitsky1910–1984Air Defence
Koshevoy, PyotrPyotr Koshevoy19041221–1976Army
Brezhnev, LeonidLeonid Brezhnev1906–1982Political
Ustinov, DmitriyDmitriy Ustinov1908–1984Defence Industry
Kulikov, ViktorViktor Kulikov19211921–2013Army
Ogarkov, NikolaiNikolai Ogarkov19171030–1994Army
Sokolov, SergeiSergey Sokolov1911 1911–2012Army
Akhromeyev, SergeiSergey Akhromeyev19230505–1991Army
Kurkotkin, SemyonSemyon Kurkotkin19170213–1990Army
Petrov, Vasily IvanovichVasily Petrov19170115 1917–2014Army
Yazov, DmitryDmitry Yazov192311081924–2020Army