"A brilliant commander of the Great Patriotic War" - this is how Marshal K. E. Voroshilov in 1949 called his article written for the 70th anniversary of I. V. Stalin. In those years, there probably would not have been a person who would have publicly challenged this statement. Once an axiom, however, it has been the subject of controversy since the XX Congress of the CPSU. The fact that Stalin was the only person to hold the title of Generalissimo of the Soviet Union and was awarded two Orders of Victory (in 1944 and 1945) does not make him a military genius. Iosif Vissarionovich wore marshal's shoulder straps with pleasure, loved it when people remembered it, especially in comparison with the leaders of the allied countries (our press wrote:"...Marshal Stalin, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill"). It should be borne in mind that the Soviet leader in the army, strictly speaking, never served, never systematically studied military affairs and became a Marshal of the Soviet Union, without having a single military rank before. His participation in the civil war was of a specific nature: as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and several fronts, he performed mainly political and administrative functions that had nothing to do with military command. However, it should be noted that Stalin himself often intervened in the operational activities of the military command. Of course, he was not a commander in the original sense of the word, even during the Great Patriotic War. It would be more accurate to refer to him as a military leader and assess his contributions to our victory based on this fact. During the war, Stalin held almost all the highest positions in the state, including that of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and as a political leader, he undoubtedly had many strengths. Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky, who met him more often than other commanders, recalled: "J. V. Stalin had not only a natural mind, but also surprisingly great knowl ... Читать далее