Semyon Timoshenko

Biography

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was born on February 18, 1895, in Furmanka, in what is now Ukraine. He was a cavalryman who had fought in World War I and the Russian Civil War, rising to senior rank in the Red Army. Uniquely among senior Soviet generals, he had survived the Great Purge essentially intact — his political loyalty to Stalin was beyond question, and he had the instincts to maintain it. When Stalin appointed Timoshenko to replace the disgraced Meretskov in January 1940, he was given a clear mandate: end the Finnish embarrassment quickly. Timoshenko reorganized the Soviet forces into the Northwestern Front, bringing in fresh divisions, enormous quantities of artillery, and — crucially — a month of preparation time before the next major offensive. He also brought a fundamentally different doctrine: no more frontal infantry assaults against prepared positions without devastating artillery preparation. The Finns had proven that Soviet infantry alone could not crack the Mannerheim Line. Artillery would do the cracking. Timoshenko's February 11, 1940 offensive was a model of methodical firepower application. A preliminary bombardment of historic scale — over 3,000 guns firing for days — pulverized the Finnish defenses at Summa before infantry and armor advanced. The exhausted Finnish defenders, desperately short of ammunition and replacements after 75 days of continuous combat, could not plug the gaps. The Mannerheim Line was broken in days. Timoshenko went on to become one of the most important Soviet commanders of World War II, serving as People's Commissar of Defense after Voroshilov's failure and commanding major operations in Ukraine and elsewhere. He was one of the few senior commanders Stalin trusted with strategic authority. He died in 1970, a Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Key Battles