red moscow

Chapter 2772 Guards Commander
As the situation deteriorated, the situation in the Moscow direction became worse. In order to better defend the city, the Soviet High Command hastily formed the 1st Guards Infantry Army and prepared to appoint Lelyushchenko as the commander.

But just as the appointment was about to be made, something unexpected happened. Vlasov and Potapov, who were thought to be missing or captured, escaped from the German encirclement. Compared with these two, Lelyushchenko, the deputy director of the Automotive Armored Tank Headquarters, obviously lacked experience in commanding large troop groups. Therefore, three different opinions emerged on the appointment of the army commander, and Lelyushchenko, who was originally nominated, became one of the candidates.

At the meeting of the Supreme Command, Stalin, who was walking back and forth in the room with a pipe in his hand, asked: "Who of these three people should be appointed as the commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army?"

"Comrade Stalin," said General Ivanov, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, "since we have already decided to appoint General Lelyushchenko as the army commander, we should not easily adjust the original appointment."

Stalin waited for Ivanov to finish speaking, but did not immediately express his opinion. Instead, he asked the silent Voroshilov: "Comrade Voroshilov, what do you think of this appointment?"

Voroshilov raised his head, looked at Stalin walking back and forth, and said hesitantly: "I think General Lelyushchenko has not been to the front since the outbreak of the war. It is obviously inappropriate to let such a commander with no battlefield command experience serve as the commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army and take on the responsibility of defending Moscow. And Major General Potapov has been commanding operations at the front since the outbreak of the war and has accumulated rich and valuable combat experience. If he is appointed as the army commander, I think it is very suitable."

"Comrade Marshal," Ivanov immediately raised a rebuttal: "In the leaflets dropped by the Germans on our positions, it was mentioned that Major General Potapov, the former commander of the 5th Army, became their prisoner. How can we let a general who was once a prisoner of the enemy command such an important unit?"

"Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, can't you see that this is a German conspiracy?" Voroshilov, who had been sitting on the bench since returning from Leningrad, could not tolerate a commander of a lower rank than himself refuting him, so he said with a stern face: "If General Potapov really became a prisoner of the Germans, how could he appear in Moscow? I still insist on my opinion. Major General Potapov will be the commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army."

"What about General Vlasov?" Major General Vasilevsky, who was attending the meeting for the first time, expressed his opinion: "Can't he be the commander of the army?"

"I don't think he is suitable." Voroshilov shook his head and said, "Anyway, before the loss of Kiev, he served as the commander of the 37th Army and the commander of the Kiev garrison. If he is appointed as the army commander, it would be tantamount to demotion. What do you think, old friend?" His last words were directed to Budyonny who was sitting opposite him.

As we all know, in the famous 1st Cavalry Army in the s, Budyonny was the commander and Voroshilov was his political commissar. The two had a friendship of more than years. At this moment, Voroshilov threw the question to Budyonny, naturally hoping that the other party would support his opinion.

Sure enough, Budyonny nodded and said, "I agree with Marshal Voroshilov's proposal that General Potapov serve as the commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army."

Seeing that the two marshals had reached a consensus, Ivanov did not insist on his own point of view, but cast his eyes on Shaposhnikov not far away, wanting to hear his opinion. If he could agree with his proposal, then Lelyushchenko could take over the position of the commander of the Guards.

But the old marshal remained silent for a long time and did not speak. It was obvious that he was wondering who should take on the position of army commander.

Stalin saw that the meeting room had quieted down and knew that everyone was waiting for his decision, so he returned to his seat. However, he did not sit down, but leaned forward with his hands on the table: "Since Voroshilov and Budyonny both think that Major General Potapov is suitable for the position of commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army, then let him take the position of commander."

Seeing that Stalin agreed to his proposal, Voroshilov smiled and asked, "Comrade Stalin, Potapov is now a major general. Should his rank be adjusted accordingly?"

Stalin raised his eyebrows, said nothing, and just looked at Voroshilov quietly, trying to figure out why the other party made such a suggestion?
"Comrade Stalin, this is what happened," Voroshilov said. "The commander of the 16th Army, Rokossovsky, was a subordinate of Potapov before the outbreak of the war and held the rank of major general. Now he has been promoted to lieutenant general, while his former superior, Potapov, is still a major general. This is obviously not appropriate."

After listening to Voroshilov's explanation, Stalin nodded slightly and said, "If that's the case, then promote him to the rank of Lieutenant General. I hope his performance on the battlefield will not disappoint us."

That afternoon, Potapov, who was staying at the garrison headquarters, was taken to the General Staff, where the Chief of General Staff Shaposhnikov personally spoke to him: "Comrade Potapov, after the Supreme Command's research and decision, you are appointed commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army and will immediately go to the Oryol-Tula direction to build a new defense."

"Thank you for the trust you placed in me by the Supreme Command." Potapov vowed to Shaposhnikov, "I will never let you down and will resolutely stop the Germans from advancing towards Moscow."

Shaposhnikov was very satisfied with Potapov's statement. He nodded and then asked politely: "General Potapov, if you have any requests, please let us know. As long as we can do it, we will meet your request."

Hearing Shaposhnikov's words, Potapov immediately remembered his conversation with Sokov and said quickly: "Comrade Marshal, I have a request. I hope that Captain Sokov can be assigned to my command. I lack a commander as talented as him."

Unexpectedly, Shaposhnikov frowned after hearing this and asked in confusion: "What does Captain Sokov do that deserves your attention?"

Vasilevsky, who was standing nearby, asked Potapov, "General Potapov, is the Captain Sokov you mentioned the one who received the Order of Lenin in August?"

"Yes, that's him." Potapov nodded and added, "He was promoted to the rank of captain at the same time as he was awarded the medal."

After Vasilevsky found out Sokov's identity, he quickly leaned close to Shaposhnikov's ear and whispered to the old marshal what he knew in detail. Shaposhnikov didn't take it seriously at first. After all, the war had been going on for so long, and there were countless people who had made contributions. One Lenin medal didn't mean much. But after hearing about the contributions Sokov had awarded, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised.

After Vasilevsky finished speaking, Shaposhnikov asked, "General Potapov, where is Captain Sokov now?"

"He is at the garrison headquarters at the moment."

"The garrison headquarters?" Shaposhnikov asked curiously, "Is he affiliated with the garrison headquarters?"

"No, Comrade Marshal." Potapov explained quickly, "He is a subordinate of General Vlasov, the commander of the 37th Army. After we escaped from the German encirclement, Marshal Timoshenko sent us back to Moscow by plane and temporarily settled us in the garrison headquarters."

"Oh, so that's what happened." Shaposhnikov nodded and said carelessly, "Since he has nothing to do now, let him follow you. As for Vlasov, I will say hello to him."

In this way, without Sokov's knowledge, he went from being Vlasov's subordinate to being Potapov's subordinate.

When Potapov returned to the garrison headquarters, not only did the number of gold stars on his collar badge increase from two to three, he also brought back a transfer order signed by Marshal Shaposhnikov himself.

After getting off the car, he went straight to Vlasov's room. Seeing Potapov coming, Vlasov couldn't help but be curious about the extra star on his collar badge: "Potapov, have you been promoted?"

"Yes, Vlasov," Potapov said with a smile, "I was not only promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, but also appointed commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army."

"General Potapov." Vlasov was stunned at first, then he stretched out his hand to Potapov and said enthusiastically: "I would like to express my sincere congratulations to you on your promotion to a higher military rank."

"Thank you!" After shaking hands with Vlasov, Potapov took out a transfer order from his pocket: "Vlasov, this is a transfer order signed by Marshal Shaposhnikov himself, allowing Captain Sokov to join my 1st Guards Infantry Army from now on."

Vlasov's face changed. He was very unhappy when Potapov tried to recruit Sokov in front of him yesterday. He didn't expect that today the other party would directly make Sokov his subordinate through Marshal Shaposhnikov.

But no matter how dissatisfied he was, Vlasov also understood that since it was an order from his superiors, he could only obey unconditionally and there was no room for bargaining at all.

He handed the transfer order back to Potapov and said with a forced smile: "General Potapov, although Captain Sokov has not been in the army for a long time, through my contact with him, I think he is an excellent commander. He should be able to achieve more merits by following you."

Potapov originally thought that even with Shaposhnikov's transfer order, Vlasov would not let Sokov go easily, but he did not expect the other party to agree so readily.

When Vlasov was escorting Potapov out of the room, he happened to meet Colonel Del and Nikolsky who came to see Vlasov.

The two were equally surprised to see the change in Potapov's military rank.

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As soon as the three returned to the house, Colonel Del couldn't wait to ask Vlasov: "Comrade Commander, I saw that Potapov's rank has been changed to Lieutenant General. What's going on?"

"He has just been promoted to lieutenant general and is also the commander of the newly formed 1st Guards Infantry Army."

"My God, he is so lucky to be appointed as the commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Army." Colonel Del said with emotion, "And the four of us have to stay here and continue to wait. I wonder how long our superiors will wait before assigning us new positions."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are wrong." Vlasov corrected Colonel Del: "Not four people, but three people. Captain Sokov is no longer our subordinate from now on."

"What's going on?" Del asked in confusion, "We haven't even been assigned new positions yet, so who would assign a new position to Captain Sokov?"

"General Potapov just brought a transfer order signed by Marshal Shaposhnikov himself," Vlasov said with a sigh, "Captain Sokov was transferred to the 1st Guards Rifle Corps. That means from now on, Captain Sokov is a subordinate of General Potapov."

"What? Captain Sokov became General Potapov's subordinate?" Colonel Del frowned when he heard Vlasov say that. "General Potapov knew that Captain Sokov was an officer of the 37th Army. How could he poach our men?"

"There's nothing we can do." Vlasov shook his head and said, "From today on, the 37th Army has been officially disbanded. Our future is uncertain. How can we waste our time by keeping a talented commander like Captain Sokov by our side? Maybe he can achieve even more brilliant feats by following Potapov."

"Comrade Commander, you are right." Nikolsky agreed, "With Captain Sokov's ability, it shouldn't be a big problem for him to achieve great feats. But unfortunately, these feats have nothing to do with us anymore."

As soon as Potapov came out of Vlasov's room, he went to find Sokov.

Sokov, who was chatting with several familiar soldiers in the restaurant, saw Potapov walking in from outside.

He saw the other person standing at the door and looking around for a while, then he strode towards where he was. Seeing this, Sokov guessed that the other person might be looking for him, so he stood up quickly. When he was about to speak, he unexpectedly found that the original two stars on Potapov's collar badge had become three stars, which meant that he had just been promoted.

"Captain Sokov, do you have time now?" Potapov asked, "I want to talk to you alone."

Sokov quickly replied: "Yes, yes, Comrade General, I have time now."

When the soldiers sitting nearby heard Potapov say that he had something to discuss with Sokov, they immediately stood up and left, making room for the two men.

After Potapov sat down at the table, he made a gesture to Sokov: "Captain Sokov, don't stand, please take a seat."

After Sokov sat down, he asked directly: "General Potapov, did you come to me to ask me to be your subordinate?"

"Yes." Potapov did not hide anything, but said truthfully: "I really need a subordinate as good as you. I wonder if you will accept my invitation?"

"General Potapov," Sokov replied solemnly, "I am now serving under General Vlasov. If you can get me a transfer order, I would be happy to serve under you."

"Since you said so, I feel relieved." Potapov said, taking out the transfer order from his pocket and placing it in front of Sokov: "This is your transfer order, signed by the Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Shaposhnikov himself."

(End of this chapter)