Semyon Timoshenko

Soviet military commander (1895-1970)

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Lived 1895–1970, aged 75

Wikipedia
52 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1895–1970
Aged 75
Awards
40
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

One of Stalin's most trusted generals, he saved the Red Army twice — first dragging victory from disaster in Finland in 1940, then mounting the counter-offensive at Rostov in late 1941 that proved the Wehrmacht could be stopped.

Biography

About

Born to a Ukrainian family in Bessarabia in 1895, Timoshenko rode with the Tsar's cavalry in the First World War, then switched sides when the revolution came. He fought through the Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War with enough distinction to catch Lenin's and Stalin's eye, climbed the ranks through the 1930s, and emerged alive from the Great Purge. After leading troops into Poland in 1939, he inherited the floundering Finnish campaign in early 1940 and turned it around; by May he was Marshal of the Soviet Union and Commissar for Defence, scrambling to modernise the Red Army before Hitler st…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Semyon Timoshenko

Semyon Timoshenko

said1946

The Red Army must keep its powder dry and be in constant mobilization and preparedness.

— Quoted in "Soviet Politics at Home and Abroad" - Page 414 - by Frederick Lewis Schuman - History - 1946

Semyon Timoshenko

said1942

We have fine troops, they are inured.

— Quoted in "Timoshenko: Marshal of the Red Army" - Page 89 - by Walter Mehring - 1942

Semyon Timoshenko

said1942

We'll spin them out like a bobbin thread.

— To Ralph Parker, about the Nazis. Quoted in "Timoshenko: Marshal of the Red Army" - Page 91 - by Walter Mehring - 1942

Semyon Timoshenko

said1941

We are harassing them and will go on harassing them until they are totally exhausted.

— Autumn, 1941. Quoted in "The Great Offensive: The Strategy of Coalition Warfare" - Page 116 - by Max Werner, Alexander Schriffin, Heinz

Semyon Timoshenko

said1938

Peoples of all the warring countries are trying to put an end to the war, to establish peace. And we believe that they will get peace. And the sooner they get peace the better.

— Quoted in "The American review on the Soviet Union" - Page 10 - by American Russian Institute - 1938

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