ANDREY ANTONOVICH GRECHKO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000200140133-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2005
• Sequence Number: 133
• Publication Date: January 22, 1969
• Content Type: BIO

Approved For Release 2005/06/06: CIA-RDP74B00415R000200140133-4
USSR Minister of Defense
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Andrey Antonovich GRECHKO
A career soldier with almost half a century of service in the Soviet
Armed Forces, Marshal of the Soviet Union Grechko has served as Defense
Minister since April 1967, following the death of his predecessor, R. Ya.
Malinovskiy. Grechko had been a First Deputy Minister of Defense since
1957 and Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Forces since 1960. From
1957 until his appointment to the Warsaw Pact post, he continued the Soviet
Ground Forces. A Party member since 1928, he was elected a candidate mem-
ber of the CPSU Central Committee in 1952 and promoted to full membership
in 1961.
Grechko was born on 4 October 1903 at Kuybyshevo (formerly Golodayevka)
in Rostov Oblast', RSFSR. He volunteered for the Red Army in 1919 and
joined the Komsomol a year later. Concurrent with service in cavalry units
after the Civil War, Grechko continued his education, graduating as a
junior officer from the Taganrog Cavalry School in 1926 and from the impor-
tant Frunze Military Academy in 1935. Grechko's subsequent service as com-
mander of an infantry regiment and later as chief of staff of a cavalry
division during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 was apparently satis-
factory for he was posted thereafter to the Military Academy of the General.
Staff, the top Soviet military school. Ke.graduated from the academy in
19=:1 and, the same year, was promoted to major general. Grechko received
his first major command in April 1942 when he was put in charge of the 12th
Army, which was defending the Donets Basin andte North Caucasus. Badly
defeated in a German offensive, the 12th Army was withdrawn and, in Septem-
ber of 1942, Grechko was appointed commander of the 47th Army of the Trans-
caucasus Front. Later that month he was again transferred, this time to
chic 15th Army which he commanded until December when he was transferred to
the 56th Army, still on the Transcaucasian Front. While commander of the
18th Army he came into contact with L. I. Brezhnev, now Party General Secre-
tary and then the chief political officer of the 18th Army. From January
to October 1943 (participating in the general Soviet offensive begun at
Stalingrad), Grechko's 56th Army was involved in heavy fighting during a
successful campaign to expel the Germans from the North Caucasus. Soon
after the Caucasus victory, Lieutenant General Grechko was transferred to
the First Ukrainian Front, promoted to colonel general, and given command
of the First Guards Army, which he commanded for the remainder of the war.
In August 1944, when Grechko's army was transferred to the 4th Ukrainian
Front, he again came into contact with Brezhnev, who then headed the Front's
Political. Directorate. Grechko's association with N. S. Khrushchev proba-
bly began during Grechko's service in the First Ukrainian Front, of which
Khrushchev was chief political advisor..
For the next eight years after the end of the war, Grechko commanded
the Kiev Military District, Khrushchev's political stronghold, and also
served as a member of the Ukrainian Party Central Committee. Grechko was
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Andrey Antonovich GRECHKO (cont.
elected a candidate member of that party's Politburo in 1949 and served as
a full member from 1952 to 1953.
After the death of Stalin and subsequent increase in Khrushchev's
authority, Grcchko's career took a sudden upturn with his appointment in
1953 as commander-in-chief of the elite Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
((-,S'_'G). As GS.-,'G commander, Grechko directed the suppression of the 1953
Berlin uprising. He was identified as an army general in November and, two
years later, was c.mon a group of World War II associates of Khrushchev who
were promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union. In November 1957, soon after
the removal of Defense Minister G. K. Zhukov, Grechko was recalled to Mos-
cow to take up his duties as First Deputy Minister of Defense and as Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces. These new positions made him the
second most powerful man in the armed forces. In 1960 Grechko was ap-
pointed Cormander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Forces, replacing war hero
I. S. Konev. During Defense Minister Malinovskiy's frequent illnesses,
Grechko served as acting defense minister.
Grechko's year and a half in office has coincided with significant
changes and ir,,provcments in the de ense posture of the Soviet Armed Forces.
The once neglected Ground Forces have been re-established as a separate
command; military exercises, exceeding in size all previous ones, are held
regularly and are consistent with Grech;.co's repeated insistence on the
importance of combat readiness.
A strong proponent of military professionalism, Grechko is probably
more independent than was his predecessor, Xalinovskiy. The enlarged
military budget for 1968 may indicate increased ability by the military
to sell their programs to the Party leadership. Grechko has stated that
ideology does not have answers for specific, practical military questions
and has publicly blamed Stalin for reverses suffered by the Soviet Armed
Forces at the beginning of the Second World War, thereby questioning the
propriety of Party control over military decision making.
Grechko has received :;any awards, including several foreign ones. In
1958--13 years after the end of the war--Grechko received the title "Hero
of the Soviet Union" for his heroism during the Second World War. He has
received five Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders
of Suvorov, first class, and Order of Suvorov, second class, the Order of
Kutuzov, first class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel'nitskiy, an Order of the
Red Star, and other medals and awards. He was named to the Presidium of
the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet in 1947 and 1951. Since 1946 Grechko has
been deputy to the Council of the Union, Supreme Soviet USSR. He has been
a member of the Council's Foreign Affairs Commission since 1954, and. in
1966 was elected a member of its Credentials and Constitutional Commissions.
22 January 1969
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Marshal Andrey A. Grechko, Soviet Defense Minister
GRECHKO items
23 Feb 71 PRAVDA
12 Mar 71 KOMMUNIST #4
27 Mar 71 RED STAR
2 Apr 71 24th CPSU Congress
9 May 71 PRAVDA
Moscow MORSKOY SBORNIK #7, July 1971
15 Oct 71 Mtg of armed forces ideological workers
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Reference Aid
Appearances of Soviet Leaders
January 1970-December 1971
A 71-3
February 1971
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NAME SPEECH/ARTICLE.
y., L? (,Central Committee' Report to 24th CPSU.. Congress, 30 Mar 71
Preelection speech, 11 Jun 71
KOSYGIN, A. 21.th CPSU Congress, 6 Apr 71
Preelection speech, 9 Jun 71
Report to USSR Supreme Soviet, 2Z. Nov 71
SUSLOV, M. Kremlin, October Revolution anniversary, 6 Nov 70
PODGORtdYY, N. Hanoi, 4 Oct 71
YAKUBOVSKIY, 1. Marshal MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL ##3, 17 Feb 71
PRAVDA, 11i May 71
GRISHIN, V. Kremlin, October Revolution anniversary, 6 Nov 71
GROMYKO, A. 24th CPSU Congress, 3 Apr 71
United Nations General Assembly, 28 Sept 71
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