Russia's Reshuffle Of Red Army Leaders

Chronicle (Levin), 31 March 1949, Page 5

Russia's Reshuffle Of Red Army Leaders

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, March. 30. Marshal Sokolovsky as First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces, will sue-c-fM'd Marslial Vassilevsky whose appniutmcnt as Minister of the Armed poi c- in succession to Marshal Bulgaiiin wa.- anuoun -ed on March 25, sajs Ihe l'.ritish United Press's Moscow correspoinli'iit. Fourteen Russian leaders — politii-al and military — have now heen involved yi the big Moscow clmnges of the last nionth heginning witli the resliunie in the Ministries ot Foreign Afi'airs and Foreign Trade when Messrs Molotov and Nikoyan were replaced. Reuter \s Moscow i-orrespondent says Marshal Uhuikov goes to Berlin from the jjosl of Soviet Military Administrator in Thuringia. The Moscow radio says Chuikov's title. will be commander-in-chief of the Soviet occupation troops in Germany and head of the Soviet military administration in (iermany. The Moseow radio announcement said: "The Council of Ministers of the U.S.K.R. lias appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I). •Sokolovsky, First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces. He is siniultaneously relieved of His post as commander of the liussian occupation forces in Germany. He is also relieved of his duties as head of the Russian military administration in Germany. The Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.It. has appointed General V. 1. Chuikov as commander-in-chief of the Russian occupation troops in Germany and head of the Russian military administration in Germany." Reuter's Moscow correspondent says Chuikov was promoted to the rank of army general last autumn. He was responsible for repelling the main German assault on Stalingrad in the summer of 1942, and later his troops dic tinguished themselves in the Russian breakthrough to the Lower Dnieper River. Ile was mentioned by Mr. Stalin in an Order of the Dav for his part in tlie Russian advance to the Western Bug River in 1944, and later awarded the title of Ilero of the Soviet Union. At the fall of Berlin it was to him that ■ General Wiedling, commander of the Berlin garrison, carae to sign the document of surrender. Marshal Sokolovsky has earried on the Berlin blockade. He is the man who walked out from the Allied Controi Council in Berlin last spring and precipitated the crisis. Ihe British licensed Xews Agency in Berlin reported on March 18 that Marshal Sokolovsky liad left Berlin for Moscow. It quoted well-informed quarters in Berlin as supposing that he liad been called to the Kremlin for a conference of all the Soviet com- ; manders-in-chief. ;