World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseDmitry Grigorevich Pavlov was born in Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire in 1897. He saw action in WW1 and the Russian Civil War (on the side of the Communists) before attending the M. V. Frunze Military Academy, graduating in 1928. In the 1930s, he commanded various cavalry and mechanized units in Central Asia and in Europe. Between 1936 and 1937, under the nom de guerre "Pablo", he commanded a tank brigade on the side of the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War; for his service in Spain, he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. After returning to the Soviet Union, he was made the Head of the Directorate of Tank and Armored Car Troops of the Red Army; in this role, he developed tactics that limited tanks as infantry support weapons. In 1940, he was named the commander of the Western Special Military District in Byelorussia. In Feb 1941, he was promoted to the high rank of General of the Army. When the Germans turned against their Soviet allies, Pavlov's district suffered a series of defeats, especially the Battle of Bialystok-Minsk, for which he was relieved of command. The NKVD found him guilty of cowardice and mismanagement and executed him by gunfire in Moscow in Jul 1941. He was buried in a landfill. He was posthumously exonerated in 1956.

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