View source for Pavel Rybalko

{{Infobox military person
| name = Pavel Semyonovich Rybalko
| birth_date ={{OldStyleDate|4 November|1894|23 October}}
| death_date={{Death date and age|df=yes|1948|8|28|1894|11|4}}
| birth_place = [[Kharkov Governorate]], {{nowrap|[[Russian Empire]]}}<br><small>(present-day [[Ukraine]])</small>
| death_place = [[Moscow]], USSR
| image = Pavel Rybalko 2.jpg
| caption = Rybalko in 1938
| allegiance = Soviet Union
| serviceyears = 1914–1948
| rank = [[Marshal of the armored troops]]
| commands = 3rd Tank Army<br />57th Army<br />[[3rd Guards Tank Army]]
| unit =
| battles = 
{{tree list}}
* [[World War I]]
* [[Russian Civil War]]
* [[Polish–Soviet War]]
* [[World War II]]
** [[Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive]]
** [[Vistula–Oder Offensive]]
** [[Upper Silesian Offensive]]
** [[Battle of Berlin]]
** [[Prague Offensive]]
{{tree list/end}}
| awards = [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (2)
| laterwork = Commander of Armoured Forces of the Red Army
}}
'''Pavel Semyonovich Rybalko''' ({{langx|ru|Па́вел Семёнович Рыба́лко}}, {{langx|uk|Павло́ Семе́нович Риба́лко}}; 23 October 1894 – 28 August 1948) was a commander of armoured troops in the [[Red Army]] during and following [[World War II]].

==Early life and career==
Pavel Rybalko served in the Russian and later the Soviet Army from 1914. He served during [[World War I]] as a soldier, as an assistant commander of the partisan squadron during the [[Russian Civil War]], and as a [[cavalry]] commander and a commander and instructor during the [[Polish-Soviet War]]. After attending the Frunze Military Academy in 1931 to 1934, he served in the [[Far East]] in 1935 and was afterwards assigned to the Auto-Armoured Tank Directorate in [[Moscow]].

During that period, he studied intensively the principles of modern armoured warfare, as developed by the western theorists (Generals [[Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist|von Kleist]], [[Heinz Guderian|Guderian]] and [[J.F.C. Fuller|Fuller]]), as well as the doctrine of "[[deep operations]]," as theorized by [[Vladimir Triandafillov|Triandafillov]] and [[Tukhachevsky]]. His next assignments were as [[military attaché]] in Poland, where he was the last military attaché and left a few days before the [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|Soviet invasion]], and in China. He then took a post of lecturer in tactics at the [[Kazan]] tank school.

==World War II==
Very surprisingly and to his extreme frustration, Rybalko spent the first year of the war as a lecturer in Kazan. He finally got an operational assignment in May 1942, as deputy commander of the [[3rd Tank Army (Soviet Union)|3rd Tank Army]] of the [[Reserve of the Supreme High Command]]. Throughout the war, Rybalko's name was closely associated with the 3rd Tank Army. In the winter of 1942–1943, included in the [[Voronezh Front]], his army spearheaded the different operations that tried to exploit and transform the Germans' defeat in Stalingrad into a large-scale strategic victory in the southern theater of operations. That included [[Operation Star]] in February, which was aimed at the liberation of [[Kharkov]], one of the first major Soviet cities to be reconquered by the Red Army. However, [[Erich von Manstein]]'s [[Third Battle of Kharkov|counteroffensive recaptured the city]] and inflicted serious damages to the exhausted and overextended 3rd Tank Army.
[[File:Pavel Rybalko 1.jpg|thumb|left|Commander of the 3rd Tank Army,  Pavel Rybalko among the tank soldiers, Spring 1943]]
Refitted and renamed the 3rd [[Guards unit (USSR)|Guards]] Tank Army, Rybalko's army played crucial roles in the strategic counteroffensives that followed the [[Battle of Kursk]] ([[Operation Kutuzov]]), in the [[Battle of Kiev (1943)|recapture of Kiev]] (6 November 1943). The winter and the spring of 1944 saw a succession of large operations, aiming at the destruction of the southern wing of the [[Wehrmacht]]. Operations ([[Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive|Zhitomir-Berdichev]] in December 1943 to January 1944 and [[Proskurov-Chernivtsi Offensive|Proskurov-Chernivtsi]] in March to April 1944) succeeded at least in the complete liberation of [[Ukraine]] by the end of the summer. During the various operations, Rybalko showed impressive tactical and operational skills, particularly during the [[Lvov-Sandomierz Operation]].

Still in command of his [[3rd Guards Tank Army]], Rybalko took a major place in the various operations that were launched in North Ukraine: [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]] (summer 1944) and [[Silesian Offensives|Silesia]] (late 1944 and winter 1945). Finally, as part of [[Ivan Konev]]'s [[1st Ukrainian Front]], Rybalko's army was one of the four Guards Tank armies engaged in the giant [[Battle for Berlin]].

Immediately after the capture of [[Berlin]], Rybalko and his tank army were tasked with the assault on the city in the [[Prague offensive]] and on 9 May liberated [[Prague]].

==Postwar==
After the war, he became commander of the mechanized forces of the Red Army.
[[File:Могила Маршала Павла Рыбалко.JPG|thumb|Grave of Pavel Rybalko at the Novodevichy Cemetery ]]
He emerged from the war as one of the most brilliant Soviet tank commanders. He fully understood the nature of armoured warfare and mastered the operational aspects of armoured armies command.

He died in 1948 of kidney disease and was buried in [[Novodevichy Cemetery]].

==Legacy==
The [[Tashkent Higher Tank Command School]] is named after him.

==Awards and decorations==
===Soviet Union===
{|
|-
|[[File:Hero of the Soviet Union medal.png|20px]] [[File:Hero of the Soviet Union medal.png|20px]]
|[[Hero of the Soviet Union]], twice (17 November 1943, 6 April 1945)
|-
|[[File:Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png|60px]]
|[[Order of Lenin]], twice (17 November 1943, 21 February 1945)
|-
|[[File:Order of Red Banner ribbon bar.png|60px]]
|[[Order of the Red Banner]], thrice (1921, 3 November 1944, 1948)
|-
|[[File:Order suvorov1 rib.png|60px]]
|[[Order of Suvorov]], 1st class, thrice (28 January 1943, 25 August 1944, 29 May 1945)
|-
|[[File:Order kutuzov1 rib.png|60px]]
|[[Order of Kutuzov]], 1st class (27 August 1943)
|-
|[[File:SU_Order_of_Bogdan_Khmelnitsky_1st_class_ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union)|Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky]], 1st class (29 May 1944)
|-
|[[File:Ribbon bar for the medal for the Defense of Moscow.png|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"]] (1 May 1944)
|-
|[[File:Defstalingrad.png|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"]] (22 December 1942)
|-
|[[File:SU_Medal_For_the_Liberation_of_Prague_ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Liberation of Prague"]] (9 June 1945)
|-
|[[File:Caputureberlin_rib.png|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Capture of Berlin"]] (9 June 1945)
|-
||[[File:Order_of_Glory_Ribbon_Bar.png|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]] (1945)
|-
|[[File:20_years_saf_rib.png|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"]] (24 January 1938)
|-
|[[File:30 years saf rib.png|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"]] (22 February 1948)
|-
|[[File:800thMoscowRibbon.png|60px]]
|[[Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"]] (20 September 1947)
|-
|}

===Foreign===
{|
|-
|[[File:CZE_Rad_Bileho_Lva_3_tridy_BAR.svg|60px]]
|Grand Cross of the [[Order of the White Lion]] ([[Czechoslovakia]])
|-
|[[File:TCH_CS_Vojensky_Rad_Bileho_Lva_2nd_(1945)_BAR.svg|60px]]
|[[Military Order of the White Lion]] "For Victory", 2nd class (Czechoslovakia)
|-
|[[File:Czechoslovak_War_Cross_1939-1945_Ribbon.png|60px]]
|[[Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945|War Cross 1939–1945]], twice (Czechoslovakia)
|-
|[[File:POL_Virtuti_Militari_Kawalerski_BAR.svg|60px]]
|Knight of the [[Virtuti Militari]] ([[Polish People's Republic|Poland]])
|-
|[[File:POL_Order_Krzyża_Grunwaldu_3_Klasy_BAR.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of the Cross of Grunwald]], 3rd class (Poland)
|-
|[[File:POL_Medal_za_Odrę_Nysę_i_Bałtyk_BAR.svg|60px]]
|[[Medal "For Oder, Neisse and the Baltic"]] (Poland)
|-
|[[File:POL_Medal_Zwycięstwa_i_Wolności_BAR.svg|60px]] 
|[[Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945]] (Poland)
|-
|}

==External links==
* {{in lang|en}} [http://www.generals.dk/general/Rybalko/Pavel_Semenovich/Soviet_Union.html Biography on Generals.dk]
* {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=359 Biography]
* ''Stalin's Generals'', Harold Shukman Ed, Richard Woff, Phoenix Book, 2001
* ''Red Army Tank Commanders'', Richard N. Armstrong, Schiffer Publishing, 1994
{{Commons category}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rybalko, Pavel}}
[[Category:1892 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sumy Oblast]]
[[Category:People from Lebedinsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Soviet Marshals of Tank Troops]]
[[Category:Soviet military attachés]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Ukrainian people of World War II]]
[[Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union), 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Virtuti Militari (1943–1989)]]
[[Category:Knights of the Virtuti Militari]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Order of the White Lion]]
[[Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery]]
[[Category:Military personnel of the 1st Cavalry Army]]