Marshal of the Soviet Union

Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian: Маршал Советского Союза, romanized: Marshal sovetskogo soyuza, pronounced [ˈmarʂəl sɐˈvʲetskəvə sɐˈjuzə]) was the highest military rank of the Soviet Union.

Marshal of the Soviet Union
Маршал Советского Союза
Marshal's star – big
Uniform shoulder strap (1955–1990)
Country Soviet Union
Service branch Soviet Army
RankGeneral officer
Formation22 September 1935
AbolishedDecember 1991
Next higher rankNone (Generalissimus)
Next lower rankChief marshal of the branch
General of the Army
Equivalent ranksAdmiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union
Rank insignias of Marshal of the Soviet Union
Gorget patch
1935–40
Gorget patch
1940–43
Sleeve chevron
1940–43
Shoulder board
1943–55
Peaked cap
1943–91

The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. Forty-one people held this rank. The equivalent naval rank was until 1955 admiral of the fleet and from 1955 Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union.

While the supreme rank of Generalissimus of the Soviet Union, which would have been senior to Marshal of the Soviet Union, was proposed for Joseph Stalin after the Second World War, it was never officially approved.

History of the rank
The first five marshals of the Soviet Union from left to right: Tukhachevsky, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Blyukher, and Yegorov. Only Budyonny and Voroshilov would survive the Great Purge.

The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), on 22 September 1935. On 20 November, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik Kliment Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Alexander Yegorov, and three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher, Semyon Budyonny, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

Of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevsky, and Yegorov were executed during Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. On 7 May 1940, three new Marshals were appointed: the new People's Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, and Grigory Kulik.

During World War II, Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was given to a number of military commanders who earned it on merit. These included Georgy Zhukov, Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1945, he was joined by his intelligence and police chief Lavrenti Beria. These non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin.

Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, and Dmitry Ustinov, who was prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 during the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Marshals fell into three generational groups.

  • Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War. These included both those who were purged in 1937–38 (Blyukher, Tukhachevsky, and Yegorov), and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II (Budyonny, Kulik, Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko and Voroshilov). All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved out-of-step with modern warfare and were removed from commanding positions.
  • Those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Vasilievsky, Konev, Rokossovsky, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin, Govorov, Meretskov and Sokolovsky.
  • Those who assumed high command in the Cold War era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact or as Soviet Defence Ministers. These included Grechko, Yakubovsky, Kulikov, Ogarkov, Akhromeev, and Yazov.

All Marshals in the third category had been officers in World War II, except Ustinov, who had been People's Commissar for Armaments. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander. Brezhnev was not a professional soldier, but was still commissioned as a political commissar in the war.

Of the 35 Marshals who were career soldiers, the majority were of Russian origin. Timoshenko (Tymoshenko), Kulik (Kulyk), Grechko (Hrechko), Yeremenko (Yeryomenko), Moskalenko, Batitsky (Batytsʹkyy) and Koshevoy (Koshovyy) were of Ukrainian origin, while Sokolovsky (Sakaloŭski) and Yakubovsky (Jakuboŭski) had Belarusian origins. Rokossovsky (Rokossowski) was born in Congress Poland to a Polish family, while Malinovsky (Malinowsky) was born in Odessa (now in Ukraine) to a Polish father. Tukhachevsky also had Polish ancestry. Bagramyan (Baghramyan) was the sole marshal of Armenian origin.

The rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, which has been held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, who was Russian Defence Minister from 1997 to 2001.

After the death of Marshal Yazov in 2020 there were no living Marshals of the Soviet Union.

List of Marshals of the Soviet Union
List of Marshals of the Soviet Union
No. Name Photo Date of rank Positions held[lower-alpha 1] Central
Committee
member		 Secretariat
member		 Politburo
member		 Years[lower-alpha 2] Notes[lower-alpha 3]
1 Kliment Voroshilov 20 Nov 1935[1]
  • People's Commissar for Defence, 1934–1940.
  • Deputy Chairman, Council of People's Commissars, 1940–1946.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Northwestern Direction, 1941.
  • Commander, Leningrad Front, 1941.
  • Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 1953–1960.
 Yes No Yes 34 (1881–1969)[lower-alpha 4] People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, 1925–1934. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1956 and 1968; Hero of Socialist Labour, 1960.
2 Semyon Budyonny 20 Nov 1935  
  • Inspector of Cavalry, Red Army, 1923–1937.
  • Commander, Moscow Military District, 1937–1939.
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence, 1939–1940.
  • First Deputy People's Commissar for Defence, 1940–1941.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Southwestern Direction, 1941.
  • Commander, Reserve Front, 1941.
  • Commander-in-Chief, North Caucasus Direction, 1942.
  • Commander, North Caucasus Front, 1942.
  • Inspector of Cavalry, Red Army, 1943–1945.
  • Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, 1945–1954.
  • Inspector of Cavalry, Soviet Army, 1953–1954.
 Yes No No 19 (1883–1973)[lower-alpha 5] Retired, 1954. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1958, 1963 and 1968.
3 Alexander Yegorov 20 Nov 1935  
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1935–1937.
  • Commander, Transcaucasian Military District, 1937–1938.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 3 (1883–1939)[lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 7] Stripped of rank, 1938.
4 Vasily Blyukher 20 Nov 1935  
  • Commander, Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army, 1935–1938.
  • Commander, Far Eastern Front, 1938.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 3 (1889–1938)[lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 8] Retroactively stripped of rank, 1939.
5 Mikhail Tukhachevsky 20 Nov 1935  
  • Technology and Armament Chief, Red Army/Deputy People's Commissar for War, 1931–1936.
  • First Deputy People's Commissar for Defence/Inspector of Military Training, 1936–1937.
  • Commander, Volga Military District, 1937.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 2 (1893–1937)[lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 9] Stripped of rank, 1937.
6 Semyon Timoshenko 7 May 1940  
  • People's Commissar for Defence, 1940–1941.
  • People's Commissar for Defence/Chairman, Stavka of the Soviet Armed Forces, 1941.
  • Commander, Western Front, 1941.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Southwestern Direction, 1941.
  • Commander, Stalingrad Front, 1942.
  • Commander, Southwestern Front, 1942.
  • Commander, Northwestern Front, 1942–1943.
  • Chairman, Stavka of the Supreme Main Command, 1943–1945.
  • Commander, Baranovich Military District, 1946.
  • Commander, Belorussian Military District, 1946.
  • Commander, South Ural Military District, 1946–1949.
  • Commander, Belorussian Military District, 1949–1960.
 Yes No No 20 (1895–1970) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1960. Chairman, State Committee for War Veterans, 1961–1970. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1940 and 1965; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
7 Boris Shaposhnikov 7 May 1940  
  • Chief of the General Staff, 1937–1940.
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1941–1942.
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence, 1942–1943.
  • Commandant, Kliment E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy, 1943–1945.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 5 (1882–1945) Died in office.
8 Grigory Kulik 7 May 1940  
  • Chief, Main Artillery Directorate, Red Army, 1937–1941.
  • Deputy Chief of the General Staff, 1939–1941.
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence, 1939–1942.
  • Stavka Representative to the Crimean Front, 1941–1942.
  • Head, Main Formation and Training Directorate, Red Army, 1941.
  • Commander, 54th Army, 1941.
 Yes No No 2 (1890–1950)[lower-alpha 10] Demoted, 1942. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1940 (rescinded 1942).
9 Georgy Zhukov 18 Jan 1943  
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence/Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Armed Forces, 1942–1944.
  • Commander, 1st Ukrainian Front, 1944.
  • Commander, 1st Belorussian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany, 1945.
  • Military Governor, Soviet Military Administration in Germany/Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany, 1945–1946.
  • Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1946.
  • Commander, Odessa Military District, 1946–1948.
  • Commander, Ural Military District, 1948–1953.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence, 1953–1955.
  • Minister of Defence, 1955–1957.
 Yes No Yes 14 (1896–1974) Dismissed as minister of defence, 1957. Chief of the General Staff, 1941. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1940, 1944, 1945 and 1956; awarded Order of Victory, 1944 and 1945.
10 Aleksandr Vasilevsky 16 Feb 1943  
  • Deputy People's Commissar for Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1942–1945.
  • Chief of the General Staff, 1945.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Far East Command, 1945–1946.
  • Chief of the General Staff, 1946–1948.
  • Minister of the Armed Forces, 1949–1950.
  • Minister of War, 1950–1953.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence, 1953–1956.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence for Military Science, 1956–1957.
 Yes No No 16 (1895–1977) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1959. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1945; awarded Order of Victory, 1944 and 1945.
11 Joseph Stalin 6 Mar 1943[2]
  • General Secretary, Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, 1922–1952.
  • Chairman, Council of People's Commissars, 1941–1946.
  • Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1946–1953.
  • Supreme Commander, Soviet Armed Forces, 1941–1953.
  • Chairman, State Defense Committee, 1941–1945.
  • People's Commissar for Defence, 1941–1946.
  • People's Commissar for the Armed Forces, 1946.
  • Minister of the Armed Forces, 1946–1947.
 Yes Yes Yes 10 (1878–1953) Died in office. Promoted to generalissimus, 27 Jun 1945. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1945; Hero of Socialist Labour, 1939; awarded Order of Victory, 1944.
12 Ivan Konev 20 Feb 1944[3]
  • Commander, 2nd Ukrainian Front, 1943–1944.
  • Commander, 1st Ukrainian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Commander, Soviet Occupation Forces, Eastern Germany/Allied High Commissioner for Austria, 1945–1946.
  • First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1946–1950.
  • Chief Inspector, Soviet Ground Forces, 1950–1951.
  • Commander, Carpathian Military District, 1951–1955.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Supreme Commander, Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955–1960.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1961–1962.
 Yes No No 18 (1897–1973) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1962. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1945; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
13 Leonid Govorov 18 Jun 1944  
  • Commander, Leningrad Front, 1942–1945.
  • Commander, Leningrad Military District, 1945–1946.
  • Chief Inspector, Soviet Ground Forces, 1946–1948.
  • Commander-in-Chief, National Air Defence Forces, 1948–1952.
  • Deputy Minister of War/Commander-in-Chief, National Air Defence Forces, 1952–1954.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Air Defence Forces, 1954–1955.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 11 (1897–1955) Died in office. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1945; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
14 Konstantin Rokossovsky 29 Jun 1944  
  • Commander, 1st Belorussian Front, 1943–1944.
  • Commander, 2nd Belorussian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Commander, Northern Group of Forces, 1945–1949.
  • Minister of National Defence, People's Republic of Poland, 1949–1952.
  • Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, People's Republic of Poland, 1952–1957.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander, Transcaucasian Military District, 1957–1958.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief Inspector, Ministry of Defence, 1958–1962.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 18 (1896–1968) Retired, 1962. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1945; awarded Order of Victory, 1945. Made Marshal of Poland, 1949. Candidate member, 22nd–23rd Central Committee, 1962–1968.
15 Rodion Malinovsky 10 Sep 1944  
  • Commander, 2nd Ukrainian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Head, Allied Commission for Hungary, 1944–1947.
  • Commander, Transbaikal Front, 1945.
  • Commander, Transbaikal-Amur Military District, 1945–1947.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Far East High Command, 1947–1953.
  • Commander, Far Eastern Military District, 1953–1956.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1956–1957.
  • Minister of Defence, 1957–1967.
 Yes No No 23 (1898–1967) Died in office. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1945 and 1958; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
16 Fyodor Tolbukhin 12 Sep 1944  
  • Commander, 3rd Ukrainian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Southern Group of Forces, 1945–1947.
  • Commander, Transcaucasus Military District, 1947–1949.
 No No No 5 (1894–1949) Died in office. Posthumously made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1965; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
17 Kirill Meretskov 26 Oct 1944  
  • Commander, Karelian Front, 1944–1945.
  • Commander, 1st Far Eastern Front, 1945.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Occupation Forces in Northern Korea, 1945–1947.
  • Commander, Moscow Military District, 1947–1949.
  • Commander, Belomorsky Military District, 1949–1951.
  • Commander, Northern Military District, 1951–1954.
  • Assistant Minister of Defence, 1955–1964.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 20 (1897–1968) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1964. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1940; awarded Order of Victory, 1945.
18 Lavrentiy Beria 9 Jul 1945[4]
  • People's Commissar of the Interior, 1938–1946.
  • Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1946–1953.
  • Minister of Internal Affairs, 1953.
  • First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1953.
 Yes No Yes 8 (1899–1953)[lower-alpha 11] Stripped of rank, 1953. Made Hero of Socialist Labour, 1943.
19 Vasily Sokolovsky 3 Jul 1946  
  • Military Governor, Soviet Military Administration in Germany/Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany, 1946–1949.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence, 1949–1952.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1952–1960.
 Yes No No 14 (1897–1968)[lower-alpha 12] Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1960. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1945.
20 Nikolai Bulganin 3 Nov 1947[5]
  • Minister of the Armed Forces, 1947–1949.
  • First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1950–1955.
  • Minister of Defence, 1953–1955.
  • Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1955–1958.
  • Chairman, Soviet State Bank, 1958.
  • Chairman, Regional Economic Council, 1958.
 Yes No Yes 11 (1895–1975)[lower-alpha 13] Stripped of rank, 1958. Chairman, Council of People's Commissars, Russian SFSR, 1937–1938. Made Hero of Socialist Labour, 1955.
21 Andrei Grechko 11 Mar 1955  
  • Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1954–1957.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1957–1960.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Supreme Commander, Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1960–1967.
  • Minister of Defence, 1967–1976.
 Yes No Yes 21 (1903–1976) Died in office. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1958 and 1973.
22 Kirill Moskalenko 11 Mar 1955  
  • Commander, Moscow Military District, 1953–1960.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Missile Forces, 1960–1962.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief Inspector, Ministry of Defence, 1962–1983.
 Yes No No 28 (1902–1985) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1983. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1943 and 1978.
23 Vasily Chuikov 11 Mar 1955  
  • Commander, Kiev Military District, 1953–1960.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1960–1961.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces/Chief, Civil Defence, 1961–1964.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief, Civil Defence, 1964–1972.
 Yes No No 17 (1900–1982) Retired, 1972. Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany, 1949–1953. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1945.
24 Ivan Bagramyan 11 Mar 1955[6]
  • Deputy Minister of Defence, 1955–1956.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commandant, Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, 1956–1958.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence, 1958–1968.
 Yes No No 13 (1897–1982) Retired, 1968. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1977. Last surviving Marshal of the Soviet Union to hold high command during World War II.
25 Sergey Biryuzov 11 Mar 1955  
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Air Defence Forces, 1955–1962.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Missile Forces, 1962–1963.
  • Chief of the General Staff, 1963–1964.
 Yes No No 9 (1904–1964) Died in office. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1958.
26 Andrey Yeryomenko 11 Mar 1955  
  • Commander, North Caucasus Military District, 1953–1958.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 3 (1892–1970) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1958. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944.
27 Matvei Zakharov 8 May 1959  
  • Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1957–1960.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1960–1963.
  • Commandant, Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, 1963–1964.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1964–1971.
 Yes No No 12 (1898–1972) Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1945 and 1971. Director, Main Intelligence Directorate, 1949–1952.
28 Filipp Golikov 8 May 1961   Yes No No 1 (1900–1980) Relieved and appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1962. Director, Main Intelligence Directorate, 1940–1941.
29 Nikolay Krylov 28 Apr 1962  
  • Commander, Moscow Military District, 1960–1963.
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Missile Forces, 1963–1972.
 Yes No No 10 (1903–1972) Died in office. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, twice in 1945.
30 Ivan Yakubovsky 12 Apr 1967  
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence, 1967.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1967–1976.
 Yes No No 9 (1912–1976) Died in office. Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1960–1961; 1962–1965. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, twice in 1944.
31 Pyotr Koshevoy 15 Apr 1968  
  • Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1965–1969.
 Yes
(as candidate)		 No No 1 (1904–1976) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1969. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1944 and 1945.
32 Pavel Batitsky 17 Apr 1968[7]
  • Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Air Defence Forces, 1966–1978.
 Yes No No 10 (1910–1984) Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1965.
33 Dmitry Ustinov 30 Jul 1976  
  • Minister of Defence, 1976–1984.
 Yes Yes Yes 8 (1908–1984) Died in office. People's Commissar of Armaments, 1941–1946; Minister of Armaments, 1946–1953; Minister of the Defence Industry, 1953–1957; Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers/Chairman, Military-Industrial Commission, 1957–1963; First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, 1963–1965. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1978; Hero of Socialist Labour, 1942 and 1961.
34 Leonid Brezhnev 19 Dec 1976  
  • General Secretary, Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1964–1982.[lower-alpha 14]
  • Chairman, Defence Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1964–1982.
  • Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 1977–1982.
 Yes Yes Yes 6 (1906–1982) Died in office. First Secretary, Communist Party of Moldavia, 1950–1952; First Secretary, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, 1955–1956; Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 1960–1964; Second Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1963–1964. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1966, 1976, 1978 and 1981; Hero of Socialist Labour, 1961; awarded Order of Victory, 1978 (rescinded 1989).
35 Viktor Kulikov 14 Jan 1977  
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Supreme Commander, Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1977–1989.
 Yes No No 12 (1921–2013) Relieved, 1989. Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1969–1971; Chief of the General Staff, 1971–1977; Member, 3rd State Duma of the Russian Federation, 1999–2003. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1981.
36 Nikolai Ogarkov 14 Jan 1977  
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1977–1984.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Western Theatre of Military Operations, 1984–1988.
 Yes No No 11 (1917–1994) Relieved as chief of general staff, 1984; appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1988. Military Advisor to the Russian Minister of Defence, 1992–1994. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1977.
37 Sergey Sokolov 17 Feb 1978  
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence, 1966–1984.
  • Commander-in-Chief, Soviet forces in Afghanistan, 1979–1980.
  • Minister of Defence, 1984–1987.
 Yes No Yes
(as candidate)		 9 (1911–2012) Dismissed as minister of defence, 1987. Military Advisor to the Russian Minister of Defence, 1992–2012. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1980. Longest-lived Marshal of the Soviet Union.
38 Sergey Akhromeyev 25 Mar 1983  
  • First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, 1979–1984.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief of the General Staff, 1984–1988.
 Yes No No 5 (1923–1991) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1988. Advisor for Military Affairs to the President of the Soviet Union, 1990–1991; Member, State Committee on the State of Emergency, 1991.[lower-alpha 15] Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1982.
39 Semyon Kurkotkin 25 Mar 1983  
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Chief, Rear Services of the Soviet Armed Forces, 1972–1988.
 Yes No No 5 (1917–1990) Appointed to Group of Inspectors General, 1988. Commander-in-Chief, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, 1971–1972. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1981.
40 Vasily Petrov 25 Mar 1983  
  • Deputy Minister of Defence/Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Ground Forces, 1980–1985.
  • First Deputy Minister of Defence, 1985–1986.
 Yes No No 3 (1917–2014) Military Advisor to the Russian Minister of Defence, 1992–2014. Made Hero of the Soviet Union, 1982.
41 Dmitry Yazov 28 Apr 1990  
  • Minister of Defence, 1987–1991.
  • Member, State Committee on the State of Emergency, 1991.[lower-alpha 15]
 Yes No Yes
(as candidate)		 1 (1924–2020) Dismissed as minister of defence, 1991. Last Marshal of the Soviet Union to die.

Timeline
Leonid BrezhnevIvan BagramyanVasily ChuikovNikolai BulganinLavrentiy BeriaRodion MalinovskyKonstantin RokossovskyIvan KonevJoseph StalinAleksandr VasilevskyGeorgy ZhukovSemyon TimoshenkoMikhail TukhachevskySemyon BudyonnyKliment Voroshilov

See also
  • Generalissimus of the Soviet Union
  • Admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union
  • Marshal of the Russian Federation
  • History of Russian military ranks
  • Military ranks of the Soviet Union
  • Marshal of the branch
  • Chief marshal of the branch
  • Field Marshal of Imperial Russia
  • Marshal of the People's Republic of China
  • Ranks and insignia of the Red Army and Navy 1935–1940, and 1940–1943
  • Ranks and rank insignia of the Soviet Armed Forces 1943–1955, and 1955–1991

Notes
  1. Positions listed are those held by the officer when promoted to marshal, both within the Soviet Armed Forces, Communist Party of the Soviet Union and non-CPSU governmental apparatus. Politico-military positions, such as ministers, first deputy ministers, and deputy ministers of defence are to be included, whereas service on the Group of Inspectors General is not to be included.
  2. Refers to number of years holding rank of marshal. Unless otherwise stated, marshals of the Soviet Union hold their rank until final relief or removal from a position within the armed forces, party or state apparatus (including membership in the Party Congress, Central Committee, Politburo/Presidium). Time spent between holding of such positions is not counted.
  3. Notes include years of birth and death; awards of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labour, Order of Victory or honours of similar significance; major military appointments prior to promotion to marshal; major non-governmental or Party-affiliated appointments; familial relationships with other marshals of the Soviet Union or significant Party and state officials; and unusual career events such as demotion, removal from office or being purged by Party leadership.
  4. Resigned as head of state, 7 May 1960; removed from Presidium, 16 Jul 1960; removed from Central Committee, Oct 1961; re-elected to Central Committee, 1966.
  5. Reduced to candidate member, 22nd Central Committee, 1961.
  6. Victim of the Great Purge.
  7. Arrested and stripped of rank, 21 Feb 1938; executed, 23 Feb 1939; rehabilitated and posthumously restored as marshal, 14 Mar 1956.
  8. Arrested, 22 Oct 1938; executed, 9 Nov 1938; retroactively stripped of rank, Mar 1939; rehabilitated and posthumously restored as marshal, 1956.
  9. Arrested and stripped of rank, 22 May 1937; executed, 12 Jun 1937; rehabilitated and posthumously restored as marshal, 31 Jan 1957.
  10. Dismissed as deputy people's commissar for defence and expelled from Central Committee, 24 Feb 1942; demoted to major general, 17 Mar 1942; promoted to lieutenant general, 15 Apr 1943; demoted to major general, 9 Jul 1945; arrested and stripped of rank, 11 Jan 1947; executed, 24 Aug 1950; rehabilitated and posthumously restored as marshal, 28 Sep 1957.
  11. Unofficial rank of Commissar General of State Security converted to Marshal of the Soviet Union, 9 Jul 1945; arrested, 26 Jun 1953; stripped of rank and expelled from all offices, 18 Dec 1953; executed, 23 Dec 1953.
  12. Reduced to candidate member, 22nd Central Committee, 1961.
  13. Resigned as premier, 27 Mar 1958; expelled from Central Committee and stripped of rank, Sep 1958; expelled from Politburo, 12 Nov 1958; retired, Feb 1960.
  14. Position renamed from First Secretary at the 23rd Party Congress in 1966.
  15. As part of the August Coup of 1991.

References
  1. "BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY OF KLIMENT YE. VOROSHILOV, STATESMAN AND MILITARY FIGURE, MARSHAL OF THE SOVIET UNION". Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  2. Stephan, Robert (1987). "Smersh: Soviet Military Counter-Intelligence during the Second World War". Journal of Contemporary History. 22 (4): 585–613. doi:10.1177/002200948702200403. JSTOR 260812. S2CID 159160922. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  3. "Ivan Konev - Traces of War". Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  4. Birstein, Vadim (November 2013). SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon. ISBN 9781849546898. Retrieved 29 September 2021. On July 9, 1945, the heads of all security structures received military ranks. Beria was promoted to marshal [...]
  5. "Military Review, Volume 35, Issue 6". 1955. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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