View source for Semyon Sakhnov

{{Short description|Red army major general}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov
| image         = Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov.png
| caption       = Sakhnov, likely during World War II
| birth_date    = 15 February 1900
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1950|03|08|1900|02|15|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Samoylovka, Saratov Oblast|Samoylovka]], [[Balashovsky Uyezd]], [[Saratov Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_place   = [[Moscow]], [[Soviet Union]]
| placeofburial = [[Vvedenskoye Cemetery]]
| allegiance    = {{plainlist|
*[[Russian SFSR]]
*Soviet Union
}}
| branch        = [[Red Army]] (later [[Soviet Army]])
| serviceyears  = 1919–1948
| rank          = [[Major general]]
| commands      = {{plainlist|
*[[71st Rifle Division]]
*[[56th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|56th Rifle Division]]
*23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade (became 23rd Reserve Rifle Division)
}}
| battles       = {{plainlist|
*[[Russian Civil War]]
*[[World War II]]
}}
| awards        = {{plainlist|
* [[Order of Lenin]]
* [[Order of the Red Banner]]
}}
}}
'''Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov''' ({{Langx|ru|Семён Павлович Сахнов}}; 15 February 1900 – 8 March 1950) was a [[Red Army]] [[major general]] who commanded the [[56th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|56th Rifle Division]] in the early stages of the [[Axis invasion of the Soviet Union]] (Operation Barbarossa).
After fighting as an ordinary soldier in the [[Russian Civil War]], Sakhnov graduated from an officer training school and served there during the 1920s before rising to division command in the late 1930s. He was commanding the 56th Rifle Division in Belarus when Operation Barbarossa was launched. Stationed close to the border, his unit was destroyed in the first days of the war. After more than two months behind German lines, Sakhnov reached the Soviet lines with a small group of other officers, but was expelled from the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] for burying his documents when he was encircled by German units. As a result of this censure, he never held a combat command again and spent the rest of the war in command of a training unit.
== Early life and Russian Civil War ==
The son of [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] peasants, Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov was born on 15 February 1900 in [[Samoylovka, Saratov Oblast|Samoylovka]] in the [[Saratov Governorate]] of the [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Saratov Oblast]], [[Russia]]). He graduated from the village primary school. Drafted into the [[Red Army]] on 20 July 1919 during the [[Russian Civil War]], he was sent to serve with a cavalry battalion of the [[23rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|23rd Rifle Division]] on the [[Southern Front (RSFSR)|Southern Front]]. With the latter, Sakhnov fought as a [[Red Army man]] in the suppression of revolts in the rear of the [[9th Army (RSFSR)|9th Army]], and in battles against the [[Armed Forces of South Russia]] in the advance on [[Novocherkassk]], on the [[Manych River]], and at [[Yekaterinodar]]. He was transferred to the 99th Railroad Detachment at [[Balashov (town)|Balashov]] in February 1920 and later that year became a cadet of the 34th Machine Gun Commanders' Courses at [[Saratov]], which became the Saratov Infantry School in May 1921. With a cadet detachment from the school, Sakhnov fought in the suppression of [[Tambov Rebellion|peasant revolts]] in Saratov Governorate.{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}
== Interwar period ==
After graduating from the school in September 1922, Sakhnov remained there as a [[platoon]] commander. From October 1927 he was a class commander, and later became an assistant [[Company (military unit)|company]] commander at the school. After completing the Leningrad Armored Courses for the Improvement of Command Cadre in 1931, Sakhnov became a company commander at the tank school reorganized from the Saratov Infantry School, in April 1931.{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Hayrapetyan|p=|pp=586–587|2017}}
He transferred to the 245th Rifle Regiment of the [[82nd Rifle Division]] at [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]], east of the [[Ural Mountains]], in February 1932, serving with it as a battalion commander and assistant regimental commander. He became commander of the 245th before being sent to the [[Vystrel course]] for advanced training in November 1937. After completing the course in August 1938, Sakhnov, by then a colonel, was appointed commander of the [[71st Rifle Division]] at [[Kemerovo]] in October of that year. The division was disbanded to form an officer cadet school and training courses for commanders within a few months, and in January 1940 Sakhnov became commander of the 23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade, a training unit in the district.{{Sfn|Golikov|2010|p=|pp=9, 13}} He became a [[major general]] on 4 June of that year when the Red Army introduced general officer ranks. Appointed commander of the [[201st Rifle Division]] at [[Tyumen]] in March 1941, Sakhnov was quickly sent to the [[Western Special Military District]] in Belarus, where he took command of the [[56th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|56th Rifle Division]], part of the [[4th Rifle Corps]] of the [[3rd Army (Soviet Union)|3rd Army]], on 12 June.{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}{{Sfn|Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union|1964|p=128}}{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Hayrapetyan|p=|pp=586–587|2017}}
== World War II ==
[[File:The_Battle_of_Bialystok_(in_Russian_and_German)_Updated.jpg|thumb|The Battle of Białystok–Minsk, 22–25 June 1941]]
When [[Operation Barbarossa]] began on 22 June, the 56th came under attack from three divisions of the German [[VIII Army Corps (Wehrmacht)|VIII Army Corps]] in what became known as the [[Battle of Białystok–Minsk]]. Spread out over an area of {{Convert|50|km|mi|abbr=|sp=us}} in camps near [[Grodno]] in [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|Polish territory annexed by the Soviet Union]], close to the border of [[General Government|German-occupied Poland]], the division suffered heavy losses and by 10:00 its remnants began retreating to the east and southeast, although one regiment was surrounded defending the [[Augustów Canal]]. Sakhnov's communications with his units relied on telephone lines, which were soon cut, preventing him from controlling his forces. German tanks broke through to his command post by 09:00 and he began evacuating to the rear. In the chaos, the headquarters was scattered, and by 14:00 Sakhnov, with the guard platoon, the division's [[political commissar]] and chief of artillery, and other headquarters officers, made his way eastward, deep in the German rear.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=|pp=175–176}} To cross the [[Neman]], the group split up and Sakhnov, with five other officers and six enlisted men, crossed at Grandichi, {{Convert|8|km|mi|abbr=|sp=us}} north of Grodno on the night of 22–23 June. He proceeded to the Ozyory area on the next day, bringing his group to 25 people by collecting retreating troops.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=356|pp=}}
[[File:Grodno_1941.jpg|thumb|The fighting around Grodno, 24–25 June 1941]]
Sakhnov led his group to the Ozyory area on 24 June, having heard from another officer that Soviet troops were attempting to make a stand at [[Skidzyel’|Skidel]].{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=356|pp=}} They arrived there in the afternoon, finding that the head of the operational department of the neighbouring [[85th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|85th Rifle Division]]'s staff had organized a defense from remnants of two regiments of the 56th and 85th with roughly 350 personnel. Skidel was surrounded by German tanks and infantry by the end of the day and Sakhnov, who had taken command, withdrew the troops across the Neman to the area of [[Masty, Belarus|Most]] under the cover of darkness.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=439|pp=}} On 25 June he and the staff officers went to [[Shchuchyn]] by staff car to retrieve rear units of the division there and shifted them and the remnants that could be collected to the area of [[Lida]] that night.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=485|pp=}} Seeking the 3rd Army headquarters, supposedly at [[Lunna, Belarus|Lunno]], Sakhnov and the division rear units met the commander of the 56th's 184th Rifle Regiment with 700 of his men while en route to Most and headed for Lunno on the morning of 27 June.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=526|pp=}}
German defenses in the area of Most on 27 June were porous and the 184th managed to overwhelm them at Rozhanka, capturing several prisoners who were shot, according to Sakhnov's postwar recollections. Later that day they slipped through the German lines to reach the south bank of the Neman at Most, but in the fighting Sakhnov and a group of around 50 people were separated from the regiment. After this engagement, Sakhnov's group gradually split into ever smaller groups that continued to move east over the next few days.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=|pp=573–574}} Having to detour around German-occupied locations, Sakhnov and four other officers from his unit and the 3rd Army staff slowly made their way northeast on foot.<ref name=":0" /> He and the other officers reached Soviet lines on 6 September north of [[Andreapol]] in the sector of the [[133rd Rifle Division]] of the [[22nd Army (Soviet Union)|22nd Army]], unarmed and dressed in civilian clothes, without his identity papers. For burying his party card with his papers while behind German lines, he was expelled from the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] ten days later, a disgrace that ensured that he could not return to the front.{{Sfn|Yegorov|2008|p=765}}
After spending three months under [[NKVD]] investigation, Sakhnov was briefly assigned to the Vystrel course in October before being sent to the [[Siberian Military District]] under the direction of Lieutenant General [[Stepan Kalinin]] to work on raising new units in the district. In December he was appointed commander of the 23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade, a training unit, which was reorganized as a division with the same number in July 1944. Sakhnov spent the rest of the war in Siberia. In this capacity, he was responsible for the formation of new units and the dispatch of [[March battalion|march battalions]] to provide replacements for the army.{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Hayrapetyan|p=|pp=586–587|2017}}
== Postwar ==
After the end of the war, Sakhnov continued to command the division. In October 1945 he became chief of the department of combat and physical training of the staff of the Western Siberian Military District. He was dismissed from the army and became chief of the military department of the [[Bashkir State Agrarian University|Bashkir Agricultural Institute]] at [[Ufa]] in June 1948. Sakhnov died in Moscow on 8 March 1950,{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Hayrapetyan|p=|pp=586–587|2017}} and was buried at the [[Vvedenskoye Cemetery]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Сахнов С.П.|url=http://213sp56sd.ucoz.ru/index/sakhnov_s_p/0-313|website=213th Rifle Regiment of the 56th Rifle Division|language=ru|trans-title=Sakhnov, S.P.|access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref> He was survived by a son, Vyacheslav, who coached basketball at [[Bashkir State University]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Syutkina|first=Yevgeniya|date=20 March 2006|title=Секрет вечной молодости|language=ru|trans-title=The secret of eternal youth|work=Bashvest|url=http://213sp56sd.ucoz.ru/index/sakhnov_s_p/0-313}}</ref>
== Awards and honors ==
Sakhnov was a recipient of the following decorations:{{Sfn|Tsapayev|Goremykin|2014|p=|pp=326–327}}{{Sfn|Bulkin|2018|p=|pp=112–113}}
* [[Order of Lenin]] (21 February 1945)
* [[Order of the Red Banner]] (3 November 1944)
Both awards were made as a reward for the length of his service in the Red Army.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Сахнов Семен Павлович :: Память народа|url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560934168/|website=Pamyat Naroda|publisher=Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence|access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Сахнов Семен Павлович :: Память народа|url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie1560750672/|website=Pamyat Naroda|publisher=Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence|access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref>
== References ==
=== Citations ===
<references />
=== Bibliography ===
* {{Cite book|last=Bulkin|first=Anatoly|title=Генералитет Красной Армии (1918-1941). Военный биографический словарь в 3-х томах|year=2018|volume=3|location=Penza|language=ru|trans-title=Red Army Generals, 1918–1941: Three-volume Military Biographical Dictionary}}
*{{Cite conference|last=Golikov|first=V. I.|date=2010|title=Сибирский военный округ - фронту в годы Великой Отечественной войны|trans-title=From the Siberian Military District to the Front during the Great Patriotic War|url=http://vital.lib.tsu.ru/vital/access/manager/Repository/vtls:000410727|conference=Великая Отечественная война: взгляд из XXI века : материалы региональной научной конференции|language=ru|publisher=Tomsk University Press|pages=5–21|isbn=978-5-7511-1952-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union|url=http://militera.lib.ru/h/sb_komandovanie-korpus-diviziya-vov/index.html|title=Командование корпусного и дивизионного звена советских вооруженных сил периода Великой Отечественной войны 1941 – 1945 гг.|publisher=Frunze Military Academy|year=1964|location=Moscow|language=ru|trans-title=Commanders of Corps and Divisions in the Great Patriotic War, 1941{{endash}}1945|oclc=35371247}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Tsapayev|first1=D.A.|title=Великая Отечественная: Комдивы. Военный биографический словарь|last2=Goremykin|first2=Viktor|publisher=Kuchkovo Pole|year=2014|isbn=978-5-9950-0457-8|volume=5|location=Moscow|language=ru|trans-title=The Great Patriotic War: Division Commanders. Military Biographical Dictionary|display-authors=1}}
*{{Cite book|last1=Tsapayev|first1=D. A.|last2=Hayrapetyan|first2=B. V.|title=Великая Отечественная: Комбриги. Военный биографический словарь.|publisher=Kirillitsa|year=2017|isbn=978-5-905603-67-9|volume=1|location=Nizhny Novgorod|language=ru|trans-title=Brigade Commanders of the Great Patriotic War: Military Biographical Dictionary|display-authors=1}}
*{{Cite book|last=Yegorov|first=Dmitry|publisher=Yauza|year=2008|isbn=978-5-699-27810-7|location=Moscow|language=ru|script-title=ru:Июнь 41-го. Разгром Западного фронта|trans-title=June '41: The Defeat of the Western Front}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakhnov, Semyon}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Saratov Oblast]]
[[Category:People from Balashovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Soviet major generals]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]]