Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (November 23, 1898 – March 31, 1967) was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He was involved in the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and, during the post-war era, made a pivotal contribution to the strengthening of the Soviet Union as a military superpower. After his death Malinovsky was honored with a state funeral, being buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The government gave his name to the leading Soviet Military Academy of Tank Troops in Moscow and to an elite guards tank division. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Malinovsky continued to be regarded as one of the most important military leaders in the history of Russia.
Quotes
- We are Communist, you are Capitalist. You have your ideas, we have ours. But I tell you this much: many American generals are very often sorry that they have no ideal to plant in the heart of the American soldier, so he will be willing to die for that ideal. You are jealous of us for this. The Communist soldier, the Red Army soldier, has such an ideal in his heart. He has it because he considers the ideal of the commander his own ideal. Your generals in Korea were sorry that Americans were not fighting willingly. We couldn't tell them why this was so, but I will tell you why. There is a difference between us. We have an advantage over you. We have an ideal for which we are prepared to die. You have not.
- To William Randolph Hearst. Quoted in "Ask Me Anything: Our Adventures with Khrushchev" - Page 152 - by William Randolph Hearst - 1960
- Service is service, wherever it occurred. The defense of the fatherland is no small thing.
- Quoted in "The Gates of Hell" - Page 343 - by Harrison Evans Salisbury - 1976
- The Soviet Army, Air Force and Navy are strong enough to thwart any attempts of imperalist reaction to disrupt the peaceful labor of our people or the unity and solidarity of the socialist camp.
- Quoted in "Diplomacy of Power: Soviet Armed Forces as a Political Instrument" - Page 93 - by Stephen S. Kaplan - Political Science - 1981
- Don't touch us, gentlemen imperialists, don't threaten us for you yourselves will fall into the abyss which you are so diligently preparing for us and burn to cinders in nuclear inferno.
- Quoted in "World Marxist Review" - Page 20 - Communism - 1962
- Playing down the effective capacity of the USSR to deal a counterblow to the aggressor and exaggeration of their transoceanic capabilities...do not testify to the presence of common sense among the U.S. military.
- Quoted in "Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance" - Page 173 - by Richard K. Betts - Political Science - 1987