First World War and Civil War Yakov Cherevichenko was born to
peasant parents in the village of Novosyolovka in the
Russian Empire (now in
Rostov Oblast,
Russian Federation). He was
conscripted into the
Imperial Russian Army at the beginning of the
First World War in 1914 and was a senior
NCO by the time of the
October Revolution in 1917. Cherevichenko returned to his native region to organize a
partisan group to defend the newly formed
Bolshevik government against the anti-Bolshevik
White movement after the Revolution, and this group became part of the
Red Army in October 1918. Cherevichenko joined the
Bolshevik Party at the height of the
Russian Civil War in 1919 and served in the
1st Cavalry Army.
Between the wars Cherevichenko attended the Red Army's Higher Cavalry School in 1924 and graduated from the
Frunze Military Academy in 1935. He was awarded the
rank of
lieutenant-general when the traditional
general officer ranks were introduced in the Red Army and served as commander of the
Odessa Military District from 1940 to 1941. He was promoted to
colonel-general in February 1941.
World War II Cherevichenko was the commanding officer of the
9th Army from June to September 1941 and the
2nd Army from 29 September to 4 October 1941. He assumed command of the
Southern Front (Army Group) from Lieutenant-General
Dmitry Ryabyshev on 5 October 1941. With the majority of
Ukraine already in German hands by October 1941, Kleist's Panzers advanced across the
Mius River to Russia's
Rostov Oblast and had occupied the city of
Taganrog by November 4, preparing to move further for an attack on
Rostov. Cherevichenko and the Army's commander for the Southwestern Direction,
Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, prepared to attempt a counterattack. Timoshenko later shifted two
rifle divisions and a
tank brigade from the
Southwestern Front to prepare a Southern Front reserve and settled on a plan worked out with his
chief of staff,
Major-General Alexey Antonov, and
Stavka also provided the
37th Army to reinforce the operation on Timoshenko's request. On December 2, the German rode their tanks back to the Mius River. Relieved as commander of the Bryansk Front by Lieutenant-General
Filipp Golikov in April 1942, Cherevichenko was made deputy commander of the
North Caucasus Front, subordinated to Front Commander Marshal
Semyon Budyonny, who had been Cherevichenko's commanding officer in the 1st Cavalry Army in the Civil War. In August 1942, Budyonny named Cherevichenko commander of the
Black Sea Group of Forces, whose responsibility included the defense of the port city of
Novorossiysk and its
Black Sea Fleet naval base, which fell to the Germans in the course of
Operation Blue in the fall of 1942. No longer as esteemed as previously by superior officers in the high command, Cherevichenko was made commander of the
5th Army of the Soviet
Western Front in October 1942, replacing Lieutenant-General
Ivan Fedyuninsky upon his promotion to deputy commander of the
Volkhov Front. Relieved of this command in favor of Lieutenant-General
Vitaly Polenov, Cherevichenko was left at the disposal of
Stavka without commander's responsibility until April 1943, when he was made an assistant of the commander of the Northern Caucasus Front (Colonel-General
Ivan Maslennikov until May, then Colonel-General
Ivan Petrov). Cherevichenko held the position of commanding officer of the
Kharkov Military District upon its recreation in September 1943 until January 1944, then served at the disposal of
Stavka and the
military councils of the
2nd and
1st Belorussian Fronts. He was appointed commanding officer of the
7th Rifle Corps in late April 1945; this unit took part in the
Battle of Berlin as part of the 1st Belorussian Front at the close of
World War II in Europe.
Post-war Cherevichenko was an assistant to the commander for the
Tauride Military District from 1948 to 1950. Cherevichenko retired from the military service in 1950. He died on 4 July 1976. ==Honours and awards==