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World War II-dated DS, in Russian, signed “J. Stalin,” one page, 8 x 11.5, August 23, 1941. Marked “Secret” and “Copy No. 1,” an official Soviet military document approving the organization and authorized personnel strength of a Red Army tank brigade. The document lists the brigade’s nine component units, including its headquarters, staff company, reconnaissance company, tank regiment, motorized rifle and machine-gun battalion, anti-aircraft battalion, repair and recovery company, motor transport company, and medical-sanitary platoon, with corresponding staff numbers and personnel allocations totaling 1,991 men. Signed in blue indelible pencil at the top by Joseph Stalin as People’s Commissar of Defense, with additional endorsements at the conclusion by Lieutenant General of Tank Troops Yakov Fedorenko, chief of the Red Army’s Main Auto-Armored Directorate, and Army Commissar 2nd Rank Nikolai Ivanovich Biryukov, military commissar of the directorate. In fine condition, with light toning and edgewear.
This document dates to the collapse of the Red Army's prewar mechanized corps structure. Operation Barbarossa began June 22, 1941, and within weeks the large mechanized corps meant to counter such an invasion were being destroyed in the border battles and early encirclements; Soviet General Staff records place the decision to disband them at mid-July 1941, barely three weeks into the war. In their place, the Red Army began forming the smaller tank-brigade organization reflected in this document. The nine-component structure it lists, staff, staff company, reconnaissance company, a two-battalion tank regiment, a motorized rifle-machine-gun battalion, an air-defense battalion, a repair company, a motor transport company, and a medical platoon, matches the documented organization of tank brigades formed in the weeks that followed, including brigades formed as late as September and October 1941, suggesting this establishment table served as a template for the new brigade structure. The document gives a total authorized strength of 1,991 men; published figures for comparable tank-brigade establishments from this period sometimes cite 1,992, a one-man discrepancy that remains to be resolved.
The document's signatories reflect the command structure overseeing Soviet armor at this stage of the war. Yakov Fedorenko headed the Main Auto-Armored Directorate from mid-1940 through the end of 1942, making him the top authority on tank forces organization throughout this period, while Nikolai Biryukov served as the directorate's military commissar. Their endorsements alongside Stalin's signature as People's Commissar of Defense place all three levels of authority on the document. Stalin's personal approval of a tank-brigade staff structure, a granular administrative act specifying headcount by sub-unit, just two months after the German invasion reflects his direct involvement in the emergency reorganization of Soviet armored forces during one of the most critical stretches of the war.
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