Talk:Semyon Sakhnov/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Peacemaker67 (talk · contribs) 10:37, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

This article is in good shape. A few comments:

Lead

• suggest "Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov (Russian: Семён Павлович Сахнов; 15 February 1900 – 8 March 1950) was a Red Army major general who commanded the 56th Rifle Division in the early stages of the [[Operation Barbarossa|Axis invasion of the Soviet Union]] (Operation Barbarossa). There are two reasons he is notable, his rank and his command of a division in combat.
• "became an officer and served at the military school that he graduated from" isn't very clear
• "He was commanding the 56th Rifle Division in Belarus when Operation Barbarossa was launched"
• "burying his documents when he was encircled by German units"

Body

• "Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov was born" as his full name needs sourcing
• suggest "in the Saratov Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Saratov Oblast, Russia)" and link
• link platoon and company
• In Interwar period, it isn't always clear what school you are talking about
• say where Sverdlovsk is
• say what the Vystrel course was

• Does advanced training work? The difference is that at the time, there were several levels - 'schools' were undergraduate and similar to West Point or Sandhurst, albeit much shorter. Courses were for different levels of unit command, for Sakhnov the armored course he attended was to prepare him for company command and the Vystrel course for regiment command (although in his case it isn't exact, since the Red Army's expansion allowed him to advance to regimental command before completing Vystrel).

• no idea about his rank progression to colonel? link colonel and major general in the body

• The Red Army abolished all military ranks in theory (they still had a command structure) during the Revolution and didn't reintroduce them until 1935. Until 1935, an officer (officially not called an officer for political reasons) was referred to as a 'commander' or 'command personnel' if not a unit commander and would be designated 'Platoon Commander so-and-so', etc.

• say that Grodno was in Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and link
• for German-occupied Poland link General Government
• link political commissar
• "Sakhnov withdrew the troops" I assume he took command if the guy who organised it was a staff officer of the 85th?
• suggest "Having to detour around German troop locations"
• "civilian clothes. Sakhnov had buried his identity papers and his Communist Party card when he was behind German lines, and for this he was expelled from the party ten days later. This meant that he could not return to the fighting." are the source clear that non-members couldn't command units? This doesn't seem to be sourced in the body, although it is in the lead.

• Non-party member commanders were extremely rare, but the point here is that burying the card was perceived as an act of insufficient loyalty and being expelled left a black mark on his record

• why did he have to go through the Vystrel course again?

• Many of the disgraced officers were assigned to military educational institutions as faculty after being investigated by the NKVD. In Sakhnov's case, his tenure was so brief that his service record doesn't show a specific role there

• how weird that he commanded the 23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade before the war then later in the war. Could you add a bit saying that the 23rd Reserve Rifle Division (if that was its name) saw no combat as a formation?
• oclc for Golikov and Bulkin?

• @Peacemaker67: Bulkin isn't held in any libraries outside Russia, so no OCLC

• File:The Battle of Bialystok (in Russian and German) Updated.jpg and File:Grodno 1941.jpg need a reliable source from which the info on the maps was drawn
• Saratov Governorate and Siberian Military District are duplinked

That's me done. Placing on hold for the above to be addressed. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 04:35, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

This article is well-written, verifiable using reliable sources, covers the subject well, is neutral and stable, contains no plagiarism, and is illustrated by an acceptably licensed image with an appropriate caption. Passing. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 03:42, 23 May 2020 (UTC)