Identifying the best person for a particular position is known in HR terms as employee placement. Organizational management success depends on solid selection and placement decisions. During his tenure as the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces, Marshal Chuikov was intimately involved in the organizing process ahead of the Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as Operation Anadyr. A considerable number of candidates were weeded out by Chuikov, who was responsible for the formation of the motorized rifle regiment command staff. One successful candidate reviewed by Vasily Ivanovich was Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov.
In his career, Marshal Yazov was able to achieve a great deal of success quickly. His appointment to the 400th motorized rifle regiment of the 63rd Guards Rifle Division was at Marshal Vasily Chuikov's personal request in 1962. He gained first-hand experience with the Cuban crisis while serving in this capacity. The unit was secretly deployed to Cuba until October 1963 to repel an American invasion. Staver and Skomorokhov wrote:
“In early 1962, Lieutenant-Colonel Yazov commanded a regiment. Ordinary, yet different. The service went on as usual until exactly the moment when the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I. Chuikov arrived at the regiment to check combat readiness. Like most Marshals of Victory, Chuikov was distinguished by a tough temper and tough demand for omissions in the service. And he made decisions quickly. So for the regiment commander, the arrival of such a commander was an extraordinary event. And promising.”
Yazov wrote years after the events of Operation Anadyr about his interview process with Marshal Chuikov:
“Let us return, however, to those events of 1962 that preceded the "Cuban Crisis" of the Soviet troops ... It was the second year of my command of the regiment. At the end of May, the commander of our 64th division, Major General Ivan Kalistratovich Kolodyazhny, called me and said that the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal V. I. Chuikov and the Commander of the troops of the Leningrad Military District, Army General M. I. Kazakov, was expected. Visiting troops by such major military leaders is not an ordinary event. The division commander warned that Marshal V. I. Chuikov would personally talk to me. ‘Get ready, check the alarm exit calculations and ensure that all officers are in their places,’ Ivan Kalistratovich instructed.
The personnel of the regiment in those days were just finishing maintenance of equipment after the May parade in Leningrad and putting it into conservation. And although the regiment was put together and well-prepared tactically, the excitement did not leave me. Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, the famous Soviet commander, an outstanding military leader, a front-line soldier, was well known among the troops. The Marshal had a very cool character and toughly asked for omissions in the service. Vasily Ivanovich paid special attention to intelligence. It was on his initiative that reconnaissance battalions were created in the divisions, capable of conducting radio-technical and other types of reconnaissance, and landing behind enemy lines.
On the morning of the next day, Marshal V. I. Chuikov and General of the Army M. I. Kazakov, accompanied by several generals and officers, appeared at the location of the division. Before I had time to introduce myself to the Commander-in-Chief, he was the first to greet me. Taking me by the shoulder, the Marshal asked paternally: ‘Well, are you naturally healthy?’
‘Healthy,’ I replied curtly. Having separated from the main group of generals and senior officers, V. I. Chuikov and I went along the cinder path. For several minutes, he listened to my report on the state of the regiment, manning and weapons, and the level of training of officers and soldiers. Then Vasily Ivanovich spoke about the big exercises, to which it is planned to send our regiment, but only in a different organizational composition.
He offered me the position of Commander of the reformed regiment. ‘You won’t get confused?’ he asked pointedly. And immediately, without waiting for my answer, he continued: ‘You will have to act independently, and possibly fight—as in war. You make the decision yourself, you organize its implementation. Well, didn't I scare you?’
I wanted to answer with dignity, but it turned out somehow ordinary: ‘I will justify the trust placed in me.’”
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