Michail Tukhachevsky, marshal of Soviet Union

Semyon Mikhailovich Budienny, marshal of Soviet Union

Gayk Bzhishkyan, Commander

Michail Tukhachevsky, (born February 16, 1893, died June 11, 1937) - from 1935 to 1937 was marshal of Soviet Union.

In Imperial Army was lieutenant, never leading a platoon or a company. In 1915, was taken prisoner by Germans but was let to "escape" to act as a German spy. In 1918, joined Bolshevic party and soviet red army in Russia, having success in fight against white armies of Denikin, Kolczak, and Czech Corp. During Polish-Soviet war, in 1920, he lead western front. During Battle of Warsaw he failed as a military leader and greatly contributed to soviet defeat. The same inability he has shown during second major battle of Polish-Soviet war, the Battle of Niemen. In 1921, he led the pacification of Kronsztad uprising and antibolshevik resistance of Russian peasants. Against poorly armed opponents he was a great military leader. From 1925 to 1928 he was a head of Red Army's HQ. In June 1931, was named vice president of War Cabinet, political vice commissar of Army and Navy and chef of Army Supplies. He started a program of tank production. In 1937, was appointed by Stalin a commander of Volga Military District then during great clean up of Red Army he was accused of being a German spy.

He was arrested May 22, 1937. He admitted his culpability and was executed on June 11, 1937.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budienny (also spelled Budennii, Budenny, Budyenny etc.) (April 25, 1883 - October 26, 1973) was a Soviet military commander and an ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Budienny was born into a poor peasant family in the Terek Cossack region of southern Russia. He worked as a farm laborer until 1903, when he was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire, becoming a cavalryman and serving in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. During World War I he was a non-commissioned officer on the western front until 1916, when he was transferred to the Caucasus front. When the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the Tsar in 1917, he was radicalized like many soldiers and became a leading member of the soldiers' councils (Soviets) in the Caucasus area. Civil War broke out in 1918, and Budienny organized a Red Cavalry force in the Don region, which eventually became the 1st Cavalry Army. This Army played an important role in winning the Civil War for the Bolsheviks, driving the White General Anton Denikin back from Moscow. Budienny joined the Bolshevik party in 1919, and formed close relationships with Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov.

In 1920 Budienny's Cavalry Army took part in the invasion of Poland in the Polish-Soviet War, in which it was quite successful at first, pushing Polish forces out of Ukraine and later breaking through Polish southern frontlines. However later the Bolsheviks forces sustained a heavy defeat in the Battle of Warsaw, mainly because Budienny's Army was bogged down at Lwów. After his army was defeated in the Battle of Komarów (one of the biggest cavalry battles of the world), Budienny was then sent south to fight the Whites in Ukraine and the Crimea. Despite the defeat in Poland, he was one of Soviet Russia's military heroes by the end of the Civil War.

Budienny was considered a courageous and colorful cavalry officer, but knew little about modern warfare, particularly the impact of tanks. He was appointed to the position of Cavalry Inspector of the Red Army and similar honorific posts, and remained one of Stalin's "Civil War cronies" who held increasing influence as Stalin consolidated himself as the unquestioned dictator of the Soviet Union.

In 1935 Budienny was made one of the first five Marshals of the Soviet Union. Three of these five were executed in the Great Purge of the late 1930s, leaving only Budienny and Voroshilov. In 1937 Budienny commanded the Moscow Military District, and in the Soviet-Finnish War he commanded an army, with disastrous results. Nevertheless, in 1940 Budienny was made Deputy People's Commissar for Defense, a position for which he was quite unsuited.

In July-September 1941 Budienny was Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet armed forces of the Southwestern Direction (Southwestern and Southern Fronts) facing the German invasion of Ukraine which began in June. These forces were eventually surrounded, during the at Uman and the at Kiev. These disasters cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million men killed or taken prisoner, one of the greatest routs in military history.

In September, Stalin dismissed Budienny and replaced him with Semyon Timoshenko. He was placed in charge of the Reserve Front (September-October 1941), Commander-in-Chief of the troops in the North Caucasus Direction (April-May, 1942), Commander of the North Caucasus Front (May-August, 1942), and the obsolete Soviet Cavalry (since 1943). Despite being responsible (although acting on Stalin's orders) for some of catastrophic Soviet defeats, he continued to enjoy Stalin's patronage and suffered no punishment. After the war he was allowed to retire as a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Gayk Bzhishkyan -Hayk Bzhishkyan (February 6, 1887- December 11, 1937) was a Soviet military commander of the Russian Civil War and Polish-Soviet War. (also known as Gay Dmitrievich Gay, the first name is sometimes given as Gaya, or Gai, the patronymic is sometimes spelt as "Dimitrievich" or "Dimitriyevich", last name also spelt as Bzhishkyants; in Polish sources related to Polish-Soviet War he is referred to as either Gaj Brzyszkian, Gaj Dimitrijewicz Gaj or Gaj-Chan (Khan)). His first name is a Russian transliteration of "Haik", which was further corrupted in various Latinizations.

Gayk was Armenian, born in Tabriz, Iran to a family of teachers. He joined the military of Imperial Russia as praporshchik (an officer rank similar to ensign) and fought in World War I. After the Russian Revolution he joined the Bolsheviks and became a Party member and military commander in 1918, when he fought against the Czech Legion ("White-czechs") and the Orenburg Cossacks of ataman Alexander Dutov.

He commanded some regiments, divisions and higher military formations. For instance:
July-November 1918: 1st Samara Infantry Division, transformed into 24th Rifle Division that took over Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) and was later known as "Samara-Ulyanovsk Iron Division" (Georgy Zhukov served under his command and highly praised him later in his memoirs).
January-May, 1919: 1st Army
August-September 1919: 42nd Rifle Division
September 1919-March 1920: 1st Caucasus Cavalry Division

During the Polish-Soviet War he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Corps and (from July) 3rd Cavalry Corps on the right flank of the Western Front. In August 1920 he covered the retreat of the 4th Army and was interned in East Prussia.

Since 1922 he was the People's Commissar of the Army and Navy of the Armenian SSR and later a military history lecturer and researcher.

Since 1933 he was a professor and the Chair of the Department of War History and Military Art in the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.

He was twice awarded with the Order of the Red Banner: in 1919 for battles in Volga Region of 1918 and in 1920 for the Polish campaign.

On July 3, 1935 he was arrested, accused of "participation in an anti-Soviet terrorist organization" by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on December 13, 1937 (АП РФ, оп. 24, дело 413, лист 252) and shot the same day.

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