The only cavalryman twice Hero of the Soviet Union, who went to the brink of nuclear war in Cuba
23 November 1942, near Kalach west of Stalingrad. Troopers of Pliyev's cavalry corps met the tanks of the Don Front. The ring around the German 6th Army — 330,000 men — had closed for the first time.
Born to a poor peasant family in North Ossetia and enlisted in the Red Army in 1922, he rose to become the Soviet Army's premier cavalry general. Under Dovator he helped hold the Moscow line, then at Stalingrad his forces were the first to complete the encirclement of the German 6th Army. Leading cavalry-mechanized groups, he executed deep operations across Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and in August 1945 his Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group smashed the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, making him the only cavalry general twice decorated Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he commanded the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba under Operation Anadyr, managing the superpower confrontation at its most dangerous point; that same June his troops suppressed the Novocherkassk workers' uprising.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1933–39Operations officer, 5th Cavalry Division; advisor in Mongolia; CO 48th Cavalry Regiment
- 1941CO 50th (later 3rd Guards) Cavalry Division — Smolensk raids, defence of Moscow
- 1942–43CO 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps — Stalingrad; first to close the ring on the 6th Army
- 1944CO Cavalry-Mechanized Group — liberation of Odessa (1st Hero of the Soviet Union)
- 1944–45CO 1st Guards Cavalry-Mechanized Group — Bagration, Debrecen, Budapest, Prague
- 1945.8CO Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group — smashed Kwantung Army (2nd Hero star)
- 1958–68Commander, North Caucasus Military District
- 1962–63Operation Anadyr — Commander, Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba
Related historical events
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic Warcavalry division commander, commander of a cavalry-mechanized group
- 1942–1943Battle of StalingradCavalry corps commander who closed the ringOn 23 November 1942, his cavalry corps met Don Front tanks, closing the ring around the German 6th Army for the first time.
- 1945.08The Soviet Entry into the War against JapanCommander of the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized GroupIn August 1945, he commanded the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group that smashed the Kwantung Army.
- 1962The Cuban Missile CrisisOperation Anadyr · Commander, Group of Soviet Forces in CubaFrom July 1962 to May 1963, as commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba, he directed the covert deployment and later withdrawal of troops, missiles, and bombers including nuclear warheads. He was the senior Soviet commander on the ground throughout the 13-day superpower standoff at the edge of nuclear war.