The cavalry general who bolted the Caucasus gate, witness to three wars
In the summer of 1942, German mountain troops planted the Nazi flag on Mount Elbrus. Tyulenev did not retreat. The Terek–Grozny line he had insisted on building held firm, and the Wehrmacht never reached the oil.
Born a peasant's son in Simbirsk, he became a Full Cavalier of the St. George Cross, all four classes, in the First World War. During the Civil War he served in Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army as intelligence chief and brigade commander. In 1940, alongside Zhukov and Meretskov, he was one of the first three men promoted to General of the Army. His Southern Front command in 1941 ended in disaster and a severe wound; but appointed commander of the Transcaucasian Front in February 1942, he built the Terek–Grozny defence line that held. His most consequential achievement was stopping the German drive to the Baku oilfields in the 1942–43 Battle of the Caucasus. Postwar he commanded military districts and served as cavalry inspector, wrote the memoir Through Three Wars, and received the Hero of the Soviet Union title just months before his death in 1978.
Career Timeline
- 1914–1917WWI: Full Cavalier of the St. George Cross, all four classes
- 1917Graduates Chistopol officers' school; joins Red Guard after October
- 1919–19201st Cavalry Army: intelligence chief, then cavalry brigade commander
- 1938–1940Commands Transcaucasian MD; promoted General of the Army, 1940
- 1941.06–08Commands Southern Front; retreat from Moldova; severely wounded
- 1942–1945Commands Transcaucasian Front; leads the defence of the Caucasus
- 1947–1958Cavalry inspector, district commander, combat training directorate
- 1958–1978Group of Inspectors General; Hero of the Soviet Union, 1978