Semyon Mikhailovich Budenny

Semyon Mikhailovich Budenny , 1883-1973, Russian marshal. A sergeant major in the czarist cavalry, he joined the Communist party in 1919, helped to organize the Soviet cavalry, and served in the Russian civil war (1918-20). He was made marshal in 1935. He commanded in the war against Finland (1940) and was made deputy commissar for defense. In World War II, he was placed in command of the southwest Soviet forces. After Stalin denied him permission to abandon Kiev in the face of an imminent onslaught by Hitler's troops in late 1941, Budenny led the Russian soldiers to a severe defeat. He was replaced in the field, but in 1953 became inspector of the cavalry.

Budenny, Marshal Semyon (1883–1973),a legendary hero of the Russian Civil War, owing to his having commanded Stalin's much-vaunted creation, the First Cavalry Army, Budenny became a marshal in 1935. In 1941, as first deputy defence commissar and a member of the Stavka, Stalin's general headquarters committee, he co-ordinated the South-West and South fronts (army groups) during the encirclement of Kiev (August–September) and thereafter (until 15 October) took over the Reserve front in the Moscow sector. In the 1942 summer campaign (see German–Soviet war, 4) he commanded the North Caucasus front until September, when it was dissolved after having been practically driven out of the North Caucasus region. In 1943, the title Commander of Red Army Cavalry was created for him, and thereafter he was engaged in trying to devise a place for cavalry in mechanized warfare.

Earl Ziemke