Issa Pliyev

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev (also Pliev) was a Soviet military commander born November 25, 1903, in Stary Batakoyurt, North Ossetia. He died February 6, 1979, in Moscow. He rose to become the Soviet Army’s leading cavalry general and later commanded mechanized forces. He became Army General in 1962 and was twice named Hero of the Soviet Union (1944 and 1945). He was also named Hero of the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1971.

In World War II, Pliyev led cavalry and later cavalry-mechanized groups. He fought in the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad and helped encircle the German 6th Army in Stalingrad. He commanded a mechanized cavalry group in the Bereznegovato-Snigireva and Odessa offensives, helping break through enemy lines and capture Odessa. In 1944 his forces supported deep offensives during Operation Bagration and the Debrecen operation in Hungary, fighting behind enemy lines and achieving important breakthroughs.

At the end of the war, he led the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group in Manchuria against Japan’s Kwantung Army, earning his second Hero of the Soviet Union award.

After World War II, Pliyev held high commands: he led the Stavropol Military District, then the 9th Mechanized Army in Romania, and the 13th Army in western Ukraine. He studied at the General Staff Academy and later commanded the North Caucasus Military District. In 1962 he helped suppress the Novocherkassk riots and, during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Operation Anadyr) in 1962–63, led a group of Soviet forces in Cuba.

He retired in 1968 and died in 1979. He is buried in Vladikavkaz. His awards include five Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov (1st Class), the Order of Kutuzov (1st Class), nine foreign orders, and he held the title Hero of the Soviet Union twice and Hero of Mongolia (1971).

Pliyev joined the Red Army in 1922, trained at the Leningrad Cavalry School, Frunze Military Academy, and the General Staff Academy, and joined the Communist Party in 1926. Early in the war he served under Lev Dovator, gaining a reputation for mobile, deep-penetration operations.