Issa Aleksandrovich Pliyev

ISSA ALEKSANDROVICH PLIYEV (12 [25] November 1903 – 6 February 1979) was a Soviet military commander, General of the Army, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, and Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic. He was born in the village of Stary Batakoyurt. After studying at the 2nd Vladikavkaz Real School, he entered Red Army service in 1922. He graduated from the Borisoglebsk–Leningrad Cavalry School (1926), the M. V. Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army (1933), and the Military Academy of the General Staff (1941), and completed the Higher Academic Courses there in 1949. During the Great Patriotic War he commanded cavalry divisions and corps and later cavalry-mechanized groups; he took part in the Battle of Smolensk, the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and operations in Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. On 16 April 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his command during offensive operations in southern Ukraine. In August 1945 he commanded the cavalry-mechanized group of the Transbaikal Front during the Khingan–Mukden operation; on 8 September 1945 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for a second time. After the war he commanded the Stavropol Military District, the 9th Mechanized Army, the 13th Army, and the 4th Army; from 1958 to 1968 he commanded the North Caucasus Military District. From July 1962 to May 1963 he commanded the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba during Operation Anadyr. From June 1968 he served as a Military Inspector-Adviser in the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defence. He was a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee from 1961 to 1966 and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1946 to 1970. He died in Moscow and was buried on the Alley of Glory in Vladikavkaz.