The Frunze Military Academy where Semyon Budyonny studied.
Career
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1912
Semyon Budyonny
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1918
Volgograd, Russia
Future Marshals of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny, Kliment Voroshilov, and Semyon Timoshenko in Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd).
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1940
Moscow, Russia
Semyon Budyonny
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1940
Moscow, Russia
Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1945
Red Square, Moscow, Russia, 109012
Red Army Marshals Semyon Budyonny, Joseph Stalin, and Georgy Zhukov attend the Moscow Victory Parade in Red Square on June 24, 1945.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1945
Moscow, Russia
Semyon Budyonny receives the Order of Lenin from Chairman of the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Supreme Soviet Mikhail Kalinin.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1950
Soviet Cavalry General Semyon Budyonny standing in front of a painting of himself.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1920
First marshal of the Union Semyon Budyonny firing his Nagant brand pistol.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1920
Commanders of the First Red Cavalry Army Semyon M. Budyonny, Kliment E. Voroshilov, and Sergey K. Minin.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1938
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny, Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1938
Moscow, Russian Federation
Marshall Semyon Budyonny, people's commissar of defense, Marshall Kliment Voroshilov, and division commander Vasily Sokolovsky looking over a map during tactical exercises in the Moscow military district in September 1938.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1930
Semyon Mikhaylovich Budenny
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1934
Soviet Marshal Semyon Budyonny with a delegation of Turkish officers going to Moscow to celebrate May 1.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1935
Moscow, Russian Federation
Soviet military commander Semyon Budyonny at the 2nd All-Union Congress of shock kolkhoz workers.
Gallery of Semyon Budyonny
1935
First 5 Marshals of the Soviet Union: Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny, Kliment Voroshilov, Vasily Blyukher, and Alexander Yegorov.
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Hero of the Soviet Union
The gold star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union that Semyon Budyonny received on February 2, 1958, April 24, 1963, and February 22, 1968.
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin that Semyon Budyonny received on February 23, 1935, November 17, 1939, April 24, 1943, February 21, 1945, April 24, 1958, February 1, 1963, February 22, 1968, and April 24, 1973.
Order of the Red Banner
The Order of the Red Banner that Semyon Budyonny received on March 29, 1919, March 13, 1923, February 22, 1930, January 8, 1941, November 3, 1944, and June 26, 1948.
Order of Suvorov
The Order of Suvorov that Semyon Budyonny received on February 22, 1944.
Cross of St. George
The Cross of St. George, 1st class, that Semyon Budyonny received in 1916.
Jubilee Medal "For Military Valour in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin"
The Jubilee Medal "For Military Valour in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
The Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "For the Defence of Odessa"
The Medal "For the Defence of Odessa" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "For the Defence of Sevastopol"
The Medal "For the Defence of Sevastopol" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
The Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
The Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
The Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
The Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
The Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
The Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"
The Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad"
The Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Order of Sukhbaatar
The Order of Sukhbaatar that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Order of the Red Banner
The Order of the Red Banner that Semyon Budyonny was awarded in 1936.
Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Revolution"
The Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded in 1970.
Order of Friendship
The Order of Friendship that Semyon Budyonny was awarded in 1967.
Marshall Semyon Budyonny, people's commissar of defense, Marshall Kliment Voroshilov, and division commander Vasily Sokolovsky looking over a map during tactical exercises in the Moscow military district in September 1938.
Soviet marshals Simeon Budenny and Vassili Sokolovsky with Ekaterina Furtseva, first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Budyonny, first Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Anastas Mikoyan, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, Politburo member Nikolai Podgorny, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro pose for a group photo during a meeting in the Moscow Kremlin.
The Order of Lenin that Semyon Budyonny received on February 23, 1935, November 17, 1939, April 24, 1943, February 21, 1945, April 24, 1958, February 1, 1963, February 22, 1968, and April 24, 1973.
The Order of the Red Banner that Semyon Budyonny received on March 29, 1919, March 13, 1923, February 22, 1930, January 8, 1941, November 3, 1944, and June 26, 1948.
The Jubilee Medal "For Military Valour in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin" that Semyon Budyonny was awarded.
Semyon Budyonny was a Russian military commander who served as commander of the First Cavalry Army and as deputy minister of agriculture for horse breeding. He also was an inspector of the Cavalry in the Red Army.
Background
Semyon Budyonny was born on April 25, 1883, in Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire (present-day Rostov Oblast, Russia). He was the son of Melania Budyonnaya and Mikhail Budyonny. He also had four brothers and three sisters. Budyonny grew up in a Cossack region, but he was not a Cossack as his family came from Voronezh province.
Education
Semyon Budyonny received no formal education until he entered military service. Instead, he worked as a farm laborer, shop errand boy, blacksmith's apprentice, and driver of a steam-driven threshing machine.
Later Budyonny attended the Academy for Cavalry Officers in the St. Petersburg Riding School from 1907 to 1908. In 1932, he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy.
Semyon Budyonny started his military career in the Imperial Russian Army in 1903. He served in the 46th Don Cossack Regiment and fought in the Russo-Japanese War. After the war, he was transferred to the Primorsk Dragoon Regiment. In 1907, he was sent to the Academy for Cavalry Officers in the St. Petersburg Riding School. In 1908, he returned to his regiment as a riding instructor with a rank of senior non-commissioned officer.
At the beginning of World War I, Semyon Budyonny joined a reserve dragoon cavalry battalion. He served as the 5th Squadron's non-commissioned troop officer in the Christian IX of Denmark 18th Seversky Dragoon Regiment, Caucasian Cavalry Division on the Western Front. During World War I, Budyonny earned many distinctions. He returned to his family farm when the revolution broke out in 1917. He joined the Red Army and arrived with the Caucasian Division in Minsk, where he was elected chairman of a regimental committee and deputy chairman of a division committee. In August 1917, he was one of the commanders disarming Kornilov's troops in Orsha. In 1918, he returned to Platovskaya village and was elected a member of the Sal'sk District Executive Committee. Budyonny formed a cavalry detachment for the struggle against the White Guards; this detachment grew into a regiment, a brigade, and then a cavalry division, which operated successfully near Tsaritsyn in 1918 and early 1919.
In June 1919, a cavalry corps was set up under Budyonny's command and played a decisive role in the rout of White Guard troops in the Voronezh-Kastornoe Operation of 1919. In November 1919, this corps was deployed as the First Cavalry Army and Budyonny served as commander of this army from 1919 to 1923. First Cavalry Army played an important role in several major Civil War operations aimed at routing Denikin's troops, and the armies of Pilsudski in Ukraine and of Vrangel' in Northern Tavria and the Crimea. From 1921 to 1923, Budyonny was first a member of the Revolutionary Military Council and then deputy commander of the Northern Caucasus Military District. In 1923, Budyonny was made assistant commander in chief of the Red Army in charge of cavalry and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. From 1924 to 1937, he was inspector of the cavalry of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.
In 1937, Semyon Budyonny became commander of the Moscow Military District and held this post until 1939. He also served as deputy people's commissar of defense from 1939 to 1940. In August 1940, Budyonny became the first deputy people's commissar of defense. During the Great Patriotic War, Budyonny was a member of the General Headquarters of the Supreme Command. He served as commander of an army group of the reserve of General Headquarters from June 1941 to July 1941. In July 1941, he became commander in chief of the troops of the Southwestern axis. During Germany's Operation Barbarossa, Budyonny acted according to the order of Stalin not to retreat under any circumstances. As the result, Budyonny's forces were eventually surrounded during the Battle of Uman and the Battle of Kyiv. The disasters which followed the encirclement cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million men killed or taken prisoner.
On September 13, 1941, Stalin dismissed Budyonny. He was never allowed to command troops in combat again. He was commander of the Reserve Front from September to October 10, 1941. In April 1942, he was appointed commander in chief of the troops of the Northern Caucasus axis. On May 20, 1942, Budyonny became commander of the Northern Caucasus Front and held this post until September 4, 1942. In January 1943, he was made commander of the cavalry of the Soviet Army and member of the Supreme Military Council of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, serving simultaneously as deputy minister of agriculture for horse breeding from 1947 to 1953.
From May 1953 through September 1954, Budyonny was inspector of the cavalry. Budyonny also wrote memories that were published in 1972. After his death from a brain hemorrhage in 1973, aged 90, he was buried in the Kremlin wall with full military honors.
(The memoirs of Marshal Semyon Budyonny on the Russian civ...)
1972
Religion
Semyon Budyonny was a religious person. It was rumored that this man, who had served under the tsar, secretly kept his faith. Budyonny himself recalled that even when he met Lenin, he said that things were going with God's help. Then it was perceived as a joke. Nevertheless, religion was a taboo subject under Soviet rule. So if Budyonny retained his religiosity, it remained deeply his personal affair.
Politics
Semyon Budyonny joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1919. In 1920, he became a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and in 1922 also of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union. Budyonny was a deputy to the first through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1938. In 1939, he was appointed a member of the Central Committee. In 1952, Budyonny was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Views
Semyon Budyonny displayed disdain for the tools of modern warfare, particularly tanks. He thought that tanks were incapable of ever replacing cavalry. This even brought him into direct conflict with Tukhachevsky, who was in charge of weapons developed and foresaw the imminence of mechanized warfare.
Quotations:
"Such an army, which you and I have created, forged, nurtured – such an army is capable of defending the world. All of us – the whole Party, Comrade Lenin, all the people – have created such an Armed Forces. And it turned out to be such a power, against which all the waves of the counterrevolution crashed."
Personality
Semyon Budyonny was a brave and ambitious man. However, the view of his fellow officers was that Budyonny was demonstrably incompetent at commanding an army in a mechanized war.
Budyonny liked horses and was even actively involved in breeding new breeds for the army and agriculture. He was also a good amateur bayan player; a few instrumental vinyl records were issued in the Soviet Union featuring his duo with his friend – cossack bayanist Grigory Zaytsev. Budyonny also spoke such foreign languages as German, French, Turkish, and English.
Physical Characteristics:
Semyon Budyonny's distinctive feature was a big mustache.
Quotes from others about the person
Alexander Pokrovsky: "Budyonny is a very peculiar man. He is a real nugget, a man with a people's mind, with common sense. He had the ability to grasp the situation quickly. He did not offer solutions himself, he did not understand the situation in such a way as to offer a solution. However, when he was reported and offered one or another solution, or a program of action, he, first of all, quickly grasped the situation and, second, as a rule, supported the most rational solutions. And he did so with sufficient determination."
Connections
Semyon Budyonny married Nadezhda Budyonnaya in 1903. The marriage produced no children. Nadezhda was killed by a gunshot in 1925.
Soon Budyonny married Olga Stefanovna. The marriage produced no children. She was arrested in 1937 on charges of espionage and attempting to poison a marshal. Olga Stefanovna did not return to Moscow until 1956. Budyonny helped her to get an apartment and also arranged for her to go to the hospital. Subsequently, he took care of Mikhailova until the end of her days.
Semyon Budyonny married Olga's cousin, Maria Vasilevna. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter.
The Soviet High Command: A Military-Political History, 1918-1941
An objective and documentary history of the earliest origins and formative years of the Workers-Peasants Red Army from the Civil War to the initial disasters of the war with Germany, the Great Patriotic War, culminating in the "battle for Moscow" in November-December 1941.
1962
The Red Army and the Second World War
In a definitive new account of the Soviet Union at war, Alexander Hill charts the development, successes and failures of the Red Army from the industrialization of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s through to the end of the Great Patriotic War in May 1945.