Issa Pliyev

Infobox Military Person
name=Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev
lived=1903-1979
placeofbirth=Ossetia
placeofdeath=

caption=
nickname=
allegiance=Soviet Union
serviceyears=
rank=General of the Army
commands=5th Cavalry Division
2nd Guards Cavalry Corps
1st Guards Cavalry Mechanized Group
Mobile Group Pliyev
Soviet Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group
13th Army
North Caucasus Military District
Soviet Ground Forces in Cuba
unit=
battles=Battle of Moscow
Battle of Romania (1944)
Battle of Debrecen
Operation August Storm
awards=Twice Hero of the Soviet Union
laterwork=

Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev ( _os. Плиты Алыксандры фырт Иссæ; _ru. Исса Александрович Плиев) (OldStyleDate|25 November|1903|12 November in Stary Batakoyurt — 2 February 1979) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (1962), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (4.16.1944 and 9.8.1945), Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1926. He was an ethnic Ossetian.

Career

Pre-War

I.A. Pliyev started his military career in the Red Army in 1922. He graduated from the Leningrad Cavalry school in 1926, and became commander of the Krasnodar Cavalry School. He graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1933. From 1933 to 1936 he was the Operations Officer of 5th Cavalry Division. In 1936-1938, he was an advisor for the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army. Upon his return he became commander of a cavalry regiment. In 1941 he attended the Soviet General Staff Academy.

World War II

During the Great Patriotic War, Pliyev commanded the 50th Cavalry Division (renamed 3rd Guards Cavalry Division) during the Border Battles and the Moscow Defensive Operation.

In December 1941, he was appointed commander of 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps (GCC). In April 1942 he was appointed commander of 5th Guards Cavalry Corps; followed by command of 3d Guards Cavalry Corps and 4th Guards Cavalry Corps under the command of Western, Southern, Southwestern, Steppe.

In autumn of 1944, he was appointed commander of the 1st Guards Cavalry Mechanized Group with which he participated in battles under the command of 3rd Ukrainian, 1st Belorussian, and 2nd Ukrainian. In October 1944 he commanded the Mobile Group Pliev, which was encircled and destroyed by German Wehrmacht formations in the Battle of Debrecen in Hungary. He ended the war in command of the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group of the Transbaikal front in Manchuria, fighting against the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Pliyev took part in the Border Battles, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, and several Soviet military operations against the Germans, including the Operation Melitopol, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya Offensive, Odessa Offensive, Operation Bagration, Budapest Offensive, the Prague Offensive, and the Operation August Storm in the war against Japan.

Post-War

After the war, Pliyev held several important posts in the military. He commanded 13th Army in 1947-49. In 1955-1958, he was appointed First Deputy and then in 1958 - Commander of the North Caucasus Military District. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he was the commander of Soviet ground forces in Cuba. In 1968, Pliyev became a military inspector and advisor for the General Inspectors Group of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. Pliyev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-7th convocations.

Decorations

Pliyev was awarded five Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov (1st Class), Order of Kutuzov (1st Class), numerous medals and nine foreign orders.

Books Authored

*Плиев И.А.. Через Гоби и Хинган ("Thru the Gobi Desert and the Khingan Mountains"). 1965.
*Плиев И.А.. Конец Квантунской армии ("The End of the Kwataung-Army"). 1969

ee also

* Operation August Storm
* [http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/bookrevu/sovcuban.htm Book Review at FMSO on Cuban Crisis]
* [http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/glantz3/glantz3.asp Operation August Storm Leavenworth Paper No. 7 by David Glantz]