Nikolai Gusev

Born Nov. 15 (27), 1897, in the village of Brodnikovo, in present-day Torzhok Raion, Kalinin Oblast; died May 6, 1962, in Moscow. Colonel general (1945); member of the CPSU from 1919.

Gusev entered the Soviet Army in 1918, participated in the Civil War, and was a squadron commander. He graduated from the Higher Command Courses (1924), the air defense courses (1928), Advanced Courses for Command Personnel (1929 and 1931), and the Military Academy of the General Staff (1941). During the Great Patriotic War, beginning in July 1941, he participated in the fighting on the Leningrad, Volkhov, Second Baltic, and First, Second, and Third Byelorussian fronts in several positions, including commander of a cavalry division (until January 1942); commander of a cavalry corps (until June 1942); and commander of the troops of the Fourth, Twentieth, Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth armies in the defense of Leningrad, the liberation of Byelorussia, and the taking of eastern Prussia. After the war he commanded the troops of a military district and in 1950–54 served as military attaché in Czechoslovakia. In 1960 he became deputy chief of staff of the united armed forces of the Warsaw Treaty countries. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov First Class, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Medal of Honor, and various medals.