RUSSIAN CAVALRY MARSHAL BUDYONNY in BERLIN 1970 VINTAGE POSTCARD

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny ( 1883 – 1973) was a Russian cavalryman, a military commander during the Russian Civil War and World War II, and a close political ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

During the Russian Civil War, Budyonny's large cavalry force helped the Bolsheviks to victory and Budyonny himself became the subject of several popular patriotic songs. He was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935. He was an opponent against the pre-war development of Soviet mechanized forces. In World War II, he received the blame for many of Stalin's military strategy errors, but he was retained in the Soviet high command because of his bravery and popularity. He was a notable horse-breeder, who declared that the tank could never replace the horse as an instrument of war.