Gaya Gay Soviet military leader, hero of the Civil War. Date of Birth: 06.02.1887 Country: Azerbaijan

1. Biography of Gay Gay
2. Commander in the Civil War
3. Leadership during the Soviet-Polish War
4. Later Career and Tragic Fate

Biography of Gay Gay

Gay Gay was a Soviet military leader and a hero of the Civil War. He was born in Tiflis, Persia (now Tbilisi, Georgia) in a family of a teacher. In 1903, he became involved in the revolutionary movement and later served in the Imperial Army as a junior officer. During World War I, Gay voluntarily went to the frontlines. After the October Revolution, he joined the Bolshevik Party.

Commander in the Civil War

During the Civil War, Gay led his own units in the fight against the White Army and the Orenburg Cossacks under General Dutov. He commanded various divisions and corps, including the 1st Samara Infantry Division, which later became the 24th Rifle Division. It was in this division that Georgy Zhukov, who would later become a renowned Soviet military leader, served under Gay's command.

Leadership during the Soviet-Polish War

In the Soviet-Polish War of 1920, Gay commanded the 2nd Cavalry Corps and later the 3rd Cavalry Corps, both of which operated successfully on the Western Front. In August 1920, his corps covered the retreat of the 4th Army but was eventually interned in East Prussia.

Later Career and Tragic Fate

After the war, Gay served as the People's Commissar for War and Navy of Armenia in 1922. He then focused on military pedagogy and scientific research. From 1933 to 1935, he worked as a professor and the head of the Department of War History and Military Science at the N.E. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy.

Unfortunately, Gay's life took a tragic turn. On July 3, 1935, he was arrested on charges of "participation in an anti-Soviet terrorist organization." This was possibly the first case of a red commander of proletarian origin being arrested. On December 11, 1937, he was found guilty by the Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court of the USSR and executed on the same day. Gay Gay was posthumously rehabilitated on January 21, 1956.

In honor of his memory, a river passenger ship of project 305 was named "Komdiv Gay" in 1963. Furthermore, Gayk Bzhishkyan is mentioned several times in the novel "The Call of the Ploughmen" by Khachik Dashtents, which depicts the partisan struggle of Armenian rebels against Ottoman authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.