| “ | I am convinced that all that is needed in order to achieve what I want is bravery and self-confidence. I certainly have enough self-confidence... I told myself that I shall either be a general at thirty, or that I shall not be alive by then.
— Mikhail Tukhachevsky
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” |
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Soviet general who was prominent between 1918 and 1937 as a military officer and theoretician.
Tukhachevsky was born into a family of a Russian nobles in 1893. In 1912, at age 19, the entered the Moscow Military School and graduated a second lieutenant in 1914, just in time to be sent to the Eastern Front of World War I. Tukhachevsky was captured by the Germans, attempting to escape four times before finally succeeding on his fifth attempt.
In spite of his noble ancestry, Tukhachevsky sided with the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin during the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War. During the Russian Civil War, Tukhachevsky advanced in rank rapidly, eventually being given command of the Soviet 5th Army, and sent to suppress anti-Soviet peasant uprisings such as the Kronstadt rebellion. Tukhachevsky was known to be brutal in his suppression of the uprisings, summarily executing hostages and using poison gas.
Tukhachevsky was later commanded Soviet Forces in the Polish-Soviet War in 1919. The Soviets met defeat at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, and first came into conflict with Josef Stalin. Tukhachevsky and Stalin each blamed each other for the Soviet defeat.
Tukhachevsky would go on to play a leading role in the reformation of the Red Army starting in 1931, and at about the same time, wrote several books on modern warfare, noting the importance of tanks and aircraft. Tukhachevsky came up the the tactic of deep operations, the tactic of using fast strike, penetrating deep into enemy lines. In 1935, he was made a Marshall of the Soviet Union.
As a major proponent of modernisation of Soviet armament and army force structure in the 1920s and 1930s, he became instrumental in the development of Soviet aviation, and of mechanized and airborne forces. As a theoretician, he was a driving force behind the Soviet development of the theory of deep operations in the 1920s and 1930s. Soviet authorities accused Tukhachevsky of treason, and after confessing during torture he was executed in 1937 during Nikolai Yezhov's military purges of 1936–1938.
Battle vs Pancho Villa (by SPARTAN 119)[]
Pancho Villa: 
Mikhail Tukhachevsky 
Pancho Villa walks out of his compound in a semi-desert area in Mexico, accompanied by five guards. Unknown to him, Mikhail Tukhachevsky stands in wait, hidden in a clump of sagebrush on the side of a hill.
Tukhachevsky points out Villa to the sniper in the sqaud, who fires his Mosin Nagant. At that moment, however, Villa walked forward, the bullet missing him and instead striking one of his guards right in the head. . At that moment, several the rest of the Russians open up, Russian, with a Federov Avtomat, kills a second Villista.
Villa and the surviving Villistas take cover behind a boulders or a low wall outside the house, and return fire. One of them fires a burst of automatic fire from their Mondragon rifle, killing a Russian. Second later, the head Tukhachevsky's sniper explodes, killing him
Tukhachevsky orders his men to advance, moving from cover to cover. However, a third Russian is caught in the chest by two rounds from a Mondragon Rifle. Tukhachevsky himself tosses a Model 1914 Grenade, which lands behind the low wall. Villa runs inside the house and ducks. He is unharmed, but one of his guards is not so lucky, being blow apart by the shrapnel.
Two surviving Villista's join Villa inside the house, however, one is cut down by a burst from a Federov Avtomat as he tried to lean out and fire his Mauser. The last surviving Villista throws a stick of dynamite out the window, killing one of the Russians in the blast.
Tukhachevsky and the last surviving Russian advance to the low wall, only for Villa to draw his Bisley Colt and shoots the last surviving Russian apart from Tukhachevsky. . Tukhachevsky returns fire with his Federov Avtomat, killing the last Villista and forcing Villa to retreat into the house.
Tukhachevsky moved in with his bayoneted Federov, turning a corner into the kitchen. Only for the rifle to be knocked out of his hand by a blow from Villa's machete. Tukhachevsky tried to draw his Nagant, but was struck by a slice across the throat, spraying out blood as he fell down dead.
Villa raised the machete and yelled VIVA LA REVOLUCION!"
WINNER: Pancho Villa
Expert's Opinion[]
Pancho Villa won this battle for the superior firepower of his Mondragon rifle and his superior leadership, as well as his considerable combat experience in guerilla warfare, vs Tukhachevsky's more convention tactics, less suited to squad on squad combat.