Vasily Blucher

Vasily Blücher was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union from 1935 until his death in 1938. He was born in a peasant family named Gurov, but adopted the surname Blücher from his landlord who gave it to his ancestors in honor of the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1916 and took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917. During the Russian Civil War, he was one of the most successful commanders on the Bolshevik side, leading the South Urals Partisan Army and the Eastern Front. He was the first recipient of the Order of the Red Banner and was nicknamed the "Red Napoleon". He also fought against the White movement in Siberia, the Basmachi movement in Central Asia, and the Japanese intervention in the Far East. He was the chief of staff of the Soviet forces during the first stage of the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany and was wounded at the Battle of Smolensk. He was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935 and became the commander of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army. He was involved in the Soviet-Japanese border conflicts and the Battle of Lake Khasan. In 1938, he was arrested during the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin and accused of being a Japanese spy. He was tortured and blinded by Lavrentiy Beria and his men before succumbing to his injuries. His body was then incinerated on the orders of Stalin. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.