Oleg Valerianovich Butusov (5 March 1893-21 June 1938) was a General of the Red Army of the Soviet Union.
Biography[]
Oleg Valerianovich Butusov was born on 5 March 1893 in Kaluga, Russian Empire (present-day Kaluga Oblast, Russia) to a family of Orthodox Christian Russians. He joined the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and became an officer by 1917, when he took part in the Russian Revolution against Czar Nicholas II of Russia, angered at his poor command over the large Russian army that led to millions of deaths. Butusov became a General of the Red Army due to his experience with the Czarist army, and he fought in the Russian Civil War alongside the Bolsheviks of Leon Trotsky. He helped in suppressing the White Army close to Moscow, and his career saw him winning several successes against the Whites. However, in the Great Purge he was among the 90% of Red Army generals purged by Josef Stalin, executed on 21 June 1938 for "treason".