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התרגומים לאנגלית נעשו באמצעות המנוע "מתרגם גוגל" והתרגום הועתק לאתר בצורתו המקורית ללא עריכה נוספת
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Notes written by Izzy Hod: Cavalry Army, is a poem written to glorify the name of Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny, who was a Russian army commander in the Russian Civil War [1917-1923] and the Second World War in Russia [1941-1945] and was very close to Joseph Stalin. During the Russian Civil War, in 1918, which is mentioned in the song Cavalry army [...the year 18...] Budyonny, formed his own private fighting cavalry force, and supported the Bolsheviks [the majority, led by Lenin, in the the Social-Democratic Labor party, in Russia, against the Menshevik minority, in the same party, led by Julius Martov], against the White Army [an army, or army-like, formed by political movements and the remnants of the tsarist army, in order to to overthrow the Soviet Bolshevik rule, which arose in the civil war]. Budyonny, was responsible for the victory of the Bolsheviks, over the White Army, of which the Atamans, i.e. Cossack nobles, were part of it and its military commanders and thus became a revered figure, about whom several patriotic poems were written and the Cavalry army is one of them. In 1920, Budyonny and his army joined the war between Poland and Russia, and it was Budyonny's army that expelled the Polish invader from the land of Soviet Ukraine, and this event is mentioned too in the song. Budyonny was awarded the rank of Field Marshal by Stalin, in 1935, the year the song Cavalry army was written. During World War II, Budyonny was accused of several strategic mistakes made by Stalin, but because of his past and courage, he was not punished for it. The details of the lyrics of the song are as follows, The year 1918 came, we made all the preparations quickly and left. The Cuban division headed towards the Volga. We accelerate the horses with the help of the spurs of the harnesses and at the head is the leader, Budyonny. In dust and fire, on rocks and stones and on the banks of rivers we have won victories and world fame. Between the Don and the Dnieper, we surrendered both the Atamans who are the white Cossack commanders and their army and also the Pans, who are the Polish commanders and their army and in the quiet time after the battles, if war breaks out again, we will activate our guns again as we gallop after our beloved commander, Budyonny, with great courage.
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny ( April [O.S. 13 April] 1883-26 October 1973) was a Russian cavalryman, military commander during the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War and World War II, and a close political ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Budyonny was the founder of the Red Cavalry, which played an important role in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War. As a political ally of Joseph Stalin, he was one of the two most senior army commanders still alive and in post at the time of German invasion of the USSR in 1941, but had to be removed from active service because of his unfitness to command a modern army. After being told of the importance of the tank in the coming war in 1939, he remarked, "You won't convince me. As soon as war is declared, everyone will shout, "Send for the Cavalry!". He became a cavalryman reinforcing the 46th Cossack Regiment during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. After the war, he was transferred to the Primorsk Dragoon Regiment. In 1907, he was sent to the Academy for Cavalry Officers in the St. Petersburg Riding School. He graduated first in his class after a year, becoming an instructor with the rank of junior non-commissioned officer. He returned to his regiment as a riding instructor with a rank of senior non-commissioned officer. At the start of World War I, he joined a reserve dragoon cavalry battalion.
During World War I, Budyonny was the 5th Squadron's non-commissioned troop officer in the Christian IX of Denmark 18th Seversky Dragoon Regiment, Caucasian Cavalry Division on the Eastern Front (Vostochny front). He became famous for his attack on a German supply column near Brzezina, and was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th Class. However, there was general ineptitude among the officers under whom he served (primarily Caucasian aristocrats who received commissions based on their social standing). In November 1916, the Caucasian Cavalry Division was transferred to the Caucasus Front, to fight against the Ottoman Turks. He was involved in a heated confrontation with the squadron sergeant major regarding the officers' poor treatment of the soldiers and the continual lack of food. The sergeant major struck out at Budyonny, who retaliated by punching the ranking officer, knocking him down. The soldiers backed Budyonny during questioning, claiming that the sergeant major was kicked by a horse. Budyonny was stripped of his St. George Cross, though he could have faced a court martial and death. Budyonny would go on to be awarded the St. George Cross, 4th class, a second time, during the Battle of Van. He received the St. George Cross, 3rd class, fighting the Turks near Mendelij, on the way to Baghdad. He then received the St. George Cross, 2nd class, for operating behind Turkish lines for 22 days. He received the St. George Cross, 1st class, for capturing a senior non-commissioned officer and six men. After the Russian Revolution overthrew the Tsarist regime in 1917, Budyonny was elected chairman of the squadron committee and a member of the regimental committee. When the Caucasian Cavalry Division was moved to Minsk, he was elected chairman of the regimental committee and deputy chairman of the divisional committee. Returning to Platovskaya, Budyonny was elected deputy chairman of the Stanista Soviet of Workers', Peasants', Cossacks' and Soldiers' Deputies on 12 January 1918. On 18 February, he was elected to be a member of the Salsk District Presidium and head of the District Land Department. On the night of 23 February, Budyonny organized a force of 24 men to retake Platovskaya from the white guards, but Budyonny was soon joined by a large number of new recruits. By morning, they had freed 400 inhabitants and killed 350 White Russian soldiers. His force now consisted of 520 men, from whom, on 27 February, he formed what was later recognisedas the first 120-strong squadron of red cavalry. Eventually he was elected battalion commander. Budyonny met Stalin and Voroshilov in July 1918. Both supported the idea of creating a cavalry corps to fight on the Bolshevik side in the Russian Civil War; but when Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War, visited south Russia soon afterward, he told Budyonny that cavalry was "a very aristocratic family of troops, commanded by princes, barons, and counts." Despite Trotsky, the 1st Socialist Cavalry Regiment was formed in Tsaritsyn in October 1918, commanded by Boris Dumenko, with Budyonny as deputy commander. Budyonny joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1919. During the summer of 1919, while the Red Cavalry were in action against the White General Anton Denikin, Trotsky described them contempuously as "Budyonny's corps-a horde, and Budyonny-their Ataman ring leader...He is today's Stenka Razin, and where he leads his gang, there will they go: for the Reds today, tomorrow for the Whites." However, in October 1919, Budyonny pulled off a spectacular victory when, in the greatest cavalry battle of the civil war, he attacked and defeated the White army corps commanded by Konstantin Mamontov. On 25 October, Trotsky sent a dispatch forecasting that the White army in the south would never recover from this defeat, and hailing Budyonny as "a true warrior of the workers and peasants". When Poland declared independence, there was no agreement between its government and the Soviet authorities over where the border would be. In April 1920, Budyonny's cavalry was assigned to driving the Polish army out of what is now Ukraine. On 5 June, he took part in recapturing Kiev, and over the next few days successfully drove the Poles westward. At the start of the war with Poland, he was assigned to the southern front, which Stalin commanded. On 15 August, he asked the commander-in-chief of Soviet forces in Poland, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, for authority to swing north and assist in capturing Warsaw. With Stalin's agreement, he attempted to capture Lviv first. Unsuccessful, he eventually diverted to the North but by that time Tukhachevsky's forces had been driven back, forcing a general retreat. After Budyonny's army was defeated in the Battle of Komarów (one of the biggest cavalry battles in history), he was forced to withdraw onto Soviet-held territory. Budyonny took part in the reconquest of Crimea, the final phase of the Russian Civil War. In July-September 1941, Budyonny was Commander-in-Chief (главком, glavkom) of the Soviet armed forces of the Southwestern Direction (Southwestern and Southern Fronts) facing the German invasion of Ukraine. This invasion began as part of Germany's Operation Barbarossa which was launched on June 22. Operating under strict orders from Stalin (who attempted to micromanage the war in the early stages) not to retreat under any circumstances, Budyonny's forces were eventually surrounded during the Battle of Uman and the Battle of Kiev. The disasters which followed the encirclement cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million men killed or taken prisoner. This was one of the largest encirclements in military history. Because of his exceptional civil war record, he continued to enjoy Stalin's patronage and suffered no real punishment for the disaster in Kiev. After the war, he was appointed USSR Deputy Minister for Agriculture, responsible for horse breeding. When he retired, he retained his membership of the Supreme Soviet and his status as a Hero of the Soviet Union. After his death from a brain hemorrhage in 1973, aged 90, he was buried in the Kremlin wall with full military honours. Pallbearers at his funeral included the General Secretary of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev and the USSR Minister for Defence, Marshal Grechko.
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