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Pyotr Gusev (soldier)
Soviet army general and politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pyotr Ivanovich Gusev (Russian: Пётр Иванович Гусев) (August 1, 1932 – October 1, 2024) was a Soviet and Russian career soldier. During the mid-1980s, Gusev was a lieutenant general serving as deputy commander of the Carpathian Military District.[1]
Gusev was subsequently appointed head of the Soviet military mission in Angola in 1987, succeeding Lieutenant General Leonid Kuzmenko.[1] In this role, Gusev directly planned and supervised combat operations for the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), with the oversight of Angolan Defence Minister Pedro Pedalé.[2] He was the senior Soviet general officer involved in Operation Saluting October, and the resulting Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.[2] Throughout the battle, Gusev personally briefed Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos on the military situation.[2] Aside from his involvement in that campaign, Gusev also oversaw a number of major organisational improvements to FAPLA, particularly among its armoured forces.[3]
Although held in extremely high regard by his Angolan counterparts,[3] Gusev was a more controversial figure among the Soviet personnel in Angola.[4] He often vetoed commendations for Soviet enlisted personnel and junior officers who had been directly engaged in hostilities.[4] The Soviet troops primarily served in technical and support roles, although circumstances often dictated they fight alongside their Angolan peers if attacked by UNITA insurgents or South African expeditionary forces.[4] Gusev also garnered criticism for ordering offensives without taking into account the logistical challenges and technical shortcomings of the Angolan forces expected to execute these complex operations.[4][5]
Gusev published his memoirs after his retirement from military service.[2]
For a number of years, Gusev was consistently misidentified in the South African and Western press as Lieutenant General "Konstantin Shaganovich" for unknown reasons.[3] Gusev's command decisions in Angola were frequently attributed to "Shaganovich", but according to South African historians Willem Steenkamp and Helmoed-Römer Heitman, as well as Russian historian Vladimir Shubin, no such individual ever served with the Soviet military mission in Angola.[3] Where and how the original misidentification occurred remains a mystery.[3]
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References
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