Gayk Bzhishkyan

Gayk Bzhishkyan (February 6 (February 18 (O.S.)), 1887– December 11, 1937) was a Soviet military commander of the Russian Civil War and Polish-Soviet War.

(Russian: Гайк Бжишкян, also known as Gay Dmitrievich Gay (Гай Дмитриевич Гай), the first name is sometimes given as Gaya, Гая, or Gai, the patronymic is sometimes spelt as "Dimitrievich" or "Dimitriyevich", last name also spelt as Bzhishkyants (Бжишкянц); in Polish sources related to Polish-Soviet War he is referred to as either Gaj Brzyszkian or Gaj Dimitrijewicz Gaj.)

Gayk was Armenian, born in Tabriz, Iran to a family of teacher.

He joined military of Imperial Russia, served as corporal (прапорщик, praporshchik, унтер-офицер, unter-officer, a military rank in Russian Imperial Army) and fought in World War I. After Russian Revolution he joined Bolsheviks and became the Party member and military commander since 1918, when he fought against Czech Legion ("White-czechs") and Orenburg Cossacks of ataman Alexander Dutov.

He commanded the following regiments.

• July-November 1918: 1st Samara Infantry Division, transformed into 24th Rifle Division that took over Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) and was later known as "Samara-Ulyanovsk Iron Division" (Georgy Zhukov served under his command and highly praised him later in his memoirs).
• January-May, 1919: 1st Army
• August-September 1919: 42nd Rifle Division
• September 1919-March 1920: 1st Caucasus Cavalry Division
• During the Polish-Soviet War he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Corps and (since July) 3rd Cavalry Corps on the right flank of the Western Front. In August 1920 he covered the retreat of the 4th Army and was interned in East Prussia

Since 1922 he was People's Commissar of Army and Navy of Armenian SSR and later military history lecturer and researcher.

Since 1933 he was professor and the Chair of the Department of War History and Military Art in Zhukovsky Air Force Academy.

He was twice awarded with Order of the Red Banner: in 1919 for battles in Volga Region of 1918 and in 1920 for the Polish campaign.

On July 3, 1935 he was arrested, accused of "participation in an anti-Soviet terrorist organization" by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on December 13, 1937 (АП РФ, оп. 24, дело 413, лист 252) and shot the same day. His books were declared politically harmful and banned. He was rehabilitated on January 21, 1956.

Passenger river motor ship (riverboat) Komdiv Gay (Комдив Гай, 1963) bears his name.

Works

• На Варшаву! Действия 3 конного корпуса на Западном фронте. Moscow, Leningrad, 1928.
• В боях за Симбирск. Ulyanovsk, 1928.
• Первый удар по Колчаку. Leningrad, 1926.