A curious footnote to history bobbed up in the wake of General de Gaulle’s Moscow visit. Before Joseph Stalin, Charles de Gaulle had met one other Soviet marshal—Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Red ...

*Tukhachevsky later became Vice Commissar of Defense, was shot as a traitor in the purge of 1937. Budenny was made Marshal, today trains reserves. More Must-Reads from TIME.

Tukhachevsky told a French counterintelligence officer posing as a diplomat that he was to meet with a representative of ROVS, the tsarist officer's group, in London and hinted sarcastically of his ...

While the idea of a Soviet carrier did have its supporters, others, including the brilliant young Marshal Tukhachevsky, pointed out that as large as it was, the Soviet Union could not afford to ...

Why the USSR Couldn't Become a Naval Power. While the idea of a Soviet carrier did have its supporters, others, including the brilliant young Marshal Tukhachevsky, pointed out that as large as it ...

In addition to Tukhachevsky, another three marshals, 13 generals and some 5,000 officers had been executed as part of Stalin’s purges. Nearly half of the leadership of the Red Army were dead, ...