Semyon Budyonny - Early Life

Early Life

Budyonny was born into a poor peasant family on the Kozyurin farmstead near the town of Bolshaya Orlovka in the Don Cossack region of the southern Russian Empire (now Rostov Oblast). Although he grew up in a Cossack region, Budyonny was not a Cossack—his family actually came from Voronezh province. He worked as a farm laborer until 1903, when he was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, becoming a cavalryman and serving in a dragoon regiment during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In 1907, he was selected as one of the best riders in the regiment for admission to the Cavalry Officers' School in St. Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1908. He returned to the Maritime Cavalry Regiment until 1914.

During World War I, Budyonny was the senior non-commissioned officer in the elite Seversky 18th Dragoon Regiment on the Western Front. He became famous for his military courage and for leading a number of military victories, in spite of the general incompetence of the senior commissioned officers he served under (primarily Russian and Caucasian aristocrats who had been given commissions due to their family name). In 1916, he was transferred to the Caucasus Front, to fight against the Ottoman Turks. He was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th Class, for his successful assault on a German supply line, however this was revoked shortly thereafter: during a heated confrontation with the squadron sergeant major regarding the officers' poor treatment of the soldiers and the continual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 Budyonny, who retaliated by punching the ranking officer and knocking him down. The soldiers backed Budyonny during questioning, claiming that the sergeant major was kicked by a horse and was using this as an excuse to settle a grudge. Due to this and Budyonny's value as a cavalryman, he was stripped of his St. George Cross, although court martial proceedings were nearly begun.

Budyonny would go on to be reawarded the 4th Class St. George Cross, as well as the other three grades. When the Russian Revolution overthrew the Tsarist regime in 1917, he was radicalized like some other soldiers and became a leading member of the soldiers' Soviet in the Caucasus area.