Viktor Tsyganov

Viktor Viktorovich Tsyganov (; – 25 June 1944) was a lieutenant general of the Red Army during the Second World War.

Early life, World War I and Russian Civil War Viktor Viktorovich Tsyganov was born on 19 November 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod, the son of a priest. After graduating from a theological seminary, he became a performer, singing in different entertainment establishments. On the eve of the war in 1914, Tsyganov graduated from Kazan University. He joined the Imperial Russian Army as a volunteer in 1914 after World War I began, graduating from the Kazan Military School and a cavalry officers school in 1916. Tsyganov fought on the Northern Front as a junior officer, squadron commander, and junior adjutant at the headquarters of a Separate Cavalry Brigade of the Northern Front, reaching the rank of poruchik by 1917.

After the October Revolution, Tsyganov supported Soviet rule. During the Russian Civil War, he joined the Red Army on 2 October 1918, being assigned to the 39th Rifle Regiment as its adjutant four days later. Tsyganov became adjutant to the chief of the Nizhny Novgorod garrison on 24 December, and spent most of 1919 with the 8th Reserve Regiment in the city. On 12 November 1919 he returned to his previous post as adjutant to the chief of the garrison. After a period in the reserve of the Reserve Army headquarters from early 1920, Tsyganov was sent to the front as chief of staff of the Separate Shock Artillery Brigade on 3 August 1920. In this role, he fought against the Army of Wrangel on the Southern Front, and was wounded in the leg and contused in the stomach during the Perekop–Chongar Operation in November 1920.

1st Panzer and 17th Armies began their attack on 7 July and by the 16th the Front commander, Lt. Gen. Rodion Malinovsky, was authorized by the STAVKA to order his armies to begin an orderly withdrawal to the Don River south of Rostov over five nights, protected by strong rearguards. Late on the 20th, LVII Panzer Corps had crossed the Mius and was driving the rearguards of 56th Army back towards the city. In the following days Tsyganov ordered his forces to defend Rostov by manning the outer and inner defensive belts on the northern and eastern sectors. These plans were undone by the rapid advance of the German tank forces and the premature withdrawal of 18th Army south of the Don. 56th Army was forced to withdraw as well, and after a bitter defense mainly by NKVD security troops Rostov-on-Don fell to the Germans for the second time on 27 July. Deemed by Stalin to be unfit for field command, Tsyganov was relieved a few days later.

Tsyganov was immediately reassigned to become deputy commander in chief for military schools in the Moscow Military District. On 16 October 1943, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. He was still serving in the training establishment when he died of illness on 25 June 1944, at the age of 47. Tsyganov was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Awards Tsyganov was a recipient of the following decorations:

Order of the Red Banner Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"