Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny (1883–1973) was a hero of the Civil War, commander of the legendary First Cavalry, one of the most popular Soviet military leaders. Many poems, songs, and novels portrayed him as a straightforward and unsophisticated horseman-slasher, but in fact he was smart and careful enough to survive the years of Stalin’s repressions and impose his line on the Red Army to strengthen the cavalry at the expense of motorized units. The Great Patriotic War proved the destructiveness of such a course and ended the military career of Budyonny, who for many years played the role of a living legend, a link between modernity and the heroism of the first Soviet years. The vicissitudes of the biography of the famous marshal are explored by the famous historian Boris Sokolov, the author of more than 40 books dedicated to the history and culture of Russia in the 20th century.