Makhmut Gareev

Makhmut Gareev
Birth nameMakhmut Akhmetovich Gareyev
Born(1923-06-23)23 June 1923
Chelyabinsk, RSFSR, USSR
Died25 December 2019(2019-12-25) (aged 96)
Moscow, Russia
Allegiance Soviet Union
 Russia
Branch Soviet Army
Years of service1941–1992
Rank General of the Army
CommandsChief Adviser to the President Democratic Republic of Afghanistan – Chief of the Armed Forces DRA
President of the Academy of Military Sciences
Battles / warsWorld War II
Soviet–Afghan War
First Afghan Civil War
AwardsOrder of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner (4 times)
Order of Alexander Nevsky
Order of the Patriotic War (1st and 2nd class)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Order of the Red Star
Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR (2nd and 3rd class)

Makhmut Akhmetovich Gareyev (Russian: Махмут Ахметович Гареев, Tatar: Мәхмүт Әхмәт улы Гәрәев; 23 June 1923 – 25 December 2019) was a Russian general and author of several books on the history of the Second World War. He served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces. Until his death, he was the president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences.

A decorated veteran of the Second World War, he had a lifelong career in the Soviet military starting from the Junior Lieutenant in the beginning of the war and reaching general rank in the 1970s.

His positions also included serving as the military adviser to Egypt under Anwar Sadat in the 1970s and Afghanistan under then Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah from 1989 to 1991.

Gareev served as an editor-in-chief and authored a few books himself.

In September 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded Gareev the Medal of Honor for his contribution in the 1945 Battle of Mutanchiang that liberated Mudanjiang in Northeastern China from the Empire of Japan.