Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (Russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Тухаче́вский; February 16 [O.S. February 4] 1893 – June 12, 1937) was a leading Soviet military leader and theoretician from 1918 to 1938: commander of the Soviet Western Front in the Russo-Polish War of 1920-21; chief of staff of the Red Army from 1925 through 1928; an assistant in the People's Commissariat of Defense after 1934; and commander of the Pre-Volga Military District in 1937.