Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev (also spelled as Pliev; Ossetian: Плиты Алыксандры фырт Иссæ; Russian: Исса́ Алекса́ндрович Пли́ев; 25 November [O.S.

The military historians David Glantz and Jonathan House described Pliyev as a "great practitioner of cavalry operations in adverse terrain".

[2] Pliyev served as 2nd in command under Lev Dovator who fought alongside Rokossovsky with the crucial 16th Army, holding the center defensive line of Moscow.

His valuable experience serving directly under Lev Dovator while planning and fighting with the best especially in the early stages of the war made him stand out among others.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, the horsemen proved themselves once again, as Pliyev's forces were the first to complete the encirclement of the German 6th Army, trapping 330,000 men inside the pocket.

The mechanized cavalry group of General Pliev, introduced into the raid on the enemy's rear in March 1944, ensured the encirclement and defeat of units from the 6th German Army.

In April, the mechanized cavalry group forced the Southern Bug River, cut the enemy's main communications and contributed to the capture of a number of large settlements by the front's troops, including the city of Odessa.

[5] He ended the war in command of the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry-Mechanized Group of the Transbaikal front in Manchuria, fighting against the Japanese Kwantung Army.

[7] During the Cuban Missile Crisis he was the commander of a Group of Soviet forces as part of Operation Anadyr in Cuba from July 1962 to May 1963.

[6] In June 1968, Pliyev became an advisor for the Ministry of Defense of the USSR's Group of Inspectors General, a position for elderly senior officers.