During the interwar period he served as an instructor at several military academies, and following the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was given command of the 304th Rifle Division.

He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his leadership of the army during the Battle of the Dnieper in September and October 1943.

He enrolled in the Moscow University but did not attend it, working as a history and literature teacher at the higher primary school[1] in the village of Plokhino in Zhizdrinsky Uyezd of Kaluga Governorate from October, [2] before being mobilized for service in the Imperial Russian Army in April 1916.

He served as chief of horse reconnaissance and intelligence for about two months but was gassed in the Battle of Riga near Ikšķile in August.

In early March 1919, Pukhov transferred to the 8th Army as chief of staff of its Kalach Group of Forces after the regiment was disbanded.

The brigade was part of the screening force against White cavalry commander Konstantin Mamontov's raid into the rear of the Southern Front.

In January 1921, he was promoted to chief of staff of the division, covering the White Sea coast near Arkhangelsk.

In April, the 21st was transferred to Siberia, where it eliminated Andrey Bakich and Alexander Kaygorodov's remnant White forces in the Altai Mountains.

After the end of the Russian Civil War, he became chief of staff of the West Siberian Military District's 35th Rifle Division in April 1923.

Pukhov was made a Colonel in December after the Red Army re-introduced regular military ranks.

[1][2] In July 1936, Pukhov became assistant chief in charge of training at the Gorky Armored School, which moved to Kharkov in March 1938.

Until the middle of 1942 the army, part of the Bryansk Front, held defensive positions on the line of Skorodnoye and Kolpny.

On 9 September, the army crossed the Desna River in the area of Obolonnaya and Spasskoye, repulsing German counterattacks for six days before resuming the advance.

On 16 October, Pukhov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for his leadership in the offensive.