János Gálicz

János Gálicz
Nickname(s)	General Gal
Born	1890 Tótkomlós, Austria-Hungary
Died	1939(1939-00-00) (aged 48–49) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Soviet Union Spanish Republic
Service / branch	Red Army International Brigades
Rank	Colonel
Commands	Abraham Lincoln Battalion
Battles / wars	First World War Russian Civil War Spanish Civil War

János Gálicz (1890–1939), better known as "General Gal", was a Hungarian and Soviet brigade and division commander during the Spanish Civil War.

Biography

Born in 1890 in the town of Tótkomlós in Austria-Hungary (now Békés county in Hungary).

As part of the Austro-Hungarian army, he participated in the First World War. During his service on Eastern Front he fell into Russian captivity. After the October Revolution he joined the Red Army and took part in the Russian Civil War.

He trained at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow and was promoted to the rank colonel. In 1936 he was sent to Spain and fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War under the assumed name of José Ivanovich Gal.

He planned and ordered an attack in the hills above the Jarama River which led to what was described by Ernest Hemingway as the decimation of the Twelfth International Brigade. After his return to the Soviet Union he was arrested during the Great Purge and presumably shot sometime in 1939, in Moscow.