Yelisey Ivanovich Goryachev (1892 – 12 December 1938) was a Soviet military officer who attained the rank of komkor (corps commander) in the Red Army. Born in the Kalachyovsky District of the Volgograd Oblast in the Russian Empire, Goryachev served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I before joining the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
During the Russian Civil War he fought for the Red Army and later held various command positions in the interwar period. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his service. In the late 1930s, amid the Great Purge, Goryachev acted as a military judge in the high‑profile Case of the Trotskyist Anti‑Soviet Military Organization, which culminated in the trial and execution of several senior Red Army officers, including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
On 4 February 1938 Goryachev was formally promoted to komkor and, on 26 July 1938, appointed commander of a cavalry army stationed in Kiev. Fearing imminent arrest in the continuing wave of political repression, he committed suicide by shooting himself on 12 December 1938 in Khmelnytskyi, Ukrainian SSR.
His career reflects the turbulent military and political environment of the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century, illustrating both the rapid advancement possible for former Imperial officers and the lethal vulnerability of senior officers during Stalin’s purges.