A Red Army commander shaped by the air war
A pilot who earned four St. George Crosses in the air fighting of the First World War went over to the revolution and in 1920 personally led the storming of the citadel of Old Bukhara.
Georgy Zinoviev was a military officer who moved from service as a pilot in the First World War to command in the revolutionary Red Army. In the 1919 counteroffensive on the Eastern Front, he led the Turkestan Army through the Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa operations, helping turn back Kolchak's advance. After the Civil War, he helped institutionalize the early Soviet armed forces through senior posts in military education and engineering administration.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1915–1917Pilot, 6th Corps Aviation Detachment, 2nd Army, Western Front
- 1917Chairman, soldiers' committee of the 3rd Siberian Rifle Corps
- 1918Commander, Smolensk garrison
- 1918–1919Commander, Orenburg, Aktyubinsk and Orsk-Aktyubinsk sectors
- 1919Commander, Turkestan Army
- 1919–1920Commander, 1st Army
- 1920–1921Member, Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front
- 1932–1934Head and commissar, Military Engineering Academy
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarRussian military pilotFrom 1915 to 1917, he served in the 2nd Army's aviation detachment on the Western Front.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCommander of the Turkestan ArmyLed the Turkestan Army in the Buguruslan, Belebey, and Ufa operations of the Eastern Front counteroffensive, forcing the Belaya River and taking Ufa on 9 June 1919.
The 1920 Bukhara Operation and the Storming of Old Bukhara
After the Khanate of Khiva fell in February 1920, the Emirate of Bukhara remained the last anti-Soviet stronghold in Central Asia. The Turkestan Front, under Mikhail Frunze's overall command, resolved to overthrow the emir through the Bukhara operation of late August 1920. Zinoviev, then commander of the 1st Army, was given command of the Kagan (New Bukhara) group tasked with the direct assault on the old capital, and from 31 August he led the storming of the citadel. On 2 September the Kagan group and a special-purpose detachment took the fortress of Old Bukhara, ringed by a clay wall roughly four metres high, and Emir Alim Khan fled with an armed guard into Eastern Bukhara. Zinoviev organized the pursuit of the fleeing emir, and for the operation he received the honorary gold weapon from the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front in 1920. The political outcome was the proclamation of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic on 8 October 1920, and the emirate ceased to exist.