Far Eastern partisan commander who took Nikolayevsk-on-Amur in 1920, then executed its prisoners and burned the town
Born to a peasant family in Murom district, Vladimir Province, in 1897, he worked as an assistant locomotive machinist. Drafted in 1916, he rose to ensign in the First World War and was twice awarded the Cross of St. George. He joined the Red Guard in 1918, took part in suppressing the Samara rising, and in 1919 formed his own partisan detachment in Primorye. In November he set out for Nikolayevsk-on-Amur with 35 fighters and became commander of the Nikolayevsk Front; he entered the town in February 1920 and won the fighting with the Japanese garrison in March. As a Japanese relief force approached at the end of May he executed all the remaining prisoners and burned the town. In July he was arrested at Kerbi with his staff and, after an improvised trial, shot on the 9th.
Also known as: Yakov Tryapitsin
Activities and affiliations
- 1918–1920 Military command · Soviet Union
- 1920 Military command
- 1916–1918 Military command · Russian Empire
Career Timeline
- 1916–1918Served in the Imperial Russian Army; ensign
- 1918Joined the Red Guard; fought the Samara rising
- 1919Commander of a partisan detachment in Primorye
- 1920Commander of the Nikolayevsk Front of the Red Army
- 1920Commander of the Okhotsk Front of the Far Eastern Republic’s People’s Revolutionary Army