SPD defence minister who said “someone has to be the bloodhound” and used the Freikorps to crush the left risings of 1919
He directed the suppression of the 1919 Berlin uprising with Freikorps and army forces, then authorized summary executions by military forces in a March order.
A basket-maker from Brandenburg who became an SPD journalist, he entered the Reichstag in 1906 and was known as its military expert. Sent to Kiel as the government’s representative in November 1918, he calmed the mutiny and became governor. After the Christmas crisis he joined the Council of People’s Deputies for military affairs and, saying “someone has to be the bloodhound”, organised the Freikorps that crushed the January rising and the March battles. First defence minister from February 1919, he resigned after the Kapp Putsch of 1920, later governed the province of Hanover and was arrested after the July 1944 plot.
Career timeline
- 1890sHelped build the social-democratic movement and basket-makers’ union; chaired the Social Democratic Association in Brandenburg.
- 1906Elected to the Reichstag, where he became known as an expert on naval and army affairs.
- 1918.11–12Sent to Kiel as government representative, he led the sailors and Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council; on 28 December he became national commissioner for the army and navy.
- 1919.02–1920Appointed Reichswehr minister, he deployed Freikorps and army forces against the January uprising and March fighting in Berlin; he resigned after the 1920 Kapp Putsch.
- 1920–1933Served as chief president of the Prussian province of Hanover; dismissed in September 1933 under the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.
Social Democratic leader who was defence commissar and Red Army commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Born to a middle-class Jewish family, he trained as a mechanic and rose through the iron and metal workers’ union to the Social Democratic leadership. He became war minister in the Berinkey government in January 1919 and took part in the merger talks with the Communists. In the Soviet Republic he was defence commissar and commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and in July, as envoy in Vienna, he agreed with the Entente missions, on behalf of the Social Democratic leadership, on removing the council government. In exile he lived in Vienna, Czechoslovakia and Sweden; he headed the Hungarian legation in Sweden from 1946 to 1948 and resigned when the Social Democrats were merged into the Communist Party. He died in Stockholm in 1949.
Career timeline
- 1911Member of the Trade Union Council
- 1919War minister in the Berinkey government
- 1919Defence commissar and Red Army commander-in-chief
- 1919Envoy in Vienna
- 1946–1948Head of the Hungarian legation in Sweden
Peasant-born officer who commanded the United Partisan Army of Tambov and chaired the Union of Working Peasantry
Born in the village of Inokovka in Kirsanov district, Tambov province, he was conscripted in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War and stayed on for extended service in St Petersburg. In the First World War he fought in Galicia, winning the full set of four St George Crosses and four St George Medals; he was commissioned in 1915 and made lieutenant in 1917. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk he returned home, worked in the local militia and in 1918 formed a partisan detachment. In June 1920 he took command of the 2nd Insurgent Army and in November of the United Partisan Army of the Tambov region, while also chairing the Union of Working Peasantry. The Russian-language source says he was killed in a clash near the village of Bogoslovka on 28 February 1921; the English-language source places his death around June 1921.
Career timeline
- 1904Conscripted during the Russo-Japanese War; extended service
- 1915Commissioned as an officer
- 1917Lieutenant
- 1918Formed a partisan detachment at Inokovka
- 1920Commander of the 2nd Insurgent Army (June); commander of the United Partisan Army of Tambov and chairman of the Union of Working Peasantry (November)
