Founder of the Red cavalry on the Don, with Budyonny as his deputy, shot on a charge of killing his commissar
Born to Ukrainian peasants in the Don region and an artillery sergeant in the First World War, he formed one of the first peasant cavalry detachments in early 1918 to fight the Cossacks, taking Semyon Budyonny as his deputy. He led the 1st Don Cavalry Brigade and the 10th Army's 1st Combined Cavalry Division, and from September 1919 commanded the Combined Cavalry Corps, beating the cavalry of the Don and Caucasian armies and taking Novocherkassk on 7 January 1920. He joined the Communist Party that month, but the political department accused him of fostering anti-Bolshevik moods and obstructing commissars, and after his commissar Mikeladze was killed in unclear circumstances he was arrested on Smilga's order in February. He was shot in Rostov on 11 May 1920 and rehabilitated in 1964.
Activities and affiliations
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1918–1920
Soviet Union state institutionsMain
Military command -
1920
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1914–1917First World War: served in the artillery, rising to vakhmistr
- 1918Formed a peasant cavalry detachment on the Don; commander of a peasant socialist cavalry regiment
- 1918Commander of the 1st Don Cavalry Brigade, then of the 10th Army's 1st Combined Cavalry Division
- 1919Commander of the 4th Petrograd Cavalry Division; assistant chief of staff of the 10th Army for cavalry; badly wounded on the Sal
- 1919–1920Commander of the Combined Cavalry Corps; took Novocherkassk
- 1920Joined the Communist Party; arrested for the murder of his commissar and shot in Rostov