The White ataman who built a Don Cossack anti-Bolshevik state, collaborated with the Nazis, and was a Nobel Prize-nominated novelist
November 1917: captured by Trotsky after his 700 Cossacks failed to take Petrograd, he was paroled on a promise never to fight the Soviet regime — and fled the next day to the Don to join the anti-Bolshevik struggle.
A lieutenant general of the Imperial Russian Army from a Don Cossack military dynasty, he was one of the architects of the Lutsk breakthrough during the Brusilov Offensive in 1916. Elected Ataman of the Don Cossack Host in May 1918, he built the Don Republic as an independent anti-Bolshevik state with German backing, insisting on Don autonomy even as he clashed with Denikin over unified White command. In exile he became a prolific novelist and memoirist, author of over twenty books, including the epic From Double Eagle to the Red Flag, and a Nobel Prize in Literature nominee in 1926. During World War II he headed the Cossack Central Office under the Nazi regime, organizing Cossack units to fight the Soviet Union; handed over by British forces in 1945, he was tried and executed in Moscow in 1947.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1888–1914Graduated Pavlovsk Military School, served in Ataman Life Guards, war correspondent Russo-Japanese War, CO 10th Don Cossack Regt
- 1914–1917CO 2nd Combined Cossack Div, then 3rd Cavalry Corps; led Lutsk breakthrough, promoted Major General
- 1917.10–11Kerensky-Krasnov uprising: marched 700 Cossacks on Petrograd; defeated, captured, then released by Trotsky on parole
- 1918.5–1919.2Elected Don Cossack Ataman; built Don Army with German aid, proclaimed the Don Republic
- 1919–1936Edited NW Army newspaper; exiled in Germany then France; émigré anti-Soviet political activity
- 1921–1939Published 20+ novels and memoirs incl. From Double Eagle to the Red Flag trilogy; Nobel Prize in Literature nominee 1926
- 1943–1945Head of Cossack Central Office, Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories; organized Cossack units vs USSR
- 1945–1947Captured by British, repatriated to USSR; tried in Moscow, hanged 16 January 1947
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarRussian cavalry corps commanderHe led the Lutsk breakthrough during the Brusilov Offensive in 1916.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionKerensky-Krasnov uprising commanderAfter the October Revolution he led 700 Cossacks toward Petrograd on Kerensky's orders, was defeated at Pulkovo Heights, captured, then paroled by Trotsky on a promise to cease fighting which he immediately broke.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionDon Cossack AtamanAs Don Cossack Ataman he collaborated with Germany, and later during the Second World War he organized Cossack units on the Nazi side, for which he was executed in 1947.
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarOrganizer of Cossack units to fight the Soviet UnionUnder the Nazi regime, he organized Cossack units to fight the Soviet Union.
The Don Republic: an independent Don state under German protection
On 16 May 1918 the anti-Bolshevik 'Circle for the Salvation of the Don' (Круг спасения Дона) elected Krasnov ataman, and he annulled the decrees of both the Soviet government and the Provisional Government, proclaiming the All-Great Don Host (Всевеликое войско Донское) an independent state. The Grand Military Circle that met in August vested him with near-dictatorial powers. He ran the Don's infrastructure, economy and currency himself, and drafted out-of-town peasants by granting them land, building the Don Army to some 17,000 men by mid-1918.
Krasnov's most decisive political choice was alignment with Germany. Immediately after his election he telegraphed Kaiser Wilhelm II that, as a subject of international law, the Don did not consider itself at war with Germany, and he sought arms and trade; Germany recognized Krasnov's government. In exchange for food, 11,000 rifles, 44 guns, 88 machine guns, 100,000 shells and some ten million cartridges flowed to the Don. By his own memoir account, a rifle was priced at one pud of wheat or rye.
This German orientation came at the price of conflict with Denikin's Volunteer Army, which clung to the Entente. Kadet and émigré politicians denounced the dealings with Germany, and Krasnov answered the Military Circle: 'It is I, the Don ataman, who with my dirty hands take German shells and cartridges, wash them in the waves of the quiet Don, and hand them clean to the Volunteer Army: all the shame lies with me.' But Germany's defeat and the Kaiser's abdication in November 1918 left the Don Army without its foundation, and Krasnov was forced to accept Denikin's command. Under pressure, he resigned as ataman on 15 February 1919 and left for Germany.
Separately, on 25 December 1997 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that Krasnov had been 'validly convicted and was not subject to rehabilitation', denying him the posthumous rehabilitation granted to other White figures.