A soldier leader who defied imperial orders
“Will we fire on the workers? I personally do not want to go.”
Timofey Kirpichnikov was a junior leader in the Imperial Russian Army who used his front-line experience and influence among soldiers to judge orders for himself. After the suppression of demonstrations on 26 February 1917, he persuaded his men not to fire on workers and led the Volhynian Regiment’s mutiny the next morning, helping set off the Petrograd garrison’s wider defection. Celebrated by the Provisional Government as a revolutionary hero and awarded the Cross of St George, he opposed the Bolsheviks after October and was ultimately executed within the White movement.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1914–1916Served on the Austrian Front in the First World War and was wounded
- 1916–1917Senior non-commissioned officer of the Volhynian Regiment training detachment in Petrograd reserve units
- 1917.02.27Led the training detachment’s refusal of orders and the Petrograd garrison mutiny
- 1917.04Celebrated by the Provisional Government and elected to the Petrograd Soviet
- 1917.04–05Organized a soldiers’ demonstration supporting the Provisional Government and was promoted to sub-ensign and ensign
- 1917.10–1918Moved south against the Bolsheviks and was executed within the White movement
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarSoldier on the Austrian frontHe served on the Austrian Front and was wounded during the First World War from 1914 to 1916.
- 1917.02–07The February RevolutionSenior NCO of the Volynsky Regiment training companyAfter persuading his men to refuse firing orders on 26 February, he led the regiment's mutiny the next morning.
The February mutiny and its spread through the garrison
In February 1917, Kirpichnikov was a senior non-commissioned officer in the training detachment of the reserve battalion of the Volhynian Life Guards Regiment, which was deployed to suppress demonstrations in Petrograd. After being wounded at the front and transferred to reserve units in the capital, he had become influential among the soldiers, though his strictness also earned him the nickname “Mordoboy.” On 26 February, the day his superior ordered the unit to act against demonstrators, the soldiers fired over their heads, according to Kirpichnikov’s later account. That night, he said, he and platoon commanders agreed to refuse the next morning’s deployment and assemble the soldiers early. At dawn on the 27th, he urged them not to shoot workers; the training detachment then rejected its commander’s authority and mutinied. Kirpichnikov led the armed men to other units, and reserve troops from other companies of the Volhynian Regiment, the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and sapper units joined the revolt. Within hours, a large part of the Petrograd garrison had sided with the insurgents. The Provisional Government celebrated him as “the first soldier to take up arms against the tsarist system” and promoted him; on 3 April 1917 he was commissioned as an ensign in the infantry. The order awarding him the Cross of St George cited his leadership of soldiers on 27 February and their seizure of police machine guns. His role in catalyzing collective action among soldiers thus also became something the Provisional Government used to bolster the legitimacy of the new order.