Commander of the Red Cossacks and the Soviet 'Red Lawrence' who led the covert 1929 intervention in Afghanistan
In 1929, Primakov crossed the Afghan border as 'Ragib-bey,' a Turkish officer, leading two thousand sabres in Afghan uniform. The West called him the Red Lawrence.
Vitaly Primakov was a Red Army commander who raised the Red Cossacks (Червонное казачество) in Ukraine and led them through fourteen rear raids and sixty victorious engagements in the Civil War, earning three Orders of the Red Banner. In 1929, disguised as the Turkish officer 'Ragib-bey' and dressed in Afghan uniform, he commanded the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, an exploit that earned him the Western sobriquet 'the Red Lawrence', and later served as military attaché in both Afghanistan and Japan. Arrested in August 1936, he was tried alongside Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the 'Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization' case, shot in June 1937, and posthumously rehabilitated in 1957. He was the third husband of Lilya Brik, Vladimir Mayakovsky's legendary muse.
Career Timeline
- 1914Joined the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP
- 1915Sentenced to lifelong exile in Siberia for anti-war propaganda
- 1917Freed by the February Revolution; Kiev Bolshevik committee; led assault on the Winter Palace
- 1918–1920Commanded Red Cossacks regiment → brigade → 8th Cavalry Division → 1st Cavalry Corps; three Orders of the Red Banner
- 1924–1925Head of the Higher Cavalry School in Leningrad
- 1925–1926Military advisor to the Chinese First National Army
- 1927–1930Military attaché in Afghanistan and Japan
- 1929Led the Red Army intervention in Afghanistan under the alias Ragib-bey
- 1933–1934Deputy commander, North Caucasus Military District
- 1935–1936Deputy commander, Leningrad Military District; member of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defence
- 1936Arrested (14 August)
- 1937Sentenced to death in the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization trial; shot (12 June)
- 1957Posthumously rehabilitated (31 January)
Related historical events
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionCommanded the storming of the Winter Palace
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign Interventioncommander of Red Cossacks
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeMilitary command targetFounder of the Red Cossacks and a senior cavalry commander, he was executed in the Tukhachevsky case in 1937.