Mikhail Skorodumov

Mikhail Fedorovich Skorodumov (russian: Михаил Федорович Скородумов; 189215 November 1963,

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) was a Russian general who participated in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the White movement, and founded the Nazi-allied Russian Corps in

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during

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. Skorodumov was born in 1892. He graduated the 1st Cadet Corps and the Pavlovsk Military Academy in 1912, as a sub-lieutenant of the Pavlovsk detachment. In 1914 with his detachment he was sent to the front. He was awarded the St. Vladimir order for bravery in battle, during which he was heavily wounded and consequently placed off duty. Skorodumov lobbied strongly to return to the front, and in 1915 was taken prisoner by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

. He unsuccessfully tried to escape three times, and after seven months of imprisonment returned to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in a prisoner exchange agreement (thanks partly to the lobbying of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna). He was awarded the

Cross of St. George The Cross of Saint George (russian: Георгиевский крест, Georgiyevskiy krest) is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was initially established by Imperial Russia where it was officially known as the Decoration of ...

for bravery. In the wake of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

Skorodumov joined an underground anti-

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

officer's organization. Upon its discovery by the Reds, he fled to join the

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (russian: Добровольческая армия, translit=Dobrovolcheskaya armiya, abbreviated to russian: Добрармия, translit=Dobrarmiya) was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from ...

in the south of Russia. He served in the army as an invalid wearing a prosthesis, and was additionally wounded in the leg during the siege of Kiev in 1919. After being interred in

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he left for the army of General

Pyotr Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (russian: Пётр Никола́евич барон Вра́нгель, translit=Pëtr Nikoláevič Vrángel', p=ˈvranɡʲɪlʲ, german: Freiherr Peter Nikolaus von Wrangel; April 25, 1928), also known by his ni ...

in the

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. After Wrangel's defeat, Skorodumov evacuated with the army to Gallipoli, after which he moved to

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. As a commandant in the city of

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, he left with General Alexander Kutepov to the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

. There in Yugoslavia, Skorodumov built a memorial for the fallen Russian veterans of

. In 1941, Skorodumov offered the German occupying forces in Yugoslavia to form the Russian Corps, an independent armed outfit of Russian white emigres with the purpose of defending the local Russian populace and factories from the communist guerillas who were fighting against the genocide being carried out by the Nazi aligned puppet government. Skorodumov hoped that the Germans would agree to deploy the Corps on the Eastern front, where it would become the centre of a Russian anti-communist liberation movement. The German forces agreed to work with Skorodumov and appointed him as the head of the Russian Corps, only to be arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

three days later for proclaiming the corps as an "independent" armed force. Skorodumov passed on command to Boris Shteifon, whom the Germans approved of. After leaving jail, Skorodumov demonstratively refused to join the Corps and worked for three years as a

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. In 1944, Skorodumov decided to enlist in the Corps as a private, then went to

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to save his family from the advancing communist armies. He moved to the United States and pleaded with the "Humanity Calls" organization to help the veterans of the Corps receive

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status, thus enabling them to seek refuge in the United States. Skorodumov died in

on November 15, 1963, and was buried in the

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Skorodumov, Mikhail 1892 births 1963 deaths Russian generals White Russian emigrants to the United States Russian collaborators with Nazi Germany Russian military personnel of World War I Russian Corps personnel White movement generals Russian anti-communists White Russian emigrants to Bulgaria Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Bulgaria