Alexander Ilyich Dutov (; – 7 February 1921) was a Russian Cossack

ataman Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; ; ) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukra ...

and

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

who led the Orenburg Cossacks in a revolt against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Biography

Dutov was born in Kazalinsk in Syr-Darya Oblast (now Kazaly in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

). He graduated from and , now Military engineering-technical university (Russian Военный инженерно-технический университет), and General Staff Academy (1908). He was assistant

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

of the Cossack regiment during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, Dutov was appointed head of the All-Russian Cossack Army Union, then chairman of the counterrevolutionary All-Russian Cossack Congress (June 1917), and then, in September 1917, Chief of the Army Administration and

of the Orenburg Cossack Army. In November 1917, Dutov raised a revolt against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

authorities in Orenburg. In June 1918, Dutov, with the help of the Czech Legion, organized a struggle for complete termination of the Soviet authority in the Urals. He was in charge of the Orenburg Independent Army in Aleksandr Kolchak's army. In 1919, he tried to convince General Grigory Semyonov to join him as a stronger force to fight the Red Army. Semyonov refused despite a significant diplomatic effort from Governor Vasile Balabanov, claiming he was governor only since the provisional government in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

collapsed in the revolution. On 9 May 1918, after Dutov captured Alexandrov Gay village, nearly 2,000 men of the Red Army were buried alive. More than 700 people from the village were executed. After capturing Troitsk, Orenburg, and other cities, a regime of terror was installed over 6,000 people, of whom 500 were killed just during interrogations. In Chelyabinsk, Dutov's men executed or deported to Siberian prisons over 9,000 people. In Troitsk, in the first weeks after the capture of the city, Dutov's men shot about 700 people. In Ileka they killed over 400. These mass executions were typical of Dutov's Cossack troops.Ratkovsky, p. 105 Dutov's executive order of 4 August 1918, imposed the death penalty for evasion of military service and for even passive resistance to authorities on its territory. In one district of the Ural region in January 1918, Dutov's men killed over 1,000 people. On 3 April 1919, the Cossack warlord ordered his troops to shoot and take hostages for the slightest display of opposition. In the village of Sugar, Dutov's men burned down a hospital with hundreds of Red Army patients.Litvin, p. 175 After his army's defeat by Red Army, Dutov led his Orenburg Army in the Starving March during the winter of 1919–1920 to Semirechye, and from there in March–May 1920 to China. At that time, General Dutov also helped a number of Russian leaders, including Vasile Balabanov, the administrator of Semirechye, to escape to China. Dutov was assassinated in Suiding,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, by the Bolshevik agent Мahmud Khadzhamirov (Махмуд Хаджамиров) in February 1921.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutov, Alexander 1879 births 1921 deaths Assassinated Russian military personnel People from Kyzylorda Region People from Syr-Darya Oblast Orenburg Cossacks Cossacks from the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly Deaths by firearm in China Imperial Russian Army generals Military Engineering-Technical University alumni Russian military personnel of World War I White movement lieutenant generals People of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class White Russian emigrants to China People killed in Soviet intelligence operations People murdered in China Perpetrators of the White Terror (Russia) Graduates of the Nicholas Cavalry College

Biography

See also

References