Filipp Kuzmich Mironov (; 1872–1921) was a

Bolshevik 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, ...

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

leader during and after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. He actively supported the idea of democracy in the form of the

Soviet Republic A soviet republic (from ), also called council republic, is a republic in which the government is formed of soviets (workers' councils) and politics are based on soviet democracy. During the Revolutions of 1917–1923, various revolutionary ...

, was one of the first commanders in 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 ...

. Mironov was commander of the Cavalry Corps and refused to suborrdinate himself to the orders of the Southern Front Command. He had organised a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

with 5,000

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

in 1919. In response, he was trialled in a

military tribunal Military justice (or military law) is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many nation-states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states us ...

organised by Trotsky and initially sentenced to death for military insubordination. He was pardoned on the eve of this execution due to the intervention of Trotsky and Lenin, but later re-arrested on charges for conspiring to organise an insurrection against the Soviet government. According to historian

Laura Engelstein Laura Engelstein is an American historian who specializes in Russian and European history. She serves as Henry S. McNeil Professor Emerita of Russian History at Yale University and taught at Cornell University and Princeton University. Her numerou ...

, the documents do not specify "if the charges had any foundation". Mironov was shot by the Cheka in Moscow.

Biography

Filipp Kuzmich Mironov was born in 1872 on the farm Buerak-Senyutkin, in the village of

Ust-Medveditskaya Serafimovich () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Serafimovichsky District in Volgograd Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Don River (Russia), River Don, northwest of Volgograd, th ...

, into a Cossack family of the Don Host. He graduated from the parochial school and three classes of the gymnasium, having mastered the rest of the course on his own. In 1890–1894, he served in active military service, from where, as one of the best, he entered the in 1895, successfully graduating from it in 1898. Already as an officer, he took part in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

as part of the 26th Don Regiment, where he earned the glory of a dashing Cossack, as he commanded a ''

sotnia A sotnia ( Ukrainian and , ) was a military unit and administrative division in some Slavic countries. Sotnia, deriving back to 1248, has been used in a variety of contexts in both Ukraine and Russia to this day. It is a helpful word to create ...

'' that went behind enemy lines, as well as four orders, the rank of and the rights of personal nobility associated with it. On June 18, 1906, he spoke at a meeting of the Cossacks of the Ust-Medveditsky district with a call to abandon the

police service The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizens ...

. He traveled to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

together with and deacon Nikolai Burykin to submit this decision to the

First State Duma Legislative elections were held in the Russian Empire from 26 March to 20 April 1906. At stake were the 497 seats in the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the legislative assembly. Election for the First State Duma, which only ran from 27 Apri ...

. On the way back, all three were arrested in

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don (river), Don River. Novocherkassk is best known as the ...

and sentenced to 3 months of arrest in a military guardhouse. After a new meeting of the Ust-Medveditsky Cossacks declared the district chieftain hostage, Mironov, Ageev and Burykin were released. But soon Mironov was expelled from the Don army (with the deprivation of the rank of lieutenant "for actions discrediting the rank of an officer"). With the outbreak of

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 ...

, he volunteered for the front as part of the 30th Don Regiment of the 3rd Don Division, became the commander of the reconnaissance ''sotnia'' of this division (he was given back the rank of cavalier), was promoted to

yesaul Yesaul, osaul or osavul (, ) (from Turkic yasaul - ''chief''), is a post and a rank in the Russian and Ukrainian Cossack units. The first records of the rank imply that it was introduced by Stefan Batory, King of Poland in 1576. Cossacks in R ...

(March 1915) and military foremen (January 1916), and was awarded the

Golden Weapon for Bravery The Gold Sword for Bravery () was a Russian award for bravery. It was set up with two grades on 27 July 1720 by Peter the Great, reclassified as a public order in 1807 and abolished in 1917. From 1913 to 1917 it was renamed the Saint George S ...

. Over the next three years, he was awarded two more orders. From March 1916, he acted as assistant commander of the 32nd Don Regiment for combat units. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

of 1917 he joined 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, ...

. During the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, he commanded large military formations, including the

2nd Cavalry Army The 2nd Cavalry Army () was a cavalry Field army, army of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. History It was created by an order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front (RSFSR), Southwestern Front on 16 July 1920 ...

. He enjoyed very great popularity among the Don population. He opposed the policy of

decossackization De-Cossackization () was the Bolshevik policy of systematic repression against the Cossacks in the former Russian Empire between 1919 and 1933, especially the Don and Kuban Cossacks in Russia, aimed at the elimination of the Cossacks as a dist ...

and did not receive the support of

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

in matters of interaction with the peasantry. In September 1918, he was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

No. 3, becoming one of the first cavaliers. He opposed the incompetent, in his opinion, military leadership of Trotsky. Having learned about the circular letter on decossackization, apparently falsified at the initiative of the Donburo, in a letter to

Grigory Sokolnikov Grigori Yakovlevich Sokolnikov (born Hirsch Yankelevich Brilliant; 15 August 1888 – 21 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, economist, and Soviet politician. Born to a Jewish family in Romny (now in Ukraine), Sokolnikov joined the Russian ...

, a member of the

Revolutionary Military Council The Revolutionary Military Council (), sometimes called the Revolutionary War Council Brian PearceIntroductionto Fyodor Raskolnikov s "Tales of Sub-lieutenant Ilyin." or ''Revvoyensoviet'' (), was the supreme military authority of Soviet Rus ...

of the Southern Front, Mironov wrote: "...it's time to disperse the political adventurers from the Donburo (Syrtsov, Larin, Khodorovsky, etc.), and with them Trotsky from the army..." In August 1919, his opposition to the leadership of the Red Army led him to mutiny, declaring his intention to himself take the leadership of the Southern Front against the

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (; ), abbreviated to (), also known as the Southern White Army was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920. The Volunteer Army fought against Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists on the ...

Anton Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of Sout ...

. He declared: For his unauthorized expedition, he was arrested the following month by

Semyon Budyonny Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny ( rus, Семён Миха́йлович Будённый, Semyon Mikháylovich Budyonnyy, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bʊˈdʲɵnːɨj, a=ru-Simeon Budyonniy.ogg; – 26 October 1973) was a Russian and ...

and sentenced to death, but Trotsky himself stopped the execution and Mironov was pardoned by the

All-Russian Central Executive Committee The All-Russian Central Executive Committee () was (June – November 1917) a permanent body formed by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (held from June 16 to July 7, 1917 in Petrograd), then became the ...

. According to the version of the

Whites White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...

, in August 1919, Mironov raised an uprising, which was joined by several Red Cossack regiments. The uprising was suppressed in a few days by the troops of Budyonny (4th Cavalry Division of

Oka Gorodovikov Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov (; – 26 February 1960) was a Red Army cavalry general and Hero of the Soviet Union of Kalmyk descent. Early life Gorodovikov was born on 1 October .S. 19 September1879 to a Kalmyk peasant family of the Mokraia El ...

, later Deputy Commander Mironov). At a meeting of the Politburo of the Russian Communist Party on October 23, 1919, political confidence was expressed in Mironov and, later, command of the 2nd Cavalry Army was entrusted to him. In 1920 he joined the

Russian Communist Party Communist Party of Russia might refer to: * Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, founded in 1898 – the forerunner of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) * Communist Party of the Soviet Union, formally established in 1912 and known origina ...

. On October 12–14, 1920 for the defeat of the troops of

Pyotr Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (, ; ; 25 April 1928), also known by his nickname the Black Baron, was a Russian military officer of Baltic German origin in the Imperial Russian Army. During the final phase of the Russian Civil War, he was c ...

in the ensuing Nikopol-Alexander battle, for disrupting the intentions of

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

and Wrangel to unite on the

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

of the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

and the defeat of the cavalry corps of and , Mironov was awarded an honorary revolutionary weapon and the Order of the Red Banner. Participated in the defeat of the White troops at Sivash and the expulsion of the remnants of the White armies from Crimea. In February 1921, he was arrested on a false accusation of Donchek, when he carelessly drove into his native village (Mironov made many enemies in the Revolutionary Military Council, both among Trotsky's supporters and his opponents, Budyonny and Voroshilov, for openly criticizing the decossackization policy). He was killed by a sentry in the courtyard of the

Butyrka prison Butyrskaya prison (), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it served as the central transit prison. During the Soviet Uni ...

under unclear circumstances. Researchers

Roy Medvedev Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev (; born 14 November 1925) is a Russian politician and writer. He is the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, ''Let History Judge'' (), first published in English in 1972. Biography Medvedev was born to ...

and S. P. Starikov claimed that Mironov was killed on the personal order of Leon Trotsky. Conversely, American historian

stated that Mironov was shot by the Cheka in Moscow on alleged charges of conspiracy and organising an insurrection. The Cheka had issued a notification letter which claimed he was guilty of "preparation of a counter-revolutionary uprising on the Don". He was rehabilitated by the

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union () was created in 1924 by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union as a court for the higher military and political personnel of the Red Army and Fleet. In addition it was an immedia ...

in 1960 "due to the lack of

corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"; plural: ), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proven to have occurred before a person could be convicted of having committed that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unle ...

Personal life

He was born in

and graduated from Novocherkassk military cadet school. He commanded the

between 6 September and 6 December 1920, with which he participated in the

Siege of Perekop (1920) The siege of Perekop, also known as the Perekop-Chongar Operation, was a battle of the Southern Front in the Russian Civil War from 7 to 17 November 1920. The White movement's stronghold on the Crimean Peninsula was protected by the Chongar f ...

Sources

* * * * *http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/mironov.html * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mironov, Philipp Kuzmich 1872 births 1921 deaths Bolsheviks Don Cossacks Russian anti-communists Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Victims of the Red Terror in Soviet Russia Inmates of Butyrka prison