Ivan Belov (commander)
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Ivan Panfilovich Belov (; 27 June 1893 – 29 June 1938) was a Soviet military commander and
Komandarm 1st rank 1st rank () is the abbreviation to commanding officer of the army 1st class (; ), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR in the period from 1935 to 1940. It was also the designation to military personnel appointed to com ...
. He was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1929–1937), a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation (1937–1938), and a member of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. He was executed during the mass purge of 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 ...
(July 29, 1938). After Stalin's death, he was rehabilitated (November 26, 1955).


Early years

He was born in the village of Bolshoye Kalinnikovo in what is now the
Cherepovets Cherepovets ( rus, Череповец, p=tɕɪrʲɪpɐˈvʲets) is a city in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located in the west of the oblast on the banks of the Sheksna River (a tributary of the Volga River) and on the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir. ...
district in the
Vologda Oblast Vologda Oblast (, ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The oblast has a population of 1,202,444 (Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census). The largest city is Cherepovets, t ...
on June 15, 1893. He graduated from the 4th grade of the Vakhonkinsky elementary school, but, due to the poverty of his family, he was forced to interrupt his studies. He worked for hire on the railway, in logging, as a loader in the port of
Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...
. Through self-education, he managed to prepare and pass the examination for the position of teacher at the Cherepovets Teachers' Seminary. In 1913 he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army and sent to the 13th Siberian Rifle Regiment. He participated in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer. After recovering from a concussion he was sent to the 1st Siberian Reserve Regiment in the city of
Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
,
Turkestan Krai Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...
. He was sentenced by a military court in 1916 to four and a half years in a disciplinary battalion for insulting an officer, then released during 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 ...
.


Revolutionary activities

In February 1917 he joined the party of
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...
. In September 1917, Belov was elected chairman of the soldiers' committee of the 1st Siberian reserve rifle regiment in Tashkent, which he commanded during the armed uprising in Tashkent in October 1917 and in the liquidation of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Turkistan in 1918. I.P. Belov was a member of the Tashkent Council in 1917–1919 and a member of the Turkestan Central Executive Committee in 1918–1921. In March 1918 he was appointed commandant of Tashkent fortress and head of the Tashkent garrison. He played a key role in the effort led by to suppress the anti-Soviet rebellion in Tashkent in January 1919. After the suppression of the rebellion, he left the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party and joined the
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, ...
Party. From April to October 1919, Belov was the commander-in-chief of the troops of the newly created
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR; ; ), originally called the Turkestan Socialist Federative Republic, was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ...
. In January – July 1920, Belov was the head of the 3rd Turkestan Rifle Division in Semirechye, where he participated in the suppression of the Verny uprising. In the period from August 1920 to September 1921, he was the commander of the
Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
group of troops, which carried out the Bukhara operation, for which he received the Order of the Red Banner. He also participated in the suppression of the
Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...
in March 1921, for which he was awarded his second order.


Soviet career

After the Civil War, I.P. Belov commanded the 2nd Don and 22nd Krasnodar rifle divisions (April–June 1922). In 1923 he graduated from the Military Academic Courses for the Higher Command Staff of the Red Army at the Military Academy of the Red Army. From 1923 to 1925 he successively commanded the 15th, 9th and 2nd rifle corps. In July 1925 he became assistant commander of the Moscow military district, then became commander of the North Caucasian military district in 1927. He led two large-scale
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
troop operations to disarm the
Chechens The Chechens ( ; , , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kistin, Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus. ...
and
Karachays The Karachays or Karachais ( or ) are a North Caucasian- Turkic ethnic group primarily located in their ancestral lands in Karachay–Cherkess Republic, a republic of Russia in the North Caucasus. They and the Balkars share a common orig ...
in December 1929 and March 1930. From June 1931 to September 1935 he was Commander of the Leningrad Military District. In September 1935 he was appointed Commander of the Moscow Military District, then in June 1937 became Commander of the Belarusian Military District.


The

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

He was a member of the Military Collegium, the special tribunal established by the Supreme Court of the USSR in the case of
Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevskiy, p=tʊxɐˈtɕefskʲɪj; – 12 June 1937), nicknamed the Red Napoleon, was a Soviet general who was prominen ...
and others to hear the Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, in June 1937. One of the judges was heard to comment, "Tomorrow I'll be put in the same place." That came to pass in I.P. Belov's case on January 7, 1938, when he was arrested on charges of spying for Germany and belonging to a "military socialist-revolutionary organization." Found guilty by the Military Collegium, he was sentenced to death and was shot on the day of the verdict on July 29, 1938. I. P. Belov was rehabilitated by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on November 26, 1955.


Ranks held


Bibliography

* Robert Conquest: ''The Great Terror. Soviet Union 1934–1938''. 2. Aufl. Langen Müller, Munich 1993, . * Géorgi N. Golikov, M. I. Kusnezow: ''Lexikon der großen sozialistischen Oktoberrevolution'' ("Malenkaja Encyclopedia Velikaja Oktjabrskaja Socialisticeskaja Revoljucia"). Bibliographisches Institute, Leipzig 1976. * Donald Rayfield: ''Stalin and his hangmen''. Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2004, . * Heinrich E. Schulz u.a. (Hrsg.): ''Who was Who in the USSR''. Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, N.J. 1972, .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belov, Ivan 1893 births 1938 deaths People from Vologda Oblast People from Cherepovetsky Uyezd Left socialist-revolutionaries Bolsheviks Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Soviet komandarms of the first rank Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Great Purge victims from Russia People executed by the Soviet Union Soviet rehabilitations