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Kokshetau Kokshetau (; , ; rus, Кокшета́у, p=kəkʂɛ'taʊ; ), formerly known as Kokchetav (; ) between 1868 and 1993, is a lakeside city in northern Kazakhstan and the capital of Akmola Region. It stretches along the southern shore of Lak ...

, Akmolinsk Oblast,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, death_place =

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, allegiance =

, branch =

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

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 ...

, serviceyears = 19131917
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Komkor () is the syllabic abbreviation for corps commander (; ). It was a Military ranks of the Soviet Union, military rank in the Red Army and Red Army Air Force of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the period from 1935 to 1940. It was als ...

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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 ...

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 ...

, awards =

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 ...

(3) Nikolay Vladimirovich Kuibyshev (; 1 August 1938) was a

military leader and

. The son of an

officer, Kuibyshev joined the army and fought in

. Kuibyshev joined the Red Army in 1918 and became commander of the

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

and 9th Rifle Divisions on the

Southern Front of the Russian Civil War The Southern Front was a military theater of the Russian Civil War. Don revolts and formation of the Volunteer Army In the aftermath of the October Revolution, politicians and army officers hostile to the Bolsheviks gravitated to the Don Cossac ...

. During the 1920s, Kuibyshev commanded a corps, courses for Red Army commanders, the group of Soviet advisors in China, and the Main Directorate of the Red Army, and the

Siberian Military District The Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Ground Forces. The district was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. In 1924 it was reformed in the Red Army. After the end of World War II the ...

. He became secretary for

Rabkrin The People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, also known as Rabkrin (; РКИ, RKI; Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, WPI), was a governmental establishment in the Soviet Union of ministerial level (people's commissariat) t ...

, the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, and a member of the Party Control Commission during the 1930s. Kuibyshev became commander of the

Transcaucasian Military District The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of First Republic of Armenia, Armenia, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Azerbaijan, and Democratic Republic ...

in 1937. During 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 arrested in February 1938 and executed in August. Kuibyshev was posthumously pardoned in 1956.

Early life and World War I

Kuibyshev was born on 25 December 1893 in

, the son of an army officer. He was future Soviet politician

Valerian Kuibyshev Valerian Vladimirovich Kuybyshev (; – 25 January 1935) was a Russian revolutionary, Red Army officer, and prominent Soviet politician. Biography Early years Born in Omsk in Siberia on , Kuybyshev studied at the , a Cadet Corps in O ...

's younger brother. Kuibyshev graduated from the Omsk Cadet Corps in 1912 and entered the Alexandrov Military School in Moscow. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Kuibyshev was prematurely discharged from the school and joined the Russian Imperial Army with the rank of Second lieutenant. He served with the 10th Malorossiya Grenadier Regiment as a company and then battalion commander. Kuibyshev was wounded three times during the war and 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 ...

of 1917 was elected a member of the regimental committee. In November 1917, he became the regimental adjutant with the rank of captain.

Russian Civil War

Kuibyshev served in the Red Army from the beginning of its existence, fighting on the Southern Front of the

. Between July and December 1918, Kuibyshev was a member of the Supreme Military Inspectorate. He became in a member of 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 ...

in 1918. In January 1919, he became the

military commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and E ...

of the

13th Army Thirteenth Army or 13th Army may refer to: * Thirteenth Army (Japan) * Japanese Thirteenth Area Army * 13th Army (Russian Empire), unit in World War I *13th Army (RSFSR), a unit in the Russian Civil War *13th Army (Soviet Union) The 13th Army (, ...

's 3rd Rifle Division. Between July and August he was acting commander of the division. In September, Kuibyshev became commander of the 9th Rifle Division's 3rd Brigade. He became commander of the division in January 1920, leading it until June 1921. In 1920, he was awarded the

. On 5 February 1921, Kuibyshev was awarded his second Order of the Red Banner, for his actions between September and November 1920, in which Kuibyshev's leadership was credited with saving the

Donbas The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...

from a

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

attack and pushing the White troops back to

Henichesk Henichesk (, ; , ) is a port city along the Sea of Azov in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Henichesk Raion. Since 9 November 2022, it has served as the temporary administrative centre of the Russian o ...

while capturing 5,000 prisoners.

Interwar

Kuybyshev commanded the 2nd Caucasian Rifle Corps between June and October 1921. He entered the Higher Academic Courses at the

Military Academy of the Red Army The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...

, graduating in March 1922. Kuybyshev then became the commandant of

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

fortress and was awarded a third Order of the Red Banner during the same year. Between May 1923 and November 1924, he led the Higher Tactical-Infantry School (Vystrel) courses for Red Army commanders. In November 1924, Kuybyshev became assistant commander of the

Turkestan Front The Turkestan Front () was a front of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, which was formed on the territory of Turkestan Military District by Order of the Republic of Turkestan on February 23, 1919. It was formed a second time by the direc ...

, which was fighting against the

Basmachi movement The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...

, a Muslim uprising in Central Asia. In October 1925 Kuybyshev was sent to China under the pseudonym "Kisanka"( zh, 季山嘉) as an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek's

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto ...

, replacing

Vasily Blyukher Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher (; 1 December 1889 – 9 November 1938) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1938, Blyukher was arrested during the period of military purges under Joseph Stalin. He was tortured an ...

in command of the group of military advisors and specialists in China. Kuybyshev openly disdained the Chinese officers, considering them "ignorant in the arts of the war." In the spring of 1926, Chiang requested the dismissal of Kuybyshev and the early return of Blyukher to China. Kuybyshev returned to the Soviet Union in July 1926 and became commander and military commissar of the

3rd Rifle Corps The 3rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army which saw service in World War II and in the 1950s. The corps was first formed in 1923 from the 3rd Army Corps in the Moscow Military District and fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland and the ...

. In December, he became the chief of the Main Directorate of the Red Army, which oversaw Red Army combat training, the Inspectorate, mobilization, and recruitment. Between January and November 1928, Kuibyshev was the assistant commander of the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District () is a Military districts of Russia, military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Originally it was a district of the Imperial Russian Army until the Russian Empire's collapse in 191 ...

. He commanded the

between November 1928 and November 1929. In December 1929, he became the chief of the Main Directorate again. Kuybyshev became the secretary of the administrative meetings of the

Council of Labor and Defense The Council of Labor and Defense ()Sovet truda i oborony, Latin acronym: STO), first established as the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense in November 1918, was an agency responsible for the central management of the economy and production ...

in October 1930. At the same time, he was also a board member of the

, the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, and the chief of the Directorate of Military and Naval Inspection. Between February 1934 and March 1935, Kuybyshev was a member of the Party Control Commission and group leader for military and naval affairs. In April 1935, he became a member of the Bureau of the Party Control Commission. In June 1937, Kuybyshev became commander of the Transcaucasian Military District. After the beginning of the Great Purge, Kuybyshev criticized it for undermining readiness in November, during a meeting of the district's Military Soviet. On 2 February 1938, Kuybyshev was arrested, based on information in confessions extracted from

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 ...

Vitaly Primakov Vitaliy Markovich Primakov (; ) (3 December 1897 – 12 June 1937) was a Soviet revolutionary, military leader of the Red Army, and commander of the Red Cossacks. He was a close friend of the Kotsiubynsky family and a son-in-law of Mykhailo Kot ...

, and

Boris Feldman Boris Mironovich Feldman () (1890 – June 12, 1937) was a Soviet military commander and politician. He was executed during the Great Purge and rehabilitated during the Khrushchev Thaw. Early years Feldman was born in Pinsk, Minsk Governorat ...

. Kuibyshev pleaded guilty to charges that he was involved in a "military-fascist conspiracy," and that he was a spy for the intelligence services of Germany, Poland, Japan, and Lithuania. He was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium for "participating in a military conspiracy" and executed on 1 August 1938 at the

Butovo firing range The Butovo Firing Range or Butovo Shooting Range () was an execution site of the Soviet secret police located near Drozhzhino in Leninsky District, Moscow Oblast from 1938 to 1953. Its use for mass execution has been documented; it was prepa ...

, where he was interred in a mass grave. On 19 May 1956, he was posthumously pardoned by decision of the Military Collegium.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuibyshev, Nikolay 1893 births 1938 deaths Soviet komkors Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner People from Kokshetau Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations Communist Party of the Soviet Union members