Vitovt Kazimirovich Putna (russian: Ви́товт Казими́рович Пу́тна, lt, Vytautas Putna; 1893–1937) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

officer of

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Je ...

origin. A

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

veteran of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, Romanization of Russian, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the earl ...

and

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 ...

since 1917, Putna was a ''

komdiv (russian: комдив) is the abbreviation to Commanding officer of the Division (russian: командир дивизии, komandir divizii; ), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR in the period from 1935 to 1940. It ...

'' during the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...

and commanded a variety of divisions. During the retreat following the Battle of Warsaw, he gathered around him ad-hoc corps out of defeated units and enabled the remnants of the Red Army to escape from a large cauldron near

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

. In 1921, he took part in suppressing the

Kronstadt Rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian Soviet Federative Soci ...

and Peasant uprisings on the Lower Volga. In 1923, he was sent as a military advisor to China and between 1927 and 1931, he was military attaché to Japan, Finland and Germany. He was posted to the Far East Military district in 1931 and was made military attache to Great Britain in 1934. He was promoted to ''

comcor (russian: комкор) is the abbreviation for Corps commander (russian: командир корпуса, komandir korpusa; ), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR in the period from 1935 to 1940. It was also th ...

'' in 1935. Putna was arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

on 20 August 1936, tried for alleged espionage and anti-Soviet activities together with

Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevskiy, p=tʊxɐˈtɕefskʲɪj; – 12 June 1937) nicknamed the Red Napoleon by foreign newspapers, was a Sovie ...

in the so-called

Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ...

, sentenced to death on 11 June 1937 and executed the next day. The Soviet government posthumously exonerated him after Joseph Stalin's death, when he was formally rehabilitated in 1957. Vitovt Putna NKVD

References

1893 births 1937 deaths People from Molėtai District Municipality People from Troksky Uyezd Old Bolsheviks Left Opposition Soviet komkors Lithuanian people of World War I Russian military personnel of World War I People of the Polish–Soviet War Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization Great Purge victims from Lithuania Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Lithuanian people executed by the Soviet Union Soviet rehabilitations Soviet military attachés {{Russia-mil-bio-stub