УДК 93/94

EDN JONFTI

 

Graduates and Auditing Students of the Imperial Nicholas Military Academy in the Red Army in 1918 — 1919. (Case Study of the Western Czechoslovak Front and the Eastern Front’s 1st Army)

Naumov E. O.

 

Abstract

Introduction. The article uses the example of the first military formations of the Red Army during the Civil War in Russia 1917 — 1922 — Western Czechoslovak Front and the 1st Army of the Eastern Front — examines the features of the personnel policy of the military command in the field of searching and appointing graduates and auditing students of the Imperial Nicholas Academy — an institution that trained specialists with higher military education for important leadership positions in rear and front-line organizations armed forces of the Soviet government.

Materials and methods. The research is based mainly on previously unpublished documents extracted from the Russian State Military Archive (Moscow), using general scientific and specific historical methods.

Results and discussion. Literally from the first days after the start of the large-scale Civil War in Russia, caused by the performance of soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps at the end of May 1918, the headquarters of the emerging Red Army began to send demands to higher authorities to send military specialists. Among them, the most valuable were graduates and students of the Imperial Nicholas Academy. However, due to the poor functioning of the central military bodies, as well as poor accounting and distribution of former officers, only a few reached military associations directly. In this regard, the army command had to use personnel resources located in the front-line zone, in particular students of the Nikolaevsk Military Academy, which at that moment was located in Yekaterinburg. In addition, telegrams with requests for the expulsion of General Staff officers were sent to local authorities. Only in the fall of 1918 did General Staff F. P. Shafalovich arrive from Moscow to the location of the 1st Army, who soon became the chief of staff of the association.

Conclusion. Thus, in the 1st Army of the Eastern Front in 1918 — 1919 there were only 4 former officers in the service, three of whom were course students (I. N. Zakharov, V. V. Skvortsov, P. A. Zakharov) and only one (F. P. Shafalovich) graduated from the academy before the start of the First World War.

Keywords: Civil war in Russia, Red Army, Eastern Front, 1st Army, military specialists, general staff officers, Imperial Nikolaev Military Academy

For citation: Naumov EO. Graduates and Auditing Students of the Imperial Nicholas Military Academy in the Red Army in 1918 — 1919. (Case Study of the Western Czechoslovak Front and the Eastern Front’s 1st Army). Bulletin of the Research Institute for the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2023;15(3):83—98. EDN JONFTI

 

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The article was submitted 07.02.2023; approved after reviewing 03.04.2023; accepted for publication 10.04.2023.

 

Information about the authors:

Evgeny O. Naumov, Senior Research of the History Department of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), Candidate of Historical Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5808-4022, naumoveo@mail.ru

 

Conflict of interests: the author declare no conflict of interests.

 

The author read and approved the final version of the manuscript.