Vitaly Markovich Primakov
Encyclopedia
Vitaly Markovich Primakov, (December 3, 1897, Semenivka
Semenivka
Semenivka is the name of various locations in Ukraine:* Semenivka * Semenivka...

, Chernigov Governorate
Chernigov Governorate
The Chernigov Governorate , also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate with an administrative centre of Chernigov...

, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 – June 12, 1937, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russian SFSR), was Ukrainian Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 commander, commander of the Red Cossacks corps.

Early years

V.M. Primakov was born in the family of the teacher in a small town of Semenivka. He joined RSDLP
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...

 in 1914 and in 1915 was arrested on charges of spreading anti-war proclamations amongst the troops of Chernigov garrison. He was sentenced to exile for life in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

.

Revolution

Primakov was released from exile during February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...

 in 1917. He became member of Kiev's Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

 committee. While being a delegate of Second Congress of Soviets
Congress of Soviets
The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and several other Soviet republics from 1917–36 and again from 1989-91. After the creation of the Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union functioned as its legislative branch...

 in Petrograd he was assigned commander of one of the squadrons participating in the assault on the Winter Palace
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...

. Then he led Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 squadrons during fights with troops of General Krasnov
Pyotr Krasnov
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov , 1869 – January 17, 1947), sometimes referred to in English as Peter Krasnov, was Lieutenant General of the Russian army when the revolution broke out in 1917, and one of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary White movement afterward.- Russian Army :Pyotr Krasnov...

 near Gatchina
Gatchina
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...

.

Civil War

In February 1918, using cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

 troops that crossed over to the communists, he formed regiment of Red Cossacks. In August 1919, Primakov became commander of the brigade. In October 1919, he was appointed commander of Eighth Cavalry Division. In October 1920, Primakov became the commander of First Corps of Red Cossacks.

For a successful breach of White Army defense line near Fatezh
Fatezh
Fatezh is a town and the administrative center of Fatezhsky District of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located on the Usozha River north of Kursk. Population: 4,959 .Fatezh was founded as a village in the 17th century and granted town status in 1779...

 in November 1919, he was awarded first Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Red Banner
The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...

. Second Order of the Red Banner was awarded to Primakov for combat near Proskurov
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Khmelnytskyi is a city in Ukraine in the region of Podillia. It is located on the Southern Buh River and about from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The town's original name was Płoskirów, later Proskurov, but in 1954 was renamed Khmelnytskyi. It is the center of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western...

. Primakov received the third Order of the Red Banner for fighting Basmachi Revolt
Basmachi Revolt
The Basmachi movement or Basmachi Revolt was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim, largely Turkic peoples of Central Asia....

 in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

.

Service after Civil War

In 1923 Primakov graduated Higher Academic Military Courses at RKKA. In 1924-25 he was the head of the Highest Cavalry school in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...

.

In 1925, he was sent to China to be military advisor of Chinese First National Army. In 1927, he was appointed military attaché in Afghanistan. In 1929 under disguise of Turkish officer Ragib-bey he led a military operation of Soviet troops to reinstate Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan was the King of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change...

 as ruler of Afghanistan. In 1930 he was sent to Japan to become military attaché there.

In 1931-33, Primakov was commander of Thirteenth Infantry Corps. In February 1933 he became deputy of commander of North-Caucasian military district. In December 1934, he was appointed inspector of higher education institutions of Red Army. In January 1935, he became deputy of commander of Leningrad military district.

Arrest and Trial

Primakov was arrested on August 14, 1936. He was subjected to torture and pled guilty of being part of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization
Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization
The Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization was a 1937 secret trial of the high command of the Red Army, orchestrated by Joseph Stalin as part of the Great Purge.-Defendants:...

 and testified against many Soviet military commanders.

He was found guilty and sentenced to death on June 11, 1937.

Primakov was rehabilitated posthumously in 1957.

Personal life

Primakov was married three times.

Once he was married to Oksana Kotsyubynska, the daughter of Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky.

Last time in 1930 he married Lilya Brik
Lilya Brik
Lilya Yuryevna Brik is known best as a muse of Vladimir Mayakovsky. She was an older sister of Elsa Triolet and wife of Osip Brik. Pablo Neruda called her "muse of Russian avant-garde"...

, long time love of Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...

.

Sources

http://focus.in.ua/article/17229.html
http://www.knowbysight.info/PPP/03824.asp
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