Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SHCHELOKOV (SHCHOLOKOV), NIKOLAI KONONOVICH (23 May 1887–12 April 1941). Esaul (23 December 1916), colonel (1917), lieutenant general (1940). The Soviet commander N. K. Shchelokov was born at Ural′sk, into the family of a cornet of the Urals Cossack Host, and was a graduate of the Orenburg Nepliuevskii Cadet Corps and the Mikhail Artillery School (1907). After service with the 36th and 47th Artillery Brigades, Shchelokov served during the First World War with various artillery battalions of the Urals Host, and from 23 December 1916, commanded a battery.

Following the October Revolution and demobilization in late 1917, Shchelokov returned to the Urals Host territory and was actively involved in Cossack politics, but according to Soviet sources, he refused to lead Cossack forces in opposition to Soviet rule. In July 1918, having been sent on a mission to Saratov, he volunteered for service in the Red Army and was engaged over the following months in the creation of units of Red Cossacks. From January to September 1919, he commanded a cavalry regiment; from 17 September to 1 November 1919, he was acting commander of the 8th Cavalry Division of the cavalry corps of S. M. Budenny (from 19 November 1919, the 1st Cavalry Army). From 1 January to 19 June 1920 and from 19 February 1921 to 26 October 1923, Shchelokov was then chief of staff of the 1st Cavalry Army. He also, from 28 July to 10 October 1920, served as chief of staff of the 2nd Cavalry Army, operating against the forces of General P. N. Wrangel in the northern Tauride that were attempting to establish a bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnepr. From 1923, Shchelokov served as deputy to Budenny during the latter’s tenure as inspector of cavalry of the Red Army; from 1928, he was involved in educational work until his retirement in 1934. He returned to work in 1940, as head of the Cavalry School of the Red Military Academy, but died in Moscow in 1941 and was buried in the Vvedensk cemetery.

Shchepikhin, Sergei Aref′evich (1 October 1880–after 1940). Major general (24 December 1918). A senior staff officer in the anti-Bolshevik forces in eastern Russia and Siberia, S. A. Shchepikhin was born at Kirsanov stanitsa, into a family of the Urals Cossack Host, and was a graduate of the Orenburg Cadet Corps, the Orenburg Cossack Officer School (1899), and the Academy of the General Staff (1908). He served in a number of staff posts, including roles on the staff of the Omsk (11 May 1911–15 January 1914) and Kiev (from 15 January 1914) Military Districts, and during the First World War became a senior adjutant with the quartermaster general of the 3rd Army (6 December 1914–3 January 1917) and then commander of the 2nd Urals Cossack Regiment (from 3 January 1917).

From 17 February 1918 to early June 1918, Shchepikhin was chief of staff of the nascent Urals Army of the Urals Cossack Host. He then entered the service of the People’s Army of Komuch, as chief of its Field Staff on the Volga front (from 15 August 1918) and then chief of staff of the Volga Group of forces (12 October–25 December 1918). Subsequently, in the Russian Army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, he served as chief of staff of the Western Army (1 January–21 May 1919), helping direct its capture of Ufa and further advance toward the Volga, and from 16 June 1919 was chief of supply of the Southern Army. On 7 October 1919, he was seconded to the staff of the quartermaster general of the main commander of the Eastern Front. As the White movement collapsed in Siberia, Shchepikhin joined the Great Siberian (Ice) March toward the Far East, becoming, en route, the chief of staff of the 2nd Army and then (from 27 January 1920) chief of staff of the main commander of the Eastern Front. Arriving in Transbaikalia in March 1920, he was named chief of staff of the Forces of Russia’s Eastern Region, under Ataman G. M. Semenov. He left the army in May 1920 and made his way from Chita into China, before journeying by sea to join the forces of General P. N. Wrangel in South Russia. He arrived in Crimea, however, only on the very eve of the evacuation of Wrangel’s Russian Army to Constantinople. He thus went into emigration, settling in Czechoslovakia, where he pursued literary work. He died in Prague and is buried in that city’s Olšanské cemetery.