Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SHCHEPKIN, NIKOLAI NIKOLAEVICH (7 May 1854–September 1919). One of the leading organizers of the anti-Bolshevik underground in revolutionary Russia, N. N. Shchepkin was born into an impoverished noble family in Moscow. He was the nephew of M. S. Shchepkin, one of the most famous Russian actors of the 19th century. After graduating from the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, he served as a volunteer in the Russian Army during the Russo–Turkish War of 1877–1878. He then worked in local government in Moscow, eventually becoming deputy mayor of the city. He was a leading light in the Russian liberal movement around the turn of the century, and in 1905, was one of the founders of the Kadets, serving on the party’s Central Committee for the rest of his life (as one of the chief representatives of its left wing). He was also a member of the Third and Fourth State Dumas and, during the First World War, served on the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Towns (part of Zemgor).

After the February Revolution, Shchepkin became chairman of the Russian Provisional Government’s Turkestan Committee (from April 1917) and was one of the most active agitators for the continuation of the war. As such, he refused to recognize the Soviet government after the October Revolution and helped found, in Moscow, one of the first underground anti-Bolshevik organizations, The Nine. During the spring of 1918, together with N. I. Astrov and other Kadets, he entered the Right Center and the Union for the Regeneration of Russia, and in May of that year became one of the founders and leaders of the National Center. He was also a member of the anti-Bolshevik Tactical Center and was active in its military commission. When most of his colleagues in these organizations went south to join the Whites, Shchepkin remained behind in Moscow to help establish an underground staff of the Volunteer Army, with the aim of organizing an armed uprising in the capital, as White forces approached. He was arrested by the Cheka on 29 August 1919. On 23 September 1919, it was reported that Shchepkin and 67 other “counterrevolutionaries” had been executed in Moscow. They were buried in a mass grave in the Kalitnikov cemetery.

Shcherbachev, Dmitrii Grigor′evich (6 February 1857–18 January 1932). Major general (10 May 1903), lieutenant general (29 November 1908), general of infantry (6 December 1914). The White general D. G. Shcherbachev, the scion of a noble family from St. Petersburg guberniia, was one of the most senior generals attached to the anti-Bolshevik forces, but he played only a secondary role in the civil wars. He was a graduate of the Mikhail Artillery School (1876) and the Academy of the General Staff (1884), saw action in the Russo–Japanese War, and was later head of the Academy of the General Staff (24 January 1907–14 December 1912). During the First World War, he accepted postings as commander of the 9th Army Corps (December 1912–December 1914), the 9th Army (April–October 1915), and the 7th Independent Army (19 October 1915–October 1916). He then served briefly in the suite of Nicholas II as an adjutant, and after the February Revolution was made commander of the Romanian Front (April–December 1917).