Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Shteifon, Boris Aleksandrovich (6 December 1881–30 April 1945). Colonel (15 August 1917), major general (August 1920), lieutenant general (1923), major general (Wehrmacht, October 1941). A senior staff officer in the White movement in South Russia and a controversial figure in emigration, B. A. Shteifon was born at Khar′kov, into the family of a Jewish merchant who had converted to Orthodoxy. He was a graduate of the Chuguev Military School (1902) and the Academy of the General Staff (1911), saw action in the Russo–Japanese War with the 124th Voronezh Regiment, and during the First World War served on the staff of General N. N. Iudenich on the Caucasus Front; he was a planner of and a participant in the capture of Erzurum (January 1916). He was subsequently on the staff of the 1st Army Corps (from 21 July 1916) and served as chief of staff of the 3rd Finland Rifle Division (from 14 August 1917).

Following the October Revolution, Shteifon returned home to Khar′kov and, in association with General A. A. von Lampe, became involved with the underground officer organization there that was engaged in ferrying officers from the north toward the ranks of the Volunteer Army in the Kuban. In September 1918, under threat of arrest in Ukraine, he went south himself, where he was named chief of staff of the Volunteers’ 3rd Infantry Division and then commander of the Belozersk and Arkhangelogorod Regiments. In July 1919, he became chief of staff of the Poltava Detachment of General N. E. Bredov. With the latter, he participated in the Bredov March (December 1919–February 1920) and was subsequently interned in Poland (February–July 1920), before returning to join the Russian Army in Crimea (August 1920), serving on the staff of General P. N. Wrangel (September–November 1920). Following the Whites’ evacuation of Crimea in November 1920, he served as commandant of the refugee camps at Gallipoli.

In emigration, Shteifon lived first in Bulgaria, as chief of staff of the 1st Army Corps (from 1921), but in 1922 was expelled by the Stamboliiskii regime and moved to Yugoslavia. From 1921 to 1926, he was active in ROVS, but was eventually expelled from the organization by Wrangel for challenging the authority of the leadership. He was also active in publishing, teaching, and literary work in military science. During the Second World War, he collaborated with the Nazis and was made chief of staff of the Russian Defense Corps in Yugoslavia (October 1941), then commander of the corps (October 1941–30 April 1945). His nerves shattered by constant conflict with the German authorities, who refused to transfer the corps to the Russian front, Shteifon died suddenly of a heart attack, at Zagreb, in 1945. He was buried in the German military cemetery at Ljubljana.

Shul′gin, Vasilii Vital′evich (1 January 1878–13/15 February 1976). A prominent ideologue of the White movement in South Russia, V. V. Shul′gin had a long-established reputation as a publicist and spokesman for right-wing causes in the Russian Empire. He was born in Kiev, into the nobility of Volynsk guberniia. His father was a professor of history at Kiev University and editor of the leading monarchist newspaper, Kievlianin (“The Kievan”). As a student in the Law Faculty of Kiev University (graduating in 1900), Shul′gin became an inveterate opponent of the socialist parties. From 1907, he was elected to the Second, Third, and Fourth State Dumas and was a public figure of all-Russian repute, as leader of the Nationalist Party and (from 1911) as editor of Kievlianin. He was certainly an anti-Semite, but in 1913–1914 opposed the tsarist regime’s bungled handling of the infamous Beilis case and was imprisoned for three months for his published criticisms. During the First World War, dismayed by the imperial government’s handling of the war effort, he became a prominent member of the Progressive Bloc in the Fourth State Duma. During the February Revolution, Shul′gin was a member of the Temporary Committee of the Duma that met privately in an attempt to lead the popular disturbances into a peaceful resolution of the crisis, and on 2 March 1917, he traveled to Pskov to present Nicholas II with the Duma’s demand that he abdicate. However, he refused to join the Russian Provisional Government, which he regarded as a Kadet front.