Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Shumiatskii’s career following the civil wars included spells as a Soviet plenipotentiary to the Mongolian People’s Republic (1921) and Persia (January 1922–14 April 1925) and rector of Moscow’s Communist University of the Workers of the East. Shumiatskii also developed an interest in cinema and became head of the All-Union Society for the Cinema Industry (“Soiuzkino,” 23 September 1930–5 April 1933), before becoming head of the Main Directorate of the Film Industry (known as the “People’s Commissariat for Film”), attached to Sovnarkom (5 April 1933–January 1938). During that same period, he served as deputy chairman of the Main Board of Artistic Affairs attached to Sovnarkom. In those capacities, he visited the United States to investigate the American film industry and returned to the USSR with a plan to construct a “Soviet Hollywood” in Crimea. This did not come about, but it was under Shumiatskii’s stewardship that the Soviet film industry produced many of its 1930s masterpieces, including films that focused on the civil wars, including Chapaev (dir. G. N and S. N. Sergeev, 1934), about V. I. Chapaev. Shumiatskii also wrote numerous books and articles on the subject of film, including Kinematografiia millionov (“Cinematography for the Millions,” 1935). He was arrested on 18 January 1938, and having been found guilty on 28 July of that year of espionage, was subsequently shot. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 22 February 1956. He is commemorated by streets bearing his name in Ulan-Ude (the Buriat capital) and Krasnoiarsk.

Shumilovskii, Leonid Ivanovich (30 January 1876–23/27 July 1920). A lapsed social democrat who during the civil wars joined the White government of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, L. I. Shumilovskii was the son of a teacher and a graduate of both St. Petersburg University and Moscow University. In 1907, he was exiled to Tomsk guberniia for his political activities. He subsequently taught at Barnaul Realschule and edited the progressive newspaper Zhizn′ Altaia (“Life of the Altai”). He was elected to the 4th State Duma as a representative of Barnaul and was part of its Menshevik caucus. In 1917, he was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly for the Romanian Front and for Altai guberniia.

During the Democratic Counter-Revolution of 1918, Shumilovskii was chosen as minister of labor in both the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia and the Provisional Siberian Government, and he served in the same capacity in the Omsk government of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, from November 1918 to January 1920, by which time he had left the Menshevik party, declaring himself to be a “non-party socialist and a convinced supporter of Siberian regionalism.” He worked tirelessly to win over local trade unions to the White cause, but his efforts were repeatedly negated by the predations of the military, while his budget was too meager to allow for effective work. In March 1919, he briefly resigned from his post in protest at the illegal actions of the army, but returned to office upon concluding that resignation was not the most effective way of opposing what was an obvious scheme to drive “moderates” out of the government. In January 1920, Shumilovskii fell into the hands of the new Soviet authorities at Irkutsk and subsequently, by order of the Omsk extraordinary revolutionary tribunal, was executed. (Sources differ about the precise date of his execution.)