Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In August 1917, Sidorin was sent to Petrograd by General L. G. Kornilov to organize a secret officers’ organization (in preparation for a potential coup that was at the heart of the Kornilov affair). He returned to the Don territory in November 1917 and participated in the battle for Rostov (November–December 1917), then became chief of staff to General A. M. Nazarov (December 1917–January 1918) and participated in the Don Cossack uprising against Soviet rule in the partisan detachment of General P. Kh. Popov (as his chief of staff from 12 February 1918). He was then (as one of the opponents of the new Host ataman, General P. N. Krasnov) placed in the reserve of the Don Army (May 1918–February 1919). Then on the recommendation of Krasnov’s successor as ataman, General A. F. Bogaevskii, he became that army’s commander in the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR). He occupied that post from 2 February 1919 to 14 March 1920, in the key period of the Don Cossacks’ struggles against the Red Army. Sidorin led the Don Cossack forces as they reconquered all the Host territory during the summer of 1919, then advanced on Moscow, and was also in charge of the Don Army as, in January–March 1920, it retreated into and through the Don territory and the Kuban. When, following the collapse of the AFSR, the remnants of the Don Army were evacuated from Novorossiisk and then gathered in Crimea (March–April 1920), he was placed in command of the new Don Corps of the Russian Army. However, Sidorin was never able to fully control the forces under his command (notably failing to prevent the rapine that accompanied the Mamontov raid and repeatedly failing to fulfill the orders of General A. I. Denikin, during the autumn of 1919, to send forces to the aid of the beleaguered Volunteer Army). Consequently, on 18 April 1920, together with his chief of staff, General A. K. Kel′chevskii, he was removed from his post by the new commander in chief of White forces in the South, General P. N. Wrangel.

Charged with the encouragement of Cossack separatism—he had allowed the publication of articles with such sentiments in his force’s newspaper, Vestnik Donskoi armii (“The Bulletin of the Don Army”)—and failure to prevent the undisciplined and unordered retreat of his forces to Novorossiisk during the winter of 1919 to 1920, Sidorin was then arraigned before a court martial overseen by General A. M. Dragomirov. He was found guilty of neglect of duty and sentenced to a dishonorable discharge from the army (and the canceling of all his honors and ranks) and was ordered to serve four years in exile, but Wrangel commuted this to voluntary retirement from the army. Sidorin left Crimea in May 1920; in emigration, he lived in Bulgaria and Serbia before, in 1924, moving to Prague, where he worked as a draftsman in the Cartographical Section of the Czechoslovak Army. During the interwar years, he wrote numerous historical works on the Don Army and the civil wars, as well as editing the journal Vol′noe kazachestvo (“Free Cossackdom”). During the Second World War, he adopted a pro-fascist, collaborationist position (having moved to Germany in 1939). He is buried in the Russian cemetery at Tegel in Berlin.

SILIKYAN (SILIKOV), MOVSES (14 September 1862–10 December 1937). Colonel (6 December 1910), major general (22 August 1917), lieutenant general (Army of the Armenian Democratic Republic, 1 June 1919). The Armenian military commander Movses Silikyan was a graduate of the 1st Moscow Military Gymnasium, the 3rd Alexandropol Military School, and the Officers’ Riflemen School. He joined the Russian Army on 28 August 1882, serving in the 155th Infantry Regiment. During the First World War, he saw action on the Caucasus Front with the 8th Caucasian Rifle Regiment (from March 1914) and as commander of the 6th Caucasian Rifle Regiment (from 29 November 1915). With the latter, he participated in the Armenian’s “Van Resistance” against Turkish massacres, and in 1916, led his men into Erzurum.