Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The second 6th Red Army was created by an order of the Revvoensovet of the Republic on 19 August 1920, on the basis of troops of the Trans-Volga Military District, chiefly the 2nd Revolutionary Labor Army. On 21 September 1920, it was attached to the Southern Front. It operated chiefly in the Kherson and Kakhovka regions, in battles against General P. N. Wrangel’s Russian Army (often in collaboration with the Revolutionary-Insurgent Army of Ukraine and the 2nd Cavalry Army), securing the right bank of the Dnepr against the Whites’ attempt to secure a bridgehead and subsequently playing a key role in forcing an entry into Crimea across the Perekop isthmus and the Sivash marshes in November 1920. The constituent forces of the 6th Red Army included the 1st (September–November 1920), 13th (September–October 1920), 15th (September 1920–May 1921), 51st (September–November 1920 and November 1920–May 1921), and 52nd (September–November 1920 and November 1920–May 1921) Rifle Divisions; the Latvian Rifle Division (November 1920); and the 3rd Cavalry Corps (November–December 1920). The second 6th Red Army was disbanded on 13 May 1921, and its forces were transferred to the Khar′kov Military District. Commanders of the second 6th Red Army were K. A. Avksent′evskii (20 August–26 October 1920) and A. I. Kork (26 October 1920–13 May 1921). Its chiefs of staff were V. K. Tokarevskii (19 August–3 December 1920) and A. V. Kirpichnikov (3 December 1920–13 May 1921).

SKACHKO, ANATOLII EVGENEV′ICH (1879–28 December 1941). Captain (191?). The Soviet military commander A. E. Skachko was born at Poltava into the family of a land surveyor and was also trained in that profession, graduating from the Moscow Institute of Surveying (1900). He served in the First World War as a journalist with the Russian Army. Having joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) in 1917 and been elected commander of his regiment in November of that year, from April 1918 he worked as editor of the Izvestiia (“News”) of the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and head of the military section of VTsIK.

From August 1918, Skachko was attached to the staff of the Eastern Front, then moved to fight with Red forces in Ukraine, becoming chief of staff of an army group around Khar′kov (from 6 February 1919). He was subsequently commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army (7 April–7 June 1919), then was sent on undercover work in Daghestan, which was then occupied by White forces attached to the Armed Forces of South Russia. From June 1921 to January 1922, he worked as head of the Arts Department of Glavpolitprosvet (the Main Committee for Political Education, part of the People’s Commissariat for Education). Skachko then performed a number of jobs in military and political education. He was arrested by the NKVD on 8 August 1937, and later died in the Kargopol′sk labor camp, near Arkhangel′sk.

Skalon, Mikhail Nikolaevich (19 January 1874–28 February 1943). Colonel (August 1912), major general (20 December 1914), lieutenant general (August 1920). A senior figure in the White forces in South Russia, M. N. Skalon was born into a noble family in Khar′kov guberniia and was a graduate of the Corps of Pages (1894). He saw action in the Russo–Japanese War, and in the First World War was commander, successively, of the 36th Orlov Regiment (July 1914–April 1915), the Life Guards 4th Rifle Regiment (22 April 1915–5 April 1917), and the 33rd Rifle Division (5 April 1917–January 1918).

In the White movement, Skalon commanded forces in the Novorossiisk region under General N. N. Shilling (November 1919–January 1920) and was subsequently commander of the Composite Guards Rifle Division under General F. E. Bredov, alongside whom he endured the Bredov March into Poland (January–March 1920). He returned to Crimea via Romania, in July 1920, to join the Russian Army, and was named by General P. N. Wrangel as commander of its 3rd Army Corps (August–October 1920). He then served as governor-general of Tauride (25 October–1 November 1920), before the successful evacuation of the bulk of Wrangel’s forces from Crimea, over which he ultimately presided. In emigration, Skalon settled in Bulgaria and then (from 1925) in Czechoslovakia.