Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In the White movement, Slashchov was initially involved, as an emissary of General M. V. Alekseev, in the creation of units of the Volunteer Army around the spa towns of the North Caucasus (January–May 1918), then joined the partisan detachment of General A. G. Shkuro (May–July 1918, as chief of staff from June 1918). He was subsequently commander of the 1st Kuban Cossack Infantry Brigade (from 6 September 1918) and chief of staff of the 2nd Kuban Cossack Division of the Volunteer Army (15 November 1918–February 1919). In the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR), he was made a brigade commander of its 5th Infantry Division (18 February 1919), commander of the 4th Infantry Division (8 June 1919), and commander of the 3rd Army Corps (6 December 1919–February 1920). It was in the last of these posts that he achieved his greatest feat, orchestrating a heroic defense of the Perekop isthmus to deny the Reds access to Crimea as the AFSR fell apart and saving the peninsula as a refuge and sanctuary for the Whites. He then served General P. N. Wrangel’s Russian Army in Crimea, as commander of the Crimean (formerly 2nd) Army Corps (February–August 1920). On 18 August 1920, following his defeat in the Battle of Kakhovka (and a series of scandals involving Slashchov’s brutal attempts to end corruption and gambling in the areas under his control), he was relieved of his command on “health grounds” and placed on the reserve list. (In fact, Slashchov was a prodigious drinker and was also addicted to morphine as a means of alleviating the pain from his many wounds, and he seems to have suffered some sort of nervous collapse.) On the same day, in recognition of earlier triumph, Wrangel accorded Slashchov the title “Krymskii” (“of the Crimea”) as a suffix to his surname, although he was equally well known (by his enemies) as “the hangman.”

Slashchov was evacuated to Constantinople with the remnants of Wrangel’s forces in November 1920. There, he wrote a number of works that were bitingly critical of Wrangel, as a consequence of which he was dismissed from the service and deprived of the right to wear uniform by a court of honor. He subsequently returned to Sevastopol′, on 21 November 1921, after negotiations with the Soviet authorities, and was conveyed to Moscow in the personal carriage of F. E. Dzierżyński. In 1922, he issued a series of appeals for other White officers and soldiers to return home, and from June 1922, he was employed by the Red Army as a lecturer on tactics at the Vystrel Military School in Moscow. On 11 January 1929, he was shot dead in his apartment at the school by one Lazar Kolenberg, who was apparently seeking vengeance for the death of his brother, who had been executed in Crimea in 1920 on Slashchov’s orders. This, however, could not be proven at Kolenberg’s trial, and he was set free (giving rise to speculation that the killer was an agent of the NKVD). The character of General Roman Khludov in the play Beg (“Flight”), by Mikhail Bulgakov, was based on Slashchov.

Slaven (SLAVIN), petr anotonovich (?–1920?). Colonel (191?). The Red military commander Petr Slaven was born in Latvia. Having served in the Russian Army in the First World War, he initially served the Reds in the civil wars, as a commander of the Latvian Riflemen. From 16 August to 20 October 1918, he was commander of the 5th Red Army on the Eastern Front, overseeing the recapture of Kazan′ (10 September 1918) and other Volga cities. He then became commander of the Southern Front (9 November 1918–24 January 1919), and from 10 March to 25 June 1919, was commander of the (Red) Army of Soviet Latvia (from 7 to 25 June 1919, the 15th Red Army). He apparently then deserted and went into emigration in Latvia, where according to some reports, he subsequently died of typhus.