Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

As an outspoken member of the Left Opposition, Smirnov was later demoted to the post of people’s commissar for post and telegraph of the USSR (1923–1927). On 14 November 1927, he was expelled from the party, and on 31 December 1927, he was sentenced to three years of exile in Siberia for participating in the United Opposition. He recanted and was allowed to return to the fold in 1929, becoming head of an industrial conglomerate at Saratov, but was arrested again on 14 January 1933, for having contributed an article to the exiled Trotsky’s Biulleten′ oppozitsii (“The Bulletin of the Opposition”), and was again expelled from the party. On 14 April 1933, he was sentenced to five years’ hard labor, but in 1936 was arraigned in the first Moscow show trial (“The Trial of the United Anti-Soviet Trotskyite–Zinov′evite Center”), along with G. E. Zinov′ev, L. B. Kamenev, and others. On 24 August 1936, Smirnov was found guilty of membership in an anti-Soviet “terrorist organization” and sentenced to death. He was shot the next day. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 13 June 1988.

Smirnov, Mikhail Ivanovich (18 June 1880–1937/1940/1943). Captain, first rank (1916), rear admiral (20 November 1918). A close associate of Admiral A. V. Kolchak at many stages of the latter’s career, the White naval commander M. I. Smirnov was born into a noble family in St. Petersburg and was a graduate of the Naval Corps (1899) and the Nicholas Naval Academy (1914). He first worked closely with Kolchak in the Naval General Staff, from 1906 to 1909; then, during the First World War, he served in the Black Sea Fleet, becoming Kolchak’s chief of staff in 1916 and accompanying him on his mission to the United States in 1917.

Smirnov arrived in Omsk on 17 November 1918, hours before the Omsk coup brought Kolchak to power as supreme ruler, and was soon promoted to the rank of rear admiral and made director of the Ministry of Marine of the Omsk government. In that capacity, his main occupation was the formation of the Kama Flotilla (initially attached to the Siberian Army), which he also commanded from 31 March 1919, offering support to forces of the Northern Army and the Western Army during Kolchak’s spring offensive. In November 1919, he spoke out against those White leaders who favored abandoning Omsk without a battle and apparently begged Kolchak not to send him (with the evacuated government) to Irkutsk, but rather to allow him to remain at his side at Omsk. Kolchak refused.

En route to Irkutsk on 24 November 1919, Smirnov was captured by rebel militiamen at Glazov, but was soon freed. In February 1920, he made his way across the border into Manchuria (arriving at Harbin, according to some accounts, disguised as a British Tommy) and subsequently lived in emigration in Germany, the United States, France (where he helped fund the education of Kolchak’s son, Rostislav, by writing a brief biography of the supreme ruler, and according to some sources, worked as a milliner at Cannes), and finally, Great Britain. He died in London either shortly before or during the Second World War (reports vary).

SMIRNOV(-SVETLOVSKII), PETR IVANOVICH (1897–17 March 1940). Flag officer, second rank (1938). The Red naval commander P. I. Smirnov, who was the son of a doctor, was born at Sulin, in the territory of the Don Cossack Host. He joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) in 1914. During the October Revolution, he commanded units of sailors from the Baltic Fleet in and around Petrograd, joined the Red Army in February 1918 (to assist in the defense of Pskov against invading German forces during the Eleven-Days War, when negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk stalled), and from July 1918 was one of the organizers and chief of staff of the Volga Military Flotilla. He also commanded partisan units of the 5th Red Army on the Eastern Front, conducting raids into the rear of enemy forces during the autumn of 1918. From January to March 1919, he was commandant of the Kronshtadt fortress, and subsequently (17 April–25 July 1919) served as commander and chief commissar of the Volga Military Flotilla. He was then twice commander of the Dnepr Military Flotilla (13 December 1919–7 August 1920 and 6 October–14 December 1920).