Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In the White movement, Sultan-Kilich-Gerei first commanded a brigade of the 2nd Kuban Division under General V. P. Liakhov (March–August 1918) and was then commander of the Cherkess-Terek (Wild) Cossack Division (September 1918–May 1920). After the collapse of the Armed Forces of South Russia in the North Caucasus, in early 1920 he retreated with his unit into the Democratic Republic of Georgia (May 1920) and then made his way by sea to Crimea (June 1920). Having joined the Russian Army of General P. N. Wrangel, he was dispatched to the North Caucasus to raise anti-Bolshevik Cossack and native partisan units, which engaged in periodic uprisings and battles against the Red Army in Karachaevsk oblast′ from June to November 1920. Following the collapse of Wrangel’s forces, Sultan-Kilich-Girei again retreated into Georgia, from where he made his way to France, via Yugoslavia, in February–March 1921.

During the interwar years, Sultan-Kilich-Gerei was active in anti-Soviet émigré organizations, chairing the Committee for the Independence of the Caucasus and joining the Central Committee of the Popular Party of the Mountain Peoples (1922–1945), while earning his living as trick horseman in the circus and as a horse trainer. Following the German invasion of France in June 1940, he entered into collaboration with the Wehrmacht and was sent back to the North Caucasus to raise Cossack units for the struggle against the USSR (1942–1943). He was then sent to Yugoslavia, to organize émigré Cossack forces in the struggle against the partisans of Josip Tito. Sultan-Kilich was among those Cossacks forcibly repatriated in May 1945 from British-administered camps in Austria to the USSR. There, he was immediately arrested and sentenced to death by hanging, alongside Generals P. N. Krasnov, A. G. Shkuro, and others.

sultanov, khosrov bey (10 May 1879–1947). A prominent and controversial statesman in Azerbaijan during the civil-war years, Khosrov bey Sultanov Pasha bey oglu was born near Zangezur, Elizavetopol guberniia, and was a graduate of the Elizavetopol Gymnasium and the Odessa Military School, where he trained as a doctor. During the First World War, he worked with several relief organizations in Transcaucasia before becoming active in politics in 1917.

On 28 May 1918, Sultanov was one of the signatories of the declaration of independence of the Armenian Democratic Republic, subsequently serving briefly as its war minister (28 May–11 June 1918) and helping to found the Azeri army. On 15 January 1919, he was named governor-general of the disputed Karabakh (Qarabağ) and Zangezur (Siunik) regions, as British forces disarmed the Armenian irregulars under General Andranik Toros Ozanian and imposed a settlement favorable to the Azeris, so as to end (temporarily) the Armenian–Azerbaijan War. Although Sultanov was never able to extend his authority over Zangezur, in May 1919, he was able to drive the Armenian General Dro from Askeran and secure Shusha and Khankendi for Azerbaijan. In those regions, he was responsible for such cruelties against the Armenian population that he earned the displeasure of the generally pro-Azeri British and was consequently briefly recalled to Baku by the Azeri government. Any reprimand he may have received, however, made little difference, and Sultanov continued to antagonize local Armenians throughout the remainder of 1919, effectively goading them into a doomed uprising in late March 1920 that was answered by the Shusha massacre. The following month, troops of the 11th Red Army entered Azerbaijan, and Sultanov’s reign was ended (on 16 April 1920).

After three years of surviving underground in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1923 Sultanov fled to Turkey and thence to a life in emigration in Iran, France, and Germany, where he collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Second World War. Following the war he moved to Trabzon, in Turkey, where he died.

SUPREME ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN REGION.See NORTHERN REGION, SUPREME ADMINISTRATION OF THE.

Supreme Council of the National Economy.See VSNKh.

SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE Russian soviet federative socialist republic.See Russian soviet federative socialist republic, SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE.

Supreme Military Inspectorate of the Red Army.See Red Army, Supreme Military Inspectorate of the.