Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

TARANOVSKII, EFIM (1888–18 August 1921). Ensign (1917). A prominent follower of Nestor Makhno, Efim Taranovskii was born into a well-to-do Jewish peasant family in Mariupol′ uezd. Having served in the Russian Army during the First World War, he became a proponent of anarchism in 1917, styling himself an “anarchist-communist” when he returned to Ukraine. In 1918, he moved to the Guliai-Pole region to combat the forces of the Austro-German intervention at the head of a Jewish regiment of Black Guards. His group united with Makhno in the autumn of 1918, and Taranovskii then served in the Revolutionary-Insurgent Army of Ukraine as a member of its main staff (from autumn to winter 1918). In 1920, he also commanded a cavalry regiment, while maintaining his staff post, and in October of that year was named commander of the 1st Army Group of the Insurgent Army. He assisted the Red Army in clearing the forces of General P. N. Wrangel from Crimea. Having successfully evaded the Reds’ subsequent attempts to smash the Makhnovists, during the summer of the following year Taranovskii was captured by a group of anti-Semitic peasants and burned alive at the stake.

TARASOV, VLADIMIR FEDOROVICH (?–?). Captain (191?). One of the most prominent of those Red military specialists who deserted to the Whites in the course of the civil wars, V. F. Tarasov had served, in the imperial army, as an officer with the 13th Mounted Artillery Brigade during the First World War, and in 1918 completed an accelerated course at the Academy of the General Staff. Later that year, he volunteered for service with the Red Army and assisted in preparing the defenses of Petrograd. From 23 March 1918, he was assigned to the general staff, transferring to Vseroglavshtab on 27 June 1918. He then worked as an advisor to the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs, before being assigned to the post of acting chief of staff of the Eastern Front (10–23 July 1918), and from 5 November 1918 was head of the 2nd (Secret) Department of Registration Directorate of the Revolutionary Field Staff of the Revvoensovet of the Republic. However, he was almost immediately sent back to the front, as chief of staff of the Southern Front (from 13 November 1918). On 7 June 1919, he was arrested by the Cheka as a suspected traitor, but was soon released to become acting chief of staff of the 8th Red Army (10 August–2 October 1919). When the Armed Forces of South Russia captured Voronezh on 6 October 1919, he remained in that city and went over to the Whites. His subsequent fate is unknown.

TARNAVSKY, MYRON (29 August 1869–29 June 1938). Major (Austro-Hungarian Army, 1916), lieutenant colonel (Austro-Hungarian Army, 1918), colonel (Ukrainian Galician Army, 1919), brigadier general (Ukrainian Galician Army, July 1919). The Ukrainian commander Myron Tarnavsky was born at Baryłow (Łopatyn), in Austrian Galicia. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War, becoming commander of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (from 1916) and then commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment (from 1918). He joined the Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA) in February 1919 and was made commander of its Second Corps, then was named the UGA’s commander in chief (from 5 July 1919) within the Ukrainian Army. In that capacity, he oversaw the UGA’s Kiev offensive and remained in command as his army collapsed under attack by the Poles, the Whites, and the Red Army. He was stripped of his command on 7 November 1919, for having, in desperation, unilaterally arranged an armistice with the Armed Forces of South Russia of General A. I. Denikin. Tarnavsky was subsequently interned at Tukhul in Poland with other Ukrainian forces, having failed in an attempt to flee to Czechoslovakia. He died and is buried at L′viv.