Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In 1923, Validov went into exile, settling initially in Turkey, where he taught history at the University of Istanbul (1925–1932) and adopted the name Togan. He subsequently undertook studies for his doctorate at the University of Vienna (1932–1935), where he became an acquaintance of Sigmund Freud, and taught at Bonn and Göttingen Universities (1935–1939), before returning to the University of Istanbul. With the Turkish government under pressure from Moscow, he was arrested there in 1944 and imprisoned for 17 months and 10 days, for “acts against the Soviets,” but returned to his post in 1948. He subsequently founded and became director of Istanbul’s very prestigious Institute for Islamic Studies in 1953.

Validov was the author of more than 400 scholarly works in Turkish and German on the history of the Turkic peoples. Despite his early exile, in Soviet Russia the term validovshchina (“Validovism”) was coined to denote the allegedly reactionary force of Bashkir nationalism in the Stalinist period, but since the collapse of the USSR, his name has been posthumously rehabilitated in his homeland, where he is now recognized as the father of the new Republic of Bashkortostan.

Vandam (Edrikhin), Aleksei Efimovich (17 March 1867–16 September 1933). Colonel (15 June 1915), major general (22 June 1917). One of the leading figures in the White movement in northwest Russia, A. E. Vandam was born into a military family in Moscow guberniia and was a graduate of the Vil′na Military School (1888) and the Academy of the General Staff (1899). In 1899, he traveled to South Africa, serving as a volunteer there, with the Boers, in their war with Britain. Then, from 1903 to 1906, he served as a military attaché in China, before returning to Russia to take up a number of postings as a staff officer. During this period he also wrote the first of his many works on geopolitics and military affairs. In the First World War, he commanded the 92nd Pechorsk Rifle Regiment (from 16 August 1915) and was chief of staff of the 23rd Infantry Division (from 14 November 1916) before transferring to the staff of the main commander in chief of the Russian Army, on 27 September 1917.

Vandam adopted a pro-German orientation in 1917–1918, remaining at Revel (Tallinn) when it was occupied by German forces, and agreed to take command of the Pskov Volunteer Corps when that anti-Bolshevik force was created (under German auspices) in October 1918. When Red forces occupied first Pskov and then Riga, in January–May 1919, he fled briefly to Germany, before returning to Narva in June 1919, where he was made chief of staff of the North-West Army. He remained in that post during the army’s October offensive against Petrograd, but was removed from it on 25 November 1919, on the orders of General N. N. Iudenich, as the latter attempted to transform the leadership of the army. Vandam then went into emigration, settling at Tallinn. He is buried there, in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

VARVATSI, VLADIMIR NIKOLAEVICH (27 June 1896–1 March 1922). Midshipman (May 1917). The Soviet naval commander V. N. (Kamenno-)Varvatsi is reported in Soviet sources as having been born into the family of a petty official at Onon stanitsa, in the territory of the Transbaikal Cossack Host (although his descendants dispute this). He joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in either 1918 or 1920 (again, sources differ). What is known is that Varvatsi was mobilized into the imperial navy in 1914 and was a graduate of the Moscow Naval Corps (1917). He subsequently served (May 1917–March 1918) with the Baltic Fleet, as a chief watchman on the battleship Gangut, before being placed at the head of a detachment of Baltic sailors opposing German forces at Narva (February–March 1918) during the Eleven-Days War. From June 1918, he assisted in the transfer of numerous vessels from the Baltic, through Lake Ladoga and the Mariinsk Canal System, to the Volga and the Eastern Front, and was then, successively, chief of staff (September–November 1918) and commander (11 November 1918–17 April 1919) of the Volga Military Flotilla. From 5 June 1919 to February 1920, he commanded the Northern Dvina River Flotilla; then, following the collapse of White forces in the north, commanded the White Sea Military Flotilla (from March 1920) and the Naval Forces of the Northern Ocean (from April 1920). Finally, from July 1921, Varvatsi commanded the Naval Forces of the Eastern Black Sea. He died in Moscow in March 1922; some sources have it that he was arrested and shot, others that he succumbed to tuberculosis.