Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

VASILENKO, MATVEI IVANOVICH (1888–1 July 1937).Komkor (November 1935). The Red military commander M. I. Vasilenko was born into a Ukrainian peasant family, in the village of Podstavka, in Poltava guberniia, and was a graduate of the Tiflis Military School (1909) and an accelerated course with the Academy of the General Staff (1917).

After service in the First World War, Vasilenko initially joined the Whites during the “Russian” Civil Wars, but deserted to the Red Army in April 1919. In June 1919, he served as chief of staff of the Special Expeditionary Corps on the Southern Front, and from June to October 1919, was chief of staff of the 40th Rifle Division. He was then placed in command of the 11th Red Army (19 December 1919–26 March 1920), overseeing its successful battles against the remnants of the Armed Forces of South Russia around Tsaritsyn and across the North Caucasus. He was subsequently commander of the 9th Red Army (5 April–19 July 1920), then once more commanded the 11th Red Army (26 July–12 September 1920), then commanded the 14th Red Army (27 September–5 November 1920). In these latter commands, he played a leading role in the Reds’ invasion of the Democratic Republic of Armenia.

Following the civil wars, Vasilenko was commander of the 45th Rifle Division (1924–1929), and among later postings, was inspector of infantry of the Red Army (1931–1935) and then commander of forces of the Urals Military District (from 1935). He was arrested on 18 May 1937, and having been found guilty of membership in an anti-Soviet “terrorist organization” by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on 1 July 1937, was immediately executed. Vasilenko was buried in a mass grave in the Donskoi cemetery in Moscow. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 28 November 1956.

VASILEVSKII(-CHAIKOVSKII), GRIGORII SEMENOVICH (1889–January 1921). Born into a peasant family at Guliai-Pole, Ekaterinoslav guberniia, the noted Makhnovist G. S. Vasilevskii received his only education at a local village school. From 1910, having dodged military service, he lived as an illegal, surviving through robbery and other criminal acts, and becoming a proponent of anarchism. From March 1917, he was a member of the Guliai-Pole group of anarchist-communists—Black Guards subordinate to V. F. Belash—and helped organize communes among local peasants.

In April 1918, Vasilevskii’s group was forced to move to Tsaritsyn, as forces of the Austro-German intervention took over Ekaterinoslav guberniia, but he returned to Guliai-Pole in June 1918 and joined the detachments being organized there by Nestor Makhno. By the spring of 1919, he was a senior member of the counterintelligence section of the staff of Makhno’s Revolutionary-Insurgent Army of Ukraine and was involved in seeking out Bolshevik spies among the Makhnovists. In that capacity, Vasilevskii gained a fearsome reputation for the cruelty with which he dealt with captured Soviet officials and Red Army soldiers. In November 1920, he was elected again to the final revolutionary staff of the insurgents. Soon afterward, he was killed in battle.

VATSETIS, IOAKIM Ioakimovich.See Vācietis, JUKUMS (IOAKIM Ioakimovich).

Vcheka.See CHEKA.

VDOVENKO, GERASIM ANDREEVICH (4 March 1867–1945?).Esaul (8 September 1905), major general (18 January 1919), lieutenant general (13 March 1919). A prominent figure among the Terek Cossacks during the civil-war period, G. A. Vdovenko was educated at the Vladikavkaz Realschule and was a graduate of Stavropol′ Cossack School (1888). He participated in the Russo–Japanese War, with the 1st Kizliaro-Grebensk Regiment of the Terek Cossack Host, and during the First World War, he commanded the Host’s 3rd Volga Regiment (from 31 March 1916) and the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Kuban Cossack Division (from 22 February 1917).