Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In June 1927, Voikov was assassinated in Warsaw by Boris Koverda, the son of a White émigré. He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, and his name was given to numerous streets, squares, institutions, factories, and public buildings across the USSR, including (in 1964) the Voikovskaia metro station in northern Moscow. Members of the Russian Orthodox Church have recently petitioned the Russian government (to date, unsuccessfully) to have the name of this “regicide and infanticide” expunged from the map. Meanwhile, extreme right-wing groups in contemporary Russia have sought to establish that Voikov was really a Jew named Lazar or Lazarevich Pinkus.

Voitsekhovskii, Sergei Nikolaevich (16 October 1883–7 April 1951). Colonel (16 August 1916), colonel (Czechoslovak Legion, 11 June 1918), major general (Czechoslovak Legion, 17 October 1918), lieutenant general (March 1920), general (Czechoslovak Army, 1927). Born in Vitebsk guberniia, into a military family, S. N. Voitsekhovskii was one of the most outstanding commanders of both White Russian and Czechoslovak forces in the civil wars. He was a graduate of the Constantine Artillery School (1904) and, with great distinction, the Academy of the General Staff (1912), as well as completing a course at an aviation school (1912). During the First World War, he served on the staff of the 69th Infantry Division (August 1914–November 1915) and the 20th Army Corps (November 1915–January 1917), before becoming chief of staff of the 176th Infantry Division (29 January–26 June 1917) and then the 126th Infantry Division (June–August 1917).

In August 1917, Voitsekhovskii was transferred to the Czechoslovak Corps (subsequently the Czechoslovak Legion), becoming chief of staff of its 1st Division (August 1917–February 1918) and then commander of the 3rd (Jan Žižki) Regiment (from February 1918). Following the revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion in late May 1918, along with Radola Gajda and Stanislav čeček, Voitsekhovskii entered a military collegium that assumed command over all Czechoslovak forces in Russia. He also commanded the Cheliabinsk and then (from 17 October 1918) the Samara groups of the legion’s forces (May 1918–January 1919). He then left the legion, and after a brief furlough, joined Admiral A. V. Kolchak’s Russian Army, as commander of the 2nd Ufa Army Corps of the Western Army (17 March–25 July 1919), in that capacity playing a significant part in its advance toward the Volga during Kolchak’s spring offensive of 1919. Following the reformation of Kolchak’s forces, Voitsekhovskii served as commander of the Ufa Group of Forces of the 2nd Army (29 August–1 October 1919) of the Whites’ Eastern Front and commander of the 2nd Army (1 September 1919–25 January 1920). During the Great Siberian (Ice) March, he then commanded the Moscow Army Group of Kolchak’s forces (25 January–25 April 1920), becoming, in effect, commander of the remnants of all White forces in Siberia following the death of General V. O. Kappel′ (26 January 1920). However, when the Moscow Group reached Chita and was incorporated into the Far Eastern (White) Army of Ataman G. M. Semenov, the latter gave command of the new force to General N. A. Lokhvitskii (27 April 1920), who in the eyes of the ataman was less tainted by association with the democratically minded Czechs than was Voitsekhovskii. Consequently, Voitsekhovskii soon left Transbaikalia to rejoin the Czechoslovak forces in Vladivostok, arriving there in May 1920.