Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The unit was originally termed the Independent Zaporozhian Detachment. This was formed on 9 February 1918, from a number of smaller groupings, consisting of two infantry battalions, a cavalry battalion, an artillery company, and various support units, and was commanded by General K. A. Prisovskii. In March–April 1918, once the Red Army had been driven out of Kiev, it expanded into a brigade and a separate division, jointly commanded by General Oleksandr Natiiv. With the assistance of the forces of the Austro-German intervention, this force helped clear left-bank Ukraine, the Don basin, and Crimea of Red forces and then, from June to November 1918, acted as a defensive screen on the Ukrainian–Soviet border. In November–December 1918, when the forces of the Ukrainian National Republic revolted against the Ukrainian State of Hetman P. P. Skoropadskii, the Zaporozhians supported the former. The force was then reorganized into a corps of two divisions under General Petro Bolbochan. Following a period of intense fighting against the Red Army, the corps became isolated from the rest of the Ukrainian Army and undertook a forced march through Romanian territory to reach Galicia and Volhynia. At that time the corps was briefly commanded by Omelian Volokh and Captain Volodymyr Salsky and then by General Mykhailo Omel′ianovych-Pavlenko. Under the latter, it participated in the first of the Ukrainian Army’s Winter Campaigns (6 December 1919–6 May 1920), following which, much debilitated, it was redesignated as the 1st Zaporozhian Rifle Division, commanded by General Andrii Huly-Hulenko and then by General H. Bazylevski. The division then participated with other Ukrainian units on the Polish side during the Soviet–Polish War until, following the Soviet–Polish armistice of 18 October 1920, Red forces drove it across the Zbruch River onto Polish territory on 21 November 1920. There the men were disarmed and interned.

ZARUBAEV, SERGEI VALERIANOVICH (22 August 1877–21 October 1921). Midshipman (1896), lieutenant (1 January 1901), rear admiral (January 1917). The tsarist naval commander S. V. Zarubaev, who served with the Red Fleet during the civil wars, was born into a military family (his father was Lieutenant General V. P. Zarubaev) and was a graduate of the Naval Cadet Corps (1896). After serving in foreign missions around the Mediterranean on the cruiser Gertsog Edinburgskii (1898–1900), he joined the crew of the cruiser Variag as a senior artilleryman and saw action in the Russo–Japanese War, notably during the Battle of Chemulpo (Inchon). He was subsequently transferred to the Baltic Fleet, becoming a senior officer on the cruiser Bogatyr and (in 1914) commander of a minelayer. In 1915, he was made commander of the ship of the line Poltava.

Zarubaev remained in his post following the October Revolution and, in early 1918, assisted A. M. Shchastnyi in organizing the Ice March of the Baltic Fleet, to prevent invading German forces from capturing Russian vessels. When Shchastnyi was arrested and executed, Zarubaev succeeded him as commander of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Fleet (27 May 1918–18 January 1919) but, never having gained the trust of the Soviet authorities, was soon removed from his post and placed on the reserve list. The following year, he was executed, having been implicated by the Cheka in the trial of members of the Petrograd Military Organization of Professor V. N. Tagantsev. Zarubaev was posthumously rehabilitated on 30 September 1991.

Zatonskii, Volodymyr petrovich (27 July 1888–29 July 1938). Born in Podolia guberniia, the Soviet politician and military organizer V. P. Zatonskii was the son of a district clerk. After graduating from Kiev University (1912), he taught physics at the Kiev Polytechnical Institute. He joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in 1905 and was initially supportive of the Mensheviks, joining the Bolsheviks only in March 1917.