Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In 1918, the Soviet authorities assigned Zin′kovskii to underground work in Ukraine, but in August of that year he joined the Makhnovists as, in succession, assistant commander of a regiment, assistant chief of the counterintelligence section of the army, chief of the intelligence staff of the 1st Donetsk Corps, and (during the operations against the Russian Army of P. N. Wrangel in 1920) commandant of the Crimean Group. On 28 August 1921, he escaped with Makhno into Romania, where he worked in a timber factory.

In June 1924, Zin′kovskii illegally crossed back into Soviet territory (possibly as a member of a Romanian-sponsored espionage mission) and voluntary surrendered himself to the OGPU. From December 1924, he then worked for the OGPU (and later the NKVD) of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in a variety of capacities, but chiefly in covert operations designed to monitor and entrap former Makhnovist émigrés and members of ROVS. He was frequently promoted and decorated for his successes in this field. Nevertheless, Zin′kovskii was arrested by the NKVD on 26 August 1937 and found guilty of espionage and terrorism. He was executed on 25 September 1938, and was posthumously rehabilitated in 1990.

ZINOV′EV, GEORGII VASIL′EVICH (20 November 1887–26 April 1934). Born in St. Petersburg, the Soviet military commander G. V. Zinov′ev was a graduate of the Sevastopol′ Military Aviation School (1917) and the Red Military Academy (1923). He served as a pilot with the Russian Army during the First World War, joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) in 1917, and after the October Revolution, was elected as chairman of the soldiers’ committee of the 3rd Siberian Rifle Corps on the Western Front. There, in early 1918 he helped suppress the Dowbor-Muśnicki uprising and, from February to April 1918, was head of the Smolensk garrison.

Zinov′ev was then transferred to the southern Urals, where from May 1918 to January 1919, he commanded Red Army forces raised in the Orenburg, Aktiubinsk, and Orsk regions in battles against the Cossack forces of Ataman A. I. Dutov and the Czechoslovak Legion, before being named commander of the Orenburg Rifle Division (February–March 1919). He then commanded the Turkestan Red Army (11 March–22 May 1919) and the 1st Red Army (25 May 1919–12 November 1920) in battles against the Russian Army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak, playing a key role in the defeat of the White Turkestan Army in the Southern Urals and Transcaspia and assisting in the capture of Orenburg, Orsk, Aktiubinsk, and Bukhara for the Reds. From November 1920 to March 1921, he was a member of the Revvoensovet of the Turkestan Front.

From 1923, Zinov′ev served in various posts in the administration and command of Soviet air forces, from 1928 was head of the Military Construction Section of the Red Army, and from May 1932 was head of the Military-Engineering Academy. He won the Order of the Red Banner twice and was the recipient of the ceremonial Gold Sword of the Turkestan Republic.