Alexander Kalashnikov

Alexander Kalashnikov (1890s – 1920) was a Ukrainian anarchist and a commander of the 1st Donetsk Corps of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.

Alexander Kalashnikov
Native name	Олександр Калашников
Born	1890s Baku,  Russian Empire
Died	Barvinkove, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Allegiance	Free Territory
Service	Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine
Years of service	1918-1920
Unit	1st Donetsk Corps
Battles/wars	Ukrainian War of Independence

Biography

Alexander was born at the end of the nineteenth century in the city of Baku. He lived in Gulyaypole, where he was the secretary of the "Union of Poor Farmers" in 1917–1918. In 1917, with a group of anarchists, Kalashnikov organized an agricultural commune on the Klassen estate.[1]

In February 1919, Kalashnikov was elected the commander of the 7th Regiment.[2] On March 15, the 7th Regiment occupied Berdyansk.[3] In Berdyansk, Kalashnikov was instructed to arrest and prosecute everyone who collaborated with the White Guards. At the end of March, Alexander, together with his regiment, went to Mariupol.[4] At the beginning of June, there were already 7,000 Makhnovists in the Kalashnikov regiment.[5] In August, the commissar of the combat unit, Kochergin, ordered the arrest of Kalashnikov. On August 19, the Makhnovists rebelled against the Reds in Novyi Buh and captured Kochergin's headquarters, they wanted to shoot him and his wife, but Alexander stood up for them and spared their lives.[6] On August 30, at the Pomoshnoy station, Alexander fought two armored trains with several echelons of Red Army soldiers who were retreating from Odessa.[7]

On September 1, a meeting of rebels took place in Dobrovelychkivka, where the restructuring of the army and further actions of the Makhnovists were discussed. Alexander was elected commander of the newly created 1st Donetsk Corps.[8] The head of the RIAU set the task for Kalashnikov to occupy Yekaterinoslav, but he did not complete the task, instead he moved to Krivoy Rog and occupied it. The Kherson group was allocated to Camelyuzhki, which was supposed to turn it toward Yekaterinoslav.[9] On October 1, a commission was created to investigate the reasons for the non-execution of the order by the Kalashnikovs, on the same day it was disbanded, and Viktor Belash limited himself to issuing a severe reprimand in the order.[10] In mid-October, the command was still expecting that Kalashnikov would go to Yekaterinoslav, but this did not happen. On October 10, he arrived in Zaporozhye where he explained his actions:

“Why did you take the cavalry away from me, you snatched away the shunting detachments (Kazansky, Vaschenko, Uralov) - with what could I go to Yekaterinoslav?”[11]

In November, Kalashnikov was appointed head of the defense of Zaporozhye.[12] On May 29, 1920, the Makhnovists occupied Aleksandrovka, in which they elected a new composition of the Revolutionary Military Council. Kalashnikov was elected head of the operational department of the SRPU.[13] By the beginning of active hostilities between RIAU units with red units, the SRPU was at the head of all the rebel detachments, which Alexander had been part of since summer.

At the end of June 1920, he died in Barvinkove.[1]

References

1. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 25.
2. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 104.
3. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 122.
4. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 129.
5. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 298.
6. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 328.
7. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 337.
8. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 339.
9. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 349.
10. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 351.
11. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 355.
12. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 372.
13. Belash & Belash 1993, p. 446.

Bibliography

• Belash, Alexander; Belash, Victor (1993). Дороги Нестора Махно (in Russian).
• Makhno, Nestor (2006). V. Danilov and T. Shanin (ed.). "Крестьянское движение на Украине. 1918—1921: Документы и материалы". Крестьянская революция в России. 1902—1922 гг.: Документы и материалы (in Russian). Moscow: "Russian political encyclopedia" (ROSSPEN): 1000. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)