Mikhail Lashevich

Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich (Russian: Михаил Михайлович Лашевич; 1884 in Odessa, Russian Empire – 30 August 1928 in Harbin, China), also known under the name Gaskovich,[1] was a Soviet military and party leader.

Attending the 8th Party Congress, March 1919

He was born to a Jewish family in Odessa.[2] Lashevich joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1901 and after the split of 1903 adhered with the Bolshevik faction.[3] He was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War and was twice wounded. After the February Revolution of 1917, he went to St. Petersburg, where he opposed the decision of Lenin to launch the Bolshevik revolution.

After the October Revolution, however, he held various higher military, party and governmental posts.[3] As a senior Red Army commander he took part in the defeat of Yudenich, Denikin and Kolchak. He was appointed with Kliment Voroshilov to the Revolutionary Military Council in 1923, and the same year was elected to the Party's Central Committee. Lashevich was Deputy Commissar for War in 1925-26.

Once Joseph Stalin started to rise to power, Lashevich sided with Leon Trotsky. As a result, he was removed from central posts and sent to Harbin to serve as acting manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway on 14 April 1926.[4] In 1927, at the 15th Congress of the VKP(b), he was expelled from the Party, together with other Trotskyists. In 1928, after he recanted his opposition, his party membership was restored.[3]

In August 1928, he was reported to have been arrested by Chinese authorities in connection with the Barga uprising at Hulunbuir, which was led by the Inner Mongolian politician Merse.[5]

Lashevich committed suicide on 30 August 1928, and his wife and mother were killed in the Great Purge a decade later. He is remembered by a plaque at the Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution on the Field of Mars in St Petersburg.

References
  1. "Jewish Encyclopedia of Russia (Rossiyskaya Evreiskaya Entsiclopediya)". 1st edition. 1995.
  2. The Bolsheviks and the Russian Empire, Liliana Riga pp.60 and 304
  3. "Lashevich Mikhail Mikhailovich" (in Russian)
  4. worldstatesmen.org, page "Former Foreign Colonies and Concessions in China," accessed 25 February 2019
  5. "Says revolt by Mongols is crushed: government of Manchuria issues statement", The Border Cities Star, 1928-08-20, retrieved 2011-08-05
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