At the height of the Civil War, the Soviet leadership came to the conclusion about the desirability of forming "national" units as part of the Red Army. So the Red Army appeared its own Cossacks and chieftains. On December 28, 1917, the 1st kuren of the Chervonny Cossacks was created, which became the first national unit in the Red Army. The very formation of the Chervonny Cossacks marked the creation of the Soviet armed forces in the national regions of the former Russian Empire.
The background to the appearance of the first national military unit is as follows. On December 11-12 (24-25), 1917, the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was held in Kharkov, at which the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets of Workers, Peasants, Soldiers and Cossack Deputies (UNRS) was proclaimed. It immediately became the center of attraction for Soviet forces in Ukraine, an alternative to the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed in Kiev by nationalists.
On December 17 (30), 1917, the Provisional Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Ukraine was created as the authority of the UNRS, and the People's Secretariat became the executive body of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which included the People's Secretariat for Military Affairs headed by the Ukrainian communist Vasily Shakhrai. On December 18 (31), 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee was formed to fight counter-revolution, which from December 25, 1917 (January 7, 1918) had to deal with the formation of parts of the Red Cossacks.
On the night of December 27, violent events unfolded in Kharkov. Revolutionary soldiers and Red Guards disarmed the 2nd Ukrainian Reserve Regiment of the UPR stationed in the city. At the same time, the soldiers of the regiment, who sympathized with the Bolsheviks, went over to their side. On December 28, 1917 (January 10, 1918), the formation of the 1st kuren (regiment) of the Chervonny Cossacks began, which included Red Guards from Kharkov detachments, soldiers of the old Russian army and fighters of the 2nd Ukrainian reserve regiment of the UNR who went over to the side of the Soviets, or rather its two mouth - 9th and 11th. The political core of the new armed formation was made up of proven Bolsheviks.
Vitaly Markovich Primakov (1897-1937) played a key role in the creation of the 1st kuren, as well as of the Chervonny Cossacks as a whole. Despite the fact that at the time of the events described he was only twenty years old, Vitaly Primakov had years of underground revolutionary struggle behind him. The son of a Little Russian village teacher, Vitaly Primakov joined the revolutionary movement in 1914 as a high school student. Already on February 14, 1915, Primakov was convicted of possession of weapons and distribution of leaflets to a life-long settlement in Siberia. But in distant Aban he did not have much time - two years after the verdict, the February Revolution freed political prisoners. Vitaly Primakov reached Kiev, where he became a member of the local Bolshevik committee, and then was elected a delegate to the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets from his native Chernigov province.
When the October Revolution began in Petrograd, Primakov commanded one of the Red Guard detachments that stormed the Winter Palace. Yesterday's high school student and political prisoner quickly became one of the prominent Red commanders. Immediately after the revolution, he went to Gatchina to fight the troops of Peter Krasnov, and then left for Ukraine. As an ideological person and an experienced commander, Primakov was entrusted with the creation of the first Ukrainian military unit of the Chervonny Cossacks. Kuren was originally created as an infantry regiment, but then it was transformed into a cavalry unit. Since the unit was officially considered a Cossack, Vitaly Primakov was referred to as the ataman of the 1st kuren of the Chervonny Cossacks.
On January 4 (17), 1918, Primakov's kuren, as part of a group of troops under the command of Pavel Yegorov, set out towards Poltava. At the same time, the Cossacks of Hearts received their first baptism of fire, having entered the battle near Poltava. Then a cavalry division from the kuren, which was personally commanded by Primakov, moved to Kiev. In Kiev, the number of the regiment increased noticeably, and not only Cossacks, but also representatives of various nationalities were enrolled in it. Therefore, it was decided to rename the regiment to the 1st Workers 'and Peasants' Socialist Regiment of the Red Army, but the Soviet leadership opposed the new appearance of the regiment. In that situation, it was necessary to create national units as an alternative to Ukrainian nationalist formations.
Meanwhile, on January 27 (February 9), 1918, the Central Rada signed a separate treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Soon the Brest-Litovsk Peace was concluded, according to the terms of which Soviet Russia was to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine. So parts of the chervonny Cossacks, including the kuren, began their journey beyond the borders of Little Russia. The detachment under the command of Primakov retreated to the territory of Soviet Russia, where it participated in the battles near Novocherkassk, and then in ensuring the evacuation of the People's Secretariat of the UNRS from Taganrog to Moscow. Then the kuren was stationed in the Chernigov region and near Novgorod-Seversky, where the neutral zone between Soviet Russia and Ukraine passed.
On September 22, 1918, the All-Ukrainian Central Military Revolutionary Committee decided to form two Ukrainian insurgent divisions of four quarters in the border neutral zone. The 1st Ukrainian Insurgent Division included 3 infantry kurens and 1 equestrian kuren under the command of Vitaly Primakov.
What was the first national military unit at this time? Firstly, if we talk about the number, then the regiment of Primakov's kuren could be called quite conditionally. The kuren consisted of one horse and one foot Cossack hundreds, a machine-gun team, an artillery battery with two three-inch cannons, and a small detachment of scooters (cyclists). Then the foot hundred from the kuren were withdrawn and included in the 1st Insurgent Bogunsky regiment. In turn, several small cavalry units were included in the kuren, after which the regiment was transformed into the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the Red Cossacks of the 1st Insurgent Division.
As a result, four hundreds of cavalry were formed as part of the cavalry regiment. In the first and second hundred, Cossacks and Little Russians served, the third hundred were manned by Hungarian and German soldiers - deserters and former prisoners of war of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, and the fourth hundred was the most exotic - it was served by Kurds who had fought as part of the Turkish army and who fell during the First World War in Russian captivity. Thus, the regiment was half international in composition, which did not prevent it from being considered as a Cossack Ukrainian unit.
November 1918 was marked by new perturbations for the regiment. The regiment was transferred to the 2nd Insurgent Division of the Ukrainian Soviet Army, after which it began to take an active part in hostilities against the UPR army. By the spring of 1919, the regiment's personnel had been replenished by a new influx of Little Russian volunteers, recruits transferred from the Moscow region, as well as Magyar internationalists from among the former Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war.
Taking into account the growth in the number of the regiment, on July 18, 1918, the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the Red Cossacks was transformed into the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Red Cossacks. The brigade now had two regiments. In November 1919, the 8th Cavalry Division of the Red Cossacks was deployed on the basis of the brigade.
All this time, Vitaly Primakov remained the permanent commander of the first regiment, and then the cavalry brigade, and the 8th cavalry division of the Red Cossacks. Semyon Abramovich Turovsky (1895-1937) was Primakov's closest associate and chief of staff of the brigade, and then the division. Like Primakov, Turovsky was a young man 24 years old. Jewish by birth, a native of the family of a major Chernigov merchant, Semyon Turovsky from childhood, like his brother, embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle. Semyon's brother died in 1905 - he, the commander of a military squad, was killed by the Black Hundreds.
Semyon himself was arrested in 1914 for posting anti-war leaflets. For two years he was exiled to Vyatka, and then drafted into the army. Semyon Turovsky served as a non-commissioned officer in the pontoon battalion. After the revolution, he joined the Red Guard in Kiev, and then ended up in the formations of the Red Cossacks. As an experienced revolutionary, a former political prisoner and, moreover, a non-commissioned officer with experience in military service, Turovsky was immediately appointed deputy commander of the 1st regiment of the Chervony Cossacks. Then, as the regiment was transformed into a brigade and a division, he successively held the posts of chief of staff of a brigade and chief of staff of a division. In the absence of Primakov, who was absent for command and party affairs, Turovsky also assumed the duties of the commander of a regiment, brigade, and division.
The 8th Cavalry Division of the Red Cossacks played a very important role in the Civil War in Ukraine. First of all, given its high maneuverability, it solved the tasks of conducting raids deep behind enemy lines, disorganizing the command system and supplying enemy troops. The Red Cossacks had to fight against both the Petliurites and the Denikinites, and then, when Soviet Russia's relations with Batka Makhno deteriorated, then with the Makhnovists. On October 26, 1920, the 1st Cavalry Corps of the Red Cossacks was created as part of the Southwestern Front, which included the 8th and 17th cavalry divisions.
The commander of the 8th division, Vitaly Primakov, was appointed corps commander. It should be noted that in this post, without a military education, Vitaly Primakov proved himself to be an excellent commander. The corps under the command of Primakov took part in a number of military operations. The Chervonny Cossacks took part in the defeat of Simon Petliura and his formations, in the Soviet-Polish war, in the defeat of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Nestor Makhno and the detachments of Ataman Paliy. In December 1920, the 9th Cavalry Division was also included in the corps, which turned the corps into a powerful formation with three divisions in its composition.
After the end of the Civil War, the corps was not disbanded and continued to exist. However, the corps commander Vitaly Primakov was sent to study in Moscow, to the military-academic courses of the highest command personnel of the Red Army. Then in 1924-1925. Primakov headed the Higher Cavalry School in Leningrad, was a military adviser to the 1st National Army in China, and commanded the 1st Rifle Corps in the Leningrad Military District.
Another interesting page in the life of the famous corps commander is his work as a military attaché in Afghanistan and participation in a special operation of the Red Army on the territory of this country. Primakov acted under the pseudonym "Ragib Bey", in Afghan clothes, for which he was even nicknamed "Red Lawrence" in the West (Lawrence of Arabia is a famous British intelligence officer who worked in the Middle East).
Primakov left several interesting books in which he talked about the countries where he managed to visit and carry out important missions of the Soviet government. Since May 1936, corps commander Vitaly Primakov served as deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District. However, the further military career of the illustrious Civilian commander stalled. First, he allowed himself too much and could openly criticize the Soviet military leadership, including Kliment Voroshilov. Secondly, Primakov supported Leon Trotsky in the mid-1920s, and although he later denied belonging to the Trotskyists, the Kremlin remembered this episode in the life of the corps commander.
On August 14, 1936, Primakov was arrested on charges of participating in the army's "military Trotskyist organization", in 1937 he pleaded guilty to participation in the anti-Soviet Trotskyist military-fascist conspiracy. Vitaly Primakov, together with Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Iona Yakir, Ieronim Uborevich, was sentenced to death and executed on June 12, 1937. The closest associate of Primakov in the regiment, brigade and division of the Red Cossacks did not escape a similar fate, Corps Commander Semyon Turovsky. He, who held the post of deputy commander of the troops of the Kharkov military district before his arrest, was shot on July 1, 1937.
As for the cavalry corps, it existed under its original name until 1938, when it was transformed into the 4th cavalry corps of the Red Army.
