Georgii Zinovev

Zinov’ev, Georgii Vasil’evich 

Born Nov. 20 (Dec. 2), 1887, in St. Petersburg; died Apr. 26, 1934, in Moscow. Soviet military figure. Member of the CPSU from 1917.

The son of a military official, Zinov’ev served in World War I (1914–18) as a pilot and senior noncommissioned officer, and he graduated from the Sevastopol’ Pilots’ School in 1917. He was elected chairman of the soldiers’ committee of the Siberian III Corps on the Western Front. He fought in battles against Dowbor-Muśnicki’s corps and the German interventionists, and he commanded the Orenburg, Aktiubinsk, and Orsk-Aktiubinsk sectors of the front against Dutov’s troops and the White Czechs from May 1918 to January 1919. He was commander of the Turkestan Army and of the shock troops of the Southern Group of the Eastern Front from March to June 1919 and commander of the First Army from June 1919 to November 1920. After the Civil War, Zinov’ev commanded the Fergana Group of troops. He held various command positions after 1923, and he was appointed chief of the Military Engineering Academy in 1932. Zinov’ev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.