«Хочу умереть в рядах Добрармии в бою с ненавистными мне большевиками»: судьба красного командарма Владимира Крузе

Quaestio Rossica. 2026. Т. 14. № 2. С. 683–702.

Ганин А. В., Пыльцын Ю. С.

This article is based on scattered data identified in archives. It is the first to reconstruct the biography of the little-known Red Army commander of the Civil War period, former officer of the old army Vladimir Mikhailovich Kruse. It traces his trajectory from junior officer in the imperial army to military specialist in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, as well as the dramatic circumstances of his death. No longer in command of an army, he fell into White captivity in the summer of 1919, attempting to present his capture as a voluntary defection to their side and to enter service with the Armed Forces of South Russia. However, his efforts were unsuccessful: by the verdict of a field-martial court confirmed by the commander of the White Caucasian Army General P. N. Wrangel, he was executed. Of particular interest is the fact that in Soviet Russia and in the USSR, Kruse’s daughter received a republican-level personal pension for her deceased father as for a devoted communist who had perished. This example demonstrates that an officer’s choice in the conditions of the Civil War could be subject to chance, pragmatic considerations, or simply a consequence of attempting to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Revisiting Kruse’s life path and the context of his death helps refine biographical information on one of the representatives of the senior command cadre of the RKKA, as well as to shed light on the personnel policies of both sides, the Reds and the Whites. In addition, the article examines the socio-political aspects of the conflict and the issues of personal pension provision for veterans of the Civil War and their families.

Keywords: Гражданская война, white terror, Civil War, officer corps, офицерский корпус, военные специалисты, military specialists, V.M. Kruse, белый террор, В.М. Крузе

Publication based on the results of: War and Post-War Peace in the Russian Empire and the USSR (2025)