The era of revolutions and civil war gave rise to many Soviet heroes. One of them was Grigory Kotovsky. The biography of this man is full of sharp turns: he was a criminal, front-line soldier and revolutionary.
Childhood
On June 24, 1881, Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich was born in a small Moldavian village called Ganchesti. A brief biography of this revolutionary cannot do without mentioning his origin. Although Kotovsky was born in a Moldavian village, he was Russian (his father was a Russified Pole, and his mother was a born Russian). The child lost his parents early and at 16 was left an orphan.
The young man was taken up by his godfather. This man was rich and influential. He helped Kotovsky get an education by sending him to study at the Kokorozensky school as an agronomist. The guardian also paid all expenses for accommodation and training.
In the criminal world
At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. the revolutionary Russian movement was experiencing its next rise. Gregory Kotovsky could not get into it. The biography of his youth is full of episodes of meetings and collaboration with the Social Revolutionaries. It was they who instilled in Kotovsky a love of adventure. Among the revolutionaries, the young man decided to abandon the philistine life.
At the same time, he was not a socialist fanatic. Rather, he can be described as a very pragmatic person, not burdened with principles. After graduation, Kotovsky worked as a surveyor for some time in the Moldavian and Ukrainian provinces. However, the novice specialist did not stay long anywhere. His dreams had nothing to do with thoughts of a brilliant career.
Since 1900, Grigory Kotovsky was regularly arrested for petty criminal offenses. The biography of this man became more and more famous in the criminal world of Russia. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Kotovsky was to go to the front by age and state of health. However, at first he took refuge from the military registration and enlistment office, and when, finally, he was captured and sent to the Kostroma infantry regiment, he safely deserted from there.
Famous raider
Thus began the life of Kotovsky, the hijacker. He gathered a real gang around him and was engaged in robberies for several years. Just at that time, the first revolution was blazing in the country. Anarchy and the weakness of state power were only in the hands of criminals, among whom was Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich. A brief biography of the criminal was full of episodes of arrests and exile to Siberia. Each time he fled from penal servitude and returned to Odessa or its surrounding provinces.
A similar biography of Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich is not surprising. Despite the fact that criminals and revolutionaries denigrated the tsarist regime and called it “executioner,” the prison system of the empire was extremely philanthropic. Exiles and convicts easily escaped from places of detention. Many, like Kotovsky, were arrested several times, and still ended up free ahead of schedule.
The last arrest of Kotovsky in tsarist Russia occurred in 1916. He was sentenced to death for robberies and armed raids on banks. The biography of Kotovsky, Grigory Ivanovich, shows the reader an example of a person who calmly came out dry every time. But now his life was in the balance. The hijacker began to write penitential letters to the authorities.
At this time, the First World War was already underway. At the place of arrest of Kotovsky was judged by the Odessa Tribunal. According to military law, he obeyed the commander of the nearby front, the famous General Brusilov. It was Alexey Alekseevich who was supposed to sign the death sentence.
Kotovsky was not in vain known for his ability to get out of trouble. With the help of tearful letters he persuaded Brusilov's wife to put pressure on her husband. The general, obeying his spouse, temporarily postponed the execution of the sentence.
At the front
Meanwhile, 1917 had already come, and with it the February Revolution. The Provisional Government embarked on a massive amnesty for the “victims of the regime” of the tsarist era. Even some ministers, including Guchkov, advocated the release of Kotovsky. When Prime Minister Kerensky personally signed a decree on the amnesty of the famous raider, he had been arranging revelry in Odessa for several days.
This city was close to the front. Finally, after many years of fleeing the military registration and enlistment offices, Grigory Kotovsky also appeared on it. The biography of the former criminal was replenished with regular shootings - this time with the Germans and Austrians. For courage at the front, Kotovsky was promoted to ensign and received the St. George Cross. In the war, he again became close to the Socialist Revolutionaries and became a soldier’s deputy.
During the years of the civil war
But not for long in the army was Grigory Kotovsky. A brief biography of this man in the Soviet era was best known precisely as a model of revolutionary courage. When a Bolshevik revolution took place in Petrograd in October 1917, the ensign was at the epicenter of the civil war. Kotovsky was a Social Revolutionary, but at first they were considered allies of the new government.
First, a former raider fought in a detachment that belonged to the Odessa Soviet Republic. This "state" lasted a few months, as it was soon captured by the Romanian troops. Kotovsky fled to Russia for a short while, but a year later he again ended up in Odessa. This time he was here in an illegal situation, as the city passed into the hands of the Ukrainian government, hostile to Soviet power in Moscow.
Kotovsky later led the horse group. He fought against the armies of Denikin in the south and Yudenich in the north. At the final stage of the civil war, the former robber suppressed peasant and Ukrainian uprisings already on the territory completely owned by the Soviet government.
Death
Over the years of service, Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich met many of the top Bolshevik leaders. Photos of the revolutionary often fell into the communist newspapers. Despite the vague past, he became a hero. Mikhail Frunze (Commissar for Military Affairs) proposed making him his deputy.
However, at that time, Kotovsky did not have long to live. He was shot dead while resting on the Black Sea coast on August 6, 1925. The killer turned out to be a member of the criminal world of Odessa, Meyer Seider.
At the funeral of Kotovsky there were heroes of the civil war and future marshals of the Soviet Union Budyonny and Egorov. The deceased was made a mausoleum in the likeness of Lenin (the leader of the world proletariat died a year before). Kotovsky became a famous character in folklore. In Soviet times, streets, settlements, etc., were often called his name.