PHOTO: Colonel E.M. Kazakevich in the ceremonial uniform of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. 1912-1914

On this day – 5th February 1931 – Evgeny Mikhailovich Kazakevich (1869-1931), a major general in the Imperial Russian Army and hero of World War I, was executed by the Soviets.

He was born on 8th May (O.S. 26th April) 1869, into a noble family in the St. Petersburg district. In 1889, he graducated from the Corps des Pages, and from there, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment.

Following the October 1917 Revolution Evgeny Kazakevich remained in Russia. In the summer of 1918, he became a member of an anti-Bolshevik organization in Petrograd. He was actively involved in raising funds for the Imperial Family, who were being held under house arrest in Ekaterinburg. He was arrested in the early 1920s, and spent several years in the notorious Butyrskaya Prison in Moscow. He was shot by a firing squad in 1931.

According to his cellmate K. N. Golitsyn”… Evgeny Mikhailovich possessed a kind soul, and as an officer of the Preobrazhensky Regiment he held firm views on his duty as a soldier, served faithfully and did not shy away from any military labour. He fought during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, and the First World War in 1914-1917.

“Evgeny Mikhailovich was a devoted monarchist, who held conservative beliefs, he was devoted to the old system with all his heart. He revered the memory of the last Russian autocrat Nicholas II and, speaking of him, referred to him only as “Sovereign.” In a word, he was a devoted faithful servant to the throne, who accepted the monarchical system without criticism and “for Faith, Tsar and Fatherland.”

“He was certainly a decent man, absolutely honest and loyal to duty, which he never shied from. His frankness and straightforwardness of his judgments apparently played a decisive role in his tragic fate. After his release from Butyrskaya Prison, I learned that he had been arrested again and shot.”

In 1931, officers of the Red Army launched “Operation Spring” the purging of former officers who had served previously in the Russian Imperial Army, former White officers, as well as civilians. More than 3,000 officers and civilians were executed, including Kazakevich who had served as an officer of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment.

On 5th February, he was sentenced by the Higher Military Command and executed on the same day by a Soviet firing squad.

Memory Eternal! Вечная Память!

© Paul Gilbert. 5 February 2024