Dybenko P.E. (1889-1939), revolutionary, statesman

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DYBENKO Pavel Efimovich (1889-1938), Soviet military officer and party figure. Army commander of the second rank (1935). In 1911 he was conscripted into the Baltic Fleet. Was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Revolutionary Party, a bolshevik - from 1912. In December 1912 assigned to Emperor Pavel I battleship. In 1915 was one of the initiators of an anti-war uprising on Petropavlovsk battleship. In May through June and in October 1917, Dybenko was chairman of Centrobalt. Residing in Helsingfors, regularly travelled to Petrograd; for participating in July Troubles of 1917 Dybenko was arrested and till 5 September 1917 kept in Kresty Prison. From 16 October 1917 Dybenko was member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. During the October events he was in charge of dispatching revolutionary detachments from Helsingfors and Kronstadt to Petrograd. On 28 October 1917 arrived in the capital for the organisation of repulsion of the offensive of Kerensky and Krasnov troops, commanded the revolutionary detachments in the area of Pulkovo heights, personally arrested General P.N. Krasnov in Gatchina and conveyed him to Smolny. In October 1917 - March 1918 Dybenko was member of the Soviet of Peoples" Commissars as a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs. In November 1917 - January 1918 he headed the Supreme Naval Collegium; provided for the security of Smolny (resided there from 1917-18). In December 1917 entered the Extraordinary Staff on public order provision in Petrograd. Was elected a deputy of the Constituent Assembly for the Baltic Fleet; annulled the session. From 30 January 1918, chairman of the Collegium of the Peoples" Commissariat on Naval Affairs. During the German offensive in March 1918 surrounded Narva, was expelled from the Russian Communist (Bolshevik) Party, (reinstated in 1922), ousted from the post of Peoples" Commissar, prosecuted by the Revolutionary Tribunal, however subsequently acquitted. Participant of the Civil War of 1918-22. In March 1921 commanded the Combined Division in suppressing the Kronstadt insurrection, afterwards acted as the commandant of Kronstadt. Received an external degree at the General Staff Military Academy, thereafter held higher command positions in the Red Army Revolutionary Committee. From May 1937 through January 1938 served as Commander-in-Chief of Leningrad Military District. Lived at 29/37 Kronverkskaya Street. From February 1938, served as Deputy Peoples" Commissar of the Timber Industry. Executed by shooting on fabricated charges. A new Street in Nevsky District (1970) and the bridge over the Okkervil River (1970s) were named after Dybenko.

Works: Rebels: Reminiscences from the Revolution. Moscow, 1923; From the Bosom of the Tsarist Fleet to Great October. Moscow, 1958; Revolutionary Sailors of Baltic Fleet. Moscow, 1959.

References: Архипенко В. Павел Ефимович Дыбенко // Агитатор. 1989. № 4. С. 40-43; Шишов А. Неизвестный нарком // Воен. вестн. 1990. № 6. С. 91-94.

V. E. Bagdasarian. Dybenko Pavel Efimovich
Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich
Krasnov Peter Nikolaevich
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Dybenko Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Kronverkskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 23/59
Baltic Fleet
Kresty Prison.
Smolny Institute
Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921
General Staff Academy