Konstantin Alekseevich Avksentevskii

Born Sept. 18 (30), 1890, in Staryi Kunozh, in the district of Vologda; died Nov. 2, 1941. Soviet military figure. Member of the CPSU from October 1917.

The son of a volost (small rural district) clerk, he became a teacher. He began service in the army in 1914, graduated from the Vladimir School of Infantry in 1916, fought in World War I, and attained the rank of second lieutenant. He subsequently took part in the establishment of Soviet power in the districts of Tver and Vologda. In 1918 he was military commissar of the district of Vologda and then commissar of the laroslav military district.

Beginning in April 1919, he served at the Civil War front in the following positions: commander of the Fourth Army, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the southern force on the eastern front, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Army, and deputy commander of the Turkestan front, where he was a close comrade-inarms of M. V. Frunze. In 1920 he was commander-in-chief of the forces of the Trans-Volga military district and the Second Workers’ Army; from August through October he commanded the Sixth Army and then was aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief on the southern front. In 1921 and 1922 he was deputy commander of the forces in the Ukraine and the Crimea, and from July through August 1922 he was commander-in-chief and war minister of the Far Eastern Republic.

In 1923 he completed the courses for commanding officers. From 1923 through 1925 he was in command of a corps. From 1925 through 1927, while commanding the forces of the Turkestan front (in 1926 they became the forces of the Central Asian military district), he directed the suppression of the basmach bands (counterrevolutionary robber bands). He was commander of the Caucasian Army from 1928 through 1931. He retired in 1931 because of ill health. Avksent’evskii was the recipient of two Orders of the Red Banner.