Parkhomenko, Aleksandr

Born Dec. 12 (24), 1886, in the village of Makarov Iar, now the village of Parkhomenko, Krasnodon Raion, Voroshilovgrad Oblast; died Jan. 3, 1921, in the village of Buzovtsy, now in Zhashkov Raion, Cherkassy Oblast. A hero of the Civil War of 1918–20. Member of the Communist Party from 1904. Son of a poor peasant.

Parkhomenko was a worker at the Lugansk Steam Locomotive Plant from 1900 and was actively involved in the revolutionary movement. From 1905 to 1907 he organized a fighting druzhina and led a peasant uprising in the village of Makarov Iar. He was repeatedly arrested. Parkhomenko was one of the leaders of a political strike at the Lugansk Ammunition Plant in 1916, for which he was placed in the army. In the February Revolution of 1917, he led a revolutionary soldiers’ detachment in disarming the Mar’ina Roshcha Police Precinct in Moscow.

Upon returning to Lugansk, Parkhomenko organized Red Guard detachments and participated in the establishment of Soviet power in the Donbas. He was also active in the struggle against the Kaledin Revolt and against the Central Rada. In the summer of 1918, he was commander of a detachment and of an armored train, as well as a special representative of the staff of the Ukrainian Fifth Army during the fighting against the German occupation forces and in the defense of Tsaritsyn. He became a special representative of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Tenth Army in October 1918. He was appointed military commissar of Kharkov Province in January 1919 and representative in charge of supplies of the Kharkov Military District in March. He commanded a group of forces in the rout of the Grigor’ev Rebellion and then took command of the Kharkov Fortified Zone. He became a special representative of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Horse Cavalry Army in December 1919 and commander of the 14th Cavalry Division in April 1920. Parkhomenko died fighting Makhno’s forces. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner.