Shkuro, Andrei Grigorevich

(also A. G. Shkura). Born Jan. 7 (19), 1887; died Jan. 17,1947. White Guards lieutenant general (1919).

Shkuro was the son of a cossack officer in Kuban’ Oblast. He graduated from the Nicholas Cavalry School in 1907 and served in the Kuban’ Cossack Host. He served in World War I as commander of a special partisan detachment with the rank of colonel. In the spring of 1918 he formed a counterrevolutionary cossack detachment in the Batalpashinsk region and during May and June raided Stavropol’, Essentuki, and Kislovodsk. He later commanded a Kuban’ Cossack brigade and a division in Denikin’s army; in May 1919 he took command of a cavalry corps. The troops under Shkuro’s command were known for their unusual cruelty and lack of discipline, which displeased even the White Guards command. After the White Guards were crushed, Shkuro emigrated and carried on anti-Soviet activities.

In the period 1939–45, Shkuro cooperated with the Nazis and, on their orders, took part in the formation of anti-Soviet cossack units made up of traitors and White émigrés. In 1945, Shkuro was detained by British troops in Austria and was turned over to the Soviet command. Shkuro was executed in conformity with a sentence by the Supreme Court of the USSR.