Kazanskii, Evgenii

Born Jan. 21 (Feb. 2), 1896; died Sept. 26, 1937. Soviet military figure, division commander (1935). Became a member of the Communist Party in 1912. The son of a priest.

Kazankskii was born in the village of Naryshkino, in present-day Orel Oblast. A graduate of the Pavel Military School (1914), he served in World War I (1914–18) as a staff captain, joined the Red Army as a private in Vladikavkaz in July 1918, and fought in the Civil War of 1918–20, engaging in underground work in Baku in 1919 and then organizing insurgent detachments on the Black Sea coast. In January 1920, Kazanskii was appointed commander of the Black Sea Soviet Insurgent (Green) Army, which operated behind the lines of Denikin’s troops. Commanding the Northern Group during the suppression of the Kronstadt mutiny of 1921, he was appointed chief of the First Petrograd Infantry School in 1921 and graduated from the military-academic courses for higher commanders in 1925. Commanding a division from 1926 to 1932, Kazanskii was chief of staff of military educational institutions and chief of the Directorate of Military Educational Institutions from 1932 to 1934, after which he was a member of the Military Council of the People’s Commissariat of Defense until 1936. He was appointed corps commander in 1936. Awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, Kazanskii also was presented with honorary revolutionary arms.