Iurii Sablin

Sablin, Iurii Vladimirovich

 

Born Nov. 12 (24), 1897, in the city of Tartu; died June 19, 1937. Soviet military leader, division commander (1935). Member of the Communist Party from 1919. Son of the progressive Moscow book publisher V. M. Sablin (1872–1916).

While a student at the Moscow Commercial Institute, Sablin became a Socialist Revolutionary (SR) in 1915. In 1916 he volunteered for the army and served in the artillery. He graduated from a school for ensigns in 1917. From March 1917 he was a member of the executive committee of the Moscow soviet and a Left SR. Sablin was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. He fought in the October Armed Uprising in Moscow and served as a member of the staff of the Moscow military revolutionary committee and then as a member of the presidium of the Moscow soviet. In December 1917, Sablin was appointed commander of the 1st Moscow Revolutionary Detachment, which was sent to suppress General Kaledin’s revolt. While commanding the northern sector of the Southwestern Front, Sablin participated in the routing of Kaledin’s forces and in the capture of Novocherkassk. In 1918, Sablin was commissar of the Moscow region of the Western Screen Sector.

As a participant in the Left SR Revolt of 1918, Sablin was sentenced by a revolutionary tribunal to one year in prison, but he was soon amnestied by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and broke with the Left SR’s. In the Civil War of 1918–20 he successfully commanded a regiment, brigade, division, and group of forces in fighting against the Petliura gangs and the forces of Generals Denikin and Wrangel. As a delegate to the Tenth Congress of the RCP(B), he participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt Anti-Soviet Rebellion of 1921.

Sablin graduated from the Military Academy and from the Higher Academic Training Courses in 1923 and from a pilots’ school in 1925. He commanded a division. From 1931 he was chief of the directorate of military construction and commandant of a fortified region in the Ukraine. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner.