Khadzffl-Murat Uarievich Dzarakhokhov

Born 1875 (1874 according to other data) in the village of Zil’gi in what is now the North Ossetian ASSR; died Aug. 10, 1945, in Dzaudzhikau, now Ordzhonikidze. Hero of the Civil War. Member of the Communist Party from 1917.

Dzarakhokhov was the son of a peasant. In 1906 he went abroad in search of work; he lived in the USA, including in Alaska, and in Mexico, working as an unskilled laborer, a riveter, and a miner. He joined the Russian socialist circle in the USA. Returning to Russia before World War I, he was drafted and sent to the front in a cavalry division. After the February Revolution of 1917 he was elected vice-chairman of a regimental committee. At the time of the Kornilov Revolt, when General Kornilov moved the Caucasian “native” division, the so-called “wild division,” against revolutionary Petrograd, Dzarakhokhov went over to the revolutionary side with 350 horsemen from the division. Dzarakhokhov formed a detachment and fought in the October Revolution. As commander of a Red Guard battalion, he fought in the suburbs of Petrograd and took part in the capture of General Krasnov.

Taking command of a Caucasian cavalry detachment in August 1918, he fought against the British and American interventionists near Arkhangel’sk. In August 1920, while commander of a separate cavalry division within the First Cavalry Army, Dzarakhokhov fought in battles against the White Poles. He returned to the village of Zil’gi after the end of the Civil War and worked in the militia. Dzarakhokhov was awarded two orders.