Sergei Sergeevich Kamenev

Born Apr. 4 (16), 1881, in Kiev; died Aug. 25, 1936, in Moscow. Soviet military leader, army commander first class (1935). Member of the CPSU from 1930.

The son of a military engineer, Kamenev graduated from the Alexander Military School in 1900 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1907. In World War I he held staff positions, was chief of the operations division of the First Army, and was appointed commander of an infantry regiment with the rank of colonel in early 1917. After the October Revolution he was elected chief of staff of the XV Corps and then of the Third Army. He volunteered for the Red Army in early 1918 and was military leader of the Nevel’ sector of the Western Barrage and commander of the 17th Infantry Division; he was appointed assistant military leader of the Western Barrage in August 1918. From September 1918 to July 1919, Kamenev brilliantly commanded the troops of the Eastern Front during the offensive of the front’s troops in 1918 and early 1919 and then during the defense and offensive against Kochak’s troops in 1919.

Kamenev was commander in chief of the armed forces of the republic from July 1919 until April 1924. Carrying out the directives of V. I. Lenin and of the Central Committee of the party, he directed the actions of the Red Army on routing the White Guard and interventionist troops. Appointed inspector of the RKKA (Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army) in April 1924, Kamenev served as chief of the Staff of the RKKA from March 1925, chief inspector of the RKKA from November 1925, and chief of the Main Directorate of the RKKA from August 1926. A member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR from April 1924 to May 1927, Kamenev was deputy people’s commissar of military and naval affairs and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR from May 1927 to June 1934. He was chief of the administration of the National Air Defense Forces from June 1934 and simultaneously, from November 1934, a member of the Military Council of the People’s Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. He was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

Kamenev was awarded the Gold Combat Weapon with the decoration of the Order of the Red Banner, the Honorary Revolutionary Firearm with the decoration of the Order of the Red Banner, Orders of the Red Banner of the RSFSR, the Red Banner of the Khorezm SSR, and the Red Crescent First Class of the Bukhara People’s Soviet Republic. He is buried in Red Square near the Kremlin Wall.