Shchetinkin, Petr

Born Dec. 21, 1884 (Jan. 2, 1885), in the village of Chufilovo, in what is now Spas-Klepiki Raion, Riazan’ Oblast; died Sept. 30, 1927, in Ulan Bator; buried in Novosibirsk. Partisan leader in Siberia in the Civil War of 1918–20. Member of the CPSU from 1918.

The son of a peasant, Shchetinkin lived in Siberia and worked as a carpenter. He was awarded four Crosses of St. George and two French orders during World War I and, as a bearer of all four classes of the Cross of St. George, was promoted to ensign. In 1917 he became a staff captain.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Shchetinkin played an active role in the establishment of Soviet power in Achinsk and served as chief of the criminal investigation department and head of the operations department of the Achinsk soviet. In late May 1918 he assumed command of a Red Guard detachment assigned to fight the White Czechs and White Guards.

Shchetinkin went underground after the fall of Achinsk and directed the formation of partisan detachments. In late 1918 he led a combined detachment that routed an enemy punitive detachment. After joining A. D. Kravchenko’s partisan detachment in Eniseisk Province in early 1919, Shchetinkin became chief of staff of the partisan army.

Shchetinkin served in 1920 as a member of the Extraordinary Revolutionary Tribunal, which tried the former Kolchak ministers. Later that year he became deputy chairman of the Achinsk district executive committee and a member of the district party committee. In 1920 he also served in a detachment of partisans and volunteers that fought against General P. N. Wrangel. Heading a Red Army expeditionary detachment that was sent at Sukhe-Bator’s request and V. I. Lenin’s orders, Shchetinkin helped rid the Mongolian People’s Republic of General Ungern von Sternberg’s counterrevolutionary bands in 1921.

Shchetinkin was chief of staff of the Unified State Political Directorate in the Siberian Frontier District from 1922 to 1926. At the invitation of the government of the Mongolian People’s Republic, he served as an instructor to the State Military Guard in Mongolia in 1927. Shchetinkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.