Shilov, Dmitrii Samoilovich

Born Feb. 3 (15), 1893, in the settlement of Zubarevo, in what is now Shilka Raion, Chita Oblast; died Nov. 20, 1952, in Moscow. One of the leaders of the struggle for Soviet power in Siberia and the Far East. Member of the CPSU from March 1917.

The son of a peasant, Shilov joined the revolutionary movement in Transbaikalia in 1910. In 1915 he graduated from the Irkutsk Military School and was sent to the front with the rank of ensign. After the February Revolution of 1917, he served as chairman of regimental and brigade committees and was a member of the Soviet of the Caucasian Front. In 1918 he took part in the struggle for Soviet power in Chita, served as a member of the Central Executive Committee of Siberian Soviets, and helped organize the partisan movement. Between 1920 and 1922 he commanded the Eastern Transbaikalia and Amur fronts and served as chairman of the Constituent Assembly and deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Far Eastern Republic. Beginning in 1923, Shilov held a series of positions in Moscow in the apparatus of the People’s Commissariat of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate of the RSFSR and in various cultural institutions. In 1938 he became a personal pensioner.

Shilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.