Blinov, Mikhail

Born 1892; died Nov. 22, 1919. Hero of the Civil War. A cossack from the stanitsa (large cossack village) of Kopinsk, Ust’-Medvedetskii Okrug, Oblast voiska Donskogo. Participated in World War I as a cossack sergeant.

In February 1918 at the Ust’-Medvedetskii Okrug congress Blinov was chosen a member of the okrug revolutionary committee. At the time of the appearance of counterrevolutionary cossacks, headed by P. N. Krasnov, he organized a sotnia (company of cossacks) of revolutionary cossacks, who after a series of successful actions joined the otriad (detachment) of F. K. Mironov and then the cossack cavalry regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division. In 1919, Blinov commanded the 1st Don Revolutionary Regiment, was assistant commander of the 23rd Infantry Division, and commander of a cavalry brigade. From September 1919 he commanded the cavalry group (of nine regiments) of the Ninth Army. In a battle near Buturlinovka in Voronezh Province he was mortally wounded. In February 1920 the cavalry division (the former cavalry group) of the Ninth Army became the Blinov 2nd Cavalry Division.