Georgii Dmitrievich Bazilevich

Born Jan. 1, 1889, in the village of Kriski in Chernigov Province; died Mar. 3, 1939. Soviet military figure; corps commander (1936). Member of the Communist Party since October 1917.

Bazilevich came from a peasant background. He graduated from Kiev Military School (1910) and took part in World War I. He achieved the highest rank in the old army—lieutenant colonel. After the February Revolution of 1917 he joined the Mensheviks and later went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. He was an assistant chairman of the Executive Committee of the Special Army. After March 1918 he was in the Red Army and was a member of the Revolutionary Military Soviet of the Eighth Army; in 1920, while commanding the troops of the North Caucasus Military Okrug, he directed the liquidation of the Wrangelite landing forces of Colonel Nazarov. From 1921 to 1922, under special commission from the Revolutionary Military Soviet and the Republic’s deputy special representative of the Council of People’s Commissars for the registration and collection of all valuables, he directed the search for resources inside the country, in the course of which the tsar’s treasures were discovered (the so-called Russian diamond fund). From 1925 to 1931 he commanded the troops of the Moscow and Privolga Military Okrugs and was a member of the Permanent Military Conference of the Revolutionary Military Soviet of the USSR. From 1931 until November 1938 he was secretary of the Commission and the Committee for Defense, a part of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR. He was a member of the Central Executive Committee, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and deputy to the first convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After 1934 he was a member of the Commission of Soviet Control, under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR. He was awarded the orders of the Red Banner and of the Red Star.