Mikhail Frunze

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze (Russian ?????? ?????????? ??????) (1885 – 31 October 1925) was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution.

Related Topics:
Russian - 1885 - 31 October - 1925 - Bolshevik - Russian Revolution

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Frunze was born in Bishkek, then a small Russian garrison town in the Kyrgyz part of Turkestan, the son of a Romanian peasant, originally from Bessarabia. At the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party in London in 1903, there was an ideological split between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, two main party leaders. Martov argued for a large party of activists, whilst Lenin wanted a small group of professional revolutionaries with a large fringe group of sympathisers. Martov won, 28-23 and Lenin stormed out, forming his own faction known as the Bolsheviks (Russian: majority), which Frunze joined. Those who supported Martov were called Mensheviks (Russian: minority).

Related Topics:
Bishkek - Kyrgyz - Turkestan - Romanian - Peasant - Bessarabia - Second Congress - Social Democratic Party - London - 1903 - Vladimir Lenin - Julius Martov - Revolutionaries - Sympathiser - Russian - Mensheviks

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Two years after the Second Congress, Frunze was an important leader in the 1905 Revolution, at the head of striking textile workers. Following the disastrous defeat of the revolution at the hands of the Tsar, Frunze was arrested and sentenced to death, but he was later reprieved and his sentence was commuted to life at hard labour.

Related Topics:
1905 Revolution - Textile - Tsar - Sentenced to death - Hard labour

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After ten years in the camps in Siberia, Frunze escaped to Chita, where he became editor of the Bolshevik weekly newspaper called Vostochnoe Obozrenie.

Related Topics:
Siberia - Chita - Editor

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During the February Revolution, an early stage of the 1917 Revolution, Frunze was head of the Minsk civilian militia before being elected president of the Byelorussian Soviet. He later went to Moscow and led an armed force of workers to aid in the struggle for control of the city.

Related Topics:
February Revolution - 1917 Revolution - Minsk - Militia - Byelorussian - Soviet - Moscow

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In 1918 Frunze became Military Commissar for the Voznesensk Province. During the early days of the Russian Civil War, Frunze was appointed as head of the Southern Army Group. After defeating Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak and the White Army in Omsk, Leon Trotsky (the head of the Red Army) gave total command of the Eastern Front to him. Frunze went on to rid his native Turkestan of White troops.

Related Topics:
1918 - Voznesensk - Russian Civil War - Aleksandr Kolchak - White Army - Omsk - Leon Trotsky - Red Army

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In November 1920, Frunze retook the Crimea and managed to push General Pyotr Wrangel and his troops out of Russia. He was also instrumental in the destruction of Nestor Makhno's anarchist movement in Ukraine after Makhno refused to merge with the Red Army.

Related Topics:
1920 - Crimea - Pyotr Wrangel - Nestor Makhno - Anarchist - Ukraine

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In 1921 Frunze was elected to the Central Committee and in January, 1925, became the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. A strong supporter of Grigory Zinoviev, Frunze came into conflict with Josef Stalin, one of Zinoviev's chief opponents. He supposedly died during a stomach operation on 31 October, 1925, though it is believed by some that Stalin arranged his death.

Related Topics:
1921 - Central Committee - January - 1925 - Revolutionary Military Council - Grigory Zinoviev - Josef Stalin - 31 October

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He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

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