From Cossack (Soldier) to Colonel-General: the Military Biography of O.I. Gorodovikov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the military biography of Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov (October 1, 1879 - February 26, 1960) - Don Kalmyk-Cossack who started his military service as an ordinary Cossack in the Russian Imperial Army in 1903 and finished it in the rank of the Colonel-General of the Soviet Army in 1947. Forty three years of service to the Motherland included his participation in the First World War, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. For his merits Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union, was decorated with ten orders, Cross of St. George, ten medals, one foreign country order. Actively involving the new materials (including archival ones), the author describes and elaborates the military biography of the famous military leader and refutes some ahistorical myths which have appeared recently. Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov was born in 1879 in the homestead of Mokraya Elmuta of Platovskaya (Iki-Burul) stanitsa of Sal’ski district. He was first drafted to the Army in 1903, then he served in the 9th Don Cossack Regiment to the position of the Senior Sergeant. In 1915, he joined the First World War, was wounded and awarded with Cross of St. George and medals. At the beginning of the Civil War he organized the self-defense group in his native village. The article attentively analyses Gorodovikov’s service in the White Army. Since spring of 1918 he served in Platovski group, then in the 1st Peasantry punitive cavalry regiment, the 1st Don cavalry brigade, the 1 st Don (since March 1919 - the 4th) cavalry division. He subsequently took the positions of the platoon’s leader and the squadron’s commander, then he became the executive commander of the 2nd (later the 20th Sal’ski) cavalry regiment, the commander of the Joint brigade of the 4th Cavalry division, later of the 19th Manych cavalry regiment of the 4th cavalry division. In May 1919, he substituted S.M. Budennyi in the position of the commander of the celebrated 4th Cavalry division which fought in the battle fields starting with Tsaritsyn till Voronezh, then till Rostov and Novorossiisk, took part in suppressing F.K. Mironov’s revolt, in Voronezh-Kastornensk battles, in Donbass, Rostov-Novocherkassk, Don-Manych and other military operations. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the first among the Kalmyks. In summer 1920, O.I. Gorodovikov formed the 2nd Cavalry Army made of the remainders of the Joint cavalry corps, together with which he participated in two raids to the enemy’s rear. Later he returned to the 1st Cavalry Army Between the wars, he went the way from the Cavalry division commander to the inspector (in fact, the commander) of the Red Army Cavalry. When the Great Patriotic War started, he worked actively on organizing new cavalry divisions and corps, visited the front many times as the delegate of the Headquarters of the State Committee of Defense. There is Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov’s merit as well in the praiseworthy contribution of the Soviet cavalry made to the Victory over Fascism. In 1947, 67-year-old Colonel-General O.I. Gorodovikov retired.