Pavel Dybenko the fate of the main sailor of the revolution. The rise and fall of the legendary commander Dybenko

Soviet statesman and military leader, commander of the 2nd rank (1935). Party member since 1912. Shot on July 29, 1938. Rehabilitated in 1956.

Born in the village of Lyudkov, Chernigov province, into a peasant family. Baltic sailor, anarchist, in the revolutionary movement since 1907. Since 1911 in the Baltic Fleet, one of the leaders of the anti-war protest of sailors on the battleship "Emperor Paul I" in 1915. After a 6-month imprisonment he was sent to the front, then again arrested for anti-war propaganda and released February Revolution of 1917. He was a member of the Helsingfors Council, and from April 1917 chairman of the Tsentrobalt (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet). He took an active part in preparing the fleet for the October armed uprising.

Revolution and Civil War

During the October Revolution, he commanded the red detachments in Gatchina and Krasnoye Selo, and arrested General P.N. Krasnov. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets he joined the Council of People's Commissars as a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs. Until March 1918 - People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs. During the years of the civil war and peaceful construction, he held command positions in the Red Army. In February 1918, he commanded a detachment of sailors near Narva, was defeated and surrendered the city, for which he was put on trial in May 1918, but acquitted (later this battle - February 23 - was declared a great victory and Soviet Army Day). At the first clashes with a reconnaissance patrol sent by the German command, near Narva, Dybenko’s sailors, who had spent the entire war in the ports, wavered and ran all the way to Gatchina (120 kilometers). In Gatchina they captured a train and moved across the country. As a result, the revolutionary detachment disappeared for several weeks, and was found thousands of kilometers from the Baltic states - on the Volga, in Samara. In pursuit, the head of the Supreme Military Council, Bonch-Bruevich, sends telegrams around the country: to catch him and deliver him to Moscow under escort. The communists initially wanted to shoot Dybenko, but Larisa Reisner and Alexandra Kollontai stood up for him. Nevertheless, Dybenko was expelled from the party. Although just sending Dybenko’s “brothers” to the front, Lenin told Bonch-Bruevich: “You and your comrades must immediately start thinking about measures for the defense of Petrograd. We have no troops. None." However, all these events did not become the property of the official Soviet history, and February 23 was subsequently declared the Day of the Navy and the Day of the Red, and then the Soviet Army. In the summer of 1918 he was sent to underground work in Ukraine. In August 1918 he was arrested, but in October he was exchanged for captured German officers. Since November 1918, commander of a regiment, brigade, group of troops, division. Since the spring of 1919, commander of the Crimean Army and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Crimean Soviet Republic. In 1919-20 he commanded formations near Tsaritsyn and in the Caucasus. Dybenko becomes commander of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Ukrainian Soviet Division. The division consisted of thousands of detachments of the most famous partisan chieftains in Ukraine - Nikifor Grigoriev and Nestor Makhno. Under the general command of M. N. Tukhachevsky, Dybenko, at the head of the Consolidated Division, was one of the leaders of the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising (1921). Participated in the suppression of the peasant uprising in the Tambov province.

Post-war career

In 1922 he was reinstated in the RCP (b) with the credit for party service since 1912. He married A. M. Kollontai, see First Soviet Marriage. This became the reason for many jokes in the leadership of the RCP (b): both Dybenko and Kollontai were distinguished by extreme sexual promiscuity. Graduated from the Military Academy (1922). In fact, all homework and the diploma were completed by A. M. Kollontai. In 1928-38, commander of the troops of the Central Asian, Volga and Leningrad military districts. He was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

'37 and arrest

In 1937 he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council of the 1st convocation. In 1936-37, under his leadership, large-scale purges of command personnel for political reasons were carried out in the Leningrad Military District. He was part of the Special Judicial Presence, which convicted a group of senior Soviet military leaders in the “Tukhachevsky Case” (June 1937). On February 26, 1938, Dybenko himself was arrested. During the investigation he was subjected to beatings and torture. He pleaded guilty to participating in an anti-Soviet, Trotskyist, military-fascist conspiracy and on July 29, 1938 he was sentenced to death. Dybenko was also recognized as an American spy (trying to justify himself, Dybenko told the investigation: “I don’t even speak the American language”). The basis for this accusation was the fact that Dybenko’s sister lived in America. Dybenko had official meetings with American military representatives and, taking advantage of this, in private conversations asked for assistance in obtaining benefits for his sister. As a result, the army commander’s sister received benefits regularly in America. Dybenko was shot on the day of his sentencing. Rehabilitated in 1956.

Born in the village of Lyudkovo, Chernigov province (now within the city of Novozybkov, Bryansk region) in a peasant family.

Baltic sailor, Bolshevik, in the revolutionary movement since 1907. Since 1911 in the Baltic Fleet. Member of the RSDLP since 1912. He was one of the leaders of the anti-war protest of sailors on the battleship "Emperor Paul I" in 1915. After a 6-month imprisonment, he was sent to the front, then again arrested for anti-war propaganda and released by the February Revolution of 1917. He was a member of the Helsingfors Council, and from April 1917 the chairman of Tsentrobalt. (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet). He took an active part in preparing the fleet for the October armed uprising.

Revolution and Civil War

During October Revolution commanded the red detachments in Gatchina and Krasnoye Selo, arrested General P.N. Krasnov. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, he joined the Council of People's Commissars as a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs. Until March 1918 - People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs. During the years of the civil war and peaceful construction, he held command positions in the Red Army. In February 1918, he commanded a detachment of sailors near Narva, was defeated and surrendered the city, fled to Samara, for which he was put on trial in May 1918, but acquitted. After this he was expelled from the party.

In the summer of 1918 he was sent to underground work in Ukraine. In August 1918 he was arrested, but in October he was exchanged for captured German officers. Since November 1918, Dybenko was the commander of a regiment, brigade, group of troops, and division. He headed the 1st Trans-Dnieper Ukrainian Soviet Division, which included thousands of detachments of the most famous partisan atamans in Ukraine - Nikifor Grigoriev and Nestor Makhno. Since the spring of 1919, commander of the Crimean Army and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Crimean Soviet Republic. In 1919-1920 he commanded formations near Tsaritsyn and in the Caucasus. Under the general command of M. N. Tukhachevsky, Dybenko, at the head of the Consolidated Division, was one of the leaders of the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising (1921). Participated in the suppression of the peasant uprising in the Tambov province. 3.3-11.5.1920 commander of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Division; 28.6-17.7.1920 commander of the 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division named after M.F. Blinov.

Post-war career

In 1922, Dybenko was reinstated in the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) with the credit for party service since 1912. He married A. M. Kollontai.

Junior student at the Military Academy of the Red Army September 1920-May 1921
Participant in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, March 1921. Commander of the Combined Division. After the liquidation of the uprising, the commandant of the Kronstadt fortress.
May - June 1921 head of the Black Sea sector;
June - October 1921 head of the 51st Infantry Division;
October 1921 - June 1922 senior student at the Military Academy of the Red Army;
05.1922 - 10.1922 commander of the 6th Rifle Corps;
10.1922 - 05.1924 commander of the 5th Rifle Corps;
05.1924 - 1925 commander of the 10th Rifle Corps;
May 1925 - November 1926 head of the Artillery Directorate of the Red Army Supply Directorate;
November 1926 - October 1928 chief of supplies of the Red Army;
October 1928-December 1933 commander of the troops of the Central Asian Military District;
December 1933 - May 1937 commander of the Volga Military District;
in 1937 commander of the troops of the Siberian Military District (did not take office);
June 5, 1937 - January 27, 1938 commander of the Leningrad Military District;

He was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

1937 and arrest

In 1937, Dybenko was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council of the 1st convocation. In 1936-1937, under the leadership of Dybenko and the head of the Leningrad NKVD L. M. Zakovsky, purges were carried out in the Leningrad Military District. Dybenko was part of the Special Judicial Presence that convicted a group of senior Soviet military commanders in the “Tukhachevsky Case” in June 1937.

At the end of 1937, Dybenko was removed from his post as commander of the Leningrad Military District. And at the beginning of January 1938, Dybenko was dismissed from the Red Army and appointed People's Commissar of the Timber Industry.

On February 26, 1938, Dybenko was arrested in Sverdlovsk. During the investigation he was subjected to severe beatings and torture. Pleaded guilty to participating in an anti-Soviet Trotskyist military-fascist conspiracy. On July 29, 1938 he was sentenced to death. Dybenko was also accused of having connections with M.N. Tukhachevsky, whom he had shortly before sent to be shot. Dybenko was shot on the day of the verdict; the burial place was the Kommunarka training ground. His wife V.A. Dybenko-Sedyakina was shot on August 26, 1938. Rehabilitated in 1956.

Awards

3 Orders of the Red Banner.
2 Orders of the Red Star.

Memory

The name of Pavel Efimovich Dybenko is immortalized in the names of streets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Samara and Kharkov, a metro station in St. Petersburg (“Dybenko Street”) and Moscow (planned station).
A memorial stele with a high relief of P.E. Dybenko, the first People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Russian Soviet Republic, was installed in Simferopol in 1968 where the headquarters of the Crimean Red Army was located in 1919 (corner of Kirov Avenue and Sovnarkomovsky Lane, Dybenko Square). Sculptor - N. P. Petrova.
A memorial plaque dedicated to Pavel Efimovich was installed on the square in front of the Great Gatchina Palace.
The image of Dybenko, as a famous participant in the Revolution and Civil War, was actively used in Soviet cinema. He was played by: Ivan Dmitriev (Aurora Salvo (film), 1965), Vladimir Dyukov (December 20, 1981), Sergei Gavrilyuk (The Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno, 2007)); as well as Slobodan Kustic in the Yugoslav film “Mistress Kollontai”, 1996.

In 1969 and 1989, USSR postage stamps dedicated to Dybenko were issued.

Metro station "Ulitsa Dybenko" in St. Petersburg

Memorial plaque in Gatchina

USSR postage stamp 1969, (DFA (ITC) #3749; Scott #3516C)

USSR postage stamp 1989

The famous revolutionary Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was born on February 28, 1889 in the small Chernigov village of Lyudkovo. His parents were ordinary peasants in central Russia. The social and financial situation of the family left its mark on life path boy. Primary education he received it at a rural school. This was followed by three years at the city school. Further education was simply unaffordable for a peasant son.

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko began working at the age of 17. In Novoaleksandrovsk, Lithuania, he entered the service of the local treasury. However, the young man did not stay there for long. He was fired because of his revolutionary interests. In 1907, the young man made a fateful decision and joined the Bolshevik circle (formally in the party since 1912). The day before ended, however, underground organizations continued their activity.

Navy service

Since 1908, Pavel Efimovich Dybenko lived in Riga. In 1911 he began serving in the Baltic Fleet. The need to pay off his military duty did not appeal to Dybenko - he tried to hide, but the draft dodger was arrested and forcibly sent to a recruiting station. So the young Bolshevik became a sailor. His place of service turned out to be where the city of Kronstadt was located.

Dybenko served on the crews of several ships, in particular the training ship Dvina and the battleship Emperor Pavel I. The sailor worked as an electrician and was later promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1913, he took part in a trip abroad, visiting England, France and Norway.

First World War

In 1914, the First World War began. Pavel Efimovich Dybenko ended up in an active squadron and took part in several combat sorties in the Baltic Sea. Several years of service did not dull his revolutionary sentiments. On the contrary, as a naval cadre he turned out to be a very valuable agitator for the Bolshevik Party. At the same time, Dybenko was under the secret surveillance of the secret police. He was in a “risk group” and that is why he was written off from his ship when the Baltic Fleet experienced a revolt of sailors on the battleship Gangut for the first time during the war.

Riga, well known to the revolutionary, turned out to be the place where Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was sent. The military man’s biography could have remained associated exclusively with the fleet, but now he had to find a use for himself on the land front. After three months of service, he received a sentence in Helsingfors prison for defeatist agitation. The conclusion turned out to be short-lived. Soon Dybenko was returned to the fleet as a battalionman. Despite all his previous misadventures, the Bolshevik continued his revolutionary activities.

Between February and October

In 1917, Pavel Dybenko found himself in the thick of things. After the emergence of the Provisional Government, he joined the Helsingfors Council, where he was a deputy from the fleet. As an ardent Bolshevik, he was distinguished by the most radical views. It was Pavel Dybenko who carried out the greatest propaganda activity in the Baltic Fleet during the anti-government protest of his party in July 1917. That summer, most of the Bolsheviks were arrested, and Lenin fled and hid in Razliv.

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko also went to prison. Brief biography The story of this revolutionary is full of episodes of arrests and imprisonments. This time he ended up in Kresty, where Trotsky was staying at the same time. In early September, along with other Bolsheviks, Dybenko was released. The provisional government decided that the fringe party had lost its influence and lost support among the masses. This point of view turned out to be a fatal misconception.

Dispersal of the Constituent Assembly

On the night when Lenin’s supporters seized power in Petrograd, Dybenko supervised the transportation of revolutionary-minded sailors from Kronstadt to the capital. The Bolshevik's services to the new Soviet government were significant. After the October Revolution, he was immediately included in the Council of People's Commissars, where he became People's Commissar for Naval Affairs.

The Baltic Fleet also remembered how much Pavel Efimovich Dybenko did for the coup. The date of birth of the new state practically coincided with the convocation Constituent Assembly. Dybenko was elected as a deputy as a delegate from the Baltic Fleet. On the day the Constituent Assembly was convened, the Bolshevik led a large group of sailors who actually dispersed this democratically elected body.

Again against the Germans

The Bolsheviks who came to power found themselves in an extremely difficult situation. On the one hand, the white movement was gaining strength, and on the other, until the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, the war with the Germans continued. At the beginning of 1918 they continued their offensive in the Baltic states. Sailors were sent to cross the interventionists, led by Pavel Efimovich Dybenko. The revolutionary’s personal life was marked the day before by a joyful event: he married his comrade-in-arms, Alexandra Kollontai, who in the future became famous in the diplomatic field.

However, there was no time left for family matters. Dybenko's detachment encountered the Germans near Narva. The sailors, inferior to the enemy in all respects, abandoned the city. Soon the detachment was disarmed by its own. For an oversight, Dybenko was expelled from the party (reinstated in 1922). In a sense, the revolutionary was lucky - he was not shot, but was sent to work underground in Odessa (his past merits affected him).

On the fronts of the Civil War

In the fall of 1918, Pavel Dybenko ended up in the Ukrainian Soviet Army. He headed the partisan division, which included supporters of Nestor Makhno. The most important success of this formation was its participation in the seizure of Crimea. Dybenko's division was the first to establish control over the key Perekop Isthmus. However, those successes were variable. Soon the Bolshevik supporters had to retreat.

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko also left. Photos of the military leader began to appear in Soviet newspapers again - he returned to Moscow and became one of the first students at the newly opened Academy of the Red Army General Staff. The situation at the front was restless, and Dybenko, who had dropped out of school, was again sent to the front. At the end of 1919, he took part in the liberation of Tsaritsyn, where Stalin and the future marshals Budyonny and Egorov also took part.

Counter-fighter

Dybenko met the new 1920 on the way. His division pursued the retreating Denikin. By spring, the military leader reached the Caucasus. Then Pavel Efimovich returned to Crimea, where the remnants of the whites under the command of Wrangel resisted with their last legs. In September 1920 he returned to the academy he had left shortly before.

A few months later, during the next party congress, the famous Kronstadt sailors' uprising broke out. Dybenko knew this contingent very well. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was his party that was sent to suppress the rebellion of sailors dissatisfied with deprivations and unjustified expectations. Then Dybenko came under the command of Tukhachevsky. In April 1921, both military leaders were together again - this time they suppressed the Antonov peasant uprising in the Tambov province.

Later years

After Dybenko returned to peaceful life, Pavel Efimovich and Kollontai began to occupy all sorts of leadership positions. The husband is in the army, the wife is in the party and diplomatic service. Throughout the 20s and 30s. Dybenko led many military formations in the Red Army.

The fate of the old Bolshevik developed according to established rules. When Stalin began purges in the Red Army, Dybenko initially acted as a reliable executor of terror. He repressed his charges in the Leningrad Military District, where he was commander. The apogee of Dybenko’s service was his participation in the trial of Marshal Tukhachevsky in the summer of 1937. And just a few months after this episode, he himself was removed from all his positions. Several personnel changes followed. As a result, Dybenko got a job at the People's Commissariat of the Timber Industry and began to manage timber harvesting in the Gulag. In February 1938 he was arrested.

Pavel Dybenko, according to the then tradition, was accused of spying for foreign intelligence and even of having connections with Tukhachevsky, whom he himself helped imprison. Famous military leader Civil War shot on July 29, 1938. He was later rehabilitated in 1956.

Currently, in post-Soviet cities there are more than 100 streets perpetuating the name of Dybenko. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Donetsk, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Samara... A metro station in St. Petersburg was named in his honor. A monument was erected in his homeland in Novozybkov, a monument to the “Baltic sailors” with his figure in Kronstadt, and a memorial stele in Simferopol.

Always claiming that he was a farm laborer, he was in fact the son of a strong middle peasant (two cows, a horse and five hectares of land). Due to a complete lack of desire for knowledge and chronic poor academic performance, I spent four years in a three-year city school. From his youth he was distinguished by physical strength, pugnacity and unbridled temper.

In 1911, despite diligently evading military service, Dybenko was nevertheless caught, drafted into the army and ended up on the penal ship Dvina, and then on the battleship Emperor Pavel I, where he joined an underground group of Bolsheviks. During the First World War, he did not have the opportunity to participate in any serious naval battles, but in 1916, when the enemy began to threaten Petrograd, his organizational skills unexpectedly emerged: he not only refused to participate in hostilities, but also persuaded several hundreds of sailors.

After the February Revolution, the loudmouth, constantly waving a Mauser, with his demagogic calls for freedom and protection of the interests of the people, managed to achieve the complete trust of the “brothers” and ended up at the head of the Tsentrobalt (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet).

Soon A.M. appears in his life. Kollontai is one of the most influential party ladies (she was 17 years older than her new lover), a member of the Central Committee and a personal friend of Lenin, who largely contributed to Dybenko’s further military and political career. In addition to the fact that Kollontai was an ardent supporter of “free revolutionary love,” she is also notable for the fact that she was cursed by the Orthodox Church for organizing the armed seizure of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

11.21.17 Lenin, by personal order, appoints P. Dybenko People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs. Of course, Ilyich knew that this illiterate sailor could not live up to the admiral’s position, but at that moment he needed not a specialist, but a loyal guardsman with a loyal team of thugs, ready to carry out any of his instructions.

And the wholesale extermination of career naval officers began. Having plundered the imperial wine cellars and drunk to the point of frenzy, the sailors smashed the heads of lieutenants and midshipmen with sledgehammers, and “lowered senior officers under the ice.” In Petrograd and at the bases of the Baltic Fleet alone, several hundred naval officers were tortured and killed. Dybenko, hanging a massive gold chain on his chest, rode on trotters along the parade ground littered with officer corpses, and called on the lads to “cut the counter.”

Monument in Novozybkov

Deputies of the Constituent Assembly, former ministers of the Provisional Government A. Shingarev and F. Kokoshkin, “brothers” were even found in the hospital and bayoneted right in their beds.

On January 5, 1918, 60 thousand people took to the streets of Petrograd in support of the popularly elected Constituent Assembly. Carrying out the task of the Bolsheviks, at the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekts, sailors stationed on the roofs under the command of Dybenko met a peaceful demonstration with machine-gun fire.

For the shameful, without a fight, surrender of Narva to the Germans in February 1918, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar and put on trial. L.D. Trotsky and N.V. Krylenko insisted on execution, but the matter was limited to expulsion from the party.

Several times the Bolsheviks sentenced him to death, but each time they released him - they needed him. Who else, while suppressing the Kronstadt uprising in March 1921, could have dealt so mercilessly with his recent “brothers” who elected him to Tsentrobalt? (Tukhachevsky, who witnessed this, recalled: “I have never seen such a bloody massacre.”)

Moscow

He showed the same monstrous ruthlessness when dealing with the rebel peasants of the Tambov region. Dybenko is responsible for countless people who were shot and hacked to death, burned alive in huts poisoned with gases. This is probably why he was allowed to occupy a number of command positions in the Red Army, although his drunken brawls, debauchery and looting were known to everyone (even such a concept as “Dybenkovism” appeared - a kind of cross between tyranny, anarchy and banditry).

Moreover, in 1922 he was reinstated in the party (maintaining his party experience since 1912) and sent to study at the Military Academy (with its three classes of education!), which he, “as a particularly talented person,” graduated as an external student in less than a year. Subsequently, Kollontai admitted that she did all the tasks for him, since he could not write without terrible grammatical errors. Later, in the early 30s, he was sent for an internship to Germany, where German teachers gave him an extremely laconic certification: “From a military point of view - absolute zero.”

An important property of his nature was an absolutely cynical rejection of any moral obligations, and hence the constant readiness for betrayal. Without hesitation, he betrayed both ideas and people equally easily. He didn’t care who to betray: the Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists or Bolsheviks. Dybenko violated the military oath he swore to the Tsar; betrayed the Provisional Government, to which he furiously swore allegiance; betrayed his sailor brothers, who chose him as head of Centrobalt; betrayed Father Makhno, whose “father was imprisoned” at the wedding; betrayed his wife Kollontai, who saved him from execution several times, humbly begging for mercy from Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky.

For his bloody service, the Soviet government awarded Pavel Dybenko three Orders of the Red Banner (the first two for Kronstadt and the Tambov region), made him an army commander, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and a deputy of the Supreme Council. She also shot him in 1938 as “waste material,” declaring him a Trotskyist, conspirator and US spy, although he swore that he “did not know the American language.”

Revolutionary, first People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was born on February 28 (February 16, old style) 1889 in a large family of a middle peasant in the village of Lyudkovo, Chernigov province (now within the city of Novozybkov, Bryansk region).

In 1899 he entered and in 1903 graduated from a three-year city school in Novozybkov. He served in the treasury, but was fired for unreliability and went to Riga, where he became a port loader, while simultaneously studying electrical engineering courses.

Since 1907 in Riga, he participated in the work of the Bolshevik circle and came under the secret surveillance of the police.

In the same year, Dybenko tried to evade conscription, but was arrested by the police and sent to a recruiting station by convoy.

Became a sailor of the Baltic Fleet on the penal training ship Dvina.

In 1913 he graduated from mine school and entered service on the battleship "Emperor Paul I" as a non-commissioned officer, where he again entered the Bolshevik underground.

In 1915, he became one of the organizers and leaders of the anti-war demonstration of sailors on the battleship. Was arrested.

In 1916, after a tribunal and a six-month imprisonment, he was sent as part of a naval battalion to the front near Riga, in the area of the Ikskul fortified positions. Before the offensive, the revolutionary-minded battalion of sailors refused to advance and persuaded the 45th Siberian Rifle Regiment to do so. For raising an uprising, the battalion of sailors was recalled to Riga, where it was disbanded and sent back under escort to Helsingfors (now Helsinki). Dybenko was sentenced to two months.

From the summer of 1916 he continued to serve on a transport ship in Helsingfors.

After February 1917, he was elected by the sailors who trusted him as a member of the Helsingfors Council.

Since April 1917 - Chairman of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet (Tsentrobalt).

Actively participated in the preparation of the October Revolution in Petrograd, member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee; supervised the formation and dispatch of detachments of revolutionary sailors and warships to the capital. During the offensive of Krasnov-Kerensky’s troops on Petrograd, he commanded detachments near Krasnoe Selo and Gatchina.

From November 8 (October 26, old style) to March 1918 - as a member of the Council of People's Commissars, member of the board of the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs, then People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs. He took part in the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, bringing over five thousand sailors into the city.

In February 1918, the German offensive against Petrograd began. A group of sailors under the leadership of Dybenko, after giving a short battle, fled from the front. The Germans advanced hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory. The commander of the flight was expelled from the party (he was reinstated only in 1922, after the Civil War).

On March 16, 1918, Dybenko was deprived of all posts and arrested. On March 25, he was released on bail pending trial, but fled to Samara. In May he was returned to Moscow and appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal. At the trial he was acquitted.

In the summer of 1918 he was sent to work underground in Ukraine.

In August 1918, Dybenko was arrested, but in October he was exchanged for captured German officers.

At the end of 1918, he commanded a group of Soviet troops in the Yekaterinoslav direction, from February 1919 - the First Trans-Dnieper Division, then the Crimean Army, and after leaving Crimea in 1919 - the 37th Infantry Division.

Under the overall command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Dybenko, at the head of the Combined Division, was one of the main leaders in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising (March 1921). Participated in the suppression of the peasant uprising in the Tambov province.

In July 1921, he was appointed commander of the Sixth Rifle Corps. In 1922 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA).

After graduating from the Academy, he was transferred to the position of commander and commissar of the Fifth Rifle Corps.

In April 1924, he was appointed commander of the Tenth Rifle Corps.

In 1926-1928 - chief of supplies of the Red Army.

In 1928-1937 - commander of the troops of the Central Asian, Volga and Leningrad military districts.

In 1937, Dybenko was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council of the First Convocation. He was part of the Special Judicial Presence that convicted a group of senior Soviet military commanders in the “Tukhachevsky Case” in June 1937.

At the beginning of January 1938, he was fired from the Red Army and appointed deputy people's commissar of the forest industry and manager of the Kamlesosplav trust, closely associated with the Gulag.

On February 26, 1938, Dybenko was arrested in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). During the investigation, he was subjected to severe beatings and torture, under which he pleaded guilty to participating in an anti-Soviet Trotskyist military-fascist conspiracy. Was declared a US spy.

Dybenko was also accused of having connections with Mikhail Tukhachevsky, whom he himself sent to be shot.

Rehabilitated posthumously in 1956.

Pavel Dybenko was married to the famous revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources