Pavel Dybenko - After The Civil War

After The Civil War

In March 1921 Dybenko led, under the command of Tukhachevsky, the bloody suppression of the naval rebellion in Kronstadt. The uprising was caused mainly by hunger. Following the military action, Dybenko created a court martial, that "Individually discussed each man's case, and issued and carried out 2103 death sentences in one day." The sentences were carried out mainly by drowning the convicted mariners under the ice. 7 to 15 thousands more of seamen died in the Solovky concentration camp.

Dybenko won there his first Order of the Combat Red Banner, then the USSR's supreme decoration. He received two more, in peace time, (12.2.1922, 19.4.22) for his excellency in suppression of peasants uprisings (One- for the Tambov uprising, the second- unclear).

Dybenko wrote several books, all memoirs from the pre-revolution and revolution time. The high quality of these books was no match with his very low education and poor vocabulary. This led some historians to suspect he could not have written them, and they were indeed written by his wife Alexandra Kollontay.

In 1922 Dybenko finished (as an extern) the General Staff Military Academy. Alexandra Kollontai admitted in her memoirs she wrote all his home assignments and his thesis. She also authored some army reform ideas, which Dybenko ascribed to himself. Soon their marriage collapsed, Dybenko attempted suicide, and Kollontai arranged a diplomatic mission for herself, just to be as far as possible from him. Dybenko was married two times more.

After finishing the Academy, Dybenko was appointed Commander of the Corps No.5 of the Red Army, and restored as a member of the Communist Party. Dybenko served between 1925 and 1928 as a head of the Artillery Directorate and the Supply Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army.

In 1928 he was sent to command the Middle-Asia military district. To mask his ignorance in military matters, he always preferred "the Iron Fist method". He created a Border-Guard and fought against smugglers. He suppressed the local nationalists and Muslim devotees with notable cruelty. He did not hesitate to attack civilians in the peace time, and to set flames to entire populated villages.

In 1930 Dybenko was sent, with a numerous group of other generals, to Germany.

In 1933 Dybenko was appointed the Volga military district commander. According to Stalin's well known method, his enemy of old, corps commander Kutiakov, a renowned hero of the Civil War, was assigned as Dybenko's deputy. Both wrote many slanderous letters against each other. This slander caused the liquidation of Kutiakov in 1937. Kutiakov was arrested by NKVD men in Dybenko's office, with Dybenko's personal assistance, and soon was shot. Dybenko himself suffered no harm. The Kutiakov's slander contained mainly the truth about Dybenko's brutality, drunkenness and incompetence. These accusations were known very well in the top level of the Soviet army. Tukhachevsky and Uborevich openly criticized him. But he wrote an explanatory letter to Voroshilov (then: the Defence Minister) and was pardoned. Later in 1937, Dybenko assisted the NKVD in preparing Tukhachevsky's arrest.

Dybenko became a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was promoted to Komandarm second class ("Four Rombs", at that time it was equivalent to a 4 star general), and appointed the Leningrad military district commander after Yona Yakir's downfall. (Leningrad military district was always one of the most important districts, second only to Kiev)

Wherever he was, he loved rich life. For example, while serving in 1935—1937 as the Volga military district commander, he annexed an island on the Volga river, 57 square kilometers large, just for hunting entertainment for himself and his friends.

Dybenko personally led the purges in the Leningrad military district in 1936-1937. In 1938 he participated, as a judge, in the trial of the Tukhachevsky group.