“Rusos blankos”: how Russian emigrants fought in Franco’s army
During the Spanish Civil War, Moscow actively supported the Republican government. The USSR sent volunteers, military advisers, pilots, weapons and equipment to the Iberian Peninsula, and evacuated children and women
But part of the Russian diaspora perceived the conflict in Spain as a continuation of the Civil War in Russia – some emigrants were ready to fight against the Republicans with arms in hand. Some of the most famous Russian volunteers in that war were General Anatoly Fok and Staff Captain Yakov Polukhin, who died in 1937
“At the end of August, during the Reds’ attempt to capture Zaragoza in the Quinto area, Major General Anatoly Vladimirovich Fok and the Markov Artillery Division, staff captain Yakov Timofeevich Polukhin, died the death of the brave.
General Fok was born in Orenburg on July 3, 1879. He graduated from the Pskov Cadet Corps and in 1900 from the Konstantinovsky Artillery School, from where he joined the Caucasian Grenadier Artillery Brigade. A great athlete, he was one of the organizers of the Russian Falconry (approx. pre-revolutionary sports and physical education society) and in 1910 he graduated from the Main Gymnastics and Fencing Officer School in St. Petersburg, where he remained as an instructor.
With the outbreak of the Great War, he returned to his native brigade with the rank of captain as a senior officer, then received a battery and already in 1917 commanded a heavy artillery gun. div. For distinction in battles he received almost all military orders up to the Order of St. George, 4th class. inclusive. In the Volunteer Army he began serving as a private in the Drozdovskaya Mounted Mountain Battery, and later commanded a division and an artillery brigade. In 1920 he was the chief of artillery at Perekop. Then, with the rank of major general, artillery again commanded. brigade and corps artillery inspector. At Gallipoli he commanded the 1st Artillery Brigade, formed from the artillery brigade of the Russian Army.
Staff Captain Polukhin was born on March 24, 1895. He graduated from the Real School and in 1916 volunteered for the 3rd Battalion. 73rd art. brigade, from where he was sent to the Konstantinovsky Artillery School, which he graduated from on August 15, 1917, joining the 26th mortar artillery division. In 1918 he arrived in the Volunteer Army and was enlisted in the 1st Gaub. battery and since then spent his entire service in the Markov artillery. In Gallipoli I finished the anthem. fencing school. Was wounded twice.
In emigration, leading a working life, then experiencing the hardships of unemployment, they both took an active part in the life of the national part. They were especially interested in the progress of military science, the situation in subjugated Russia and the education of youth, being one of the prominent figures of the Russian Falconry.
But their hearts especially burned with a thirst for real activism and at the first opportunity, they went to where the armed struggle was taking place. Being artillerymen, they joined the infantry and were assigned to the northern Biscay front. For distinction in the battles on the approaches to Bilbao, they were promoted to the second officer rank – teniente and later transferred to the Russian group on the Aragonese front in Tercio Donna Maria de Molina. Well received and with great attention by the Spaniards, they and their friends raised high the Russian name and the tricolor flag…
The 2nd company of Tercio Molina, where the deceased commanded platoons, took the brunt of the blow of the red group and all died. For several days, surrounded on all sides, the company valiantly resisted, firing back from the Russian Maxim machine guns previously captured from the reds. .
All the data boils down to the fact that their graves will remain unknown to us. Let the numerous colleagues and their classmates scattered all over the world, having learned this sad news and bowing their heads respectfully before their blessed memory, remember their distant youth … ”
(“The Sentinel,” December 5, 1937)
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
