Boris Dumenko

A sergeant at the end of World War I, he returned to the Don and took command of a small unit of Red Cossacks, with Semyon Budyonny as his deputy and assistant.

Between September and December 1919, the Cavalry Corps won a series of battles and advanced over the Don Region towards the Caucasus.

Despite the fact that Dumenko had joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in January 1920, the Political Department of the corps and higher political authorities accused him of encouraging anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic sentiments among the rank-and-file troopers, hampering the work of the military commissars, and insufficiently combating the robbery and drunkenness of the Red Army soldiers.

Despite this, Dumenko was arrested along with six of his closest assistants on charges of killing the military commissar and preparing a mutiny.

Dumenko had been highly critical on the policy of Lev Trotsky of having political commissaries control the Army commanders from the rearguard and not in combat.