June 12] 1881 – August 6, 1925) was a Soviet military officer and political activist, and participant in the Russian Civil War.

He made a career from being a gangster and bank robber to eventually becoming a Red Army commander and member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union.

He intended eventually to send his godson to Germany for advanced agricultural courses, but his dreams were cut short by his death in 1902.

While studying at the agricultural college, Kotovsky became involved with the local political club of Socialist Revolutionaries.

He soon deserted from the military and organized his own band of robbers, conducting raids and setting estates on fire.

At katorga, Kotovsky cooperated with prison authorities and was put in charge of a 10-man team of construction workers who were building a railroad.

However, it was decided not to release bandits on the day of the amnesty, and on February 27, 1913, Kotovsky managed to escape from katorga and return home to Bessarabia.

In 1918, he sided with the Communists in Tiraspol, taking command of a revolutionary battalion and helping the Bolsheviks gain control of Ukraine.

He was then buried in a mausoleum in Birzula, which was renamed Kotovsk in 1935, a town included in the newly created Odessa Oblast.

Kotovsky appears as an important character in the novel "Chapayev and Void" by postmodern Russian writer Viktor Pelevin.