Yakov Sheko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yeskovo village, Krasninsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire
Moscow, Soviet Union
- Russian Empire
- Russian SFSR
- Soviet Union
Yakov Sheko | |
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 Sheko in the mid-1930s | |
| Born | 1 April 1893 Yeskovo village, Krasninsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 5 June 1938 (aged 45) Moscow, Soviet Union |
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| Service | |
| Years of service |
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| Rank | Komdiv |
| Commands | |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Order of the Red Banner (2) |
Yakov Vasilyevich Sheko (Russian: Яков Васильевич Шеко; 1 April 1893 – 5 June 1938) was a Red Army Komdiv.
He fought in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, rising from private to officer, and joined the Red Army in 1918, fighting in the Russian Civil War and Polish–Soviet War. He received the Order of the Red Banner for one action while a chief of staff of a division of the 1st Cavalry Army. Sheko held division and corps commands during the 1920s and 1930s, and had two stints in Mongolia as Chief of Staff of the Mongolian People's Army and as an adviser to the Mongolian War Ministry. During the Great Purge, Sheko spent several months as a cavalry corps commander due to vacancies created by arrests but was himself arrested in August 1937 and executed the next year.
Sheko was born to a peasant family on 1 April 1893 in the village of Yeskovo, Krasninsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate. He graduated from the village school and a city school and before 1912 worked in the village. He moved to Moscow between 1912 and 1913 to work as a laborer in a milk factory, but returned to the village for work between 1913 and 1914. While in the village he also took teaching classes and twice passed a teacher's exam.[1][2]
After World War I began, Sheko was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army in late 1914, serving as a private in an automobile company stationed in Petrograd until September 1915. In November of that year, he graduated from the 3rd Peterhof Warrant Officers School to become a praporshchik and was sent to a reserve battalion in Kozlov. This assignment proved brief, as a month later Sheko was sent to the 29th Chernigov Infantry Regiment on the Western Front. He served successively as a company junior officer, company commander, and regimental adjutant, ending the war with the rank of staff captain. Following the Russian Revolution, Sheko participated in the formation of Red Guard detachments in 1917.[1][2]
After joining the Red Army in June 1918, Sheko fought in the Russian Civil War. He became assistant commander of the Volkovysk Infantry Regiment in July and in August took command of the 152nd Rifle Regiment. Attaining membership of the Communist Party in January 1919, Sheko served as chief of the Sarny and Rovno combat sectors from February, before departing to study at the General Staff Academy in March. His studies were interrupted by being sent to the front in May 1920 to serve as a war correspondent and chief of the information-historical section of the staff of the 1st Cavalry Army. Serving as officer for operational staff duties for the 1st Cavalry Army commander between July and August, he served as chief of staff of the 6th Cavalry Division between 5 August and 14 December, during the 1st Cavalry Army's campaign in the Polish–Soviet War and operations against the Army of Wrangel in Crimea.[1] Between 12 and 27 October Sheko served as acting division commander after Apanasenko was relieved of command.[3] He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 29 May 1921 for capturing the Zavada station with two dismounted squadrons in fighting against the Army of Wrangel and blowing up the tracks, which was credited with cutting off the White armored trains and strengthening the superiority of the 1st Cavalry Army.[2][4] As chief of staff of the 6th Cavalry Division, Sheko was mentioned in journalist Isaac Babel's 1920 Diary and Red Cavalry. Babel wrote in his entry for 14 August 1920 in 1920 Diary that Sheko ordered the killing of Polish prisoners of war, a policy condoned by division commander Iosif Apanasenko.[5]