Years of service 1891–1938 | Name Jukums Vacietis | |
 | ||
Battles/wars | ||
Jukums Vācietis (Russian: Иоаким Иоакимович Вацетис, Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis; 11 November 1873 – 28 July 1938) was a Latvian Soviet military commander. He was a rare example of a notable Soviet leader who was not a member of the Communist Party (or of any other political party), until his own demise during Joseph Stalin's Great Terror.
Contents
Early life
Jukums Vācietis began his academic life at the Skede Parish School and the Ministry of Kuldiga school. He had a tough childhood. Besides studying, he also worked in a match factory.
Military career
He started his military career in Imperial Russia in 1891. During World War I he commanded the 5th Latvian Zemgale Rifle Regiment (eventually with the rank of colonel), which supported Lenin's Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and the ensuing Russian Civil War. From April 1918 he was the commander of the Red Latvian Riflemen division. From July to September 1918 he commanded the Eastern Front. He was the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army (RKKA), a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (4 September 1918 – 8 July 1919). In July he was arrested under the false accusation of membership in a counter-revolutionary reactionary White Guardist organization, but was soon released.
In 1922 he became a professor of the RKKA Military Academy (future Frunze Military Academy). During this time, he wrote several books, most notable among them being 'Latvian Riflemen's Historical Importance'. In 1935 he was assigned a personal rank of Comandarm, 2nd Rank.
On 29 November 1937 he was arrested as a member of the alleged "Latvian Fascist Organization within the RKKA", and executed in 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1957.