Boris Sinani: 246 Days in the Life of a Participant in Revolutionary Events in Russia in 1917

Abstract

From the example of Russian officer Boris Semenovich Sinani’s fate, the authors have attempted to reconstruct the events of the first days of the February Revolution, including certain aspects of the work of the “military headquarters of the revolution” - the Military Commission, as well as the reasons for the creation and nature of the functioning of the Union of Republican Officers of the People's Army. Through their research, the authors have revealed the complexity of the relationship between the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, as well as the attitude of the Russian officers to the revolutionary changes in the country. The authors note that the name Sinani was taken as a pseudonym by Georgy Borisovich Skalov, another participant in the revolution and the Civil War, and this choice played a tragic role in the fate of the latter. The study is based on the analysis of the documents of the Union of Socialists of the People's Army stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, memoirs, and their comparison with published scientific works. The authors have also attempted to reconstruct the main lines of interaction and contradictions between officer groups during the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Keywords

• military anthropology
• historical biography
• february revolution
• officers
• russian imperial army
• petrograd