Innokenty Smolin

Innokenty Semyonovich Smolin (January 13, 1884, Yakutsk – March 23, 1973, Papeete) was a Russian military commander, participant in the Russian–Japanese War, World War I and Civil War, Major general (1919, Russian Army), Lieutenant general (1920, Far Eastern Army, later refused), a prominent figure in the White movement in Siberia and the Far East.

Biography
Innokenty Semyonovich Mutterperl (sometimes written as Innokenty Konstantinovich Mutterper) was born on January 13, 1884, into a bourgeois family in the city of Yakutsk, Yakutsk District, Yakutsk Region. By nationality – Karaim.

Officer
In 1905, he graduated from the Irkutsk Military School in the 2nd Category. On May 5, 1905, he was promoted from the Belt Junker to Second Lieutenant in the 11th Siberian Infantry Regiment of Semipalatinsk. Member of the Russo–Japanese War, was not in battle. On May 7, 1906, the regiment was transferred from the city of Semipalatinsk to the city of Kurgan. Lieutenant from December 3, 1909 (seniority from May 5, 1909), for long service. On September 14, 1910, the 11th Infantry Siberian Reserve Semipalatinsk Regiment and the 12th Infantry Siberian Reserve Barnaul Regiment were combined into the 44th Siberian Rifle Regiment. Staff Captain from January 7, 1914 (seniority from May 5, 1913), for long service.

On June 3, 1914, he was transferred as Commander of the 6th Company to the 4th Finnish Rifle Regiment (22nd Army Corps), participated in the First World War as part of the regiment.

On September 7, 1914, the captain of the 4th Finnish Rifle Regiment, Innokenty Mutterperl, was wounded and shell–shocked near the town of Byala and sent to the Minsk Hospital.

From February 10, 1915, Captain Mutterperl participated in the battle of Kozevo, being the head of an important section of the position, repeatedly knocked out the Germans with bayonets who broke into our trenches and retained the section entrusted to him, was awarded the George Weapon. He was shell–shocked on February 14, 1915 and on April 24, 1915.

From April 19, 1915 – commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Finnish Rifle Regiment. From April 29, 1915 – regimental adjutant. Captain from September 22, 1915 (seniority from February 9, 1915), for distinction in deeds. Lieutenant Colonel from March 22, 1916 (seniority from August 1, 1915). Since December 1916 – the head of the economic part of the regiment. Since March 1917, the temporary commander of the regiment. From April 1917 – assistant commander, then Commander of the 3rd Finnish Rifle Regiment (22nd Army Corps). On August 19–29, 1917, he was sent to the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander–in–Chief for a meeting as a representative from the command staff of the 7th Army. Discharged from the army on November 20, 1917.

Commander of the White Partisan Detachment
He lived near the city of Turinsk, Tobolsk Province, with relatives. In early 1918, he headed an underground officer organization in Turinsk. Then, pursued by the Bolsheviks, he hid in the vicinity of the city, in June 1918, he crossed the front line, went to the location of the White troops and reached Kurgan, and then to Omsk, where he suggested that Colonel Pavel Ivanov–Rinov create a special detachment to carry out operational tasks to eliminate Soviet power in Siberia.

On June 24, 1918, a detachment of Smolin was formed (35 Czechs and 44 Russians, of which 16 were horsemen under the command of Captain Mikhail Manzhetny). The composition of the Russians was as follows: 25 officers, 4 volunteers, 6 soldiers from local peasants and 9 students from Kurgan youth. The detachment was part of the 2nd Steppe Siberian Rifle Regiment (commander Captain Dmitry Pankov). On June 25, 1918, Smolin's Detachment set out from Kurgan and on the evening of June 26, 1918, occupied the village of Isetskoye without a fight. Then, on the night of June 30, 1918, he captured the Yertarsky Glass Factory, where he arrested the council of deputies, and on the night of July 1, 1918, the Tugulym Station (the Yekaterinburg–Tyumen Railway Line), where they called and captured an armored train of the Reds. Then the detachment moved to the Tyumen–Omsk Railway Line, where it joined the 1st Steppe Siberian Rifle Division (commander Colonel Grigory Verzhbitsky) of the 2nd Steppe Siberian Corps (commander Colonel Pavel Ivanov–Rinov) of the Siberian Army. Smolin's Detachment was reinforced by the 3rd Steppe Siberian Rifle Regiment (up to 190 bayonets, commander Captain Boris Verzhbolovich), two platoons of the 2nd Siberian Cossack Regiment (60 sabers) and one gun. On July 16, 1918, the detachment, after a heavy battle, took the Rise Station. Since July 18, 1918 – Colonel. On the night of July 19, attacked the village of Chervishevo (the Consolidated Cavalry Hundred of Captain Manzhetny (70 people) was supposed to cross the highway north of Chervishev, interrupting its connection with the city of Tyumen and the village of Bogandinskoye, and attack from the north; 3rd Steppe Siberian Rifle Regiment was supposed to attack from the southeast, Smolin's Detachment – from the west). Smolin's Detachment played an important role in the capture of the city of Tyumen on July 20, 1918, by the troops of General Grigory Verzhbitsky. After the capture of the city, Colonel Smolin commanded a parade of troops of white rebels, Cossacks and Czechoslovaks.

White officer Boris Filimonov recalled the circumstances of the creation of Smolin's Detachment as part of the corps of General Pavel Ivanov–Rinov: "When a certain Lieutenant Colonel Smolin, who had arrived from nowhere, appeared at the headquarters of the corps and offered his services in forming a partisan detachment, it never occurred to anyone at the headquarters to check whether he really was the person he claims to be. They realized this only two weeks later, when a partisan detachment was already in the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Smolin. The corps headquarters then became terribly alarmed and sounded the alarm. The fact is that someone, either jokingly or seriously, stated at the headquarters of the corps that Smolin was in fact in the service of the Bolsheviks and was provoking Ivanov–Rinov. And then telegrams flew from Omsk to Kurgan, secret instructions, counterintelligence agents went to immediately and accurately find out the location of Smolin's Detachment and detain him. But then reports came to the headquarters of the corps about the successful actions of the detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Smolin in the deep rear of the Reds, which brought calm, brought joy to the White command, and for some people, presumably, a decent embarrassment."

General of the White Army
The detachment of Innokenty Smolin was renamed the 3rd Steppe Regiment, and then became part of the 15th Kurgan Siberian Rifle Regiment. On July 31, 1918, Smolin took command of the 15th Kurgan Siberian Rifle Regiment from Lieutenant Colonel Cherkasov and in May 1919 transferred the regiment to Lieutenant Colonel Boris Verzhbolovich. The regiment was part of the 4th Siberian Rifle Division (commanders Colonel Mikhail Fukin, then Major General Grigory Verzhbitsky).

On September 28, 1918, at the head of the 15th Kurgan Siberian Rifle Regiment, he was the first to enter Alapaevsk. He organized an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the execution of members of the Romanov Dynasty on the night of July 18, 1918. He kept the documents of the investigation at his headquarters, then transferred them to the headquarters of the head of the 7th Ural Division, General Vladimir Golitsyn (he later sent them to the commission investigating the circumstances of the death of the royal family and its relatives in the Urals).

On January 3, 1919, the Russian Army was created by the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Kolchak. From December 21, 1918, to March 20, 1920, Smolin was the Commander of the 4th Siberian Rifle Division, which was part of the 3rd Steppe Siberian Army Corps (commander Major general Grigory Verzhbitsky, then Innokenty Smolin himself).

From May 1919 to October 12, 1919 – commander of the 3rd Steppe Siberian Army Corps as part of the Southern Group of Forces, Lieutenant general Grigory Verzhbitsky. On March 16, 1919, Innokenty Smolin was a Major general.

On October 12, 1919, the 3rd Steppe Siberian Army Corps was reorganized into the Southern Group of the 2nd Army (army commander Major General Sergei Voitsekhovsky). In November 1919, the Southern Group, together with the Tobolsk Group, was combined into a common column under the command of Lieutenant general Grigory Verzhbitsky.

January 27 – February 22, 1920 – Commander of the Southern Group of Forces. A member of the Great Siberian Ice Campaign, he commanded a group of troops of the 4th Siberian Rifle Division, which, numbering more than 1,800 fighters, came to Chita on March 4, 1920.

In the troops of the Russian Eastern Outskirts of Ataman Grigory Semyonov – commander of the 2nd Omsk Rifle Brigade (Division) from April to August 1920. In April 1920, Innokenty Smolin was awarded the rank of Lieutenant general by Ataman Grigory Semenov (since this title was awarded by Ataman Grigory Semenov, Innokenty Smolin later refused it). From August 23, 1920 – commander of the 2nd Siberian Corps of the Far Eastern Army. After the defeat of the Far Eastern (White) Army on November 20, 1920, in Transbaikalia, he moved to Primorye through Manchuria, China, along the Chinese Eastern Railway with the remnants of the 2nd Rifle Corps, where he took command of the former 2nd Rifle Corps in the White Insurgent Army (Amur Provisional Government of Merkulov).

In 1921, he was the head of the garrison in the city of Nikolsk–Ussuriysky.

Since August 1922, he was the Commander of the Siberian Rat (formerly part of the 2nd Corps, 1450 bayonets and sabres) of the Zemstvo Rat.

Life in exile
From 1922, he lived in exile. According to information for 1925, he lived in Qingdao, owned a grocery store, then served as a watchman at a factory and a jockey at a hippodrome. Since 1932, he lived in Shanghai. He served in the International Savings Society, worked as a house manager, according to some sources, and as a jockey.

In 1939, he left for the United States of America, where his son Boris Smolin was born. Then he moved to the island of Tahiti, where he served as chief accountant in the bank of the city of Papeete. He was respected as an excellent specialist and the most reliable person of an impeccable reputation. Member of the Society of Veterans of the First World War. In his last years, he wrote memoirs.

The Soviet geographer Gleb Udintsev recalled a meeting with General Smolin in 1961 in Tahiti and his question whether he was drawn to his homeland. In response, Smolin said: "It pulls, of course, but too many difficult memories are associated with the death of the admiral and our entire army, so it's better not to awaken them by returning to that land that has become evil for us. True, I confess that I would like to visit my wife's grave even for a minute. She was a sister of mercy, died of typhus and was buried in Nikolaevsk–Ussuriysky, now it is Voroshilov–Ussuriysky. Yes, it looks like it won't work."

Innokenty Smolin died on February 23, 1973, in the town of Papeete in the Papeete Commune of the Windward Islands of French Polynesia.

Awards

 * Order of Saint George, IV Class, March 16, 1919;
 * Order of Saint Vladimir, III Class, May 21, 1919;
 * Order of Saint Vladimir, IV Class with Swords and Bow, July 9, 1915;
 * Order of Saint Anna, II Class with Swords, March 4, 1915 and April 28, 1916;
 * Order of Saint Stanislaus, II Class with Swords, February 21, 1915 and April 9, 1916;
 * Order of Saint Anna, III Class, 1909;
 * Order of Saint Stanislaus, III Class, 1905;
 * Swords and a Bow for the Order of Saint Stanislaus, III Class, June 4, 1916;
 * Order of Saint Anna, IV Class with the Inscription "For Courage", December 27, 1916;
 * George Arms, May 1, 1915 and November 23, 1915;
 * Insignia of the Military Order "For the Great Siberian Campaign", August 30, 1920;
 * Highest Favor, 1916;
 * French War Cross with Palme, declared by order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander, September 5, 1919.

Ranks

 * Lieutenant General – April 1920;
 * Major General – March 16, 1919;
 * Colonel – July 18, 1918;
 * Lieutenant Colonel – March 22, 1916, seniority from August 1, 1915;
 * Captain – September 22, 1915, seniority from February 9, 1915, for distinction in deeds;
 * Staff Captain – January 7, 1914, seniority from May 5, 1913;
 * Lieutenant – December 3, 1909, seniority from May 5, 1909, for length of service;
 * Second Lieutenant – May 5, 1905, for long service.

Family

 * The first wife was a sister of mercy, died of typhus and was buried in Nikolaevsk–Ussuriysk;
 * From his second wife, the son Boris Smolin was born in the United States. In the mid-1960s, he immigrated to Israel. His grandson, Avigdor Smolin, was an officer in the Barak Armored Brigade of the Israeli Army. Killed in 1982 during the Lebanese War. According to the newspaper "Vesti" dated November 7, 2006, the General of the Kolchak's Army has about 20 grandchildren and great–grandchildren living in Israel.