Vyacheslav Grigoryevich Naumenko (25 February 1883 – 30 October 1979) was a Kuban Cossack leader and historian.
Cossack
Naumenko was born in Petrovskaya, Kuban Oblast near the Black Sea in the territory of the Kuban Host. Pursuing a military career, he graduated from the Voronezh Mikhailovsky Cadet Corps in 1900, the Nicholas Calvary School in 1903, and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1914. He entered the First World War with the rank of voiskovi starshina (lieutenant colonel), serving as chief of staff of the 1st Kuban Cossack Calvary Division. He subsequently served as chief of staff of the 4th Kuban Division from August 1914 to January 1917 and as chief of staff of the Cossack field forces from January 1917 – January 1918.
On 30 August 1914, he was wounded in action while fighting against the Austrians in the city of Stryi in Galicia (which belonged to the Austrian empire at the time) and he was awarded the 4th class Order of Saint Anna on 15 December 1914 for heroism under fire. On 7 February 1915, he was awarded the 3rd class Order of Saint Anna for an action in the Carpathians on 25 September 1914 against the Austrians. On 6 March 1915, he was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir for the same action at Stryi where as he continued to fight on despite being wounded. On 6 April 1915, he was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus for heroism under fire while fighting the Austrians on 16–17 September 1914.
Like almost all Russian officers, Naumenko accepted the February Revolution of 1917 and the downfall of the ancient House of Romanov. The Cossack Hosts, who enjoyed a privileged position under the empire, tended to see themselves as bound by personal loyalty to the emperor rather than serving Russia, and with the end of the monarchy, many Cossacks took the viewpoint that their loyalty to Russia had ended. Naumenko served the Provisional government and on 14 August 1917 he was appointed a senior adjunct to the quartermaster of the Special Army. Like many officers, Naumenko was worried about the increasing signs of social breakdown over the course of 1917 and by the end of the year had grown close to General Lavr Kornilov, a Eurasian Siberian Cossack (Kornilov's mother was a Buryat). Kornilov who was well known for being described as having "the heart of a lion but the brain of a sheep" was a right-wing officer who was the first to raise his banner against the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution.
Russian Civil War
In the Russian Civil War, Naumenko fought on the White side. The British journalist Christopher Booker called Naumenko "a White Russian hero during the Civil War". Naumenko took part in the Ice March of the Volunteer Army under Kornilov in February–March 1918. On 18 February 1918, he was promoted to the rank of full colonel. By early March 1918, Naumenko was leading the Cossacks of the Kuban People's Republic into sporadic, but bitter clashes against the Red Army. Later in March 1918, Naumenko led the first joint operation between the Whites and the Kuban Host to take the stanitsa Novo-Dmitrievakain from the Bolsheviks. From April–June 1918, he served as chief of staff to a cavalry brigade commanded by General Viktor Pokrovsky active in southern Russia. On 27 June 1918, he took command of the 1st Kuban Mounted Regiment, and on 14 August 1918 he was promoted to take command of the 1st Mounted Brigade. On 19 November 1918, he assumed command of the 1st Mounted Division. On 8 December 1918, he was promoted to major general.
On 15 December 1918, he was elected a field ataman of the Kuban Host, serving as their "minister of war". On 14 February 1919, the Kuban ataman Alexander Filimonov issued a degree putting all of the Cossacks of the Kuban Host under the command of Naumenko. The same order also declared the Kuban Host was not to take orders from the White generals. However, Naumenko was against Cossack separatism, and favored having the Kuban Host accept the authority of the White leaders instead of operating alone as the separatists favored. Relations between the rada (council) and Naumenko were strained and he was forced to resign on 14 September 1919. Naumenko served in the reserves of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) from 14 September 1919 to 11 October 1919, when he took command of the 2nd Kuban Corps, which he held until March 1920. In March 1920, following the defeat of the AFSR, Naumenko fled down the Black Sea coast into Georgia.