Abstract
Amid honors, varying from a tribute by Josef Stalin1 to memorial wreaths made of machine parts rather than flowers,2 Mikhail Vasil’evich Frunze was laid to rest in Moscow’s Red Square on November 3,1925.
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References
Stalin’s funeral speech for Frunze is reprinted in his Works (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954), VII, p. 256.
R. Eideman, “Vozhd’-polkovodets,” Sputnik politrabotnika, No. 27-28 (November 15, 1925), pp. 9–13.
Some of the indications of Frunze’s rank as a Soviet military hero may be cited here without any attempt at flippancy. Frunze is buried behind the Lenin mausoleum and in front of the Kremlin wall. His grave is marked by a marble bust. The only other graves with a similar position are those of Dzerzhinskii, Kalinin, Stalin, Sverdlov, and Zhdanov. This special honor would seem to rank Frunze among the six greatest Soviet Communist heroes, after Lenin. He is the only military figure among the six (if Stalin is considered to be chiefly a political figure). The libraries of the Soviet Union also recognize Frunze as an outstanding military hero. Their catalogs list the following as “Leaders and Heroes of the Civil War”-Budennyi, Voroshilov, Kikvidze, Kirov, Kotovskii, Kuibyshev, Lazo, Ordzhonikidze, Parkhomenko, Fabritsius, Frunze, Furmanov, Chapaev, and Shchors. (The listing is followed by the note, in parentheses, “See also Lenin and Stalin.”) In recent days, some other figures, such as Bluikher and Tukhachevskii, have been rehabilitated and added to the list. However, Frunze is the only figure honored by a special grave marker and by a listing among the leaders and heroes of the Civil War. His place of prominence as a Soviet hero is also indicated by the large number of institutions, including the staff college of the Soviet Army, which are named in his honor. He also has the usual number of streets named after him. A bust of Frunze was erected in front of the staff college in Moscow in May 1960. The capital of the Kirgiz republic is named for him. Many similar honors are paid him.
For a listing, see bibliographical note. It may be noted here, however, that his collected works were published in three volumes in 1926–1929. His selected works were published in one volume editions in 1934, 1940, 1950, 1951, and 1965, and in a two volume edition in 1957.
Among the principal critical works are V. Antonov-Ovseenko, “Stroitel’stvo Krasnoi armii i revoliutsiia,” Za 5 let (Moscow: Krasnaia nov’, 1922), pp. 145-189; I. Bakanov, “Frunze i oborona SSSR,” Bolshevik, No. 19-20 (October, 1940), pp. 59-71; G. Baranov, “M. V. Frunze o edinonachalii,” Propagandist i agitator RKKA, No. 17, 1940, pp. 10-15; Andrei Sergeevich Bubnov, O Krasnoi Armii (Moscow: Voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1958); Marshal Semen Mikhailovich Budennyi, “Vydaiushchiisia polkovodets i gosudarstvennyi deiatel’ (K 25-letiiu so dnia smerti M. V. Frunze),” Znamia, No. 10, 1950, pp. 129-136; R. Estreikher-Egorov, “M. V. Frunze o revoliutsionnoi voine,” Voina i revoliutsiia, No. 10-11 (October-November, 1927), pp. 215-231; F. Girs, “M. V. Frunze i voprosy sovremennoi oborony SSSR,” Narodnyi uchitel’, No. 2, 1927, pp. 5-10; A. Golubev, M. V. Frunze o kharaktere budushchei voiny (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1931); N. Gretskii, “M. V. Frunze o voennoi ditsipline,” Propagandist i agitator RKKA, No. 14, 1929, pp. 11-17; Sergei Ivanovich Gusev, Grazhdanskaia voina i Krasnaia armiia (Moscow: Voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1958); F. D. Khrustov, Frunze o voinskom vospitanii (Moscow: Voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1946); A. A. Kosiukov, Voenno-pedagogicheskie vzgliady M. V. Frunze (Moscow: Voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1960); O. V. Levitskii, M. V. Frunze — kommanduiushchii vsemi vooruzhennymi silami Urkainy i Kryma (Moscow: Voenno-politicheskaia akademiia imeni V. I. Lenina, 1951, an unpublished dissertation); I. S. Lezman, Voennaia i partiino-politicheskaia deiatel’nost M. V. Frunze na Ukraine v period perekhoda ot grazhdanskoi voiny k mirnomu sotsialisticheskomu stroitel’stvu (noiabr’ 1920 g. — mart 1924 g.) (Khar’kov: Krar’kovskii gosudarstvennyi universitet imeni A. M. Gor’kogo, 1955, an unpublished dissertation); F. N. Petrov, ed., M. V. Frunze: Zhizn’ i deiatel’nost’ (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1962); S. S. Shiskin, “Voennye vzgliady Frunze i sovremennaia voina,” Pod znamenem Marksizma, No. 1, 1944, pp. 49-65; L. Trotskii, “Voennaia nauka ili mnimo-voennoe doktrinerstvo?” Voennaia nauka i revoliutsiia, No. 2, 1921, pp. 204-234; Major E. N. Tsvetaev, “Voenno-teoreticheskaia rabota M. V. Frunze,” lzvestiia Akademii nauk SSSR, Seriia istorii i filosofii, No. 6 (November-December, 1950), pp. 501-513; I. G. Viktorov, M. V. Frunze i voprosy sovetskoi voennoi ideologii (Leningrad: Lenningradskii gosudarstvennyi universitet imeni A. A. Zhadanova, 1951, an unpublished dissertation); A. Vol’pe, Oborona strany i M. V. Frunze (Moscow and Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1928); and I. M. Zhernosek, Mikhail Vasil’evich Frunze o role i zadachakh tyla i snabzheniia v voine (po materialam boevoi deiatel’nosti i voennoe-teoreticheskim trudam) (Kalinin: Voennaia akademiia tyla i snabzheniia imeni V. M. Molotova, 1952, an unpublished dissertation).
See his Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence (New York: Harper, 1942), p. 418. There is, apparently, no way to check today the accuracy of Trotsky’s theory.
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© 1969 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Jacobs, W.D. (1969). Foreword Death of a Hero. In: Frunze: The Soviet Clausewitz 1885–1925. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9112-8_1
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