After the capture of Yekaterinburg by the Legion and the White Army in July 1918, he set up his headquarters in the city, establishing his office at the Ipatiev House, incidentally where the imprisoned Romanovs has been murdered by the Bolsheviks less than a week prior to the capture of the city. The most successful operation was the capture of Perm (24 December 1918) where the Legion took 20,000 prisoners and seized 5,000 railway cars, 60 cannon, 1,000 machine guns and the fleet frozen in the Kama River. Gajda enjoyed widespread popularity amongst his troops and throughout the White movement. He was promoted to Major-General and nicknamed "the Siberian Ataman" and "the Siberian Tiger." He later accepted an invitation from Aleksandr Kolchak to become a commander in his army.