Grigory Semyonov Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov , or Semenov ( ) ( September 13 ( 25 ) , 1890 – August 30 , 1946 ) , was a Japanese - supported leader of the White movement in Transbaikal and beyond from December 1917 to November 1920 , Lieutenant General and " Ataman " of Baikal Cossacks ( 1919 ) . Biography . Semyonov was born in the Transbaikal region of eastern Siberia . His father , Mikhail Petrovich Semyonov , was of partial Buryat descent . Semyonov was a fluent Mongolian and Buryat language speaker . He joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1908 , and graduated from Orenburg Military School in 1911 . He took part in World War I and became a " yesaul " . According to Pyotr Wrangel : < br > Semenov was a Transbaikalian Cossack - dark and thickset , and of the rather alert Mongolian type . His intelligence was of a specifically Cossack calibre , and he was an exemplary soldier , especially courageous when under the eye of his superior . He knew how to make himself popular with Cossacks and officers alike , but he had his weaknesses in a love of intrigue and indifference to the means by which he achieved his ends . Though capable and ingenious , he had received no education , and his outlook was narrow . I have never been able to understand how he came to play a leading role . He was somewhat of an outsider among the his fellow officers because of his ethnicity . While serving in the Caucasus in World War I he met another officer shunned by his peers , Baron Ungern - Sternberg , whose eccentric nature and disregard of the rules of etiquette and decorum repelled others . He and Sternberg tried to organize a regiment of Assyrian Christians to aid in the fight against the Turks . In July 1917 , Semyonov left the Caucasus and was appointed Commissar of the Provisional Government in the Baikal region , responsible for recruiting counterrevolutionary volunteer military units . The Russian Civil War in Transbaikal . After the October Revolution , Semyonov stirred up an anti - Soviet rebellion , but sustained a defeat and fled to Manchuria . In August 1918 , he managed to consolidate his positions in the Transbaikal region with the help of the Czechoslovak Legions , and imposed his ruthless regime . In his rule over this region , he has been described as a " plain bandit < nowiki > [ who ] < / nowiki > drew his income from holding up trains and forcing payments , no matter what the nature of the load nor for whose benefit it was being shipped . " The so - called Siberian Provisional Government appointed Semyonov commander of a detached unit with the headquarters in Chita . Initially , Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak refused to recognize Semyonov ' s authority , but he had no choice but to accept Semyonov as de facto leader and confirm Semyonov as Commander - in - Chief of the Chita military district . In early 1919 , Semyonov declared himself " Ataman " of the Transbaikal Cossack Host with support from the Imperial Japanese Army , elements of which had been deployed to Siberia . The region under his control extended from Verkhne - Udinsk near Lake Baikal to the Shilka River and town of Stretensk , to Manchuli , where the Chinese Eastern Railway met the Chita Railway , and northeast some distance along the Amur Railway . Semyonov handed out copies of the " Protocols of the Elders of Zion " to the Japanese troops he became associated with . In February 1919 , it is said that he allowed a Jewish unit to form in his Cossack - dominated army . His most illustrious mistress and partner was a Jewish cabaret singer named Mashka Sharaban . After the defeat of the White movement , Admiral Kolchak transferred power to Semyonov in the Far East . However Semyonov was unable to keep his forces in Siberia under control : they stole , burned , murdered , and raped civilians , and developed a reputation for being little better than thugs . In July 1920 the Japanese Expeditionary Corps started their withdrawal in accordance with the Gongota Agreement signed with the Far Eastern Republic , leaving Semyonov without support . Transbaikal partisans , internationalists and the 5th Soviet Army under Genrich Eiche launched an operation to re - take Chita . In October 1920 , units of the Red Army and guerrillas forced Semyonov ' s tiny army out of the Baikal region . After having retreated to Primorye , Semyonov tried to continue fighting the Soviets , but was finally forced to abandon all Russian territory by September 1921 . In exile . Semyonov first escaped to Manchuria , then to Nagasaki , and later he settled in the United States where , after a short period of time , he was accused of committing acts of violence against the American soldiers of the Expeditionary Corps . Semyonov was eventually acquitted , and returned to China where he was given a monthly 1000 - yen pension by the Japanese government . He settled mostly in Northern China and Manchuria , where he had ties with the Japanese intelligence community and where he continued to wield some influence over the exiled Russian and Cossack communities . He was also employed by Puyi , the former Manchu Emperor of China . Semyonov was captured in Dalian by Soviet paratrooper s in September 1945 during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria , when the Soviet Army conquered Manchukuo . He was charged with counterrevolutionary activities and sentenced to death by hanging by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR . He was executed on August 29 , 1946 .