Grigory Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky ( , ; in Hînceşti , now in Hînceşti district , Moldova – August 6 , 1925 in Birzula , now Kotovsk in Ukraine ) was an adventurist , Soviet military and political figure , participant of the Russian Civil War . He made a career from a Russian gangster and bank robber , to eventually becoming a Red Army general and member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union . Biography . Early life . Kotovsky was born in Bessarabia , the son of a mechanical engineer . ( Officially Kotovsky claimed to be born in 1887 . ) He also had five siblings . His father was Russian of Polish ethnicity and his mother was an ethnic Russian . By father , Kotovsky was hailed from an old aristocratic Polish family from Kamyanets - Podilsky . His grandfather for connections with participants of the Polish uprising was fired from the Russian service and eventually went bankrupt . Father of Kotovsky was forced to move to Bessarabia and become a Russian burgess . Kotovksy suffered from a marked stuttering and was a left - handed . At two he lost his mother and at 16 - his father . Kotovsky was raised by his godmother Sophia Challe , a daughter of Belgian engineer and a friend of Kotovsky ' s father and a godfather - landowner Manuk - bey . Manuk - bey helped and completely supported Kotovsky enrollment and stay at the Cucuruzeni Agricultural College . He intended eventually to send his godson to Germany for the Higher Agricultural Courses , but his dreams were cut short due to his death in 1902 . While studying in the college Kotovsky became involved with the local political club of Socialist Revolutionaries . After graduation in 1900 he worked as an assistant to estate manager , but never for too long . Kotovsky was being fired for various con - acts including theft , fraternization and others . With the start of the Russo - Japanese War he did not report to a military entrance processing station . In 1905 he was arrested for evasion of military service and sent to the 19th Kostroma Infantry Regiment headquartered in Zhytomyr . Soon he deserted the service and organized its own gang conducting raids , setting estates on fire , robing and terrorizing the local population . On January 18 , 1906 Kotovsky was finally arrested , but managed to escape after six months from the Chisinau prison . On September 24 , 1906 he was arrested again and next year sentenced to 12 years of " katorga " . His sentence Kotovsky served at the Nerchinsk katorga to which he was brought only in 1911 spending more time in various prisons across the Russian Empire ( Yelizavetgrad Prison , Smolensk Prison , and Oryol Prison ) . At katorga Kotovsky cooperated with authorities and put in charge of 10 men team for construction of a railroad . In 1913 he became a candidate for an amnesty commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty . However , it was decided not to release bandits on the amnesty , therefore on February 27 , 1913 Kotovsky escaped from katorga and returned to Bessarabia . At first he lived undercover working as a loader and heavy - worker , but eventually became a leader of local raiders . One of the most noticeable was his successful " hit " on the State Treasury in Bender . On June 25 , 1916 Kotovsky was unable to get away from the pursuit after another raid . He was surrounded by a squad of secret police and after being wounded in a chest he was arrested . The Odessa Military District court sentenced him a capital punishment by hanging . In death row Kotovsky wrote letters of repentance asking to sent him to frontlines . Upon the abdication of Nicholas II , a riot took place at the Odessa prison after which the prison became self - governed , the Russian Provisional Government announced a wide political amnesty . Revolutionary days . During the last part of World War I , Kotovsky was sent to the Romania n front . In 1918 , he sided with the Communists in Tiraspol , taking command of a revolutionary battalion and helping the Bolsheviks gain control of Ukraine . He joined the Bolshevik party in 1920 . In 1924 , he took an active part in the foundation of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in Transnistria , as part of the Ukrainian SSR . He was killed near Odessa by his deputy and friend for having an affair with the latter ' s wife in 1925 . He was then buried in a mausoleum in Birzula , which was renamed Kotovsk in 1935 ; in the meantime it was included in the newly created Odessa Oblast . The mausoleum was later destroyed during the Romanian occupation of Transnistria . Two other towns in the Soviet Union were also named Kotovsk . One of them was his native Hînceşti , which regained its former name in 1990 . The other one is situated in Tambov Oblast , Russia . External links . " This article is partially translated from Russian Wikipedia "