Volunteer Nickolai V. Shinkarenko in Spanish officer uniform.
Badge of the Russian volunteers of Tercio Dona Maria de Molina
Seventy-two White army veterans served as volunteers supporting Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war. White Russian volunteers, almost all of whom came from the Paris emigre community and had served in the White armies of the Russian Civil War, saw the Spanish conflict as the first step in a march back to St. Petersburg.
Once in Spain, the treatment Franco’s foreign volunteers received rarely seemed to live up to their expectations. Individual volunteers like Frenchman Gaston Penaud were not welcome at military headquarters in Nationalist Spain when they managed to get there on their own and in Penaud’s case, he was not directed to the French Joan of Arc battalion; he spent four months in Spain and never saw any action or even found a rifle while hanging around various Nationalist military quarters. Similarly, the effort of the White Russians to be recognized as officers and aristocrats with considerable experience from the Russian Civil War was unsuccessful; they were enrolled in Spanish units as regular soldiers and were not permitted to form a separate Russian unit that might be the basis for a revived Imperial Army. Majority in the Carlist militias and especially in Tercio Dona Maria de Molina.
List of the 72 [1] White Russian volunteers:
General-major S. N. Bulack-Balachovich
General-major Alexander V. Fok
General-major Nickolai V. Shinkarenko
Colonel Nickolai N. Boltin
Colonel, baron von B. S. Wolf-Ludensgausen
Colonel, prince A. V. Amilachvari
Capitan Nickolai J. Krivosheia
Capitan Grigul
Capitan A. A. Bonch-Bruevich
Capitan M. N.Ureninskij
Capitan Rashevskij
Capitan Vladislav Svintzov
Capitan P. V. Belin
Stabs-capitan Jakov T. Poluchin
Stabs-capitan D. K. Golban
Stabs-capitan V. I. Naletov
Stabs-capitan A. P. Jaremchuk
Stabs-capitan S. P. Brilliantov
Stabs-capitan E. E. Palchevskij
Stabs-capitan N. I. Selivanov
Stabs-capitan A. P. Ergin
Stabs-rotmistr S. K. Gurskij
Stabs-rotmistr Alexander A. Tringam
Rotmistr G. M. Zelim-Bek
Starshij leutnant V. M. Marchenko
Starshij leutnant N. A. Rogosin
R. A. Konstantino
Porutchik L. N. Pulaev
Porutchik V. V. Bojarunas
Porutchik K. A. Gognidganoshvili
Porutchik N. P. Zotov
Podporutchik N. K. Sladkov
Podporutchik N. S. Artuchov
Podporutchik K. A. Goncharenko
Podporutchik Porchovich
Podpraporschik Zbignev K. Kompelskij
Cadet V. E. Krivosheia
Cadet M. A. Salnikov
Junker L. G. Tozkij
Feldfebel N. Ivanov
Feldfebel V. A. Dvoichenko
V. Gurko
B. V. Iliyn
V. Kissilev
Baron I. A. Osten-Drisen
Nickolai E. Bark
A. V. Bibikov
I. Guziew
N. N. Vainer
P. Ivanov-Panfilov
Serge Ivanov
E. V. Konstantinov
Porutchik V. I. Kovalevskij
Porutchik Cheremuschkin
Prince Dolgorukij
Esaulov
P. A. Zotov
Koptev
A. Kuzenko
Graf G. P. Lamsdorff
Prince Laursov-Magalov
I. V. Marchenko
Bovitc
Platonov
Igor K. Sacharov
M. Stuban
V. Chig
V. Klimenko
Prince M. A. Zulukidze
Uri A. Starizkij
Serge Tehli+
Von Ditrich
White Russians fought in Legion, Requete, Air Force and Army. White Russians were famous by their courage. They used an small imperial flag with the phrase; “By Tsar, Motherland and Faith”
In the Blau (Blue) Division in Russia 1942-44 we can find White Russian volunteers.
Some Russian volunteers who fought with the Reserve Batallion 250.
Konstantin Goguijonachvili. A former captain in the Imperial Army (cavalry) of the Czar.2nd Lietuenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion and lieutenant in the Requetés during the Spanish Civil War.
He served in Russia, and returned to Spain in 1944. He received the War Cross with Palms for his actions in Russia. With the Blau Division he served in the 269 Infantry Regiment, the Reserve Batallion 250, the Skiers Company and the Headquarters. In September 1943 he had received War Merit Cross First and Second Class with Swords (Kriegsverdienstkreuz I. und II. Klasse mit Schwerten)
Iron Cross Second Class (Eisernes Kreuz II Klasse (EK II))
Medal for the Winter Campaign in the East 1941-1942 (Ostmedaille)
Tank Destruction Badge (Panzervernichtenabzeichen)
Wounds Badge (Verwundetenabzeichen)
Konstantin Gocharenko Chudov, he was killed in action at the Wolchow, a day like today, March 21, 1942. He, as a lieutenant, served as a translator in the II Batalion/263 Infantry Regiment. He is buried at Pankowka cementery.
Vasili Krivocheya. He was a former lieutenant in the Czarist army. He fought in the Spanish Civil War as a sergeant in the Legion, in the Headquarters of the first Tercio and as a translator of the Second Section of the HQs, and received the Spanish citizenship.
Vasili Nicolai Krivocheia, commanded the signal section of the 263 Infantry Regiment. He was after that a translator at the HQs of the regiment. He was injured at the head, breast and both legs by shrapnel in 1943. He recovered by a sheer miracle and married a Russian girl there. Once he returned to Spain after WW2, he joined the Legion, where he served until 1961. From then onwards, he served as a Russian translator in the High Command of the Spanish Army. He retired from the army in 1962 and went to live at Madrid, where he died in 1971.
During his time in Russia received
War Merit Cross (Kriegsverdienstkreuz)
Two -2- Red Crosses to the Militar Merit (Cruces Rojas al Merito Militar)
War Cross (Cruz de Guerra)
Wounds Badge (Medalla de Sufrimientos por la Patria, aspa de herido)
[1] Other sources put the number at between 75-182 volunteers.
