Dmitriy Furmanov with the propaganda brigade of the Chapayev division, 1919

Photos of Revolutionary Russia #6

Dmitriy Furmanov with the propaganda brigade of the Chapayev division, 1919

-- Photos of Revolutionary Russia #6

Furmanov (in the centre of the photo) joined the Russian Communist Party in 1918 and in 1919 was working with a propaganda division in Red Army division headed by Vasily Chapayev (1887-1919) on the eastern front of the Russian Civil War. Furmanov would become famous for his novel, "Chapayev", a Soviet bestseller which was about the exploits of the division and its commander.

This would help to turn Chapayev into a revolutionary civil war icon in the Soviet Union. Chapayev was killed in 1919 while fighting in what is now Kazakhstan after being ambushed by counter-revolutionary forces.

Furmanov, sadly, would die of meningitis in Moscow in 1926 at the young age of 33.