Dmitry Shmidt

Dmitry Arkadievich Shmidt (; born David Aronovich Gutman (; August or 19 December 1896 – 19 June 1937) was a Red Army komdiv. Shmidt became a revolutionary before World War I and was imprisoned. He was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army at the beginning of 1915 and fought in World War I. Shmidt became a Full Cavalier of the Cross of St. George and an officer. After the February Revolution he led the Bolsheviks in his divisional committee. Shmidt joined the Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War, initially as a partisan. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions. After the end of the war he held command positions in cavalry units. He became commander of the 8th Mechanized Brigade in 1934. In 1936, Shmidt was one of the first Red Army officers to be arrested in the Great Purge, and was executed a year later. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.

Background Shmidt was born in August or on 19 December 1896 in Pryluky. He was the son of a poor Jewish shoemaker or an insurance clerk. His mother worked as a typesetter at a cigarette factory. (NOTE: Chambers is off by a year or so on the year of Shmidt's death.)