Brow, Mikhail

Born at the end of the 19th century into a peasant family in the village of Novogrigoryevka, Bakhmut district. From early childhood, he worked as a mechanic at Avdeevka station near Yuzovka.

In 1904 he joined the anarcho-communists, participated in the revolution of 1905-07.

In 1914, drafted to the front. He participated in the First World War, from 1917 to 1918 he served in the rank of sailor.

In June 1918, he organized the Dubrovsky detachment in Alexander District, one of the first partisan anarchist detachments. He fought against the German invaders and hetman. In August 1918, he was seriously wounded in battle, and he transferred the command of the detachment to Fedor Shchus. Since the fall of 1918 - a member of the Makhnovist movement, a permanent member of the Military Revolutionary Council (VRS) of the rebels.

In the autumn-winter company of 1919 he was the combat commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RPAU), led the fight against the Volunteer Army of General Denikin .

In early January 1920, at the head of a group of anarchists (300-400 people), he began a guerrilla war against the Reds in Novomoskovsk Uyezd. ^[1] In mid-February, arrested by KGB during an underground meeting of commanders of the Makhnovist detachments operating in the county. He was kept in the Yekaterinoslav Prison, from where in April 1920 he fled and resumed the partisan struggle. By the summer of 1920, he established contact with the RPAU command, was appointed representative of the Council of Revolutionary Rebels in Novomoskovsk Uyezd, where he led the partisan movement in the summer and autumn of 1920.

After the conclusion of the last military-political agreement between the RPAU and the Soviet regime in October 1920, the Brovy detachment ceased fighting against the Reds and marched on the Wrangel front, but on November 16, 1920, the PSA returned it to the Novomoskovsk region to form new Makhnovist units.

In December, Mikhail organized a detachment of 400 sabers and 300 bayonets, at the head of which, after breaking the alliance with the Reds, he again led a guerrilla war in Verkhnedneprovsky, Pavlograd and Novomoskovsky districts. Several times he managed to break out of the encirclement, in winter battles he almost completely destroyed the 4th cavalry division of the Reds pursuing him (part of the Red Army troops passed to the Makhnovists).

At the end of January 1921, a detachment of G. S. Maslakov (a former brigade commander of the 1st Cavalry Army, joined the RPAU) joined a group of Brovy, who took command of the combined detachment, and Brov became chief of staff. On February 16, 1921, Brov and Maslakov achieved the decision of the RPAU URP to separate them into an independent Caucasian rebel army, and headed for the Kuban and the North Caucasus. ^{[2] [3]}

In the 1st half of 1921 the army cleared many mountainous areas and villages from the Reds, and raided small towns. The army enjoyed the support of the population and its number grew rapidly (according to V.F. Bilash, in February 1921 - about 1,000 people, until the summer of 1921 - already up to 10 thousand people). In August 1921, the Reds, having concentrated considerable forces, making extensive use of hostage-taking and mass executions, managed to inflict a number of heavy defeats on the army. The army broke up into several small isolated units, at the head of one of them was Mikhail Brov.

In the fall of 1921, he was killed by a Cheka agent who infiltrated his detachment. ^[four]

• http://www.makhno.ru/makhno/
• http://ruthenos.org.ua/HTML/Lozova/harkivschyna.html
• Belash Victor. Roads of Nestor Makhno