Theodor Baranov

Theodor Baranov (26th of October/7th of November 1881, Mitau/Jelgava, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire –  4th of April 1946, Jelgava, Latvian SSR) – an officer of the Russian Imperial Army,  a recipient of the Order of St. George, a teacher from 1936 to 1940.

Fyodor (Theodor) Baranov was born into a family of Orthodox Latvians. In 1901, he graduated from the Mitau/Jelgava Municipal Alexander School, after which he served in the army as a private. On 22 April 1905, he graduated from the Vilna/Vilnius Junker School (second category graduate) and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, being assigned to the 14th East Siberian Rifle Regiment. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War and in 1905 was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd Class.

On 20 November 1909, he was promoted to lieutenant, and on 14 April 1910 he was transferred to the reserve, after which he worked for one year as a teacher at the Chita Gymnasium.

On 17 December 1911, Fyodor Baranov returned to active military service in his former rank of lieutenant in the 15th Siberian Rifle Regiment. Serving with the regiment’s 4th battalion, he was stationed at the Fulaerdi railway station in Manchuria.

During the First World War, Fyodor Baranov distinguished himself in numerous battles, for which he was promoted to staff captain (1914) and later to captain (1915). He was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd Class with swords and bow, and the Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd Class with swords.

Baranov distinguished himself particularly during the Przasnysz Operation in the Augustów Forests. On 14 February 1915, near the village of Bartniki, “while attacking the enemy, he was the first to break into the enemy trenches.” His detachment “captured in battle two operational machine guns and 95 prisoners,” for which, by Supreme Order, Baranov was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th Class. However, he never received the decoration, as during another offensive on 21 February 1915 the 15th Siberian Rifle Regiment was almost completely annihilated by German fire. The regimental war diary recorded: “Apparently, nothing remained of the regiment.” The brave officer was taken prisoner on 23 February 1915 near the village of Svinary and sent to Germany, where he remained until the end of the war.

After the end of the First World War, F. Baranov returned to independent Latvia, where he became a teacher. From 1919 to 1922 he had been working at the Jelgava Real Gymnasium of the Jelgava branch of the Riga Latvian Educational Society (from 1921 — the Jelgava Municipal Gymnasium). In 1922–1923, Baranov had been teaching at the Varakļāni Secondary School, and from 1 August 1927 to 1 August 1932 he had been working as a teacher at Riga Municipal Second Supplementary School.

In 1927, he completed six-week training courses at the 4th Valmiera Infantry Regiment.

In 1936, following the death of K. Perov, head of Riga Russian Primary School No. 7, Baranov was appointed to this position (officially confirmed on 1 August 1937).

After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, on 4 September F. Baranov submitted a request to be relieved of his duties as teacher and head of the 7th Primary School. Subsequently, he was working as director of the 4th Incomplete Secondary School in Jelgava, located at 33 Raiņa Street. This was a historic building: as early as 1697 it hosted members of the Russian Grand Embassy (the building was destroyed in 1944 during the battles for Jelgava).

Fyodor Baranov died on 4 April 1946 in his native Jelgava and was buried at Miera Cemetery. A monument bearing the image of the military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George was erected on his grave.

Tatjana Feigmane, Edgars Umbraško

F. Baranov in the early 1920s. Photo by Indrikis Kalcenaus, Jelgava

Sources of information:

ЛГИА, ф.1632, оп.1, д.1419.

Российский государственный военно-исторический архив – далее РГВИА, ф. 400, оп. 12, д. 27033, л. 205 (документы о награждениях);

РГВИА, ф. 408, оп. 1, д. 13002, 15393 (списки офицеров по старшинству)

РГВИА, ф. 3349, оп. 1, д. 22, л. 9-10 об. (выписка из журнала боевых действий 15-го Сибирского с.п. с 1.01 по 23.02.1915)