Türkçe"An Officer on the Gallows"... This serves as the title of our new publication... Rather than functioning strictly as a biography, this work—centered on the tragic life of General Sultan Klych Girey—presents a crucial cross-section of the history of the North Caucasian Mountaineers during the first half of the twentieth century.
Indeed, this volume is not totally a new publication. It is an English adaptation, incorporating minor revisions, of my 2023 Turkish monograph titled General Sultan Klych Girey: The Tragic Life Story of a Prince from the Caucasus to the Gallows in Moscow.
Following the arrangement of necessary financial resources in 2023, I personally oversaw the manuscript's preparation for publication—encompassing typesetting and layout design—and subsequently released it through the Caucasus Foundation Press. This study of Sultan Klych Girey's life was met with considerable acclaim, distinguishing itself from earlier publications on the subject that lacked empirical rigor and scholarly integrity. Under the auspices of a project conducted by the Caucasus Foundation—supported by European Union grants and the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB)—a highly attended commemoration was organized in the Drau Valley, Austria, to honor the North Caucasian victims of the Second World War. Subsequently, bolstered by a television broadcast viewed by hundreds of thousands in Turkey, alongside various academic conferences and video interviews, the Drau tragedy—inextricably linked with Sultan Klych Girey—garnered profound interest within the international community.
Prompted by persistent requests from Western scholars and history enthusiasts seeking an accessible text for an international audience, I undertook an English adaptation of the 2023 edition. After integrating several modifications this year, the revised volume was recently published.
The Preface by an AcademicHistory is often written by the victors, but its heaviest burdens are invariably carried by the vanquished. In the pages that follow, Cem Kumuk meticulously dismantles decades of historical distortion to reveal the profound tragedy of Lieutenant-General Sultan Klych Girey. This monograph serves as a long-overdue act of historical justice for a man whose life was entirely consumed by the struggle for the freedom of the North Caucasus. For over half a century, Soviet historiography reduced this principled leader to a caricature of a treasonous collaborator, a myth that this exhaustive research finally shatters.
Born in 1880 in the Circassian village of Ulyape, Sultan Klych Girey inherited the legacy of the Crimean Khanate's Giray dynasty and the fierce love of freedom of the Kuban Circassians. His military career was forged in the crucible of the Russian Imperial Army, where he became a legendary cavalry officer in the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division, widely known as the "Wild Division," during the First World War. He earned the Order of St. Anna for his epic bravery under fire, leading devastating cavalry charges against Austro-Hungarian forces.
The collapse of the Russian Empire, however, thrust him into a far more agonizing conflict. During the Russian Civil War, he dedicated his military genius to the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. Commanding a Circassian Regiment, he fought desperately against the Red Army while navigating the political chauvinism of White Army leaders like General Denikin. Despite his heroic efforts and brilliant tactical maneuvers, the Bolshevik tide proved insurmountable, forcing Girey into a bitter twenty-one-year exile beginning in 1921.
The interwar years were marked by profound alienation and tireless political struggle. Girey's journey took him from a forced residency in Trabzon, Turkey, to the political quagmires of Czechoslovakia, and ultimately to Paris. Stripped of his army and his homeland, this former general was reduced to working as a metalworker in French industrial facilities to support his family.
Despite these humiliations, he remained a towering figure in the North Caucasian political émigré circles. He found himself constantly battling not only the insidious reach of Soviet intelligence but also the internal fractures of the emigré community. He fiercely opposed monarchist factions led by figures like Lazar Bicherakhov—a man heavily criticized for atrocities against Caucasians—refusing to compromise the ideal of an independent Caucasian Confederation. Girey's obstinate Mountaineer identity and his unifying, conciliatory approaches frequently made him a target of both Allied intelligence manipulations and rival leaders of the emigre groups.
The outbreak of the Second World War presented a tragic paradox for the Mountaineers in exile. Driven by the desperate hope of liberating their homeland from Stalinist terror, a statistically significant number of Caucasians enlisted in German legions. The narrative reaches its most heart-wrenching climax here, revealing the agonizing reality of Girey's return to the Caucasus in 1942.
While Soviet propaganda painted him as a Nazi agitator, the truth was fundamentally different. Girey harbored a profound distrust of the German military apparatus, actively warning his inner circle that Germany would inevitably lose the war and cautioning them against anti-communist reprisals to prevent future Bolshevik retribution.
When the German armies inevitably retreated, Girey led a desperate exodus of thousands of North Caucasian refugees through Crimea, the Balkans, and into Northern Italy, seeking to deliver them to the perceived safety of the Western Allies. The culmination of Girey's life is a stark testament to the cold calculus of geopolitics. In May 1945, having surrendered to the British Army in Austria, the Caucasians and Cossacks were subjected to a devastating betrayal. Bound by clandestine agreements with Stalin, the British military forcibly repatriated tens of thousands of refugees to the Soviet Union, knowing they were sending them to execution or the Gulags.
An Officer on the Gallows is an essential reckoning with the past. Cem Kumuk has provided the first scholarly biography of a man who was systematically erased and vilified by official histories. By meticulously analyzing primary sources, intelligence reports, and the harrowing testimonies of the Drau valley survivors, the author dismantles the propagandistic Soviet narrative. This monograph stands as a monument to a leader who sacrificed his life for the honor of his people, challenging us to remember the victims of geopolitics whose graves remain unmarked and unknown. It forces the reader to confront the uncomfortable realities of Allied complicity in Soviet war crimes and reclaims General Sultan Klych Girey's rightful place in the pantheon of North Caucasian patriots.
There are two additional dimensions that render this publication significant to me: Firstly, this book will overcome language barriers, allowing my research to be engaged with by an international audience, and through e-commerce platforms, it will be distributed to over a hundred countries. Consequently, moving forward, I intend to prioritize publishing my works in English in the future and ensuring its dissemination through expansive global distribution networks.
A crucial final noteThe second dimension pertains to a historiographical grievance. Certain uninformed “commentators”—relying on a few lines of superficial scribbling misconstrued as historical fact—tend to unequivocally romanticize anyone who played a role in Caucasian history. In doing so, whether consciously or inadvertently, they desecrate the spiritual legacy of genuine patriots such as General Sultan Klych Girey. In this regard, the present work holds distinct significance: by exposing the fallacies of these unlettered historical "experts," it serves as unequivocal proof that no one can evade the definitive judgment of history.
The book is currently available for purchase on Amazon.com, one of the world’s leading digital marketplaces. Those who wish to place an order can click the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HHMZSYBG?spcref=PRINT_LISTING
Istanbul, 6 September 2026