Andrei Snesarev, inspecting the 7th fighter squadron on the eastern front, approximately March 1917, during the First World War. Ivan Orlov on the right
Andrei Evgenyevich Snesarev (Russian: Андрей Евгеньевич Снесарев; 13 December 1865 – 4 December 1937) was a Russian linguist, orientalist and military leader.[1]
An English translation of his book Afghanistan, published in 1921, was released in England in 1924. The book consists of a written version of the lectures he delivered to the Oriental Section of the Military Academy of the Red Army between autumn 1919 and spring 1920.[2]
In 1930, Snesarev was arrested and charged with participating in counter-revolutionary activities. He was imprisoned in Butyrka Prison then Lubyanka Prison. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. However, Stalin intervened and had his sentenced reduced to ten years imprisonment in the Gulag camp system, first at Svir, then at Solovki prison camp.
He suffered a severe stroke in 1933 which left him partially paralyzed. He was later taken to Leningrad by his family to receive better medical care and released on parole in September, 1934. He suffered two more strokes and died at a Moscow hospital in December 1937.
