Nikolai Shchors, a Red Army division commander during the Russian Civil War, was reburied on July 10, 1949, in a solemn ceremony at the Kuibyshev city cemetery, thirty years after his initial burial. This second farewell took place after his remains were discovered on the grounds of a cable factory, leading to questions surrounding his death.

Shchors, a wartime officer of the Russian Imperial Army and commander of Ukrainian insurgent formations, died on August 30, 1919, near the Korosten railway junction in the Zhytomyr region. Initially, his death was attributed to enemy machine-gun fire, but the condition of his remains cast doubt on this version of events.

Following his death, Shchors was embalmed and transported to Samara for burial. The first funeral occurred at the Vsesvyatsk Cemetery in September 1919, allegedly due to fears of desecration and the presence of his widow’s parents in Samara. This cemetery was later closed and built over, resulting in the loss of Shchors’s grave.

In 1949, the grave was rediscovered with the help of a local worker who had assisted with the original burial. The exhumation revealed a well-preserved body, but the skull showed a bullet hole in the back of the head, contradicting the initial report of a machine-gun bullet entering the temple.

The discrepancies in the cause of death led to speculation about foul play. Suspicion initially fell on Ivan Dubovoy, Shchors’s deputy, who had reported the machine-gun fire and prevented a nurse from changing the bandage. However, Dubovoy had been executed in the late 1930s.

Further investigation revealed two more potential suspects: Semyon Aralov, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council, and Pavel Tankhil-Tankhilevich, a political inspector. Both were present at the time of Shchors’s death and left the division immediately afterward, raising suspicions of their involvement. Aralov was also allegedly a confidant of Trotsky, who viewed Shchors as a problematic figure.

The theory emerged that Shchors’s independent views and popularity made him a threat to the Soviet state, leading to his assassination. This version suggests that Aralov, acting on Trotsky’s behalf, orchestrated Shchors’s death.