Vadim Yakovlev was a Russian Cossack cavalry commander, in the rank of yesaul. A veteran of World War I, during the Russian Civil War he commanded a Cossack brigade in the ranks of Gen. Anton Denikin's White Russian army in Ukraine. Following Denikin's defeat, Yakovlev crossed the Bolshevik lines and with his men joined the Red Army as the commander of the 3rd Don Cossack Cavalry Brigade. Attached to the Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army, the brigade was dispatched to the front of the Polish-Soviet War during the Polish offensive on Kiev.