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77-643: The headquarters of the Ural Army received the rights of a separate army headquarters. The composition and number varied between 15 and 25 thousand, depending on the situation on the fronts and the territory of action. This mostly isolated army experienced a constant and strong lack of weapons and ammunition. Most of the time the Army was formally under command of Admiral Kolchak , at the end of 1919 – beginning of 1920, it tried to coordinate with Anton Denikin . It first acted against Red Guard units, from June 1918 against

154-538: A November 1918 coup saw him installed as leader and all authority was transferred to his own government . His authority was eventually recognized by the other leaders of the White movement , and he served as its principal leader, although Anton Denikin enjoyed more power than Kolchak. His government was based in Omsk , in southwestern Siberia . After initial successes in early 1919, Kolchak's forces lost ground due to

231-930: A British cruiser on his way to Halifax in Canada. The journey to America proved unnecessary, as by the time Kolchak arrived, the US had given up the idea of any independent action in the Dardanelles. Kolchak visited the American Fleet and its ports and decided to return to Russia via Japan. The Bolshevik revolution in November 1917 found Kolchak in Japan . In December, he visited the British embassy in Tokyo and offered his services "unconditionally and in whatever capacity" to

308-413: A deep love for their country and worked for its salvation without any regard for self-advancement. Political intrigues were unknown to them and they were ready to work with men of any political party, so long as they knew that these men were sincere in their endeavours to free Russia... and to make it possible, after the end of the war, for a National Assembly, chosen by the people, to decide the character of

385-654: A future dictator. A number of new and secret organisations had sprung up in Petrograd with the goal of suppressing the Bolshevist movement and removal of the extremist members of the government. Some of these organisations asked Kolchak to accept the leadership. When news of these plots found their way to then Naval Minister of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky , he ordered Kolchak to leave immediately for America. Admiral James H. Glennon ,

462-415: A gesture of helplessness. He is bursting to be with the people, with the troops, but when he faces them, has no idea of what to say. Politically naive and an inept administrator, Kolchak described himself as a "military technician" who knew nothing of politics, described power as a "cross", and in a letter to his wife wrote about the "terrifying burden of Supreme Power" and admitted that as "a fighting man he

539-841: A lack of support by the local populace and a failure to unite the leaders of counterrevolutionary movements. Omsk fell to the Red Army in November 1919 during the Great Siberian Ice March , leading to Kolchak to transfer his headquarters to Irkutsk . In December, he was betrayed and detained by the chief of the Allied military mission in Siberia, Maurice Janin , and the Czechoslovak Legion , who handed him over to local Socialist-Revolutionaries in January 1920;

616-694: A member of American mission headed by Senator Elihu Root , invited Kolchak to the United States to brief the American Navy on the strategic situation in the Bosphorus. On 19 August 1917 Kolchak with several officers left Petrograd for Britain and the United States as a quasi-official military observer. When passing through London he was greeted cordially by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe , who offered him transport on board

693-723: A naval artillery officer, Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and went on to become an accomplished oceanographer and Arctic explorer. He was involved in several expeditions to northern Russia , including the New Siberian Islands , and became the youngest vice admiral in the Imperial Navy. He was wounded and taken prisoner during the Russo-Japanese War at the siege of Port Arthur , and upon his return he advocated for strengthening

770-666: A shipbuilding program, a training program, and developing a new protection plan for St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland . Kolchak took part in designing special icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach , launched in 1909 and spring of 1910. Based in Vladivostok, these vessels were sent on a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev . Kolchak commanded the Vaigach during this expedition and later worked at

847-654: A term of 5 years imprisonment for "individuals considered a threat to the public order because of their ties in any way with the Bolshevik revolt." In the case of unauthorized return from exile, there could be hard labour from 4 to 8 years. Articles 99–101 allowed the death penalty, forced labour and imprisonment, repression by military courts, and imposed no investigation commissions. Kolchak acknowledged all of Russia's debts, returned nationalized factories and plants to their owners, granted concessions to foreign investors, dispersed trade unions, persecuted Marxists, and disbanded

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924-451: Is so uncontrolled and impulsive, he himself often unintentionally transgresses against the law, and this mainly when seeking to uphold the same law, and always under the influence of some outsider. He does not know life in its severe, practical reality, and lives in a world of mirages and borrowed ideas. He has no plans, no system, no will: in this respect he is soft wax from which advisers and intimates can fashion whatever they want, exploiting

1001-432: Is to know about him. He is a big, sick child, a pure idealist, a convinced slave of duty and service to an idea and to Russia. An indubitable neurotic who quickly flares up, exceedingly impetuous and uncontrolled in expressions of displeasure and anger; in this respect he has assimilated the highly unattractive traditions of the naval service, which permit in high naval ranks behavior that in our army has long since passed into

1078-660: The 4th and 1st armies of the Red Eastern Front and from August 15 against the Red Turkestan Front . In April 1919, during the general offensive of Kolchak's armies , it broke through the Red's front and besieged Uralsk , which had been abandoned in January 1919. It also approached Saratov and Samara, but its limited means did not allow to capture the Urals. The Ural Army consisted of: In early July 1919,

1155-606: The Empire of Japan and hastily summoned his bride and her father to Siberia by telegram for a wedding, before heading directly to Port Arthur . In the early stages of the Russo-Japanese War , he served as a watch officer on the cruiser Askold , and later commanded the destroyer Serdity . He made several night sorties to lay naval mines , one of which succeeded in sinking the Japanese cruiser Takasago . He

1232-589: The Lbishchensk raid , in which the divisional headquarters of the Red 25th Infantry Division were ambushed near Lbishchensk and commander Vasily Chapayev and some 2,500 soldiers were killed. But after the collapse of Kolchak's Eastern Front in October–November 1919, the Ural Army was isolated by superior forces of the Reds, thereby losing all sources of replenishment with weapons and ammunition. The defeat of

1309-844: The Russian Civil War , which operated from January 1919 to February 1920, in the Transcaspian Oblast area. The Turkestan Army was established on January 22, 1919, by order of the Supreme commander of the AFSR, Lieutenant-General Anton Denikin , as an integral part of the Armed Forces of South Russia . The army was formed with the financial and logistical support of the British military mission in Turkestan , under

1386-560: The Volunteer Army , he agreed to become a minister in the (White) Siberian Regional Government . Joining a 14-man cabinet, he was a prestige figure; the government hoped to play on the respect he had with the Allies, especially the head of the British military mission, General Alfred Knox . Knox wrote that Kolchak had "more grit, pluck and honest patriotism than any Russian in Siberia". According to historian Richard Pipes , Kolchak

1463-488: The dreadnought Imperatritsa Mariya exploded in port at Sevastopol on 7 October 1916. A careful investigation failed to determine whether the cause of the disaster was accident or sabotage. The Black Sea fleet descended into political chaos after the onset of the 1917 February Revolution . Kolchak was relieved of command of the fleet in June and traveled to Petrograd (St. Petersburg) . On his arrival at Petrograd, Kolchak

1540-847: The Academy of Sciences with the materials collected by him during expeditions. His study, Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas , was printed in the Proceedings of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and is considered the most important work on this subject. Extracts from it were published under the title "The Arctic Pack and the Polynya" in the volume issued in 1929 by the American Geographical Society, Problems of Polar Research . In 1910 he returned to

1617-591: The Allies wanted a Constituent Assembly to decide the future of Russia, they had decided in advance in their conditions that, for instance, there would be no restoration of the monarchy as well as many other matters that properly should have been decided by the Constituent Assembly. Because Kolchak was entirely dependent upon supplies from Britain—the British had shipped him in the period October 1918-October 1919 about 600,000 rifles, 6,831 machine guns, and about 200,000 uniforms—he had to accept nearly all of

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1694-604: The Bolshevik Revolt", which was published in the Omsk newspaper Omsk Gazette (no. 188 of July 1919). It provided a term of 5 years of prison for "individuals considered a threat to the public order because of their ties in any way with the Bolshevik revolt". In the case of an unauthorized return from exile, there could be hard labor for 4 to 8 years. Articles 99–101 allowed the death penalty, forced labor and imprisonment, and repression by military courts, and they also imposed no investigation commissions. An excerpt from

1771-582: The Bolsheviks executed him the next month in Irkutsk. Kolchak was born in Saint Petersburg on 4 November 1874. His family was of Moldavian origins. Both of his parents were from Odessa . His father was a retired major-general of the marine artillery and a veteran of the 1854 siege of Sevastopol , who after retirement worked as an engineer in ordnance works near St. Petersburg. Kolchak

1848-674: The British. Two years later, when interrogated by the Bolsheviks, he explained that as a supporter of the Provisional Government , he considered himself honour bound to continue to fight the war with Germany, and, understanding that there was no suitable role in the British Navy for a Russian admiral, he would be prepared to fight as a private in the British army. His offer was referred up to the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour , and accepted on 29 December. He

1925-667: The Caspian Sea. The remnants of the Iletsk Corps, suffering heavy losses in the battles during the retreat and from typhus, were almost completely destroyed or captured by Red troops near Malyy Baybuz on January 4, 1920. At the same time, the Kirghiz regiment of this corps almost completely went over to the side of the troops of the Alash Autonomy , which at that time acted as allies of the Bolsheviks. The Kirghiz captured

2002-582: The Czech-Slovaks, who had spearheaded the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Siberia, became appalled by Kolchak's regime in Omsk. On November 15, 1919, they delivered a memorandum to the Allied representatives in Vladivostok : Turkestan Army (Armed Forces of South Russia) The Turkestan Army ( Russian : Туркестанская армия , romanized :  Turkestanskaya armiya ) was a White army during

2079-619: The Naval General Staff, and in 1912 he was assigned to the Russian Baltic Fleet . The onset of the First World War found him on the flagship Pogranichnik , where Kolchak oversaw laying of extensive coastal defensive minefields and commanded the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga . Commanding Admiral Essen was not satisfied to remain on the defensive and ordered Kolchak to prepare a scheme for attacking

2156-572: The Red Army. In February 1920, some 20,000 partisans took control of the Amur region . British historian Edward Hallett Carr wrote, It is no longer possible for any sane man to regard the campaigns of Kolchak, Yudenich, Denikin and Wrangel otherwise than as tragic blunders of colossal dimensions. On the contrary, a former chief of staff to Admiral Kolchak wrote, They (Kolchak, Kornilov , Denikin and Wrangel ) were first of all patriots with

2233-538: The Reds resumed the offensive. The resistance of the weakened Ural Army units was broken and the front collapsed. On December 11, Zhalpaktal fell and on December 18, the Reds captured the city of Tajpak , thereby cutting off the route of retreat for the Iletsk Corps. On December 22 the Gorsky settlement, one of the last strongholds of the Ural Army before the city of Guryev , was also lost. The army commander, General Vladimir Tolstov, and his staff retreated to Guryev on

2310-665: The SRs opened negotiations with the Bolsheviks and in January 1919 the SR People's Army joined up with the Red Army . Kolchak pursued a policy of persecuting revolutionaries as well as Socialists of several factions. His government issued a decree on 3 December 1918 stating, "In order to preserve the system and rule of the Supreme Ruler, articles of the criminal code of Imperial Russia were revised, Articles 99 and 100 of which established capital punishment for assassination attempts on

2387-497: The Supreme Ruler and for attempting to overthrow his government." Insults written, printed, and oral, are punishable by imprisonment under Article 103. Bureaucratic sabotage under Article 329 was punishable by hard labour from 15 to 20 years. Although the news of Kolchak's ascension to power spread very slowly behind Bolshevik lines, it caused considerable excitement among anti-communist Russians living there. Ivan Bunin wrote in his diary, "4/17 June 1919. The Entente has named Kolchak

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2464-468: The Supreme Ruler and for attempting to overthrow the authorities. Under Article 103, "insults written, printed, and oral, are punishable by imprisonment". Bureaucratic sabotage under Article 329 was punishable by hard labor for 15 to 20 years. Additional decrees followed, adding more power. On April 11, 1919, the Kolchak government adopted Regulation 428, "About the dangers of public order due to ties with

2541-441: The Supreme Ruler of Russia. Izvestia wrote an obscene article saying: 'Tell us, you reptile, how much did they pay you for that?' The devil with them. I crossed myself with tears of joy." On 11 April 1919, the Kolchak government adopted Regulation no. 428, "About dangers to public order due to ties with the Bolshevik Revolt". The legislation was published in the Omsk newspaper Omsk Gazette (no. 188 of 19 July 1919). It provided

2618-425: The Ural Army by the Bolsheviks was only a matter of time. On November 2, the Red Turkestan Front consisting of the 1st and 4th armies (18,500 infantry, 3,500 cavalry, 86 guns and 365 machine guns) launched a general offensive against the Ural Army (5,200 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, 65 guns, 249 machine guns), planning to surround and destroy the main forces of the Ural Army with concentrated attacks on Lbishchensk from

2695-481: The approaches of the German naval bases. During the autumn and winter of 1914–1915, Russian destroyers and cruisers started a series of dangerous night operations, laying mines at the approaches to Kiel and Danzig . Kolchak, feeling that the man responsible for planning operations should also take part in their execution, was always on board those ships which carried out the operations and at times took direct command of

2772-553: The capital Ashgabat . The Turkestan Army was thrown back to the Caspian Sea and on October 19, 1919 suffered another severe defeat at the Aydyn station (1000 soldiers surrendered into captivity). The Turkestan army was again seriously defeated in the district of Kazan-Jika on December 2–7, 1919. The change of the Turkestan Army's commander between July and October did not bring the desired success. The defeats continued one after

2849-452: The conditions. In a telegram to Paris sent on 4 June 1919, Kolchak accepted every condition except for the independence of Finland, which he accepted only de facto , not de jure , saying he wanted the Constituent Assembly to grant Finland its independence. As the Allies were especially opposed to a return of the House of Romanov, Kolchak emphatically declared "that there cannot be a return to

2926-720: The destroyer flotillas. He was promoted to vice-admiral in August 1916, the youngest man at that rank, and was made commander of the Black Sea Fleet , replacing Admiral Eberhardt . Kolchak's primary mission was to support General Yudenich in his operations against the Ottoman Empire . He also was tasked with countering the U-boat threat and planning the invasion of the Bosphorus (never carried out). Kolchak's fleet

3003-921: The dictator of the Khanate of Khiva and a leader of the Basmachi movement who had an army of some 12,000 soldiers. At the suggestion of the AFSR's headquarters, the Turkestan Army was to march from the Krasnovodsk district to Tashkent and Verny , to link up with the Basmachis. However, in May–July 1919 the Red Transcaspian Front of the Turkestan SFR , warned of this attack, advanced and took on May 21 Baýramaly , on May 23 Merv , on May 24 Serhetabat , on July 7 Tejen , and on July 9

3080-417: The eastern coast of the Caspian Sea towards Fort Alexandrovsk . The march took place in January – March 1920, under very difficult conditions of a harsh winter in a deserted landscape with icy winds and frost down to minus 30 degrees and in absence of sufficient drinking water and a catastrophic shortage of food and medicine. On 10 February, the Red Army took Krasnovodsk , south of Fort Alexandrovsk. The goal

3157-408: The end of the war. Kolchak was awarded the Golden Sword of St. George with the inscription "For Bravery" on his return to Russia. Returning to Saint Petersburg in April 1905, Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant commander and took part in rebuilding of the Imperial Russian Navy, which had been almost completely destroyed during the war. He served on the Naval General Staff from 1906, helping draft

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3234-575: The example of the Japanese who, in the Amur region, had exterminated the local population." Sovietskaya Rossiya , an official organ of the Soviet Bureau established by Ludwig Martens , quoted a Menshevik organ, Vsegda Vperyod , alleging that Kolchak's men used mass floggings and razed entire villages to the ground with artillery fire. 4,000 peasants allegedly became victims of field courts and punitive expeditions and that all dwellings of rebels were burned down. Kolchak also allowed Boris Annenkov to massacre 2,000 to 3,000 Jews. In an excerpt from

3311-471: The fact that it is enough to disguise something as necessary for the welfare of Russia and the good of the cause to be certain of his approval. Another who knew him wrote of Kolchak: He is kind and at the same time severe, responsive and at the same time embarrassed to show human feelings, concealing his gentleness behind make-believe severity. He is impatient and stubborn, loses his temper, threatens and then calms down, making concessions, spreads his hands in

3388-401: The fleet to the State Duma , including with the introduction of submarines and aircraft . Kolchak was the Baltic Fleet chief of operations when World War I broke out and was made the commander of the Black Sea Fleet shortly before the February Revolution . When Emperor Nicholas II asked the commanders of each army group and fleet for their opinion on abdicating the throne, Kolchak was

3465-484: The future Government of Russia. In November 1918, after seizing power in Siberia , Kolchak pursued a policy of persecuting revolutionaries as well as socialists of several factions, Jews and dissidents. Kolchak's government issued a broadly worded decree on December 3, 1918, revising articles of the criminal code of Imperial Russia "in order to preserve the system and rule of the Supreme Ruler". Articles 99 and 100 established capital punishment for assassination attempts on

3542-449: The great ideas of liberty which are now proclaimed in the whole world. I summon you, citizens, to unity, to struggle with Bolshevism, to labor and to sacrifices" The Left SR leaders in Russia denounced Kolchak and called for his assassination. Their activities resulted in a small revolt in Omsk on 22 December 1918, which was quickly put down by Cossacks and the Czechoslovak Legion , who summarily executed almost 500 rebels. Subsequently,

3619-442: The head of government with emergency powers. He was named Supreme Ruler ( Verkhovnyi Pravitel ), and he promoted himself to full admiral . The arrested SR politicians were expelled from Siberia and ended up in Europe. The program of the Kolchak government included: ending Bolshevism and restoring law and order; re-establishing the Russian armed forces; convoking a new Constituent Assembly; introducing economic reforms; and maintaining

3696-412: The headquarters of the Iletsk corps, the 4th and 5th Iletsky divisions, and handed them over as prisoners to the red Corps commander. Lieutenant-General Vladimir Akutin was shot by the troops of the 25th ("Chapayevsky") division (according to other sources, was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later shot). The 6th Iletsk Division, which retreated to the Volga across the steppe of the Bukey Horde ,

3773-417: The leadership of Major General Wilfrid Malleson at the counter-revolutionary Transcaspian Government in Ashgabat . When in April–July 1919, the British troops were withdrawn from Turkestan, the leadership of the Turkestan Army was transferred to the command of the AFSR. On 1 May 1919, the Turkestan Army had some 7,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. The Turkestan Army was supported by General Junaid Khan,

3850-411: The lost explorers (who were not found) and for a while was nicknamed "Kolchak-Poliarnyi" ("Kolchak the Polar"). For his explorations Kolchak received the Constantine Medal, the highest award of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society . In December 1903, Kolchak was en route to St. Petersburg to marry his fiancée, Sophia Omirova, when, not far from Irkutsk , he received notice of the start of war with

3927-434: The next leader of Russia. American forces had been sent to Siberia less to help the Whites than to prevent the Japanese, who had occupied the Russian Far East, from annexing it as Tokyo was openly considering. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia alleges that more than 25,000 people were shot or tortured to death in the Yekaterinburg Governorate alone. In March 1919 Kolchak himself demanded of one of his generals that he "follow

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4004-421: The north and east. Under the pressure of the superior forces of the Reds, the Ural Army began a retreat. On November 20, the Reds captured Lbishchensk , but they could not surround the main force of the Ural Army. The front stabilized south of Lbishchensk. The Turkestan Front called up reserves and was replenished with weapons and ammunition. The Ural Army had neither reserves nor ammunition. On December 10, 1919,

4081-443: The only one who opposed his abdication. During the events of the Russian Revolution in 1917 he was popular among conservative newspapers, who saw him as a potential military dictator. Early in the civil war, Kolchak briefly served as the Minister of War and Navy in the Provisional All-Russian Government – the first government that was recognized by all White military and political forces east of Urals , at least nominally – until

4158-457: The order of the government of Yenisei county in Irkutsk province, General. S. Rozanov said: Those villages whose population meets troops with arms, burn down the villages and shoot the adult males without exception. If hostages are taken in cases of resistance to government troops, shoot the hostages without mercy. There was prominent underground resistance in the regions controlled by Kolchak's government. These partisans were especially strong in

4235-436: The order of the government of Yenisei county in the Irkutsk Governorate , General. Sergey Rozanov said: Those villages whose population meets troops with arms, burn down the villages and shoot the adult males without exception. If hostages are taken in cases of resistance to government troops, shoot the hostages without mercy. A member of the Central Committee of the right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, D. Rakov wrote about

4312-420: The other. Finally, by the beginning of 1920 the Army was reduced to a small group, encircled in the area of Krasnovodsk. On February 6, 1920, the Turkestan Army's remnants were evacuated from Krasnovodsk to Dagestan on the AFSR's Caspian Flotilla 's ships, and the city was occupied by the Red Army. A small part of the Army was transported to Persia (Iran) by British ships. The Turkestan Army ceased to exist and

4389-412: The provinces of Altai and Yeniseysk . In summer 1919 partisans of the Altai Region united to form the Western Siberian Peasants' Red Army (25,000 men). The Taseev Soviet Partisan Republic was founded south-east of Yeniseysk in early 1919. By the fall of 1919, Kolchak's rear was completely disintegrating. About 100,000 Siberian partisans seized vast regions from Kolchak's regime even before the approach of

4466-420: The realm of legend. He is utterly absorbed by the idea of serving Russia, of saving her from Red oppression, and restoring her to full power and to the inviolability of her territory. For the sake of this he can be persuaded and moved to do anything whatever. He has no personal interests, no amour propre : in this respect he is crystal pure. He passionately despises all lawlessness and arbitrariness, but because he

4543-409: The regime which existed in Russia before February 1917." The British War Secretary Winston Churchill pressed very strongly in the cabinet for British recognition of Kolchak's government, but the Prime Minister David Lloyd George would only do so if the United States likewise recognized Kolchak. The American president Woodrow Wilson was strongly hostile towards Kolchak, openly doubted his word, and

4620-576: The ship Zarya as a hydrologist and cartographer. During the winter of 1901 Kolchak and Toll rode on dog sleds for 500 km to make a topographic survey of the Taymyr Peninsula , and in the spring they took dog sleds to make a geologic and hydrographic study of the New Siberian Islands . In 1902 he studied the East Siberian Sea while he was onboard Zarya . After considerable hardship, Kolchak returned in December 1902; Eduard Toll, along with three other explorers continued further north and were lost. Kolchak took part in two Arctic expeditions to look for

4697-432: The soviets. Kolchak's agrarian policy was directed toward restoring private land ownership. To this end former Tsarist laws concerning property were restored. On 26 May 1919, the Supreme War Council in Paris offered to provide Kolchak with unlimited supplies of food, weapons, munitions and other supplies (but not diplomatic recognition) provided that he was willing to meet the following conditions: Pipes wrote that though

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4774-414: The territorial integrity of Russia. Kolchak issued the following appeal to the population: "I shall not go either on the road of reaction or on the fatal road of Party partisanship. I set as my main objective the creation of an efficient army, victory over Bolshevism and the establishment of law and order, so that the people may choose the form of government which it desires without obstruction and realize

4851-412: The terror of Kolchak's forces: Omsk just froze in horror. At a time when the wives of dead comrades, day and night looked in the snow for bodies, I was unaware of the horror behind the walls of the guardhouse. At least 2500 people were killed. Entire carts of bodies were carried to a city, like winter lamb and pork carcasses. Those who suffered were mainly soldiers of the garrison and the workers. Even

4928-440: The troops of the Red Turkestan Front launched a counteroffensive against the Ural Army. The well-equipped 25th Infantry Division , commanded by Vasily Chapayev and redeployed from Ufa, defeated units of the Ural Army on July 5–11, broke through the blockade of Uralsk, and entered the city on July 11, 1919. The Ural Army began to retreat on all fronts. On September 5, 1919, the Ural Army obtained its last success when it executed

5005-416: The unpopular regional government was overthrown in a British-sponsored coup d'etat . Kolchak had returned to Omsk on 16 November from an inspection tour. He was approached and refused to take power. The Socialist-Revolutionary (SR) directory leader and members were arrested on 18 November by a troop of Cossacks under ataman Krasilnikov . The remaining cabinet members met and voted for Kolchak to become

5082-405: Was a Russian military leader and polar explorer who held the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia from 1918 to 1920 during the Russian Civil War , though his actual control over Russian territory was limited. In this role, he was one of the key architects of the White Terror . Previously, he served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I . The son of

5159-403: Was a man with poor social skills, being moody, melancholic, taciturn, and very uncomfortable in dealing with people. Arriving at a dinner, Colonel John Ward described him as "a small, vagrant, lonely soul without a friend enter unbidden to a feast". One who knew him wrote: The character and soul of the Admiral are so transparent that one needs no more than one week of contact to know all there

5236-568: Was abandoned. Most Cossacks were captured or killed by the Red Army at Fort Alexandrovsk. On April 4, 1920, the Ural Army had ceased to exist. Only a small detachment of 214 people (several generals, officers, Cossacks, and civilians (family members), led by Ataman Vladimir Tolstov, marched on towards Persia. 162 of them survived the march and reached Persia on June 2. Admiral Kolchak Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak ( Russian : Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к ; 16 November [ O.S. 4 November] 1874 – 7 February 1920)

5313-412: Was against diplomatic recognition. Wilson's main adviser on Russia was the former head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, who told Wilson that Kolchak was a "reactionary" who would "inaugurate a regime hardly less sanguinary and repressive than that of the Bolsheviks." Though American forces in Siberia co-operated with Kolchak, it was clear he was not the man favored by the United States as

5390-527: Was almost completely whipped out by disease, hunger and Red Army bullets. On January 5, 1920, the city of Guryev was taken by the Red Army. A part of the Ural Army became prisoners, a part of the Cossacks went over to the Reds. The remnants of the Ural Army, led by the army commander General V.S. Tolstov, decided to leave for the south, hoping to unite with the White Turkestan Army of General Boris Kazanovich. A caravan with carts and civilians (families and refugees), totaling about 15,000 people, headed south along

5467-439: Was decorated with the Order of St. Anna 4th class for the exploit. As the blockade of the port tightened and the Siege of Port Arthur intensified, he was given command of a coastal artillery battery. He was wounded in the final battle for Port Arthur and taken as a prisoner of war to Nagasaki , where he spent four months. His poor health ( rheumatism , a consequence of his polar expeditions) led to his repatriation before

5544-620: Was educated for a naval career, entering the Naval Cadet Corps in 1888 and graduating in 1894 with honors. After being commissioned as a midshipman in the Imperial Russian Navy he served in the Baltic and Pacific Oceans on several ships between 1895 and 1899, and began publishing articles on hydrology during that time. Now a lieutenant , in 1900 Kolchak took part in Baron Eduard von Toll 's Russian Polar expedition on

5621-679: Was instructed to join the British military mission in Baghdad, but when he reached Singapore, was ordered to turn back and go via Shanghai and Beijing to Harbin , to take command of Russian troops guarding the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria, which the British government had decided could be a base for overthrowing the Bolshevik government and getting Russia back into the war with Germany. Arriving in Omsk , Siberia , en route to enlisting with

5698-458: Was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government . There he presented his view on the condition of the Russian armed forces and their complete demoralisation. He stated that the only way to save the country was to re-establish strict discipline and restore capital punishment in the army and navy. During this time many organisations and newspapers of a conservative inclination spoke of him as

5775-694: Was reluctant to face the problems of statecraft". The American historian Richard Pipes wrote that Kolchak's only strengths were his courage, patriotism, integrity, and a strong sense of honor, writing that he was "...   in many ways, along with Wrangel, the most honorable White commander in the Civil War", but his weaknesses, such as his tendency to suffer from manic depression and inability to "understand people or communicate with them", made him into "an execrable administrator in whose name were committed unpardonable acts of corruption and brutality that he personally found utterly repugnant." In November 1918,

5852-574: Was successful at sinking Turkish colliers. Because there was no railroad linking the coal mines of eastern Turkey with Constantinople , the Russian fleet's attacks on these Turkish coal ships caused the Ottoman government much hardship. In 1916, in a combined Army-Navy assault, the Russian Black Sea fleet aided the Russian army's capture of the Ottoman city of Trebizond (modern Trabzon ). One notable disaster took place under Kolchak's watch:

5929-710: Was to be evacuated on ships of the Caspian Flotilla of the AFSR to the other side of the Caspian sea in Port Petrovsk . By the time of arrival at Fort Alexandrovsk, less than 3,000 Cossacks remained from the Army, most of whom suffered from different stages of typhoid or frostbite. The sense of the campaign was lost, when by the end of March 1920, Denikin's troops were retreating in the Caucasus and Port Petrovsk

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