Lavr Kornilov

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Lavr Kornilov

Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov (Russian: ???? ???´??????? ?????´???) (August 18, 1870–April 13, 1918) was a senior Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n army general during World War I

World War I

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Bolshevik party assumed power in Saint Petersburg....
. He is today best remembered for the Kornilov Affair

Kornilov Affair

The Kornilov Affair was a struggle between the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, General Lavr Kornilov, and Aleksandr Kerensky in August and September of 1917 between the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the October Revolution....
, an unsuccessful endeavor in August/September 1917 that purported to strengthen Alexander Kerensky

Alexander Kerensky

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government, 1917 until Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known commonly as Vladimir Lenin, was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution....
's Provisional Government, but which led to Kerensky eventually having Kornilov arrested and charged with attempting a coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
.

Pre-revolutionary career
Originally a Cossack

Cossack

The term Cossacks is applied to specific militaristic communities of various ethnicities living in the southern steppe regions of Ukraine and Russia....
born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Russian Turkestan

Russian Turkestan

Russian Turkestan , also known as Western Turkestan or Turkestanskiy Krai , was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire , comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakhstan steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva....
(now Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
) in a family of Cossack militaryman and his wife of Asian origin, Kornilov was a career intelligence officer in the Imperial Russian army.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Lavr Kornilov'

Start a new discussion about 'Lavr Kornilov'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Pre-revolutionary career

Originally a Cossack

Cossack

The term Cossacks is applied to specific militaristic communities of various ethnicities living in the southern steppe regions of Ukraine and Russia....
born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Russian Turkestan

Russian Turkestan

Kazakhstan

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and Persia

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, learned several Central Asian languages, and wrote detailed reports about his observations. During the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialism ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea....
of 1904-1905 he was awarded the Cross of St. George

Cross of St. George

The Cross of St. George , or simply the George's Cross, was, until 1913, officially known as the Sign of Distinction of the Military Order of St....
for bravery and promoted to the rank of colonel

Colonel

Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures....
.

He served as military attache in China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
from 1907-11 and with a rank of major general

Major General

Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General....
commanded an infantry division at the start of World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. During heavy fighting he was captured by the Austrians in April 1915, when his division became isolated from the rest of the Russian forces. After his capture, Field Marshall

Field Marshall

The Field-Marshalls were a range of United Kingdom tractor manufactured by Marshall, Sons & Co. of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.Field-Marshalls were in production from 1945 to 1957, however, the first single-cylinder Marshall came into production in 1930....
Conrad

Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf

File:Graf conrad.jpgCount Francis Conrad von H?tzendorf . was an Austro-Hungarian Empire soldier and Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army at the outbreak of World War I....
, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army

Austro-Hungarian Army

The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austria Hungary Dual Monarchy . It was composed of the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honv?ds?g ....
, made a point of meeting him in person. Being a major general he was a high value prisoner of war, but in July 1916 Kornilov managed to escape back to Russia. Kornilov was critical of the Russian monarchy and, after the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II he was given command of the Petrograd Military District in March 1917. In July, after commanding the only successful front in the disastrous Russian offensive of June, 1917, he became Supreme Commander-in-Chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function....
of the Provisional Government's armed forces.

Kornilov Affair

Although critical of the Czar, General Kornilov felt that Russia, as part of the Triple Entente

Triple Entente

File:Map Europe alliances 1914-en.svgThe Triple Entente was the name given to the loose alignment of the British Empire, French Third Republic, and Russian Empire after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
, was committed to continue the war against the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I, the other being the Allies of World War I....
, and he shared the widespread belief of many Russians that after the February Revolution the country was descending into anarchy and that military defeat would be disastrous for Russia. Lenin and his 'German spies', he announced, should be hanged, the Soviets stamped out, military discipline restored and the provisional government 'restructured'. He thought, thanks to unclear and perhaps deliberately distorted communications from Petrograd, that Kerensky had authorized him to impose order in the capital and restructure the government, and ordered the Third Corps to Petrograd to place it under martial law. Kerensky dismissed his commander-in-chief from his post on September 9, claiming Kornilov intended to set up a military dictatorship. Kornilov, convinced that Kerensky had been taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks and was acting under duress, replied by issuing a call to all Russians to "save their dying land."

Ice March

After the alleged coup won the war, Kornilov and his fellow conspirators were placed under arrest in the Bikhov jail. On 19 November, a few weeks after the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
seizure of power in the October Revolution, they escaped from their confinement (eased by the fact that the jail was guarded by Kornilov's supporters) and made their way to the Don region, which was controlled by the Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don River ....
. Here they linked up with General Mikhail Alekseev

Mikhail Alekseev

Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev was a Russian military leader before and during World War I, and one of the leaders of anti-Bolshevik forces in 1917-1918....
. Kornilov became the military commander of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army

Volunteer Army

The Volunteer Army was an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920.The Volunteer Army began forming in November-December 1917 by General Mikhail Alekseev in Novocherkassk and General Lavr Kornilov and his supporters....
with Alekseev as the political chief. On 24 Feb, as Rostov

Rostov

Rostov is one of the oldest types of inhabited localities in Russia in Russia and an important tourist centre of the so called Golden ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero in Yaroslavl Oblast....
and the Don Cossack capital of Novocherkassk

Novocherkassk

Novocherkassk is a types of inhabited localities in Russia in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Tuzlov River and on the Aksay River....
fell to the Bolsheviks, Kornilov led the Volunteer Army on the epic 'Ice March' into the empty steppe towards the Kuban

Kuban

Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus....
. Although badly outnumbered, he escaped destruction from pursuing Bolshevik forces and laid siege to Ekaterinodar, the capital of the Kuban Soviet Republic

Kuban Soviet Republic

The Kuban Soviet Republic was part of the Russian SFSR within the general territory of the Kuban. Its capital was Yekaterinodar.It was merged into the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic on May 30, 1918....
, on 10 April. However, in the early morning of 13 April, a Soviet shell landed on his farmhouse headquarters and killed him. He was buried in a nearby village. A few days later, when the Bolsheviks gained control of the village, they unearthed Kornilov's coffin, dragged his corpse to the main square and burnt his remains on the local rubbish dump. The Kornilov Division, one of the crack units of the White Army, was named after him.

Bibliography

Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution (Knopf, 1990)
Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy (Viking, 1996)
Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War (Birlinn, 2008)

External links

in The History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxism theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin....
Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution by Alan Woods