Back Aleksander Koltsjak Afrikaans Aleksandr Kolchak AN ألكسندر كولتشاك Arabic الكسندر كولتشاك ARZ Aleksandr Kolchak AST Aleksandr Kolçak Azerbaijani Колчак Александр Васильевич Bashkir Аляксандр Васільевіч Калчак Byelorussian Аляксандар Калчак BE-X-OLD Александър Колчак Bulgarian
Alexander Kolchak | |
|---|---|
| Александр Колчак | |
 Kolchak in 1919 | |
| Supreme Ruler of Russia[a] | |
| In office 18 November 1918 – 7 February 1920 | |
| Preceded by | Position established[b] |
| Succeeded by | Anton Denikin (de facto) |
| Minister of War and Navy of the Provisional All-Russian Government | |
| In office 4 November – 18 November 1918 | |
| Prime Minister | Pyotr Vologodsky |
| Vice prime minister | Vladimir Vinogradov |
| Preceded by | Aleksandr Verkhovsky[c] and Dmitry Verderevsky[d] |
| Succeeded by | Nikolai Stepanov[e] and Mikhail Smirnov[f] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 November 1874 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 7 February 1920 (aged 45) Irkutsk, Russian State |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Spouse | Sophia Fedorovna Omirova |
| Children | 1 |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service | 1886–1920 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Battles/wars | Russo-Japanese War World War I Russian Civil War |
Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к; 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1874 – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918,[1] he headed a military dictatorship,[2][3][4] which ruled over the territory of the former Russian Empire controlled by the Whites. He was a proponent of Russian nationalism and militarism, while he opposed democracy as a principle which he believed to be tied to pacifism, internationalism and socialism.[5] As the principal leader of the White movement,[6] he was one of the key architects of the White Terror.[1]
Kolchak served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.[1] The son of 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 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.[7][8] When Emperor Nicholas II asked the commanders of each army group and fleet for their opinion on abdicating the throne, Kolchak was the only one who opposed his abdication.[9]
During the Russian Revolution of 1917 he was popular among conservative newspapers, who saw him as a potential military dictator.[7] 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 a November 1918 coup saw him installed as leader and all authority was transferred to his own government.[6] His government was based in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler, his authority was recognized by the other leaders of the White movement,[10][6] although Anton Denikin enjoyed more power than Kolchak.[6]
After initial successes in early 1919, Kolchak's forces lost ground due to a lack of support by the local populace and a failure to unite the leaders of counterrevolutionary movements.[11] Omsk fell to the Red Army in November 1919 during the Great Siberian Ice March, leading to Kolchak to transfer his headquarters to Irkutsk.[11] 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;[12][13][14] the Bolsheviks executed him the next month in Irkutsk.[15]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ a b c Yegorov, O. (27 December 2019). "Meet Russian Imperial officers who almost stopped the Bolsheviks". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Archived from the original on 19 February 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- ^ Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918-1922. Princeton University Press. 8 March 2015. ISBN 978-1-4008-7286-2.
- ^ The Russian Civil War, 1918–1921: An Operational-Strategic Sketch of the Red Army's Combat Operations. Casemate Academic. 30 June 2020. ISBN 978-1-952715-05-1.
- ^ International Encyclopedia of Military History. Routledge. December 2004. ISBN 978-1-135-95034-7.
- ^ White Siberia, N.G.O. Pereira. McGill-Queens University Press, 1996. p. 109
- ^ a b c d Smith, Stephen Anthony (2017). Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928. Oxford University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-19-873482-6.
- ^ a b Beevor 2022, p. 45.
- ^ Boyakova 2005, p. 1109.
- ^ "The last Russian emperor Nikolai II abdicated the crown". Presidential Library of Russia.
- ^ Jon Smele (2006) Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918–1920, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521029074. p.77
- ^ a b Schild, Georg (27 June 1995). Between Ideology and Realpolitik: Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution, 1917–1921. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-313-29570-6.
- ^ Хандорин, В. Г. Мифы и факты о Верховном правителе России Archived 29 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. – М.: Общество развития русского исторического просвещения «Двуглавый орёл»; Издательство М. Б. Смолина (ФИВ), 2019. – 200 с. – ISBN 978-5-91862-057-1., p.235
- ^ Мельгунов С. П. Трагедия адмирала Колчака: В 2 книгах. – Книга вторая: Часть III. – М.: Айрис-пресс, Лагуна-Арт, 2005. – 496 с. + вклейка 8 с. – (Белая Россия). – ISBN 5-8112-0547-3. – С. 443, 461.
- ^ Флеминг, Питер Судьба адмирала Колчака. 1917—1920 / Пер. с англ. Л.А. Игоревского. – М.: ЗАО Центрполиграф, 2006.— 252 с. – (Россия в переломный момент истории). ISBN 5-9524-2530-5, p. 235
- ^ N. G. O. Pereira, "White Power during the Civil War in Siberia (1918–1920): Dilemmas of Kolchak's 'War Anti-Communism'", in: Canadian Slavonic Papers (1987) 29#1 pp 45–62.