Alexander Kolchak was a polar explorer and commander in the Imperial Russian Navy, who fought in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. During the Russian Civil War, he established an anti-communist government in Siberia - later the Provisional All-Russian Government - and was recognised as the "Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces" by the other leaders of the White movement from 1918 to 1920.
Background
Kolchak was born on November 16, 1874 in St. Petersburg, Russia, to a family of minor Russian nobility. 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.
Education
Kolchak graduated from the Russian Naval Academy in 1894.
Career
Between 1900 and 1902 Kolchak participated in two arctic expeditions of the Academy of Science. During the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905, he served as commander of a destroyer and later as battery commander in the besieged fortress of Port Arthur. After the war he was instrumental in forming a group of progressive naval officers who prepared the reform and reorganization of the Russian navy. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he returned to sea duty as flag captain of the Baltic fleet and in July 1916 was appointed commander of the Black Sea fleet with the rank of rear admiral. Following disturbances in the fleet under his command, which were the result of political intervention of members of the Provisional Government, Kolchak resigned his position in June 1917. On November 8, 1917, he left for Japan to offer his services to the British government. His offer was accepted, and he was ordered to proceed to India, where he was to be assigned to the Mesopotamian army. However, when he reached Singapore, he was requested by the British government to go to Siberia, where it needed his services more. After serving for a while as military representative on the board of the Chinese Eastern Railway, he accepted an appointment as minister of war and navy in the Siberian anti-Bolshevik government. On November 18, 1918, Kolchak carried out a coup d'etat at Omsk, overthrowing the Siberian government and proclaiming himself supreme ruler of Russia. He was recognized as such by the United States, France, and other anti-Bolshevik Russian governments then in existence. His main purpose was the prosecution of the war against the Bolsheviks. The lack of a political program, together with the abuses of many of his subordinates, contributed greatly to the collapse of his regime. After the collapse of the Siberian armies, Kolchak transferred his powers as leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces to General Denikin on January 4, 1920, and placed himself under the protection of the Allies. On January 15 troops of the Czech Legion, whom the French General Janin, senior Allied officer in Siberia, had appointed to guard Kolchak, surrendered him to a provisional Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik government at Irkutsk, which was later supplanted by a Bolshevik administration. After prolonged questioning and without benefit of trial, Kolchak was executed by a firing squad at Irkutsk, February 7, 1920.
Achievements
Politics
For a year and a half, Kolchak was a widely recognized political leader in southern Russia. However, his effort to unite the anti-Bolshevik elements mostly failed; Kolchak refused to consider autonomy for ethnic minorities and refused to cooperate with non-Bolshevik leftists, and also heavily relied on outside aid. As his White forces fell apart, he was betrayed and captured by independent units who handed him over to local Bolsheviks, who executed him.
Membership
Member of the Russian Geographical Society
Connections
In December 1903, Kolchak was en route to St. Petersburg with plans to marry his fiancee Sophia Omirova when, not far from Irkutsk, he received notice of the start of war with 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.