Background
Mikhail Vassilievich Alexeyev was born in Tver, Russia, on Nov. 3, 1857, of peasant origin.
Mikhail Vassilievich Alexeyev was born in Tver, Russia, on Nov. 3, 1857, of peasant origin.
After attending a military cadet school and Moscow Military Academy, Alexeyev was commissioned an infantry officer and fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Later he graduated from the General Staff Academy with top honors and rose steadily in rank.
He was made a major general in 1904 and served as director of operations of the Second Army in the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905). In 1912 he commanded the Thirteenth Army Corps as a lieutenant general. At the beginning of World War I he was chief-of-staff of the southwestern front; later he was appointed to command of an army on the northwestern front. When Emperor Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the Russian armed forces on Sept. 5, 1915, Alexeyev was appointed his chief-of-staff with the rank of full general. After the abdication of Nicholas II, Alexeyev was appointed commander-in-chief of all the Russian armies by the Provisional Government in March 1917. He opposed the July 1917 offensive as a useless and dangerous adventure and was therefore dismissed by Alexander Kerensky, who was then minister of war. During the struggle between Kerensky and Lavr Kornilov for control of the government, Alexeyev opposed Kornilov and, after Kerensky had proclaimed himself commander-in-chief, Alexeyev again became chief-of-staff on Sept. 14, 1917. However, a month later, when Kerensky failed to carry out the promised reforms in the army to ensure discipline, Alexeyev resigned. After the Bolshevik Revolution he made his way to the Don region and started to form the Volunteer Army to fight the Bolsheviks. He was joined there by General Kornilov on Dec. 19, 1917, but the two could not cooperate. Nevertheless, Alexeyev contributed greatly to the organization of the Volunteer Army and to the anti-Bolshevik resistance in South Russia. On Sept. 23, 1918, he was elected a member of the "Ufa Directorate, " a provisional anti-Bolshevik government organized by former members of the Constituent Assembly. Before assuming his new duties he died of heart failure on Oct. 8, 1918, at Ekaterindar.