Lavr Kornilov

Lavr Kornilov was born in Ust-Kamenogorsk in 1870. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 Kornilov became the Chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade, and was heavily involved in the Battle of Sandepu and the Battle of Mukden. In 1914, at the start of World War I, Kornilov was appointed commander of the 48th Infantry Division. He was given command of the Petrograd Military District in March 1917. At the end of August, Kornilov sent troops toward Petrograd; Kerensky, interpreting this as an attempted military coup d’état, dismissed Kornilov and ordered him to come to Petrograd (August 27). Kornilov refused, and railroad workers prevented his troops from reaching their destination; on September 1 he surrendered and was imprisoned at Bykhov. Kornilov later escaped, and, after the Bolsheviks seized power (October 1917), he assumed military command of the anti-Bolshevik (“White”) volunteer army in the Don region. Several months later he was killed during a battle for Ekaterinodar.