Lavr Kornilov

Biography

Lavr Georgievich Kornilov was born on August 18, 1870, in Ust-Kamenogorsk, a frontier town in Kazakhstan, to a Cossack father and a Kazakh mother. He was one of the most remarkable products of the Imperial Army: a man of genuinely humble origins in a military caste system that prized aristocratic birth, who rose to become Commander-in-Chief through sheer ability and legendary personal bravery. His failure — the 'Kornilov Affair' of September 1917 — and his death in 1918 made him the founding martyr of the White movement. Kornilov's early career was marked by his extraordinary aptitude for intelligence work and his personal toughness. He served as a military attaché in China, was nearly killed in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, and earned the St. George's Cross for personally leading a bayonet charge that broke through Japanese lines when his unit was surrounded. During the First World War he was captured by the Austrians in 1915 — and escaped in a spectacular fashion by disguising himself as an Austrian soldier and walking out of his prison camp. After the February Revolution, Kornilov was made commander of the Petrograd Military District and then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army under the Provisional Government. In August 1917 he launched what became known as the 'Kornilov Affair' — an attempt, partly through miscommunication and partly through genuine counter-revolutionary intent, to send troops to Petrograd to restore order and establish a strong government. Prime Minister Kerensky panicked and branded it a coup; Kornilov was arrested. To defeat what he called the 'Kornilov revolt,' Kerensky released and armed the Bolsheviks — a catastrophic error that gave Lenin's forces the weapons they used to seize power two months later. Released by the Bolshevik Revolution, Kornilov joined Alekseyev and Denikin to form the Volunteer Army. He died on April 13, 1918, when a Red Army artillery shell struck his headquarters during the First Kuban ('Ice') March. He was 47 years old. The Bolsheviks dug up his body, dragged it through the streets of Ekaterinodar, and burned it — fearing it would become a rallying symbol for the Whites, which is precisely what it did.

Key Battles