Mikhail Skobelev

Biography

The 'White General' — so called for the white uniform and white horse in which he deliberately rode into the thickest fire — was the most charismatic and popular soldier of the war. Fearless to the point of theatricality, Skobelev made his name storming Lovcha and leading the desperate assaults on the Plevna redoubts, where his men briefly seized positions the rest of the army could not hold. His crowning moment came at Sheinovo, where his columns descended from the frozen Shipka heights to envelop and capture an entire Ottoman army. Idolised by his troops and by the Russian public, and an outspoken Pan-Slav who alarmed the courts of Europe with fiery nationalist speeches, he died suddenly and mysteriously in a Moscow hotel in 1882, aged only thirty-eight — prompting endless rumours of poison or political murder.

Key Battles