Aleksandr Kolchak

Aleksandr Kolchak (1874-1920), Russian admiral and counter-revolutionary, born in St Petersburg, and educated at the Russian naval academy. Kolchak entered the Russian navy in 1888, served with distinction in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and was appointed rear admiral in command of the Baltic fleet during World War I. In 1917 he was promoted to the rank of vice admiral and placed in command of the Black Sea fleet. After the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, he organized a counter-revolutionary army in Siberia and assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia, establishing his capital at Omsk. During 1918 and early 1919 he scored a number of successes against the Soviet armies, but in November 1919 he lost Omsk to the Soviets. Kolchak moved his government farther east to Irkutsk, but the citizens of that city refused to accept his rule and set up a socialist government instead. Compelled to resign, he transferred the command of his armies to the anti-Bolshevik general Anton Ivanovich Denikin. Shortly afterwards Kolchak was captured and executed by the Soviet forces.