Aleksey Kuropatkin

Aleksey Kuropatkin
General Aleksey Nikolaevich Kuropatkin in 1903
Born	(1848-03-29)March 29, 1848 Kholm Uyezd, Pskov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	January 16, 1925(1925-01-16) (aged 76) Pskov, Russia
Allegiance	Russian Empire
Service/branch	Russian Imperial Army
Rank	General
Commands held	Russian Imperial Army
Battles/wars	Russo-Japanese War World War I
Other work	In Nabokov's autobiography 'Speak Memory', he tells how his father fleeing from the Bolsheviks in 1918 or 1919 was accosted crossing a bridge by an old man in a sheepskin coat asking for a light. Who he recognised as his old friend Kuropatkin.

Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Куропа́ткин; March 29, 1848 – January 16, 1925) was the Russian Imperial Minister of War from 1898 to 1904, and often held responsible for major Russian defeats in the Russian-Japanese War, most notably at the Battle of Mukden and the Battle of Liaoyang.

Kuropatkin was born in 1848 in Kholm Uyezd, Pskov Governorate, in the Russian Empire. His father, a retired army captain, came from landed gentry. Educated in the Cadet Corps and Pavlovsky Military School, Kuropatkin entered the army in 1864. On August 8, 1866 he was promoted to lieutenant in the 1st Turkestan Infantry Battalion, and took part in the conquest of Bukhara, the storming of Samarkand and other battles in the Russian conquest of Turkestan. He was promoted to major in August 1870.

From 1872 to 1874, Kuropatkin studied at the Nicholas General Staff Academy, after which he was dispatched as a military attaché to Berlin and Paris, completing his military studies, and with the French troops in Algiers, accompanying a French expedition to Sahara. Returning to Russia in late 1875, he was assigned to the Turkestan Military District. He was awarded the Order of St. George (4th class) for his role in the Russian conquest of Kokand.