Anton Denikin
| Anton Denikin | |
|---|---|
Anton Denikin in 1918
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| Native name | Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин |
| Birth name | Anton Ivanovich Denikin |
| Born |
16 December 1872 Włocławek, Warsaw Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 8 August 1947 (aged 74) Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States |
| Buried at | Donskoye Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 Russian Empire Russian Republic
|
| Service/branch |
Imperial Russian Army White Army |
| Years of service | 1890–1920 |
| Rank | Lieutenant general |
| Battles/wars |
Russo-Japanese War World War I Russian Civil War |
| Awards | See below |
| Spouse(s) | Xenia Vasilievna Chizh |
| Relations | Marina Denikina (daughter) |
Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; IPA: [ɐnˈton ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪˈnʲikʲɪn]; 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1872 – 8 August 1947) was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Russian Army (1916) and afterwards a leading general of the White movement in the Russian Civil War.
Denikin was born in Szpetal Dolny village, now part of the Polish city Włocławek in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (then part of Russian-controlled Vistula Land). His father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin, had been born a serf in the province of Saratov. Sent as a recruit to do 25 years of military service, the elder Denikin became an officer in the 22nd year of his army service in 1856. He retired from the army in 1869 with the rank of major. In 1869 Ivan Denikin married Polish seamstress Elżbieta Wrzesińska as his second wife. Anton Denikin, the couple's only child, spoke both Russian and Polish growing up. His father's Russian patriotism and devotion to the Russian Orthodox religion led Anton Denikin to the Russian army.
The Denikins lived very close to poverty, with the retired major's small pension as their only source of income, and their finances worsened after Ivan's death in 1885. Anton Denikin at this time began tutoring younger schoolmates to support the family. In 1890 Denikin enrolled at the Kiev Junker School, a military college from which he graduated in 1892. The twenty-year-old Denikin joined an artillery brigade, in which he served for three years.
In 1895 he was first accepted into the General Staff Academy, where he did not meet the academic requirements in the first of his two years. After this disappointment, Denikin attempted to attain acceptance again. On his next attempt he did better and finished fourteenth in his class. However, to his misfortune, the Academy decided to introduce a new system of calculating grades and as a result Denikin was not offered a staff appointment after the final exams. He protested the decision to the highest authority (the Grand Duke). After being offered a settlement according to which he would rescind his complaint in order to attain acceptance into the General Staff school again, Denikin declined, insulted.
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Wikipedia