Fyodor Keller

Fyodor Keller
Fyodor Keller
Born	1850 Moscow, Russia
Died	31 July 1904 near Montien Pass, Liaoning Province
Allegiance	Russian Empire
Service/branch	Imperial Russian Army
Years of service	1866-1904
Rank	Lieutenant General
Battles/wars	Serbo-Turkish War Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 Russo Japanese War

Count Fyodor Keller (1850 – 31 July 1904) was a general in the Imperial Russian Army, noted for his role in the Battle of Motien Pass during the Russo-Japanese War.

Fyodor Keller was from a family connected to both Austrian and French nobility, and had the title of count. He attended the prestigious Corps of Pages, the military school for the . After graduation in 1866, he was commissioned as an ensign in the premier cavalry regiment of the Imperial Russian Army, the Chevalier Guard Regiment. He then attended the Nicholas General Staff Academy and was promoted to captain on his graduation in 1876.

Also in 1876, Keller volunteered for service with the Serbian Army during the Serbo-Turkish War and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and distinguished himself in a number of combat operations. In September of the same year, he became a member of the staff of Major-General Mikhail Chernyayev (nicknamed the 'Russian General Custer'), and was assigned as aide-de-camp to the tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich (the future Tsar Alexander III) and the Field Marshal Prince Aleksandr Baryatinsky, both of whom were in Serbia serving with the Russian volunteer expeditionary force.

The forces of Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian-backed Serbians, thus leading to the subsequent Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878. During this war, Keller served as the Chief-of-Staff to the Russian-led Bulgarian militia, and later as Chief-of-Staff for Russian Major-General Mikhail Skobelev, where he replaced the wounded Colonel Alexei Kuropatkin. After the war, Keller was promoted to colonel and served in various staff positions. At the conclusion of the war in 1879, he was promoted to colonel and designated an official emissary to Constantinople for the negotiations which determined the borders of the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

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