Mikhail Alexeyev | |
---|---|
General Mikhail Alekseyev
|
|
Born |
Vyazma, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire |
3 November 1857
Died | 10 September 1918 Ekaterinodar, Russian SSR |
(aged 60)
Allegiance |
Russian Empire Russian Republic |
Service/branch | Imperial Russian Army |
Years of service | 1876–1918 |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars |
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Russo-Japanese War World War I Russian Civil War |
Awards |
Order of St. Stanislav Order of St. George Order of St. Vladimir Order of St. Anne |
Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev (Russian: Михаил Васильевич Алексеев) (3 November 1857 – 25 September 1918) was an Imperial Russian Army general during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Between 1915 and 1917 he served as Tsar Nicholas II's Chief of Staff of the Stavka, and after the February Revolution, was its commander-in-chief under the Russian Provisional Government from March to May 1917. He later played a principal role in founding the Volunteer Army in the Russian Civil War and died in 1918 of heart failure while fighting the Bolsheviks in the Volga region.
Alekseyev was born in Vyazma, in the Smolensk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Smolensk Oblast, Russia). His father, Vasili Alekseyev, was an army captain in the 64th Kazan Regiment from a modest background. In 1873 Alekseyev entered as a volunteer in the 2nd Grenadiers Regiment in Rostov. He graduated from the Moscow Infantry School in 1876 and was commissioned an ensign in the same 64th Kazan Regiment. He served as an orderly to General Mikhail Skobelev during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and was wounded in combat near Pleven, Bulgaria. He was promoted to lieutenant in January 1881, and captain in May 1883.