- Alexander Kutepov
Alexander Pavlovich Kutepov ("Александр Павлович Кутепов" in Russian) (9.16(28).1882 — 1930) was a Russian
counterrevolution ary in SouthRussia and White ArmyGeneral (1920).Kutepov graduated from
Junker Infantry School inSt.Petersburg in 1904. As a younginfantry officer he fought in theRusso-Japanese War , where he was wounded in action and decorated for valor. In 1906 he was transferred to thePreobrazhensky Regiment , an elite guard'sregiment . DuringWorld War I he received several decorations for bravery and was again severely wounded in action. During the course of the war he rose from company, tobattalion , to regimental commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. As such he became the last commander of this historical regiment.After the
October Revolution , Kutepov joined the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army (also called theWhite Army ) at the very outset of theRussian Civil War . At the start of the Ice March in early 1918, Kutepov was a company commander of an officer's regiment. (Note: in the beginning of the Russian Civil War the small Volunteer Army had a surplus of officers, which meant that many of them had to serve as common soldiers. These formations soon became the crack units of the White Army.) After the death in battle of Colonel Nezhentsev, Kutepov took over the command of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, and after the death of the commander of the 1st Infantry Division he became its commander. When the Whites capturedNovorossiysk in August of 1918, Kutepov was appointedGovernor General of theBlack Sea region. Starting in January of 1919, a thirty-six year oldLieutenant General Kutepov became the commander of the I ArmyCorps of the White Army. Throughout his career Kutepov had a reputation for being a decisive, direct, and no-nonsense military leader. During the chaotic and anarchic times of the Russian Civil War, order was usually rapidly restored after Kutepov's arrival. He accomplished this, however, by means of the swift and ruthless application of the death penalty on suspected looters and pogrom perpetrators.After the White Army's final defeat in the
Crimea , Kutepov and the remnants of his corps evacuated toGallipoli in November 1920. Despite very unfavorable and demoralizing circumstances, the troops in Gallipoli regained their morale and kept their military coherence thanks to Kutepov's leadership. In the beginning of the Gallipoli period Kutepov was disliked by many of the troops because of his disciplinary measures, but by the end he was warmly regarded by most of them. When the Gallipoli camp was disbanded, Kutepov moved toBulgaria in late 1921. Two years later he was expelled from the country during the upheavals of theAleksandar Stamboliyski era. Kutepov and his wife settled inParis . After General Wrangel's death in 1928, he became the leader of theRussian All-Military Union and continued itsanti-Soviet activities.On
January 26 ,1930 , Kutepov waskidnap ped byOGPU agents and secretly transported fromParis to Soviet Russia. It seems that Kutepov died while en route, but the details of his death are still unclear. Former White Army generalNikolai Skoblin , anInner Line member, was suspected of being an accomplice in his kidnapping. (But see Walter Laqueur, "New Light on a Murky Affair", "Encounter" LXXIV.2 (March 1990), p.33, who summarises a long article in the Soviet weekly "Nedelya" and states "Skoblin had nothing to do with this affair, because he was recruited only after Kutyopov's disappearance").
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