Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak is a former Russian admiral, military leader, polar explorer and important political figure of the White Movement during the Russian Civil War, when he served as Supreme Military Commander of all White Russian forces and head of the Provisional All-Russian Government.
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Biography[]
Early Life[]
Kolchak was born into family of minor Russian nobility in St. Petersburg on 16 November 1874. Both of his parents were of Romanian origin and born in Odessa; His father had once served in the Russian Black Sea Fleet and participated in the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Therefore, Kolchak strove to join the navy as well to follow in his father's footsteps.
Kolchak therefore enrolled at the Naval Cadet Corps and graduated in 1894, joining the 7th Naval Battalion. He was soon transferred to the Russian Far East, serving in Vladivostok from 1895 to 1899. He then returned to western Russia and was based at Kronstadt, where he came in contact with Eduard von Toll, a famous Baltic German polar explorer.

Kolchak in winter clothes during Eduard von Toll's Russian Polar Exploration on Taimyr Island, 1901
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Kolchak joined Toll's polar exploration as a hydrologist on the ship Zarya in mid-1900, which headed towards Taymyr Island, a large island in the Kara Sea in the far north of Russia. The goal of the exploration was to find an almost mythical island called "Sannikov Island" somewhere in the Arctic Sea. When it became clear that said island was untraceable, Toll and three companions left the Zarya and travelled south by foot on loose ice floes, away from Bennett Island, and vanished forever.
Kolchak however remained on the Zarya and headed towards Yakutsk via the Lena river. In early December 1902 Kolchak reached St. Petersburg, and began organizing an expedition to rescue Toll. While the latter could not be found, Kolchak's expedition completed its task and returned without loss. In addition to providing a plausible evidence to the fate of Toll, it provided valuable data to the geography and ice formation in the region, and was later highly praised by Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky. In recognition of his achievements, in 1906 Kolchak was elected a member of the Russian Geographical Society and bestowed with its highest award, the Constantine Medal. Kolchak became quite famous in Russia and was widely known as "Kolchak-Poliarnyi" ("Kolchak the Polar").
In December 1903, Kolchak was en route to St. Petersburg to marry his fiancée, Sophia Omirova, when, not far from Irkutsk, he received notice of the start of the Russo-Japanese War; He hastily summoned his bride and her father to Siberia by telegram for a wedding, before heading directly to Port Arthur. During the war, he served as a watch officer on several Russian ships and handled naval mines. As the Japanese blockade of the port tightened and the Siege of Port Arthur intensified, he was given command of a coastal artillery battery; Eventually, he was wounded and captured by the Japanese and taken as a prisoner of war to Nagasaki. His poor health however (a consequence of his polar expeditions) led to his repatriation before the end of the war. Kolchak was awarded the Golden Sword of St. George with the inscription "For Bravery" on his return to Russia.
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Returning to Saint Petersburg in April 1905, Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant commander and took part in the rebuilding of the Imperial Russian Navy, which had been almost completely destroyed during the war. He served with the Naval General Staff from 1906, helping to set up a shipbuilding program, a training program for young recruits, and developing a new protection plan for St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland.

Icebreaker "Vaigach", on which Kolchak sailed across the southern Arctic Sea in 1909-1910
Kolchak also took part in designing the special icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach, launched in 1909 and spring of 1910. Based in Vladivostok, these vessels were sent on a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev. Kolchak commanded the Vaigach during this expedition and later worked at the Academy of Sciences with the materials collected by him during these expeditions. His study, Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas, was printed in the Proceedings of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and is considered the most important work on this subject. In 1910 he returned to the Naval General Staff, and in 1912 he was assigned to the Russian Baltic Fleet.
In mid-1914, the Weltkrieg began. Kolchak was posted on the flagship Pogranichnik, where he oversaw laying of extensive coastal defensive minefields and commanded the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga. Commanding Admiral Nikolai Ottovich von Essen however was not satisfied to remain on the defensive and ordered Kolchak to prepare a scheme for attacking German naval bases in the Baltic Sea. During the autumn and winter of 1914–1915, Russian destroyers and cruisers started a series of dangerous night operations, laying mines at the approaches to Kiel and Danzig. Kolchak, feeling that the man responsible for planning operations should also take part in their execution, was always on board those ships which carried out the operations and at times took direct command of the destroyer flotillas.
In August 1916, Kolchak was promoted to vice-admiral and was made commander of the Black Sea Fleet, replacing Admiral Andrei Eberhardt. Kolchak's primary mission was to support General Nikolai Yudenich in his operations against the Ottoman Empire. Kolchak's fleet was successful at sinking Turkish colliers and helped countering hostile submarines in the region; The eventual goal was the invasion of the Bosphorus and the capture of Constantinople, but this goal was never carried out. Because there was no railway linking the coal mines of eastern Turkey with Constantinople, the Russian fleet's attacks on these Turkish coal ships caused the Ottoman government much hardship. In 1916, in a combined Army-Navy assault, the Russian Black Sea fleet aided the Russian army's capture of the Ottoman city of Trebizond.
Russian Revolutions and American exile[]
The Black Sea fleet descended into political chaos after the onset of the Russian February Revolution of 1917. Kolchak was relieved of command of the fleet in June and traveled to Petrograd, where he was invited to a meeting of the Provisional Government. There he presented his view on the condition of the Russian armed forces and their complete demoralisation. He stated that the only way to save the country was to re-establish strict discipline and restore capital punishment in the army and navy. During this time many organisations and newspapers of a conservative inclination spoke of him as a future potential dictator.
A number of secret organisations had sprung up in Petrograd with the goal of suppressing the Bolshevik movement and removal of the extremist members of the government. Some of these organisations asked Kolchak to accept the leadership. When news of these plots found their way to then Minister of War and Navy, Alexander Kerensky, he ordered Kolchak to leave the country immediately. On 19 August 1917 Kolchak left Petrograd with several officers for Britain as a quasi-official military observer. When a message from the neutral United States of America reached him shortly after, making him the offer to come to America to hold lectures about naval strategy and technology, Kolchak did not hesitate and embarked to the New World on a British ship. When the contract was fulfilled, Kolchak remained in the United States for about two months; During that time he met with Russian diplomats and high ranking American government officials.
In late October, while in San Francisco, Kolchak received a telegram from Russia offering him to run for the Constituent Assembly as a representative of the Black Sea Fleet District, to which he agreed, but his reply telegram was late. Only after his departure, Kolchak received news of the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the victory of the October Revolution - at that time, he already had left with his officers on a Japanese steamer to Vladivostok via Yokohama. Kolchak was fully determined to fight for the salvation of his motherland.
Return to the Russian Far East[]
Only after arriving in Yokohama in November, he learned that the Bolsheviks had seized power in Petrograd, deposed the Provisional Government and opened separate peace talks with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk, which deeply angered him and made him feel powerless. As offering his service to the communist Bolsheviks was unthinkable for him, he decided to abandon the idea of returning to the homeland and got in contact with the British ambassy in Tokyo instead, offering his services "unconditionally and in whatever capacity" to the British, as he considered himself honour-bound to continue to fight the war with Germany, and, understanding that there was no suitable role in the British Navy for a Russian admiral, he wanted to fight as a private in the British army instead. The British planned to send him to Baghdad as a member of a British military mission.
In January 1918 he left Japan via Shanghai for Singapore. In early March however, when arriving in Singapore, Kolchak received a secret order to immediately return to China to take command of Russian troops guarding the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria, which the British government had decided could be a base for overthrowing the Bolshevik government and getting Russia back into the war with Germany. The change in mind of the British was due to the persistent petitions of Russian diplomats and other political circles, who saw in the popular admiral a potential candidate as the leader of the anti-Bolshevik movement.
Kolchak traveled to Russia via Shanghai, Beijing and Harbin, where he was received in May by several high-ranking members of the White Movement, mostly diplomats and industrialists. He was briefed about the political situation in Russia proper and learned that the Bolshevik government in different parts of Russia had already begun to meet resistance, most prominently in the south, where the forces of General Mikhail Alekseyev and Lavr Kornilov, known as the "Volunteer Army", were already firmly entrenched. Kolchak realized that the White Movement needed to establish a strong presence in the Russian Far East as soon as possible an then move west to to seek unification with the Volunteer Army and corner the Bolsheviks in Northwestern Russia with Entente support. General Dmitry Horvat gave Kolchak complete control over the Chinese Eastern Railway and soon, plans were started to smuggle around 17,000 Russian troops into Transbaikal and Primorye via said railroad.
Recruiting that many troops in Harbin was not that easy, admittedly: Horvat managed to provide 2,000 troops under Colonel Nikolai Orlov and Ataman Ivan Kalmykov, another 5,000 troops, who already were active in Transbaikal, were under the command of Grigory Semyonov - a man not particularly known for his reliance, who surrounded himself with questionable figures such as Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, refused to sumbit to Horvat and Kolchak and preferred to act independently. Kolchak soon began to organize a large compound under the guise of strengthening of protection of the railway. When he tried to establish contact with Semyonov for coordination, the latter however refused to answer - what Kolchak did not know at the was that Semyonov was personally funded by Japan, who wanted to fracture the White Movement as much as possible to expand their own influence into the Russian Far East; Corrupt Atamans like Semyonov were exactly what Japan needed. Kolchak soon gave up and continued his plans without taking Semyonov's forces into account.
The Japanese not only tried to expand their influence via Semyonov, but also directly via Horvat and Kolchak. When negotiated with Japan about potential weapon supplies, the Japanese demanded a kind of compensation for weapons, hinting at "closer cooperation". Kolchak declined and the weapons were never delivered. Additionally, the Japanese tried to stop Kolchak's plans of establishing a small flotilla on the Sungari river and occupying Vladivostok, fearing it would hamper their own invasion attempts. Japan soon started sabotage attempts against Kolchak's operations, demanded the transfer of all armed forces in the Far East to Ataman Semyonov and began to bribe Kolchak's subordinates. When hostile confrontations broke out, Kolchak decided to travel to Tokyo in June 1918 to sort out things with the Japanese military leadership and normalize relations. The meeting however was fruitless: The Japanese, realizing that it would be impossible to manipulate and control Kolchak, accused him of "Japanophobia" and refused to assist him with resolving the conflict with the Japanese representatives in the Far East and even tried to detain him in Japan, but to no avail.
Journey to Omsk[]
On September 16 Kolchak left Japan. Realizing that the Japanese would interfere with his work in the Far East, he intended to go to Southern Russia instead to find his family and serve with the Volunteer Army, which were much more reliable than the corrupt, Japanese-bribed forces in the Far East. Back in Vladivostok, he became acquainted with the situation in Central Siberia and learned about the meeting of representatives of various democratic forces in Ufa and the formation of a so-called "Provisional All-Russian Government", or Ufa Directory, a united anti-Bolshevik government claiming jurisdiction over the territories to the east of the Volga.
Kolchak was quite enthusiastic about this government, because it had appeared without outside influence (much different than his own failed attempt in the Far East or the British- or German-backed Russian warlords in Western Russia) and therefore would probably be able to better mobilize the population, which meant significant support for the government by the citizens. Soon after, Kolchak established contact with representatives of the Ufa Directory and various Siberian anti-Bolshevik leaders, among them high-ranking leaders of the Czechoslovak Legion like Radola Gajda, with whom Kolchak agreed on future cooperation. In October 1918, he Vladivostok behind, travelling by train to Omsk. Originally, he only wanted to stay there for a short time and then move on further west - but things would turn out much differently in the end.
In Omsk, Kolchak established contact with representatives of the Volunteer Army. They had an extremely negative attitude towards the Ufa Directory, considering it "a repeat of Kerensky" and his Provisional Government. Kolchak also met with General Vasily Boldyrev, the commander-in-chief of the Directory's troops, and many high-ranking politicians, many of them Socialist Revolutionaries - among them Nikolai Avksentiev, Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government. On the one hand, they needed Kolchak, on the other hand, they were afraid of him; They hoped to establish relations with the British through him, because it was known that Kolchak had the best relations with them, but they were also afraid of his dictatorial tendencies.
After meeting all these different political figures, Kolchak had lost most of his enthusiasm for the Provisional All-Russian Government and recognized that it was similarly disorganized as Kerensky's old government, just as the Volunteer Army representatives had told him upon his arrival in Omsk. Kolchak had become convinced that only a military dictatorship would be able to defeat Bolshevism.
Coup of November 1918[]
Around the same time, on the instructions of the underground anti-Bolshevik organization "National Center", prominent Siberian cadet and former deputy of the State Duma Viktor Pepelyayev left Moscow for Omsk. He had a very special assignment: The National Center's aim was to coup the Ufa Directory and replace it with a one-man dictatorship; Therefore, they had sent Pepelayayev to Siberia to enter into secret negotiations with Kolchak, who they saw the perfect candidate for this position.
On October 16, General Boldyrev offered Kolchak the post of Minister of War and Navy. At first Kolchak refused this post, not wanting to bind himself to the Directory, but eventually agreed on the condition that if the situation and working conditions would contradict his views, he would reserve himself the right to leave. On 7 November he would take up his position for the first time, his first orders being to begin reforming the central bodies of the Military Ministry and the General Staff. The next day Kolchak traveled to the front around the city of Samara for a personal acquaintance with the situation of the army and its command staff.
While Kolchak was at the front, the unpopular government of the Directory under Avksentiev was overthrown in a British-supported coup d'etat under Ataman Krasilnikov and Pepelyayev, high ranking Socialist Revolutionary Party members were put under arrest. Upon Kolchak's return, he was approached by the putschists, but refused to take power at first. The remaining cabinet members however met and voted for Kolchak to become the head of government with emergency powers; Only then, he would agree. He was named Supreme Ruler (Verkhovnyi Pravitel), and he promoted himself to full admiral. The arrested SR politicians were expelled from Siberia and ended up in Europe.
Soon after, Kolchak issued the following manifesto to the population:
"The Provisional All-Russian Government has fallen. The Council of Ministers, having all the power in its hands, has invested me, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, with this power. I have accepted this responsibility in the exceptionally difficult circumstances of civil war and complete disorganisation of the country, and I now make it known that I shall follow neither the reactionary path nor the deadly path of party strife. My chief aims are the organisation of a fighting force, the overthrow of Bolshevism, and the establishment of law and order, so that the Russian people may be able to choose a form of government in accordance with its desire and to realise the high ideas of liberty and freedom. I call upon you, citizens, to unite and to sacrifice your all, if necessary, in the struggle with Bolshevism."
Supreme Ruler of Russia[]
Politically naive and an inept administrator, Kolchak described himself as a "military technician" who knew nothing of politics, described power as a "cross", and in a letter to his wife wrote about the "terrifying burden of Supreme Power" and admitted that as "a fighting man he was reluctant to face the problems of statecraft". Kolchak's only true strengths were his courage, patriotism, integrity and his strong sense of honor, but his weaknesses, such as his tendency to suffer from manic depression and his social inabilities to made him into an execrable administrator in whose name were committed unpardonable acts of corruption and brutality that he personally found utterly repugnant.
The Left SR leaders in Russia soon denounced Kolchak and called for his assassination. Their activities resulted in a small revolt in Omsk on 22 December 1918, which was quickly put down by Cossacks and the Czechoslovak Legion, who summarily executed almost 500 rebels. Subsequently, the SRs opened negotiations with the Bolsheviks and in January 1919 the SR People's Army joined up with the Red Army.
WORK IN PROGRESS. THE REST OF KOLCHAK'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE CIVIL WAR IS TBA ONCE THE RUSSIA REWORK IS REVEALED