Alexander Kolchak

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vasilyevich and the family name is Kolchak.

Alexander Kolchak
Александр Колчак
Kolchak in 1919
Supreme Ruler of Russia[a]
In office
18 November 1918 – 7 February 1920
Preceded byPosition established[b]
Succeeded byAnton Denikin (de facto)
Minister of War and Navy of the Provisional All-Russian Government
In office
4 November – 18 November 1918
PresidentNikolai Avksentiev
Prime MinisterPyotr Vologodsky
Vice prime ministerVladimir Vinogradov
Preceded byAleksandr Verkhovsky[c] and Dmitry Verderevsky[d]
Succeeded byNikolai Stepanov[e] and Mikhail Smirnov[f]
Personal details
Born16 November 1874
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died7 February 1920(1920-02-07) (aged 45)
Irkutsk, Russian State
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
SpouseSophia Fedorovna Omirova
Children1
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service
  • Imperial Russian Navy
  • White Army
Years of service1886–1920
RankAdmiral
Battles/warsRusso-Japanese War
World War I
Russian Civil War

Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (Russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Колча́к; 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1874 – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. When he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918,[1] Kolchak headed a military dictatorship,[2][3][4] which ruled over the territory of the former Russian Empire controlled by the Whites. He was a proponent of Russian nationalism and militarism, and opposed democracy as a principle which he believed was tied to pacifism, internationalism, and socialism.[5] As one of the leaders of the White movement,[6] he was one of the key architects of the White Terror.[1]

Kolchak served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.[1] The son of a naval artillery officer, he graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and went on to become an accomplished oceanographer and Arctic explorer. He was involved in several expeditions to northern Russia, including to the New Siberian Islands, and became the youngest vice admiral in the Imperial Navy. He was wounded and taken prisoner during the Russo-Japanese War at the Siege of Port Arthur. When he returned to Russia he lobbied the State Duma to strengthen the fleet by introducing submarines and aircraft. Kolchak was the Baltic Fleet Chief of Operations when World War I broke out and was made the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet shortly before the February Revolution.[7][8] When Emperor Nicholas II asked the commanders of each army group and fleet for their opinion on whether he should abdicate the throne, Kolchak was the only one who opposed the move.[9]

During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Kolchak was popular among conservative newspapers, who saw him as a potential military dictator.[7] Early in the Russian Civil War, he briefly served as the Minister of War and Navy in the Provisional All-Russian Government – the first government that was recognized by all White military and political forces east of Urals, at least nominally – until a November 1918 coup saw him installed as leader and all authority was transferred to his own government.[6] His government was based in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia. When Kolchak assumed the title of Supreme Ruler, his authority was recognized by the other leaders of the White movement,[10][6] although Anton Denikin enjoyed more power than Kolchak.[6]

After initial successes in early 1919, Kolchak's forces lost ground due to lack of support from the local populace and failure to unite the leaders of the counterrevolutionary movements.[11] Omsk fell to the Red Army in November 1919 during the Great Siberian Ice March, compelling Kolchak to transfer his headquarters to Irkutsk.[11] In December, he was betrayed and detained by the chief of the Allied military mission in Siberia, Maurice Janin, and the Czechoslovak Legion, who handed him over to local Socialist-Revolutionaries in January 1920.[12][13][14] The Bolsheviks executed him the following month in Irkutsk.[15]


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  1. ^ a b c Yegorov, O. (27 December 2019). "Meet Russian Imperial officers who almost stopped the Bolsheviks". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Archived from the original on 19 February 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  2. ^ Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918-1922. Princeton University Press. 8 March 2015. ISBN 978-1-4008-7286-2.
  3. ^ The Russian Civil War, 1918–1921: An Operational-Strategic Sketch of the Red Army's Combat Operations. Casemate Academic. 30 June 2020. ISBN 978-1-952715-05-1.
  4. ^ International Encyclopedia of Military History. Routledge. December 2004. ISBN 978-1-135-95034-7.
  5. ^ White Siberia, N.G.O. Pereira. McGill-Queens University Press, 1996. p. 109
  6. ^ a b c d Smith, Stephen Anthony (2017). Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928. Oxford University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-19-873482-6.
  7. ^ a b Beevor 2022, p. 45.
  8. ^ Boyakova 2005, p. 1109.
  9. ^ "The last Russian emperor Nikolai II abdicated the crown". Presidential Library of Russia.
  10. ^ Jon Smele (2006) Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918–1920, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521029074. p.77
  11. ^ a b Schild, Georg (27 June 1995). Between Ideology and Realpolitik: Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution, 1917–1921. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-313-29570-6.
  12. ^ Хандорин, В. Г. Мифы и факты о Верховном правителе России Archived 29 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. – М.: Общество развития русского исторического просвещения «Двуглавый орёл»; Издательство М. Б. Смолина (ФИВ), 2019. – 200 с. – ISBN 978-5-91862-057-1., p.235
  13. ^ Мельгунов С. П. Трагедия адмирала Колчака: В 2 книгах. – Книга вторая: Часть III. – М.: Айрис-пресс, Лагуна-Арт, 2005. – 496 с. + вклейка 8 с. – (Белая Россия). – ISBN 5-8112-0547-3. – С. 443, 461.
  14. ^ Флеминг, Питер Судьба адмирала Колчака. 1917—1920 / Пер. с англ. Л.А. Игоревского. – М.: ЗАО Центрполиграф, 2006.— 252 с. – (Россия в переломный момент истории). ISBN 5-9524-2530-5, p. 235
  15. ^ N. G. O. Pereira, "White Power during the Civil War in Siberia (1918–1920): Dilemmas of Kolchak's 'War Anti-Communism'", in: Canadian Slavonic Papers (1987) 29#1 pp 45–62.
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