Alexander Franzewitsch Ragosa

Alexander Ragosa as Ukrainian Minister of War, 1918

Alexander Franzevich Ragosa , Russian Александр Францевич Рагоза , (* May 27. ^{. Jul} / 8. June  1858 ^greg. In Vitebsk ; † 29. June 1919 in Odessa ) was a Russian officer, most recently general of the infantry , and after leaving Russia from the First world war, war Minister of the Ukrainian state .

Life

Ragosa came from the nobility of the Vitebsk governorate and received his education at the Polotsk military high school . In 1874 he began his military service and graduated from the Michael Artillery School in Saint Petersburg in 1877 . He then took part as a lieutenant in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/78. In 1883 he graduated from the Nicholas Academy of the General Staff as a staff captain . From 1883 to 1888 he served as senior adjutant on the staff of the 5th Rifle Division in the Kharkov Military District. He then became company commander in the 18th Vologda Rifle Regiment and assistant to the senior adjutant in the Far Eastern (Priamursky) military district and, until 1891, senior adjutant in the military chancellery of Primorskaya Oblast. From January 1891 to September 1896 he served on the staff of the commander of the Kerch Fortress . In 1892 he reached the rank of colonel . This was followed by a position as chief of staff of the 32nd rifle division until 1898 and in the same function in the 5th rifle division until 1900.

From 1900 to 1904 Ragosa commanded the 18th Vologda Rifle Regiment, briefly a brigade and was promoted to major general. He then became Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Corps before he was in command of the Dünamünde Fortress from 1906 to 1909 . Here he was promoted to lieutenant general in 1908 . His next use was as commander of the 19th rifle division, which he at the beginning of the First World War as part of the XII. Army Corps in the Battle of Galicia . At the end of September 1914 he took command of the 25th Army Corps, which he led under the command of the 9th Army in the Battle of the Vistula . Towards the end of 1914 he was promoted to general of the infantry. In August 1915 he was given command of the 4th Army . From February to March 1916 he represented the sick General Smirnov as commander of the 2nd Army , during which time he took part in the Battle of Lake Narach . In July 1916 he again led his previous 4th Army in the Baranowitschi Offensive . This was withdrawn from the front in autumn 1916 to be relocated to the Romanian theater of war . It was used here from December 1916 on the Rimnik River .

After the October Revolution he took his leave and in April 1918 joined the army of the Ukrainian State (Hetmanat) formed under German supervision. Here he was appointed Minister of War in the government of Pavlo Skoropadskyj on May 1, 1918 , which he remained until the state was dissolved after the defeat of the Central Powers . In December 1918 he was arrested by Symon Petlyura's troops in Kiev , but was soon released. He went to Odessa and intended to join the White Army or to emigrate, but he did not succeed. He was arrested again, this time by Red troops under Nikifor Grigoryev , and shot in June 1919 after refusing to fight on the Red side .

Web links

• Alexander Ragosa on 1914ww.ru
• Alexander Ragosa on grwar.ru