Mikhail Gordejewitsch Drosdowski

Mikhail G. Drosdowski

Mikhail Gordejewitsch Drosdowski ( Russian Михаил Гордеевич Дроздовский ; * October 7, 1881 in Kiev ; † January 1, 1919 ) was a Russian officer and one of the military leaders of the anti-Bolshevik White movement in the Russian Civil War .

Life

Drozdowski was born in Kiev , where his father was a highly decorated general of the Crimean War . His mother died when he was twelve and he was raised by his older sister Julia, who had served as a nurse in the Russo-Japanese War .

He began his military career in 1892 in Polotsk Cadet Corps and later took on the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War in part. After the Bolsheviks came to power, Drosdowski refused to accept the new regime and in 1918 marched with soldiers loyal to him from the Romanian front to the Don . On the way he and his troops were joined by other anti-Bolshevik officers and soldiers. The resulting combat unit and its commander eventually became part of the White Volunteer Army and subsequently took part in the fighting against the Bolsheviks in southern Russia.

Drosdowski was wounded in October 1918 in the Stavropol area , where he had personally led his men into battle as usual. He was not supposed to recover from the consequences of this wound and died on New Year's Day 1919. The combat unit he was the founder was considered an elite unit of the White Army during the Russian Civil War .

Web links

Commons : Mikhail Drozdovsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ^ Evan Mawdsley : The Russian Civil War. Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh 2005, ISBN 1-84341-024-9 , p. 86
2. ^ David Bullock: The Russian Civil War. 1918-22 (= Essential Histories ). Osprey Publishing Limited, Oxford and New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-271-4 , pp. 39, 75, 116 and 138.
3. ↑ Bullock (2008), pp. 41 and 68.