Wassili Iossifowitsch Gurko

Wassili Iossifowitsch Romeiko-Gurko

Wassili Iossifowitsch Romeiko-Gurko ( Russian Василий Иосифович Роме́йко-Гурко ; * 8 May ^July / 20 May  1864 ^greg. In Tsarskoje Selo ; † 11 February 1937 in Rome ) was a Russian officer, last general of the cavalry in the First World War .

Life

origin

He was born in 1864 as the son of a famous aristocratic family from the Mogilew province, the son of Field Marshal Josef Vladimirovich Gurko (1829–1901, hero of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878) and Countess Maria Salias de Tournemir (1842–1906), a daughter of the writer Evgenia Tur (1815-1892). An older brother, Vladimir (1862-1927) graduated from Moscow University and later worked in the State Chancellery of the Interior Ministry under Pyotr Stolypin . A younger brother Dmitri (1872-1945) became major general in World War I and in 1917 commander of the 16th Cavalry Division.

Early military career

After attending the Richelieu Gymnasium, Vasily Josifowitsch joined the Imperial Page Corps. As a cornet he joined the Imperial Life Guard Hussar Regiment of Grodno on August 7, 1885 . On August 30, 1889 he received the rank of lieutenant and in 1890 was sent to the Academy of the General Staff to begin training as a staff officer. For his excellent study results he was granted double the annual salary on May 5, 1892. On May 13th, he was taken over to the General Staff of the Warsaw Military District as Chief of Staff, 1st rank . In November 1892 he was appointed adjutant on the General Staff of the 8th Infantry Division. He then moved back to the headquarters of the Life Guard Hussar Regiment in Grodno, where he was given command of a squadron on November 1, 1893 . As of August 9, 1896, Gurko , who had already been promoted to lieutenant colonel , was assigned to the commander of the Warsaw military district as a staff officer for special commands.

On November 21, 1899 he was sent as a military observer to the Boer War in the Transvaal to observe the course of the hostilities. For the successful execution of the mission he received the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree on January 1, 1901 and was promoted to colonel on August 7, 1900 . From 1900–1901 he served in the office of the Military Scientific Committee; between April and November 1901 he served as a military agent in Berlin .

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War , he acted from February 1904 as a staff officer at the headquarters of the Quartermaster General of the Manchurian Army. After arriving in Liaoyang , he served temporarily as Chief of Staff of the 1st Siberian Army Corps (from March 25, 1904 to June 27, 1904) under Lieutenant General von Stackelberg . For the use of the corps in the Battle of Wafangou (June 14-15 , 1904) he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus II Degree with Swords. He temporarily commanded the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade, the best cavalry unit in the 1st Siberian Army Corps, before returning to his old position as Chief of Staff of the Corps. For leading his troops in the Battle of Liaoyang (August 24 to September 4, 1904) he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class, on November 4. For his service in the battle of the Shaho River (October 5 to October 17, 1904), where he reached the heights of Putilowska, he was awarded on January 4, 1905 with a decorative ribbon with the imprint "For Bravery" on it. honored. In November 1904 Gurko was commissioned with the formation of the headquarters of the corps group Rennenkampf , whose troops were stationed in Hailungtschen.

The following year, 1905, he served as the commander of the Transbaikal Brigade of the Ural Cossack Division and was promoted to major general. For the use of his troops during the Battle of Mukden (February 1905) he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd Class on August 25th. After the Russian retreat, Gurko was instructed to organize the defense of the extreme left flank of the Manchurian army and communication with the hinterland; he organized the connections through the Hun-ho valley. As commander of the Transbaikal Cossack Brigade was then assigned to the division of General Mishchenko .

From March 1905 he was appointed commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Ural Cossack Division and from April 1906 he led the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Cavalry Division. From 1906 to 1911 he was chairman of the military history commission for the description of the Russo-Japanese war in between, he worked with the then chairman of the state protection commission, Guchkov . On December 6, 1910 he was promoted to lieutenant general and on March 12, 1911 appointed commander of the 1st Cavalry Division.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War, his 1st Cavalry Division formed the vanguard of the 1st Army under General der Kavallerie von Rennenkampf , which crossed the German border near Suwalki and took part in the East Prussian operation . Since November 9, 1914 he commanded the VI. Army Corps (4th, 16th from November 1914 also 67th and 55th divisions). On January 7, 1915, the Gurko Corps was subordinated to the 2nd Army under General Smirnov's infantry and carried out a successful counterattack in the Battle of Humin at the beginning of February . In June 1915, his large formation was transferred to the Southwest Front and assigned to the 11th Army under General Cherbachev .

In the autumn of 1915 the VI. Army Corps participated in the counter-offensive of the 11th Army on Sereth and was able to support the Austro-Hungarian troops in the area south of Dubno together with the XVIII. Army Corps take more than 10,000 prisoners. Gurkos Corps was together with the XXII. Army corps (General von Brinken) successfully deployed against the flanks of the southern army advancing in Galicia . For this success Gurko was awarded the Order of St. George 3rd degree on November 3, 1915. On February 21, 1916, he took command of the 5th Army on the Northwestern Front and from March 1916 took part in the Battle of Lake Naratsch under the direction of General Ragosa . Gurko north wing under the command of the corps groups Gandurin and Sljusarenko supported by this offensive attacks part between Jakobstadt and Panevezys .

On August 14, 1916 Gurko, who was promoted to General of the Cavalry on April 10, was appointed commander of the Special Army (Особая армия) of the Southwest Front, which had been created on the basis of the general's army group of the Besobrasov cavalry and which was instrumental in the Final phase of the Brusilov offensive was used. A new offensive on Kovel , scheduled for September 17th, was thwarted by a premature counter-attack by General von der Marwitz's German army group . From September 19 to 22, the Special Army, in cooperation with the 8th Army, carried out an unsuccessful fifth battle for Kovel on 150 kilometers of the front and carried out a final attack at the end of the month. During the illness of General Alexejew Gurko held this position from November 11, 1916 to February 17, 1917 as Chief of Staff of the Tsarist Army.

During this period the offensive for 1917 was prepared and the divisions were reduced from 16 to 12 battalions in order to free up experienced cadres and troops for 60 new divisions for the fourth wave of formation. From January 19 to February 7, 1917, Gurko acted as chairman of a conference of the Entente convened in Peterburg , which promoted the goal of better coordination of foreign policy measures and joint strategic operations. After the February Revolution of 1917 , General Gurko was appointed commander of the Western Front, trying unsuccessfully to restore the lost discipline that had collapsed after the revolutionary events. The Minister-Chairs of the new Provisional Government forced his withdrawal from his last position by decree of May 22, 1917, and since May 23, 1917 he was available to the Commander-in-Chief as a reserve leader.

On July 21, 1917, he was arrested for correspondence with the former Emperor Nicholas II and imprisoned for a month in the Trubetskoi Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress on behalf of the Provisional Government , but under an amnesty announced by the Provisional Government released again. When it became clear to him in September that it was no longer possible to escape via Finland, he was arrested again. A week later, however, he was allowed to travel to Great Britain via Arkhangelsk with the help of the British authorities .

In the post-war period he lived in exile in Italy , took part in the activities of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) and served as chairman of the Union of the Disabled. He died in 1937 and was buried in the Testaccio cemetery in Rome .

family

Gurko's first marriage was on July 31, 1911, Emilia Nikolajewna Martinowa (1861-1918), daughter of Count Nikolai Martinow and widow of his comrade Dmitri Komarowski-Schukowski, who died in 1901.

In exile, he married the French woman Gabrielle Trarieux d'Egmont in 1930 (after the conversion to Sophia von Gurko, April 4, 1900– April 4, 1981). From this marriage two daughters were born:

• Marie Gabrielle (1931-2014)
• Katharina (1935-2013)

In 1946 Sofia and her daughters moved to Morocco . Together with her younger daughter, she was a member of the parish of the Orthodox Resurrection Church in Rabat. Sophia died in Rabat in 1981.

literature

• Mikhail Myagkov: Commanders of the First World War , Komsomolska Publishing House, Moscow 2014.
• BE Колупаев: История семьи Гурко , Военно-исторический архив, 2005, pp. 115–129

Web links

• Biography on www.gr.war (Russian)