Lavr Kornilov

Lavr Kornilov (1870-1918), Russian general of Cossack descent. Lavr Georgiyevich Kornikov was born in Öskemen, now in Kazakhstan, and educated at the Artillery College in St Petersburg. He received his commission in the army in 1892 and later served with distinction in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905. During World War I, he was captured by the Austrians in 1915, escaped in 1916, and returned to Russia. After the Russian Revolution of March 1917, he was appointed commander in chief of the Russian army by the head of the provisional government, Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kerensky. Kornilov immediately submitted plans to the government to re-establish the fighting morale of the army, but his plans were rejected when he subsequently demanded concurrent powers that Kerensky feared would lead to a military dictatorship. In September 1917, Kornilov led a counter-revolutionary attack against Kerensky, which ended a few days later with Kornilov's arrest and imprisonment. With the help of units of the Cossacks, he escaped after the November Revolution overthrew Kerensky and organized an anti-Bolshevik force of Cossacks; he was killed in action against the Communist forces.