Boris Shaposhnikov military rank colonel
Biography
Shaposhnikov, born at Zlatoust, near Chelyabinsk in the Urals, had Orenburg Cossack origins. He joined the army of the Russian Empire in 1901 as an officer cadet, and graduated from the  Nicholas General Staff Academy in 1910, reaching the rank of colonel in the  Caucasus Grenadiers division in September 1917 during World War I. Also in 1917, unusually for an officer of his rank, he supported the  Russian Revolution, and in May 1918 joined the Red Army.
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