St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-03
GEN. LORIS MELIKOFF.

GEN. LORIS MELIKOFF.
One ofthe most splendid of Russian
soldiers, one who might have been a
great statesman with opportunity,
was Loris Mclikoff, whose death at
Nice is reported. He became famous
in the RusSo-TurkiSh war through
his mastery campaign in Armenia,
eliminating in the storming of kars;
and for Il brief while occupied the eve
of Europe as the dictator of Russia
From that dizzy hight he was sud
denly removed, and for the last seven
years he has scarcely been heard from
His career has been one of extremes,
and has more than one point of mys-
terv He was born at Moscow in
1924, and passed for the son of an
Armenian merchant dwelling there,
as he was certainly the son of the
merchants wife, q very beautiful wo-
man. He was educated at the Laza-
ref military institute in his native
city, and gained high reputation as a
mathematician and scholarin history
and languages, speaking at 20 Rus
sian, Polish, French, German, Armc-
man, Persian, and Tartar; later in
life he added Turkish, English and
Italian to these. Hejoined the army,
and was employed as occasion served,
and although he had held no promi-
nent command before the war of
1877, he had so impressed Mouravi-
eft, the iron governor of the Cauca-
SuS, that he recommended MelikOff
for general of the principal column
which crossed the Caucasus into Ar
menia in the spring of that year
The initial mistake of sending too
small force caused the complete
failure ofthc campaign before the end
of June, but this was not visited up
on Mclikoh, who was reinforced, and
about the end of August resumed
operations and speedily changed the
Russian attitude from one of defense
to one of vigorous and unccaSing adj
vance. In this advance the decisive
battle ofthc Aladla Dagh was fought
October 10Th, on mountain side far
more rocky and difficult than Mission
ridge at Chattanooga, and followed
up with 4 pursuit which swept away
well-nigh the entire Turkish host,
cutting Mukhtar PaSha'S army in
two, and intlicting injuries from
which it could not recover. MclikOff
pushed Mukhtar on toward karS,
defeated him in the fortified pass of
and having invested the
great fortress of karS, carried it by
Il charge which has few parallels in
warfare. The correspondent of the
London Daily News with the Russian
army well speaks of it as lone of the
greatest and most difficult military
teatS ever accomplished. The fort
ress, constructed by skilful engineers,
English and Prussian, comprised nine
forts, well surrounded by batteries
and redOubts, mounting more than
800 krupp and other heavy guns,
and defended by $4,000 Turks 1t
was stormed by about the same num-
Der of Russians at night, and carried
in about - hours. Melikoff directed
the entire battle. He had been pres
ent when during the Crimcan war
MOuravieff undertook the same en-
terpriSc, the fortress being then moth
ing to what it had been made after
ward, and the Russians in their fail
ure had lost 5000 men killed or diSa-
blcd. On this triumphant occasion
the entire losses were under 1000.
After the explosion in the winter
palace in February, 1880, the world
heard of Loris Melikoff again He
was called to st. Petersburg to be
come the head of ''supreme execu-
tive commission whom he was to
select, and to exercise power as if he
were the car as commandments
of st. Petersburg and the adjacent
districts, and further with the direct
control over all political trials held in
the capital, the military districts of
st. Petersburg and throughout the
empire.
Heissucd proclamation declaring
that he would not hesitate to punish
crime i'll the most stringent manner,
while he should protect all those who
were "well-intentioned." Within n
fortnight after assuming power Gen.
Mclikoff was fired at by an assassin, |
whose bullet passed through his
cloak, and was diverted from his
body; the murderer, n young Jew
named Wladetski, was caught by the |
powerful hand of Melikoff himself, |
and was sentenced to death and |
hanged within As hours after.
Melilof' was still virtual dictator
when in NJ arch, 1881, the car Alex |
ander II. was killed by q nihilist |
bomb on the NevSki PrOspekt in st. |
Petersburg. 1t is well understood |
that he rose to the exigency with the !
wisdom of q statesman, advising |
Alexander III. to disarm the revolu-
tionists by proclaiming a constitu-
ton, and that he had in fact entered |
upon important schemes of admins
trativc reform when, as suddenly as
a bolt from a summer cloud, he was
removed and ordered to the Caucasus |
That was practically the last that
has been heard from Loris MelikOff
Many people believed him to be real
" the son of Nicholas, and halfbro-
Their of Alexander H. He was said
to strikingly resemble Nicholas, who
was very handsome man. Spring
field Republican.
About three-fourths of the horse
whips sold in the United States are