page_title: Alexander Kolchak
section_title: Russian Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Kolchak / Biography / Russian Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Адмирал А. В. Колчак и А.В. Тимирева (сидят), глава британской миссии генерал А. Нокс и английские офицеры на учениях. Восточный фронт
context_page_description: Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak KB was an Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer who served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. During the Russian Civil War, he established an anti-communist government in Siberia—later the Provisional All-Russian Government—and was recognised as the "Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces" by the other leaders of the White movement from 1918 to 1920. His government was based in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia.
  For nearly two years, Kolchak was Russia's internationally recognized head of state. However, his effort to unite the White Movement failed; Kolchak refused to consider autonomy for ethnic minorities and refused to cooperate with non-Bolshevik leftists, heavily relying on outside aid. This served only to boost the Reds morale, as it allowed them to label Kolchak as a "Western Puppet". As his White forces fell apart, he was betrayed and captured by the Czechoslovak Legion who handed him over to local Socialists-Revolutionaries, and he was soon after executed by the Bolsheviks in Irkutsk.
context_section_description: The Bolshevik revolution found Kolchak in Japan and then Harbin in November 1917. As a supporter of the Provisional Government, he returned to Russia, through Vladivostok, in 1918. Kolchak was an absolute supporter of the Allied cause against Imperial Germany and regarded Russia's immediate withdrawal from the conflict as dishonorable. Upon hearing of the October Revolution, Kolchak offered to enlist in the British Army to continue the struggle. The British were inclined to accept Kolchak's offer, and there were indeed plans to send Kolchak to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Ultimately, the British Foreign Office decided that Kolchak could do more for the Allied cause by toppling Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks and bringing Russia back into the war on the side of the Allies.  Reluctantly, Kolchak accepted the British suggestions and returned to Russia. Kolchak arrived in Manchuria and was placed in charge of security for the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railroad. Arriving in Omsk, Siberia, en route to enlisting with the Volunteer Army, he agreed to become a minister in the (White) Siberian Regional Government. Joining a 14-man cabinet, he was a prestige figure; the government hoped to play on the respect he had with the Allies, especially the head of the British military mission, General Alfred Knox. Knox wrote that Kolchak had "more grit, pluck and honest patriotism than any Russian in Siberia".
  Kolchak was a man with poor social skills, being moody, melancholy, taciturn, and very uncomfortable in dealing with people. Arriving at a dinner, Colonel John Ward described him as "a small, vagrant, lonely soul without a friend enter unbidden to a feast". One who knew him wrote:
  The character and soul of the Admiral are so transparent that one needs no more than one week of contact to know all there is to know about him. He is a big, sick child, a pure idealist, a convinced slave of duty and service to an idea and to Russia. An indubitable neurotic who quickly flares up, exceedingly impetuous and uncontrolled in expressions of displeasure and anger; in this respect he has assimilated the highly unattractive traditions of the naval service, which permit in high naval ranks behavior that in our army has long since passed into the realm of legend. He is utterly absorbed by the idea of serving Russia, of saving her from Red oppression, and restoring her to full power and to the inviolability of her territory. For the sake of this he can be persuaded and moved to do anything whatever. He has no personal interests, no amour propre: in this respect he is crystal pure. He passionately despises all lawlessness and arbitrariness, but because he is so uncontrolled and impulsive, he himself often unintentionally transgresses against the law, and this mainly when seeking to uphold the same law, and always under the influence of some outsider. He does not know life in its severe, practical reality, and lives in a world of mirages and borrowed ideas. He has no plans, no system, no will: in this respect he is soft wax from which advisers and intimates can fashion whatever they want, exploiting the fact that it is enough to disguise something as necessary for the welfare of Russia and the good of the cause to be certain of his approval. 
  Another who knew him wrote of Kolchak:
  He is kind and at the same time severe, responsive and at the same time embarrassed to show human feelings, concealing his gentleness behind make-believe severity. He is impatient and stubborn, loses his temper, threatens and then calms down, making concessions, spreads his hands in a gesture of helplessness. He is bursting to be with the people, with the troops, but when he faces them, has no idea of what to say.
  Politically naive and an inept administrator, Kolchak described himself as a "military technician" who knew nothing of politics, described power as a "cross", and in a letter to his wife wrote about the "terrifying burden of Supreme Power" and admitted that as "a fighting man he was reluctant to face the problems of statecraft". The American historian Richard Pipe
caption: Kolchak (seated), Anna Timiryova and General Alfred Knox (behind Kolchak) observing a military exercise in 1919
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.5", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:18 00:38:58", "Image ExifOffset": "198", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:29 17:46:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:29 17:46:18", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-3/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "35", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "52", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "1"}