Alexander Kutepov Alexander Pavlovich Kutepov ( ; 28 September 1882 , Cherepovets – 1930 ) was a leader of the anti - communist Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War . Kutepov graduated from Junker Infantry School in St . Petersburg in 1904 . As a young infantry officer he fought in the Russo - Japanese War , where he was wounded in action and decorated for valor . In 1906 he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Regiment , an elite guards regiment . During World War I he received several decorations for bravery and was again severely wounded in action . During the course of the war he rose from company , to battalion , to commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment . As such he became the last commander of this historic regiment . After the October Revolution , Kutepov joined the anti - Bolshevik Volunteer Army ( part of the White Movement ) at the very outset of the Russian Civil War . At the start of the Ice March in early 1918 , Kutepov was a company commander of an officer ' s regiment . ( Note : in the beginning of the Russian Civil War the small Volunteer Army had a surplus of officers , which meant that many of them had to serve as common soldiers . These formations soon became the crack units of the White Army . ) After the death in battle of Colonel Nezhentsev , Kutepov took over the command of the Kornilov Shock Regiment , and after the death of the commander of the 1st Infantry Division he became its commander . When the Whites captured Novorossiysk in August 1918 , Kutepov was appointed Governor General of the Black Sea region . Starting in January 1919 , a thirty - six - year - old Lieutenant General Kutepov became the commander of the I Army Corps of the White Army . Throughout his career Kutepov had a reputation for being a decisive , direct , and no - nonsense military leader . During the chaotic times of the Russian Civil War , order was usually rapidly restored after Kutepov ' s arrival . He accomplished this , however , by means of the swift and ruthless application of the death penalty on suspected looters and pogrom perpetrators . After the White Army ' s final defeat in the Crimea , Kutepov and the remnants of his corps evacuated to Gallipoli in November 1920 . Despite very unfavorable and demoralizing circumstances , the troops in Gallipoli regained their morale and kept their military coherence thanks to Kutepov ' s leadership . In the beginning of the Gallipoli period Kutepov was disliked by many of the troops because of his disciplinary measures , but by the end he was warmly regarded by most of them . When the Gallipoli camp was disbanded , Kutepov moved to Bulgaria in late 1921 . Two years later he was expelled from the country during the upheavals of the Aleksandar Stamboliyski era . Kutepov and his wife settled in Paris . After General Wrangel ' s death in 1928 , he became the leader of the Russian All - Military Union and continued its anti - Soviet activities . On 26 January 1930 , Kutepov was kidnap ped in Paris by OGPU agents . According to Pavel Sudoplatov , " This job in 1930 was done by Yakov Serebryansky , assisted by his wife and an agent in the French police . Dressed in French police uniforms , they stopped Kutepov on the street on the pretext of questioning him and put him in a car . Kutepov resisted the kidnapping , and during the struggle , he had a heart attack and died , Serebryansky told me . They buried Kutepov near the home of one of our agents near the outskirts of Paris . " Kutepov was believed by French police of having been smuggled to the Soviet Union . Former White Army general Nikolai Skoblin , an Inner Line member , was suspected of being an accomplice in his kidnapping . Walter Laqueur alleges that , " Skoblin had nothing to do with this affair , because he was recruited only after Kutyopov ' s disappearance . " KGB General Pavel Sudoplatov confirms this allegation in his own memoirs .