Fyodor Keller Count Fyodor Keller ( ; 1850 - 31 July 1904 ) was a general in the Imperial Russian Army , noted for his role in the Battle of Motien Pass during the Russo - Japanese War . Biography . Fyodor Keller was from a family connected to both Austrian and French nobility , and had the title of count . He attended the prestigious Corps of Pages , the military school for the Russian aristocracy . After graduation in 1866 , he was commissioned as an ensign in the premier cavalry regiment of the Imperial Russian Army , the Chevalier Guard Regiment . He then attended the Nicholas General Staff Academy and was promoted to captain on his graduation in 1876 . Also in 1876 , he volunteered for service with the Serbian Army during the Serbo - Turkish War and was granted the rank of lieutenant colonel and distinguished himself in a number of combat operations . He that September he became a member of the staff of Major - General Mikhail Chernyayev ( nicknamed the ' Russian General Custer ' ) , and was assigned as aide - de - camp to the tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich ( the future Tsar Alexander III ) and the Field Marshal Prince Aleksandr Baryatinsky , both of whom were in Serbia serving with the Russian volunteer expeditionary force . The forces of Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian - backed Serbians , thus leading to the subsequent Russo - Turkish War , 1877 – 1878 . During this war , Keller served as the Chief - of - Staff to the Russian - led Bulgarian militia , and later as Chief - of - Staff for Russian Major - General Mikhail Skobelev , where he replaced the wounded Colonel Alexei Kuropatkin . After the war , Keller was promoted to colonel and served in various staff positions . At the conclusion of the war in 1879 , he was promoted to colonel and designated an official emissary to Constantinople for the negotiations which determined the borders of the Kingdom of Bulgaria . After his return to Russia , in 1882 , Keller received command of the 4th Life Guard Rifle Battalion of the Imperial Guard . He was promoted to Major - General in 1890 and in 1893 he was selected by Tsar Alexander III to serve as the Director of the Corps of Pages . He held this prestigious post until 1900 , when , after promotion to Lieutenant - General , he became Governor of Yekaterinoslav . At the start of the Russo - Japanese War in 1904 , Keller volunteered for a combat command , one of the few senior Russian officers to do so . His request was approved and he was placed at the disposal of the Minister of War , General Kuropatkin . Lieutenant - General Count Keller initially served as Intelligence Officer on General Kuropatkin ' s staff in Manchuria . After the Russian defeat at the Battle of the Yalu on 1 May 1904 , General Kuropatkin decided Keller would replace Lieutenant - General Zassulitch as commander of the Eastern Detachment of the 2nd Siberian Corps . Keller ' s leadership skills quickly made a difference in restoring the confidence of the soldiers who had been severely mauled by General Kuroki Tamemoto ' s 1st Japanese Army . During the next month , the Eastern Detachment marched hundreds of miles , but did little fighting . Motien Pass , a strong defensive position , was abandoned by Keller on 26 May 1904 due to many factors not under his control . Several small operations followed over the next two months , but with limited scope . On 31 July 1904 , Keller established a strong defensive position north of Motien Pass to block the Japanese advance on Liaoyang . The Japanese IJA 2nd Division and Guards Divisions attacked all day , but were unable to break the Russian defense . In the late afternoon , the Japanese were surprised to see the Russians withdrawing from their positions . Later that evening , Chinese civilians informed the Japanese that Russian commander , Lieutenant - General Count Keller , had been killed by Japanese artillery fire at about 1400 that day . While Lieutenant - General Count Keller lacked experience in the handling large bodies of troops , he was highly respected within the Russian Army as an aggressive leader ; a quality sadly lacking in many Russian senior leaders during the war . His death was compared to the earlier loss of Admiral Stepan Makarov . His grave is at the Keller family estate outside of Moscow .