Aleksei Brusilov Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov ( ) ( – 17 March 1926 ) was a Russian general most noted for the development of new offensive tactics used in the 1916 Brusilov Offensive . The innovative and relatively successful tactics used were later copied by the Germans . His war memoirs were translated into English and published in 1930 as " A Soldier ' s Notebook , 1914 – 1918 . " Early life . Brusilov was born in Tiflis ( now Tbilisi , Georgia ) . His father was Russian , his mother , Anna Luiza Niestojemska , was Polish . Three generations of Brusilov ' s had served as officers in the Tsar ' s army , his grandfather fighting in the defence against Napoleon ' s invasion of 1812 . His father rose to the rank of Lieutenant General before dying of tuberculosis in 1856 . Brusilov ' s mother died shortly afterwards , and the young orphan was raised by relatives in Kutaisi . He was educated at home until at the age of 14 , he joined the Imperial Corps of Pages in Saint Petersburg in 1867 . At the end of his first year , a tutor remarked of Brusilov , " his nature is brisk and even playful , but he is good , straight - forward and clean - living . Of high ability , but inclined to be lazy . " In 1872 , on completion of the Corps ' programme , he sought admission to the advanced class for top ranking students , but was unsuccessful , and instead was posted as an ensign to the 15th ( Tver ) Dragoon Regiment . Usually , graduates from the Corps of Pages sought admission to one of the Guards regiments , but the Tver Dragoons were at that time stationed near Kutaisi , so the posting suited Brusilov on the basis of being near his family and being less financially draining than service in the Guards . Russo - Turkish War . Brusilov joined the Tver Dragoons in August , 1872 , and was given command of a troop , but it was not long before his aptitude resulted in appointment as regimental adjutant . He was promoted to lieutenant in 1874 . Brusilov served with distinction in the Russo – Turkish War , 1877 – 78 , being mentioned in despatches on three occasions . His unit operated on the Southern Front in the Caucasus , and took part in the assault of the fortress of Ardagan ( now Ardahan , Turkey ) , for which Brusilov was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislav , 3rd Class . Later in the war , he also received the Order of Saint Anne , 3rd Class , and was promoted to the rank of Stabskapitän . Towards the end of the war , he led successful attacks on Turkish positions around Kars , and his membership of the Order of Saint Stanislav was elevated to 2nd Class . The Cavalry Officer School . In 1881 , Brusilov became a student at the Cavalry Officer School in St Petersburg and two years later was appointed as a riding instructor there . He spent the next thirteen years in a succession of posts at the school - Adjutant , Senior Teacher of Riding and Breaking Horses , Section Commander , Troop Commander , Squadron Commander and Assistant Chief of the School . On promotion to Major General in 1900 , Brusilov was added to the list of Household Troops ( officers who might be retained on official business by the Tsar ) . During this time , Brusilov married ( 1884 ) , and the union produced a son in 1887 . In 1902 , as a Lieutenant General , he took command of the school , and under his leadership , the " Horse Academy " became an acknowledged centre of excellence in preparing staff officers for the cavalry . Brusilov published a number of papers on the use of cavalry , and visited France , Austria - Hungary and Germany to study riding tuition and stud management . Brusilov was appointed to command the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division in 1906 , but this was not a happy posting for him . The Revolution of 1905 had left St Petersburg in turmoil , and after his wife ' s death , he sought a posting away from the Guards and the capital . In 1908 , he was appointed to command the XIV Corps in the Warsaw Military District , where his tenure was notable for the improvements in combat training he implemented . He also remarried at this time , to Nadejda ( " Hope " ) Jelihovski . Promoted to General of Cavalry in 1912 , he became Deputy Commander - in - Chief of forces in the Warsaw Military District . The failures of the Russo - Japanese War had led to allegations that Generals from immigrant families , who made a significant fraction of the Russian Army ' s senior ranks , were less patriotic than those who traced their origins to within Russias borders , and Brusilov would come into conflict with the Governor - General in Warsaw , Georgi Skalon , and other " Russian - German " generals in that District . Brusilov was soon seeking another post . In 1913 , Brusilov was posted to command the XII Corps in the Kiev Military District , remarking on his departure , " I do not doubt , that my departure will produce a sensation in the troops of Warsaw region . . . Well ! What ’ s done is done , and I am glad , that I have escaped cesspool of Skalon ’ s court atmosphere . " First World War . 1914 - 1915 . In July 1914 , with the Russian army expanding during mobilisation , Brusilov was promoted to command the 8th Army , part of the Southwest Front operating in Galicia . The 8th Army crushed the Austro - Hungarian forces before it , and rapidly advanced nearly . Reverses elsewhere along the Front , including the great defeat at Tannenberg , forced the 8th Army to retire in conformance with the general Russian withdrawal . For his victories , Brusilov was awarded the Order of Saint George 4th , and then 3rd Class . By a quirk of fate , several future White Army commanders held senior posts in 8th Army at this time — Brusilov ' s Quartermaster general was Anton Denikin , while Alexey Kaledin commanded the 12th Cavalry Division and Lavr Kornilov was in command of 48th Infantry Division . In the early part of 1915 , Brusilov again advanced , penetrating the Carpathian passes and entering the Hungarian plain . At this time , Nikolai II visited 8th Army and Brusilov was promoted to the rank of General - Adjutant ( in the Imperial Russian Army this was a " four - star " General rank ) . Once again , fortunes on other fronts would determine his actions and the Austrian - German breakthrough at Gorlice - Tarnów forced Brusilov to conform to the general retirement . By September , 8th Army had withdrawn to the Tarnopol region . The Brusilov Offensive . On 29 March 1916 , Brusilov was given command of Southwest Front , and managed to secure a certain degree of freedom of action . Previous Russian offensives demonstrated a tendency to assault smaller and smaller sections of front with increasing density of artillery and manpower to achieve a breakthrough . The narrow frontage of these attacks made counterattacks straightforward for German forces , and this approach met with repeated failure for the Russians . Brusilov decided to distribute his attack over the entirety of Southwest Front . He hoped to disorganise the enemy over such a large area that some point would fatally give way . He decided not to waste resources by saturation bombardment of worthless areas , but to use interdiction fire against command posts , road networks , and other extremely vital targets to degrade German command and control over the whole front . The noted German artillery commander , Georg Bruchmüller , having served opposite Brusilov ' s Front at this time , would learn from and adapt these tactics when planning the preparatory bombardment for Operation Michael on the Western Front in 1918 . Brusilov was not even concerned with securing a great local advantage in manpower , permitting Divisions under his command to be transferred to other Fronts ( so long as they attacked in support of his offensive ) . Brusilov ' s new techniques were , by First World War standards , highly successful and over the next three months , Southwest Front advanced an average of more than 30 kilometres along a front of more than , taking 400 , 000 Austro - Hungarian prisoners in the process . However , the planned supporting attack from West Front ( the Army group to Brusilov ' s north ) was not delivered , and Germany was able to transfer 17 Divisions from France and Belgium to halt the Russian advance . Brusilov would be awarded the Sword of Saint George with Diamonds for his greatest victory , one of only eight Russian commanders to receive this rare award during the First World War . On 18 June 1916 , an article " Hero of the Hour in Russia , Described Intimately by One Who Knows Him Well " by Brusilov ' s brother - in - law , Charles Johnson , appeared in the New York Times . 1917 and Revolution . With the onset of revolution in Russia , Brusilov argued for the Tsar ' s abdication . When approached by Stavka for his opinion on the need for the abdication he replied , " . . . For the moment the only thing that matters is to stabilise our position to allow the continuation of the war with the external enemy . . . to abdicate in favour of Grand Duke Mikhail and a council of regents . . . It is necessary to hurry , the faster to extinguish the flames [ of revolution ] , otherwise we face innumerable catastrophic consequences . " In May 1917 , Brusilov was appointed Commander in Chief of the Russian Army . Throughout this period , Brusilov proved sympathetic to revolutionary aspirations , but his primary concern was that the war first needed to be won . In particular he asserted that until peace was achieved , the full authority of the central government must be respected , and that the army should maintain the full rigour of its disciplinary code . In a telegram to the Minister of War , Alexander Kerensky , he wrote , " . . . only the application of capital punishment will stop the decomposition of army and will save freedom and our homeland " . This politically unpopular stand , together with the failure of the Kerensky Offensive in July 1917 , led to Brusilov ' s replacement as Commander in Chief by his former deputy , Lavr Kornilov . Brusilov moved to Moscow and remained there at the disposal of the Provisional Government . When fighting broke out in Moscow following the October Revolution , Brusilov was severely wounded in the foot by a splinter of a shell that hit his bathroom . Soviet Russia . Brusilov was torn by conflicting loyalties in the Revolution , and the Civil War that followed . His former soldiers were largely serving in the newly formed Red Army , and he concurred with the need for radical change , but as a conservative , patriot and monarchist his personal values were more in tune with those of the White faction . On 30 May 1920 , during the Polish Eastern offensive of the Polish - Soviet War Brusilov published in Pravda an appeal entitled “ To All Former Officers , Wherever They Might Be ” , encouraging them to forgive past grievances and to join the Red Army . Brusilov considered it as a patriotic duty of all Russian officers to join hands with the Bolshevik government , that in his opinion was defending Russia against foreign invaders . Initially , Brusilov served on a special commission to determine the size and structure of the Red Army . Later , he led cavalry recruit training and became Inspector of Cavalry . He retired in 1924 , but continued to carry out commissions for the Revolutionary Military Council . Seventy when retired in 1924 , he lived in his shared apartment with his sickly wife and another couple . He died in Moscow from congestive heart failure , and was given an honourable state funeral , buried in the Novodevichy Convent , by representatives from the ' new Russia ' ( the Bolsheviks ) , and the ' old Russia ' ( the clergy , the middle and upper class ) . Assessment . According to the assessment of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , Brusilov was one of the seven outstanding fighting commanders of World War I , the others being Falkenhayn ( later was replaced by Hindenburg ) , Ludendorff , Mustapha Kemal , Plumer , Monash and Allenby .