BaronAlexander Vasilyevich von Kaulbars (Russian: Александр Васильевич Каульбарс ) (May 14, 1844 – January 25, 1925) was a general in the Imperial Russian Army during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and a noted explorer of Central Asia.
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary. The female equivalent is baroness.
Russian is an East Slavic language, which is official in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 25 December 1991. Although, nowadays, nearly three decades after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states, as well as in Israel and Mongolia, the rise of state-specific varieties of this language tends to be strongly denied in Russia, in line with the Russian World ideology.
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of more than 900,000 regular soldiers and nearly 250,000 irregulars.
Mõdriku manor in present-day Estonia, where Alexander Kaulbars was born.
Kaulbars was born in Mõdriku, present-day Estonia, and grew up in St. Petersburg. He came from a Baltic Germannoble family descended from the Swedish aristocratic family von Kaulbars of Swedish origin, which remained in Estonia after the country was ceded to Russia. Both his father and his brother rose to the rank of general in the Imperial Russian Army. He was educated at the Nikolaev Cavalry School. His first experience in combat was in 1861, while serving with the Egersky Guards Regiment in the suppression of the Polish Uprising.[1] After graduating from the Nicholas General Staff Academy, Kaulbars was commissioned as a lieutenant, and was assigned to serve on the staff of the Turkestan Military District. He was promoted to senior aide in 1870, to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1871, and to colonel in 1872. Soon after his arrival in Russian Turkestan, he explored the country beyond the Issyk-Kul into the Tien Shan mountains. His report was published as “Materials on the Geography of the Tien Shan”, and was awarded the gold medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society[1] In 1870, he explored the Russian-Chinese border, surveying the summit of Khan Tengri and looking for mountain passes into Kashgar, which he visited in 1872 for negotiations on a commercial treaty with its ruler, Yaqub Beg.
Mõdriku is a village in Vinni Parish, Lääne-Viru County, in northeastern Estonia.
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland with Finland on the other side, to the west by the Baltic Sea with Sweden on the other side, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands in the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), water 2,839 km2 (1,096 sq mi), land area 42,388 km2 (16,366 sq mi), and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The official language of the country, Estonian, is the second most spoken Finnic language.
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century. Counting 1,900,000 members in 1914, the noble estate staffed most of the Russia's government apparatus until the February Revolution of 1917.
In 1873, Kaulbars participated in the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Khiva under General Konstantin von Kaufman. During this expedition, he explored the delta and riverbed of the Amu Darya river, and located a navigable route to the Aral Sea. He also explored the dry riverbed of the Syr Darya, and the connections between both rivers, the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea, and the now dry Uzboy River. His research on these topics resulted in technical papers which were awarded a second gold medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.
The Khanate of Khiva was an Uzbek state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm in Central Asia from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740 and 1746. The Khans were the patrilineal descendants of Shayban (Shiban), the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. Centred in the irrigated plains of the lower Amu Darya, south of the Aral Sea, with the capital in the city of Khiva, the country was ruled by an Uzbek Turkic tribe, the Khongirads, who came from Astrakhan. It covered present western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and much of Turkmenistan before Russian arrival at the second half of the 19th century.
The Amu Darya, also called the Amu or Amo River, and historically known by its Latin name Oxus, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, in the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and flows from there north-westwards into the southern remnants of the Aral Sea. In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Greater Iran and Turan.
In 1874, Kaulbars was made Chief of Staff of the 8th Cavalry Division, a position which he held until his return to the General Staff in 1875. He participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), and was promoted to major general in 1879, and given command of the 1st Brigade of the 14th Cavalry Division. From 1878-1879, he was a member of the committee for the demarcation of the borders of the new Kingdom of Serbia.[1]
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Milan I, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was proclaimed king in 1882.
In 1882, Kaulbars became the Minister of War for the Principality of Bulgaria, then a client state of the Empire of Russia. This state, semi-autonomous since the Russian victory sanctioned by the Treaty of San Stefano, was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire. He also concurrently commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division. The following year, became commander of the 15th Cavalry Division.[1]
The Principality of Bulgaria was a de facto independent, and de jure vassal state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. It was established by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
The 1878 Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at San Stefano, then a village west of Constantinople, on 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1878 by Count Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev and Aleksandr Nelidov on behalf of the Russian Empire and Foreign Minister Safvet Pasha and Ambassador to Germany Sadullah Bey on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty ended the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78.
The Ottoman Empire, also historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.
Kaulbars was promoted to lieutenant general in 1891. In 1894, he was assigned command of the 2nd Cavalry Corps. This assignment was followed by command of the 2nd Siberian Army Corps in 1900, during which time he participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion and Russian occupation of Manchuria. He was further promoted to General of Cavalry in 1901 and made Assistant Commander of the Odessa Military District.[1]
The Boxer Rebellion (拳亂), Boxer Uprising, or Yihetuan Movement (義和團運動) was an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901, toward the end of the Qing dynasty. They were motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and by opposition to Western colonialism and the Christian missionary activity that was associated with it.
Manchuria is a name first used in the 17th century by Japanese people to refer to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the People's Republic of China or a larger region divided between China and Russia. "Manchuria" is widely used outside China to denote the geographical and historical region. This region is the traditional homeland of the Xianbei, Khitan, and Jurchen peoples, who built several states within the area historically.
The Odessa Military District was a military administrative division of the Imperial Russian military, the Soviet Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was known under such name from around 1862 to 1998. It was reorganized as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Military of Moldova in 1992. In 1998 most of its territory was transformed into the Southern Operational Command (Ukraine).
In October 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, he became commander of the Russian 3rd Manchurian Army. Following the Battle of Sandepu, he was transferred to command the Russian 2nd Manchurian Army in February 1905. However, during the Battle of Mukden, his forces were outfought and outflanked by the Imperial Japanese Army and disintegrated in disarray. Kaulbars was wounded in a fall off his horse during the retreat.[1] After the end of the war, he returned to command the Odessa Military District until December 23, 1909. During this period, he was noted for his strong support of the monarchy during the 1905 Russian Revolution. In December 1909, he returned to St. Petersburg as a member of the Military Council.
With the start of World War I, he was assigned as a commander of the Northwestern Front, and from October 1914 was placed in charge of all Russian military aviation activities. However, at the end of 1915, he was dismissed from military service. In 1916 he was appointed military governor of Odessa.
Aleksandr Vasilyevich Samsonov was a career officer in the cavalry of the Imperial Russian Army and a general during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.
Wilhelm Withöft was a Russo-German admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, noted for his service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
Nikolai Iudovich Ivanov was a Russian artillery general in the Imperial Russian Army. Famous for his role in the Battle of Galicia during World War 1.
Oskar Ferdinand Gripenberg was a Finno-Swedish general of the Russian Second Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War.
Theodor Graf von Keller, better known as Fyodor Keller, was a general in the Imperial Russian Army, noted for his role in the Battle of Motien Pass during the Russo-Japanese War.
Yakov Grigoryevich Zhilinsky was a Russian cavalry general, chief of staff of the Imperial Russian Army from 2 February 1911 to 4 March 1914. He was considered to be one of the main culprits of the failure of the East Prussian Campaign in the early stages of the First World War.
Vasily Iosifovich Romeyko-Gurko served for a brief period as a Chief-of-Staff of the Imperial Russian Army before being forced out of the country in exile following the October Revolution of 1917.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tretyakov was a military engineer and general in the Imperial Russian Army, noted for his heroic role in the Siege of Port Arthur during the Russian-Japanese War.
Mikhail Ivanovich Zasulich was a general in the Imperial Russian Army, noted for his role as commander of the Russian 2nd Siberian Army Corps in the Battle of the Yalu River, of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Kashtalinsky was a general in the Imperial Russian Army during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He fought in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and in World War I.
Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko was a Imperial Russian career military officer and statesman of Ukrainian ethnicity of the Imperial Russian Army.
Georg August Paul Freiherr von Stackelberg, better known as Georgii Stackelberg in English sources, was a Baltic German cavalry general in the service of the Imperial Russian Army. He was noted for his role during the Russo-Japanese War, especially during the Battle of Sandepu, in which he was awarded the Order of St. George afterwards.
Baron Alexandr Alekseyevich Gerngross was a general of Dutch origin who served in the Imperial Russian Army during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Viktor Viktorovich Sakharov was a Russian Lieutenant General and Minister of War (1904–1905).
Baron Alexander Alexandrovich Bilderling was a Russian general of Baltic German descent, noted for his role in the Russo-Japanese War and as an artist and monument designer.
Mikhail Ivanovich Batyanov was a general in the Imperial Russian Army.
Pyotr Alekseyevich Bezobrazov was an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy.
Alexander Karl Nikolai Fürst von Lieven was a vice admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy.
Konstantin Nikolaevich Smirnov, was a general in the Imperial Russian Army.
Robert Reinhold von Wirén, was a Baltic German career naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, noted for his role in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
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