Józef Dowbór-Musnicki

Dowbór-Muśnicki, Józef 

(also Isoif Romanovich Dowbór-Muśnicki). Born Oct. 25, 1867, in Garbówie, now Poland; died Oct. 28, 1937, in Batorówie, Poland. Russian and Polish military figure; lieutenant general (1917) and general of the armored forces of the Polish Army. Of Polish gentry origin.

Graduating from the Second Konstantin Military College in 1888 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1902, Dowbór-Muśnicki served in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. During World War I he held staff and command positions, being appointed division commander in 1916, chief of staff of the First Army in January 1917, and commander of the XXXVIII Corps in April 1917. In August 1917, Dowbór-Muśnicki assumed command of the First Polish Corps of Legionnaires formed in Byelorussia. He incited a revolt against Soviet power on Jan. 12 (25), 1918, but was routed in February 1918 and retreated to territory occupied by the Germans. When the bourgeois Polish state was established in late 1918, Dowbór-Muśnicki became a Polish citizen. He was soon appointed commander in chief of the Great Polish Army and led the invasion of the west Byelorussian lands. He was a rival of J. PRsudski, who removed him from the command of the army in 1919. Later Dowbór-Muśnicki commanded troops in Poznah and was inspector of infantry; and soon thereafter he retired.