Petr Wrangel

Wrangel, Petr Nikolaevich 

Born Aug. 15, 1878; died Apr. 25, 1928, in Brussels. A baron; one of the leaders of the counterrevolution in Southern Russia; lieutenant general (1917); of a noble family from St. Petersburg province.

After graduating from the Mining Institute in 1901, Wrangel enlisted in the Cavalry Life Guards Regiment. He became an officer in 1902 and fought in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1906 he participated in a punitive expedition in the Baltic region, commanded by General A. N. Orlov. Wrangel graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1910. During World War I he commanded a cavalry corps. After the October Revolution he went to the Crimea, and in August 1918 he joined the White Guard Volunteer Army, where he commanded a cavalry division and cavalry corps.

In the spring of 1919 he took command of the Army of the Caucasus, and from December 1919 to January 1920 he was commander of the Volunteer Army. Wrangel became involved in a conflict with Denikin and was sent abroad. On Apr. 4, 1920, a military council elected him commander in chief of the so-called Russian Army of the Crimea. After his defeat in Northern Tavria and the Crimea he fled abroad on Nov. 14, 1920, with a large part of his army. In 1924 he founded the so-called Russian General Military Union (ROVS). His memoirs, Notes, appeared in the journal White Cause (vols. 5-6, Berlin, 1928).