Wrangel, Pyotr, Baron

Wrangel, Pyotr (Nikolayevich), Baron

(born Aug. 27, 1878, Novo-Aleksandrovsk, Lith., Russian Empire—died April 25, 1928, Brussels, Belg.) Russian general who led the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War. A member of an old German baronial family, he served in the Russian imperial guards and commanded a Cossack division in World War I. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he joined the anti-Bolshevik “White” forces of Anton Denikin. After capturing Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) in 1919, he became commander of the Whites in April 1920 and tried to rally support from the peasants and Cossacks. He launched an offensive in Ukraine in June, but by November the Red Army had defeated the Whites and forced them to retreat to the Crimea. After evacuating his troops to Constantinople, he lived in exile in western Europe.