General Brusilov at 64 (1917)
Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov (Russian: Алексе́й Алексе́евич Бруси́лов)
(August 19, 1853 – March 17,
1926) was a Russian cavalry general most noted for the development of a military offensive tactic
used in the Brusilov offensive of 1916. His war memoirs were translated into English
and published in 1930 as A Soldier's Notebook, 1914–1918.
Life
Imperial Russia
Brusilov was born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia). His father was Russian, his mother was Polish. He was educated at the Imperial Corps of Pages, and after entering the Russian Army served in the Russo–Turkish War, 1877–78. He was promoted to general in 1906.
Brusilov served during World War I as a commander of the 8th Army, then later as a commander of the South-West Front, earning
a reputation as Russia's most successful general. During the planning and preparation stages Brusilov's team created innovative
methods of attack that anticipated Germany's effective infiltration tactics of
1918. The Brusilov offensive by the Russian 8th Army was one of the most important Russian campaigns during World War I, with Austria–Hungary losing a staggering total of
1.5 million men in its aftermath and 25,000 square kilometres of territory.
With the onset of revolution in Russia, Brusilov argued for the Tsar's abdication. When Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in February 1917, the
Provisional Government appointed Brusilov as Commander-in-Chief. In
August that year he was dismissed, after finding himself isolated in a circle of political rivals that saw him as a traitor to
the revolution.
Soviet Russia
Following the 1917 October Revolution and for the duration of the Russian Civil War Brusilov remained inactive. In 1920 he entered
(perhaps compelled to, directly or indirectly) the Red Army service.
Brusilov was a patriot, and he despised the presence of the Bolsheviks in power, but he saw
in them a path for the Russian nation to rise as a Greater Russia, united and indivisible. The victorious Bolsheviks did after
all, during and after the civil war, forcefully bring together the Russian borderlands under the centralised command of
Moscow. This seemed to console Brusilov with the idea of joining the Red Army, as he always had
postulated that sooner or later the Bolsheviks would be removed from power in favour of a stronger command with more favour from
the people.
Brusilov indeed, although sympathising with the White cause, did not support it because it was attacking Russia while the Red
Army was opening a front against Polish invaders. He participated in the campaign
against Poland, but did not occupy positions of significance, primarily serving as a military consultant and inspector of cavalry
for the next four years.
After being finally allowed to retire at the age of seventy, he lived in his shared apartment with his sickly wife and another
couple. He died in Moscow from heart paralysis, and was given an honorable state funeral, buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, by representatives from the 'new Russia' (the Bolsheviks), and the 'old
Russia' (the clergy, the remaining bourgeoisie).
Brusilov's wife thought the funeral had a symbolic meaning, that the 'old Russia' was being buried by the 'new'. In any case,
it was a funeral with emblems from both worlds, which successfully rounded up the feelings of this curiously mixed up man who
rose to be the most successful Russian First World War general.
Assessment
According to the assessment of British Field-Marshall Bernard Montgomery, Brusilov was one of the seven outstanding
fighting commanders of World War I (the others being Falkenhayn, Ludendorff, Mustapha Kemal, Plumer, Monash and Allenby)[1].
References
- ^ A Concise History of Warfare by Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery of
Alamein (1968), p. 306. ISBN 0001921495
- Bark, Sir Peter. "The Last Days of the Russian Monarchy—Nicholas II at Army Headquarters", Russian Review, Vol. 16, No. 3. (1957), pp. 35–44.
- Brown, Stephen. "[Review:] Красная звезда или крест? Жизнь и судьба генерала Брусилова (The Red Star or the Cross?
Life and Fate of General Brusilov) by Ю.В. Соколов", Slavic Review, Vol. 54,
No. 4. (1995), pp. 1087–1088.
- Brusilov, A.A. A Soldier's Note-Book, 1914–1918. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971 (hardcover, ISBN
0837150035).
- Feldman, Robert S. "The Russian General Staff and the June 1917 Offensive", Soviet
Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4. (1968), pp. 526–543.
- Jones, David R. "The Officers and the October Revolution", Soviet
Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2. (1976), pp. 207–223.
- Nikolaieff, A.M. "The February Revolution and the Russian Army", Russian
Review, Vol. 6, No. 1. (1946), pp. 17–25.
- Wildman, Allan. "The February Revolution in the Russian Army", Soviet
Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1. (1970), pp. 3–23.
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