Nikolay Dukhonin

Nikolay Nikolayevich Dukhonin
Born	1876
Died	1917
Allegiance	Russian Empire → Russian Republic
Service/branch	Russian Imperial Army
Rank	General
Commands held	Russian Imperial Army
Battles/wars	World War I

Nikolay Nikolayevich Dukhonin (13 December 1876 – 3 December 1917^[1]) was a Russian general, the last commander-in-chief of the Russian Imperial Army.

Biography

Dukhonoin was born in the Smolensk Governorate. He served in the Kiev Military District before the start of the First World War. There he gained some experience in intelligence work.

At the outset of the War, Dukhonin was given command command of a Russian regiment. He was then assigned to the Third Army in Dubno under General Ruzsky as senior adjutant of the intelligence department.

Dukhonin held the position of commander in chief only briefly, from 16 November 1917. During the initial stages of the Bolshevik seizure of power the Council of People's Commissars instructed Dukhonin to cease wartime hostilities and open negotiations with the German government.

Lenin and Krylenko visited Dukhonin in Petrograd to discuss an armistice proposal. Dukhonin's response was adamant: on 22 November he categorically declined to obey the directive of the Council of People's Commissars. He had discussed such a development with diplomats from the Entente governments. Dukhonin told Lenin that such an order could only be issued by "a government sustained by the army and the country".

Lenin immediately proceeded to a wireless station and broadcast news of Dukhonin's dismissal as Commander-in-Chief and Krylenko's replacement in his stead. The following day a joint note was issued by the military missions of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Roumania, citing the Treaty of 23 August 1914 by which the allies agreed not to conclude an armistice except by common consent. These missions were based at the General Headquarters in Petrograd.^[2]

Dukhonin consequently surrendered to Krylenko in Mogilev, but was murdered by Krylenko's bolshevik military escort by the railway station on 3 December 1917. Krylenko pleaded for his life to be spared so that Dukhonin would be allowed a trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal in Petrograd, but a mob of soldiers and sailors bayoneted him to death on the spot on order of Pavel Dybenko.^[3] The next morning the bolshevik soldiers and sailors amused themselves by using his (now stripped naked) corpse for target practice, which they had placed on the platform with a cigarette in its mouth.^[4]

His family emigrated to Yugoslavia.

References

1. ^ Dates given in the Gregorian calendar
2. ^ Soviet Foreign Policy Vol. 1 1917 - 1945, ed Andrei Gromyko and Boris Ponomarev, Progress Publishers, 1980
3. ^ Andew Kalpaschnikoff, A prisoner of Trotsky's, 1920
4. ^ Andrew Kalpschnikoff, A prisoner of Trotsky's, 1920

External links

• Short biography

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Persondata
Name	Dukhonin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	13 December 1876
Place of birth
Date of death	3 December 1917
Place of death