- Mikhail Dieterichs
Mikhail Diterikhs ( _ru. Михаил Константинович Дитерихс,
May 17 1874 –9 September ,1937 ) was aRussia n general and a key figure in theWhite movement inSiberia during theRussian Civil War .Diterikhs was born to a father of Czech ancestry who served a general of the
Russian Imperial Army in theCaucasus . In 1900, Diterikhs graduated to the Pazhevsk cadet corps and served inTurkestan . He participated in theRusso-Japanese War after which he served in the Imperial Army's headquarters. As a general Diterikhs participated inWorld War I , developing the strategy of the South-Western front.In 1916 he headed the3rd Russian Army 's headquarters inGreece , and commanded an expedition corps inThessaloniki .In August of 1917 the
Russian provisional government offered Diterikhs the position ofMinister of Wa r, which he refused. ByNovember 3 , 1917, Diterikhs was promoted to the chief of staff of the Russian army's headquarters, but managed to escape arrest during theBolshevik revolution . Diterikhs escaped toKiev , then made his way toSiberia where theCzechoslovak Legions asked him to head their staff. He helped theCzech Corps to organize their first resistance in May 1918, and commanded theirIrkutsk -Chita -Vladivostok armed group.Diterikhs was ordered by
Admiral Kolchak to arrest theUfa directory but delayed his move. After a few days onNovember 26 ,1918 he finally agreed to obey to Kolchak's order and simultaneously resigned from the Czechoslovakian Corps after a period of tense relations.From January to July of 1919 Diterikhs personally supervised the Sokolov investigation of the murder of Tsar Nicholas II. He later published a book on the subject when already living abroad titled "
The Murder of the Royal Family and members of the House of Romanoffs in the Urals " ("Убийство Царской семьи и членов Дома Романовых на Урале").In July 1919 Diterikhs took command of the Siberian army of
Admiral Kolchak . In December 1919 he resigned after a bitter quarrel with Kolchak and emigrated toHarbin inManchuria . Periodically Diterikhs figured in the negotiations between theProvisional Priamurye Government and other White forces. OnJune 8 ,1922 , Diterikhs returned to take over the army of Verzhbitski as well as the civil administration.Based in the
Amur Krai , Diterikhs proceeded to reorganize the army and civil government, much in the way GeneralPyotr Wrangel had done in theCrimea two years earlier. Taking a hands on approach, Diterikhs made efforts to enlist the support of the local population for his cause, calling his battle a religiouscrusade against Bolshevism. He had also tried, in vain, to convince the Japanese not to withdraw their military support.Diterikhs founded the last
Zemsky Sobor on Russian soil onJuly 23 ,1922 . OnAugust 8 ,1922 , the sobor declared that the throne of Russia belongs to the house of Romanovs in the face of Grand duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov. It also named Diterikhs as the ruler of theProvisional Priamur Government and its armed forces. OnOctober 25 ,1922 , the Bolsheviks defeated Diterikhs's army, forcing an evacuation fromVladivostok toChina andKorea viaJapan ese ships.After May 1923 Diterikhs moved from a military refugee camp to
Harbin where manyWhite emigre s settled. He became the head of the Far East chapter of theROVS military organization. Diterikhs died in Shanghai in 1937.References
* [http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_d/diterihs.html Biography in the Russian Biographical Dictionary]
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