- Alexey Kaledin
Alexey Maximovich Kaledin ( _ru. Алексе́й Макси́мович Кале́дин;
12 October 1861 -January 29 ,1918 ) was a RussianFull General of Cavalry who led theDon Cossack White movement in the opening stages of theRussian Civil War .Biography
Kaledin graduated from the
Voronezh Military School, theMikhaylovskoye Artillery School inSaint Petersburg (1882) and the General Staff Academy (1889). From 1903 to 1906, he served as principal at theNovocherkassk Military School. From 1906 to 1910, Kaledin served asAssistant Chief of Staff of the Don Army.During
World War I , he was a commander of the 12th Cavalry Division and of the 8th Army of the South-West Front. Kaledin did not accept theFebruary Revolution of 1917 and was relieved of his commanding post due to his refusal to carry outProvisional Government 's orders regardingdemocratization in the army. OnJune 17 ,1917 , Kaledin was appointedAtaman of theDon Cossack Host by the Cossack community and, at the insistence ofMitrofan Bogayevsky , became the head of the newly established Cossack "ArmyGovernment " (Войсковое правительство), restored for the first time since 1709. In August of 1917, inMoscow , Kaledin came forward with his program of suppression of the revolutionary movement.On
August 29 , local authorities ofNovocherkassk decided to askAlexander Kerensky to relieve General Kaledin of his post and to arrest him for spreading pro-Kornilovpropaganda among the Cossacks of the Don region. OnAugust 31 , theprosecutor of the Court of Novocherkassk received a telegram from Kerensky, saying that Kaledin had been officially relieved of his post and should be arrested immediately and tried forincitement .The Cossack Host Command decided to listen to what Kaledin had to say, first, and then to send him to
Mogilev to explain himself in theheadquarters of the SupremeCommander-in-Chief , as Kerensky had requested. OnSeptember 6 , Kaledin tried to protect Kornilov from the attacks of the Cossack Army Command. OnOctober 25 (the beginning of theOctober Revolution ), Kaledin stated that until the authority of the Provisional Government inRussia was fully restored, the Don Cossack Army would assume total control over the Don region.This statement marked the beginning of the "
Kaledinschina ", a counterrevolutionaryrebellion in the Don region. The loss ofRostov-on-the-Don and the ensuingIce March led Kaledin to believe that the whole situation had been hopeless. OnJanuary 29 ,1918 , he resigned from his post and committed suicide.References
* [http://www.hrono.info/biograf/kaledina.html A biography and other resources] ru icon
* [http://bse.sci-lib.com/article057819.html The Great Soviet Encyclopedia entry for Kaledin] ru icon
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