Frunze, Mikhail Vasilievich (1885–1925)

Russian revolutionary general. He defeated the Russian admiral Aleksander Kolchak in 1919 and the general Peter Nicolaievich Wrangel in 1920. In 1924 he became president of the Revolutionary Military Council, and in January 1925 became people's commissar (minister), for military and naval affairs, replacing Trotsky, who was ousted by Stalin.

He was born at Pishpek (renamed Frunze in 1926), the son of a peasant. He settled in Turestan and became a surgeon, then a professional revolutionary. He was sent to Siberia in 1914, but escaped, and was again heard of at Minsk in 1917.