Kolchak, Alexander Vasilievich (1874-1920)

Russian admiral, commander of the White forces in Siberia after the Russian Revolution. He proclaimed himself Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918, but was later handed over to the Bolsheviks by his own men and shot.

In 1914 he was rear-admiral of the Black Sea fleet and was appointed vice-admiral in 1916. In June 1917 his sailors mutinied in Sevastopol and arrested him, together with most of his officers, only releasing him when he resigned his post. In the winter of 1917 he organized a force of White Russians in eastern Siberia and established an anti-Bolshevik government in Omsk in 1918. In 1918-19, at the head of a sizeable army, he marched west to the Urals and inflicted defeats on several Bolshevik forces, but late in 1919 he was captured by Bolsheviks at Irkutsk and shot on 7 February 1920.