Alexander Kolchak

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a polar explorer and commander in the Imperial Russian Navy, who fought in the RussoJapanese War and the First World War. During the Russian Civil War, he established an anticommunist government in Siberialater the Provisional AllRussian Governmentand was recognised as the Supreme Ruler and CommanderinChief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces by the other leaders of the White movement from 1918 to 1920. His government was based in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia.

Kolchak was born in Saint Petersburg in 1874 to a family of minor Russian nobility. His father was a retired majorgeneral of the Marine Artillery and a veteran of the 1854 siege of Sevastopol, who after retirement worked as an engineer in ordnance works near St. Petersburg. Kolchak was educated for a naval career, graduating from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1894 and joining the 7th Naval Battalion. He was soon transferred to the Russian Far East, serving in Vladivostok from 1895 to 1899. He then returned to western Russia and was based at Kronstadt, joining the Russian Polar expedition of Eduard Toll on the ship Zarya in 1900 as a hydrologist.

Source: Wikipedia