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Pyotr Wrangel

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For people with the same family name, see Wrangel.

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Wrangel.
General
Baron
Pyotr Wrangel
Пётр Врангель
Wrangel in 1920
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia
In office
4 April 1920 – 21 November 1920
Preceded byAnton Denikin
Succeeded byOffice disestablished
Personal details
BornAugust 27 [O.S. August 15] 1878
Novalexandrovsk, Zarasai County, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died25 April 1928(1928-04-25) (aged 49)
Brussels, Belgium
AwardsSee below
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Russian Empire (1902–1917)
South Russia (1919–1920) White Movement (1917–1920)
Branch/service Imperial Russian Army
White Army
Years of service1902–1920
Rank Lieutenant General
CommandsCaucasus Army of South Russia
Battles/wars

Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (Russian: Пётр Николаевич Врангель, pronounced [ˈpʲɵtr nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ˈvranɡʲɪlʲ]; German: Peter von Wrangel; August 27 [O.S. August 15] 1878 – 25 April 1928), also known as the Black Baron, was a Russian military officer of the Baltic German nobility who served in the Imperial Russian Army and as the last commanding general of the White Army in the Russian Civil War. After the White defeat, he was a leading figure of the White émigré community in exile.

Born into the Wrangel family, which had a long history of military service, Wrangel graduated from the Mining Institute and volunteered for the army. He was commissioned as an officer after serving in the Russo-Japanese War. During World War I, he distinguished himself as a cavalry commander, earning the Cross of St. George for his heroism at the Battle of Kaushen. After the October Revolution, he joined the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army.

In 1919, as commander of the Caucasian Army, he achieved a major victory with the capture of Tsaritsyn. His strategic disagreements with General Anton Denikin led to his dismissal. He was reinstated in 1920 as Commander-in-Chief of the White forces in Crimea. As head of the self-proclaimed Government of South Russia, he conducted sweeping administrative and land reforms in an attempt to win popular support. Overwhelmed by the Red Army, Wrangel organized a mass evacuation from Crimea in November 1920, saving more than 145,000 soldiers and civilians.

In exile, he worked to preserve the Russian military and cultural identity, establishing the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) to unite émigré veterans. He lived in Yugoslavia and later Brussels, where he died in 1928. His family believed he was poisoned by a Soviet agent.

Early life and career

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Family background

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Pyotr Wrangel was born in Novalexandrovsk, Kovno Governorate in the Russian Empire (now Zarasai, Lithuania) on 28 August 1878, the eldest of three brothers.[1] He was a scion of the Wrangel family, a Baltic German noble house of Swedish origin that had served the rulers of Sweden, Prussia, Austria and Russia for over 700 years.[2] The family produced seven field marshals, seven admirals, and dozens of generals.[3] His ancestor, the Swedish Field Marshal Herman Wrangel, was the father of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, who built Skokloster Castle.[4] By the nineteenth century, branches of the family had established themselves in the Russian Empire, including Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, the explorer and governor-general of Alaska.[5]

Pyotr's father, Baron Nikolai Egorovich Wrangel [ru] (1847–1920), was a humanist, art connoisseur, and writer who had rebelled against the family's military tradition.[6] Nicholas Wrangel wrote a memoir, From Serfdom to Bolshevism, detailing his life and experiences.[7] Pyotr's mother, Maria Dimitrievna Dementieva-Maikova, was the daughter of an impoverished officer but was well-educated and interested in social reform.[8] The family lived in a liberal, cultured atmosphere in Rostov-on-Don, where Nicholas was a director of several companies.[1]

Education and early service

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Following his father's wishes, Wrangel was sent to a civilian school. His father, interested in gold mining in Siberia, decided that Pyotr should become a mining engineer and enrolled him in the School of Mines in Saint Petersburg.[1] A dutiful son, Wrangel studied diligently and graduated first in his class, receiving a gold medal.[1] Before pursuing his engineering career, he was required to complete his compulsory military service. For the Wrangel family, this meant joining the prestigious Horse Guards, which his father described as the "Family Regiment".[1]

He entered the army on 13 September 1901. Life in the Horse Guards appealed to him, and he decided to apply for a permanent commission.[9] As with all Guards regiments, a commission required a ballot vote by the regiment's officers. According to his son, on the eve of the ballot, Wrangel celebrated his expected promotion and, on returning home, drew his sword and decapitated a row of young trees planted outside the residence of his senior colonel, the humorless Prince Troubetzkoy. The Prince ensured Wrangel was blackballed, and he left for Siberia to begin his engineering career, reconciled to his new life.[9]

Russo-Japanese War

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Wrangel's life was changed by the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. As a reserve lieutenant, he volunteered for combat duty in the Far East.[10] Along with fifteen other officers from the Horse Guards, he was assigned to the 2nd Argun Cossack Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Host.[11] During the war, he wrote long, descriptive letters home, which his mother later had published in a historical journal. These letters reveal his keen powers of observation and his feel for the life of a combat officer.[10]

In one of his first actions, he led a scouting party deep into Manchuria to reconnoiter the town of Kindisian. After a perilous night mission, he confirmed the town was clear of large enemy forces.[12] He was awarded his first combat decorations for his bravery during the war. Having found his vocation in soldiering, he decided to stay in military service after the war ended. He was transferred to the 55th Dragoon Regiment, based in Finland.[13]

Between wars (1905–1914)

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Wrangel c. 1914

During the 1905 Russian Revolution, Wrangel was sent with a detachment under General Orlov to the Baltic region to quell nationalist unrest.[14] In 1907, he was temporarily attached to the Horse Guards in St. Petersburg, pending entry to the Nicholas Imperial General Staff Academy.[14] According to his son, his previous indiscretion had been forgotten. During a regimental parade, Tsar Nicholas II, the regiment's honorary commander, noticed the tall officer in a line dragoon uniform with several combat decorations. Upon learning it was Captain Wrangel, the Tsar declared, "I want Captain Wrangel in my regiment." Wrangel became a full-fledged officer of the Horse Guards without the need for a ballot.[14]

Wrangel became known among his fellow officers as "Piper" for his taste for Piper-Heidsieck champagne.[14] In 1908, he married Olga Ivanenko, the daughter of a wealthy Ukrainian landowner. She was a well-educated woman who had trained as a nurse.[15] The couple had four children: Helen, Peter, Nathalie, and later a son, Alexis, born in exile.[16]

Wrangel entered the Staff College, where his previous degree in civil engineering made subjects like mathematics and engineering easy for him. He graduated among the top of his class.[17] In a characteristic move, he turned down the opportunity for a staff position, explaining, "I would be a poor staff officer...I am of too independent a mind!" He returned to a line command in the Horse Guards.[16]

World War I

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Wrangel in 1917

At the start of World War I, Wrangel, holding the rank of captain, was given command of a cavalry squadron. On 6 August 1914, his squadron participated in the attack on German positions at Kaushen in East Prussia. The German artillery battery was well-camouflaged and inflicting heavy casualties on the Russian forces. After other officers had been killed, Wrangel took command and led a desperate cavalry charge against the battery.[18] The charge was largely successful, though most of the horses and many of the men were killed by gunfire. Wrangel's own horse was killed under him, but he survived to help capture the two remaining guns. For this act of heroism, he was one of the first Russian officers of the war to be awarded the Order of St. George (4th class).[19]

This action brought him to prominence. In September 1914, he was made Chief of Staff of the Joint Guards Cavalry Division under General Pavel Skoropadsky.[19] In April 1915, he was awarded the St. George Sword and promoted to colonel. He was offered the command of a line cavalry regiment, and to the surprise of many, he requested the Nertchinsk Trans-Baikal Cossack Regiment, with whom he had served in the Russo-Japanese War. He had great respect for the Cossacks' bravery and knew them well.[20]

He led the regiment with customary energy. In the Carpathian Mountains, a successful attack earned new rewards: the regiment was awarded silver bugles, a regimental combat award dating from the Napoleonic wars.[20] As a mark of special distinction, Tsarevich Alexei was named honorary chief of the regiment. Wrangel led a deputation from the regiment to St. Petersburg to receive the honors. This led to a period of service as an aide-de-camp to Tsar Nicholas II.[21] During this time, he observed the growing turmoil in the capital and the "presentiment abroad of the nearness of the terrible events".[22]

After returning to the front, Wrangel was promoted to general and given command of a brigade on the Romanian front.[23]

Russian Revolution

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When news of the Tsar's abdication reached the front in March 1917, Wrangel's divisional commander, General Aleksandr Krymov, a republican, read the manifesto. Wrangel turned to his chief of staff and said: "This is the end of everything — this is anarchy."[24] He believed that the disappearance of the monarchy would lead to the collapse of the army and the nation. After the October Revolution, he left the army and went to his family's villa in Yalta, Crimea.[25]

In early 1918, Yalta was occupied by the Red Army. Wrangel was arrested by Red sailors, along with his wife and her brother. He was nearly executed but was saved by the intervention of his wife, who argued with the sailors, and by a fortuitous circumstance involving his family's laundress and the head of the local revolutionary tribunal.[26] After his release, he went into hiding with his family among the local Tatar population, who were hostile to the Bolsheviks.[27]

Russian Civil War

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Joining the Volunteer Army

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Wrangel in 1920

In August 1918, after German troops had occupied Crimea, Wrangel travelled to Ekaterinodar to join the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army.[28] He was given command of the 1st Cavalry Division by General Anton Denikin. The division was small, consisting of only twelve hundred men, with minimal ammunition and equipment, facing Red forces that numbered between twelve and fifteen thousand.[29] Wrangel quickly established a reputation for bold leadership and for reviving the old cavalry tactic of charging in close order ("stirrup to stirrup"), a method that proved surprisingly effective against the less disciplined Red infantry.[30]

His successes led to his promotion to command the 1st Cavalry Corps. He won a series of victories in the northern Caucasus, culminating in a decisive victory at the Urup River in October 1918, where his forces routed the Reds, capturing 3,000 prisoners and 23 guns.[31]

Capture of Tsaritsyn and conflict with Denikin

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In the spring of 1919, a major strategic disagreement emerged between Wrangel and Denikin. Wrangel advocated for a concentration of forces to advance on Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad) to link up with Admiral Alexander Kolchak's White army advancing from Siberia. Denikin, however, insisted on a direct advance on Moscow, a plan later known as the "Moscow Directive".[32] The conference where this was decided sowed the first seeds of discord between the two generals.[32]

Despite his objections, Wrangel led the newly formed Caucasian Army towards Tsaritsyn. The campaign was arduous, conducted across a steppe with little water and facing numerically superior Red forces.[33] In June 1919, after a fierce battle, Wrangel's troops stormed and captured the heavily fortified city, a major strategic victory for the White forces.[34] The victory was achieved through a bold plan, using a concentration of forces on one flank and the first coordinated use of tanks and aircraft by the White Army.[34]

Following the victory, Denikin arrived in Tsaritsyn and issued the Moscow Directive. Wrangel again voiced his concerns, but Denikin famously replied, "Of course, you want to be the first to enter Moscow!"[35] As Denikin's armies advanced on Moscow, Wrangel's forces on the Volga flank were left with few reinforcements and faced mounting Red pressure. He successfully defended Tsaritsyn against four successive Red Army assaults but was eventually forced to retreat.[36] The growing rift with Denikin, fueled by Wrangel's criticism of the chaos in the White rear and Denikin's suspicions, led Wrangel to submit a sharply worded report on 9 December 1919.[37] He was subsequently dismissed from his command and went into exile in Constantinople.[38]

Commander-in-Chief

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Government of South Russia

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Wrangel with Cossack atamans and members of the Government of South Russia, July 1920

In March 1920, following the disastrous defeat of the Volunteer Army and its chaotic evacuation from Novorossiysk, Denikin resigned. A military council elected Wrangel as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia.[39] He took command of a demoralized and shattered force, now confined to the Crimean peninsula.[40]

Wrangel reorganized the remnants into a disciplined fighting force, which he renamed the "Russian Army". He established a new civilian government, the Government of South Russia, bringing in experienced administrators like Alexander Krivoshein.[41] His government embarked on an ambitious program of reforms, most notably the Wrangel Land Law, which aimed to win the support of the peasantry by recognizing their ownership of land seized during the revolution.[42] He also implemented policies to address workers' grievances and combat anti-Semitism.[43] According to his son, his efforts brought order and stability to Crimea, creating what his supporters called the "Crimean miracle".[44]

Defeat and evacuation

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In June 1920, Wrangel launched his last major offensive, the Northern Taurida Operation. His forces broke out of the Crimean bottleneck and captured a large territory to the north.[45] This success was aided by the diversion of Red Army forces to the Polish–Soviet War.[46] However, after Poland signed an armistice with the Soviets, the Red Army concentrated overwhelming forces against Wrangel. An amphibious landing in the Kuban to raise a Cossack uprising failed,[47] and in late October, the vastly outnumbered Russian Army was forced back into Crimea.

Facing certain defeat, Wrangel organized a mass evacuation. On 14 November 1920, 126 ships evacuated 145,693 soldiers and civilians from the ports of Crimea, without a single casualty. This fleet, later known as Wrangel's fleet, sailed to Constantinople, marking the end of the White struggle in Southern Russia.[48]

Life in exile

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Wrangel in Paris, 1927

After the evacuation, Wrangel and his army were interned in camps, primarily in Gallipoli and on the island of Lemnos. Despite extreme hardship, starvation, and pressure from the French government to disband, Wrangel kept the army's morale and organization intact.[49] His staff was based on his yacht, the Lucullus, in Constantinople. On 15 October 1921, the Lucullus was rammed and sunk by an Italian freighter sailing from a Soviet port; Wrangel and his family were ashore at the time, but the incident was widely seen as a Soviet assassination attempt.[50]

The army was eventually resettled in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.[51] In 1924, to unite all Russian military émigrés and continue the anti-Bolshevik struggle, Wrangel established the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS).[52] He remained its leader for the rest of his life. He spent his final years with his family in Brussels, living modestly and continuing to lead the White movement through voluminous correspondence.[53]

Death and legacy

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Wrangel died suddenly in Brussels in 1928, after a short and severe illness. His family and supporters believed that he had been poisoned by a Soviet agent.[54] His last words were reportedly, "Lord save the Army".[54]

In 1929, in accordance with his last wishes, his remains were transported to Yugoslavia. After a state funeral in Belgrade attended by King Alexander I and representatives of the Russian émigré community, he was buried in the Russian Holy Trinity Church.[55]

Wrangel is remembered as the last commander of the White Army and a central figure of the Russian Civil War. His family motto, Rumpo non Plecto ("I break, I do not yield"), has often been seen as representative of his character and his role in the White struggle.[56]

Family

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Wrangel's wife and children in 1920. From left to right: Helena, Olga, Nathalie, and Peter.

He was married to Russian noblewoman Olga Mikhailovna Ivanienko (1886 Saint Petersburg - 1968 New York).They had two sons and two daughters:

  • Baroness Helena Petrovna Wrangel (1909–1999); married Baron Fedor Meyendorff von Uexküll: married secondly to Phillip Hills; had issue
  • Baron Peter Petrovich Wrangel (1911–1999); no issue
  • Baroness Nathalie Petrovna Wrangel (1913–2013); married to Alexis George Basilevski; a Russian nobleman and had issue
  • Baron Alexis Petrovich Wrangel (1922–2005); married to Ekaterina Nikolaevna von Lambsdorff; no issue[57]

His nephew, Baron George Wrangell, became known by the David Oglivy-created 1951 ad campaign for the Hathaway shirt company in which he was depicted in photos as "a white-shirted, debonair-looking fellow" with a black patch over his right eye, although both his eyes were "perfectly good."[58]

Honours

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Works

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  • Wrangel, Pyotr N. (1963) [1958]. Always with Honour [memoirs of General Wrangel]. New York: R. Speller. OCLC 600910469.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Wrangel 1987, p. 9.
  2. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 3–4.
  3. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 3.
  4. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 20.
  5. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 21.
  6. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 6.
  7. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 8.
  8. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 7.
  9. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 11.
  10. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 13.
  11. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 12–13.
  12. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 19–20.
  13. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 36.
  14. ^ a b c d Wrangel 1987, p. 37.
  15. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 38.
  16. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 40.
  17. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 39.
  18. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 45–46.
  19. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 46.
  20. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 47.
  21. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 47–48.
  22. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 48.
  23. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 49.
  24. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 55.
  25. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 59.
  26. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 59–60.
  27. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 61.
  28. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 65.
  29. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 66.
  30. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 72.
  31. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 73.
  32. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 89.
  33. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 99.
  34. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 107.
  35. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 111.
  36. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 127.
  37. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 135–139.
  38. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 147.
  39. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 154.
  40. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 153.
  41. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 170.
  42. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 174.
  43. ^ Wrangel 1987, pp. 169, 172.
  44. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 194.
  45. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 165.
  46. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 179.
  47. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 188.
  48. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 215.
  49. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 217.
  50. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 225.
  51. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 229.
  52. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 234.
  53. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 241.
  54. ^ a b Wrangel 1987, p. 242.
  55. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 243.
  56. ^ Wrangel 1987, p. 245.
  57. ^ "Pyotr Nicolaevich Baron von Wrangell". 27 August 1878.
  58. ^ "One-Eyed Flattery". Time. 23 June 1952. Retrieved 19 July 2023.

Sources

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Further reading

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