1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zhilinsky, Yakov

ZHILINSKY, YAKOV (1853-1918), Russian general, was born in 1853. On finishing his course at the Cavalry school in St. Petersburg in 1876 he was given a commission in the Guards cavalry, and in 1883 he was appointed on the general staff. He became in 1899 commander of a dragoon regiment, and in 1900 was promoted to the rank of general. During the Spanish-American War he was one of the foreign military attachés at the American general headquarters. In the Japanese War (1904-5) he was appointed chief of staff of the Viceroy of the Far East, Adml. Alexeyev, and in 1909, when Sukhomlinov became War Minister, Zhilinsky became head of the general staff. At the beginning of 1914 he was appointed to command the troops of the Warsaw military district, and on the declaration of war in 1914 he became commander-in-chief of the north-western front. After the defeat of Aug. and Sept. in eastern Prussia inflicted on his armies (Samsonov's and Rennenkampf's) he was recalled. In 1915 and 1916 he was the military representative of the Russian supreme commander-in-chief at the French headquarters. Zhilinsky was reported killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.