The New Student's Reference Work/Kuropatkin, Alexei Nikolayevitch

Kuropatkin, Alexei Nikolayevitch, the Russian generalissimo during the earlier part of the war with Japan, was born in 1848. He went to the military school of the cadet corps in Pskov near St. Petersburg; then to Pavlovskoe Military College, graduating and gaining his commission as sublieutenant at 18. He then hastened to scenes of conflict in central Asia. Returning, he spent six years (1868-74) in study at the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg. Later he studied in France,
ALEXEI N. KUROPATKIN where he was awarded the cross of the Legion of Honor. Returning to Russia, he served in Tartary and western China. He spent 12 years at St. Petersburg as professor of military statistics at the Academy of the General Staff. He was called to the front and won the rank of major-general and the Cross of St. George at the siege of the Turcoman fortress. In 1890 he was appointed governor of the transcaspian region, and promoted to the rank of lieutenant-governor. While there he was influential in establishing trade-schools. Thence he went to St. Petersburg as minister of war, where he remained until 1904. He distinguished himself by sound though unsuccessful generalship in the Russio-Japanese War, only to be superseded by a subordinate and to fall into unmerited disgrace.