DRAGOMIROV, MICHAEL IVANOVICH (183o 1905), Russian general and military writer, was born on Nov. 8, 1830. He entered the Guards in 1849 and from 1854 to studied military science first at the Russian staff college (Nicholas Academy) and then abroad. On his return to Russia he became professor of tactics at the staff college. He played a leading part in the reorganization of the educational system of the army, and acted as instructor to several princes of the imperial family. He took part in the suppression of the Polish insurrection of 1863-64. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Dragomirov was at tached to the headquarters of the II. Prussian army. He was present at the battles on the upper Elbe and at Koniggratz, and his comments on the operations which he witnessed are of the greatest value to the student of tactics and of the war of 1866.
In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 he commanded the 14th division, which led the way at the crossing of the Danube at Zimnitza. Later, after the reverses before Plevna, he, with the tsarevich and Generals Todleben and Milutine, strenuously opposed the suggestion of the Grand Duke Nicholas that the Rus sian army should retreat into Rumania, and the demoralization of the greater part of the army was not permitted to spread to Dragomirov's division. He was wounded at the Shipka pass, and further disabled for active service. For I 1 years thereafter Gen eral Dragomirov was chief of the Nicholas Academy. He collated and introduced into the Russian army all the best military litera ture of Europe, and improved the morale and technical efficiency of the Russian officer-corps, especially of the staff officer. In 1889 Dragomirov became commander-in-chief of the Kiev military district, and governor-general of Kiev, Podolsk and Volhynia, retaining this post until 1903. He was promoted to the rank of general of infantry in 1891. During the Russo-Japanese War of he was consulted by the general headquarters at St. Petersburg (Leningrad), and while he disagreed with General Kuropatkin in many important questions of strategy and military policy, they both recommended a repetition of the strategy of 1812, even though the total abandonment of Port Arthur was involved. General Dragomirov died at Konotop on Oct. 28, 1905.
His larger military works were mostly translated into French and German, and his occasional papers, extending over a period of nearly 5o years, appeared chiefly in the V oienni Svornik and the Razoiedschik; his later articles in the last-named paper were, like the general orders he issued to his own troops, attentively studied throughout the Russian army. His critique of Tolstoi's War and Peace attracted even wider attention. Dragomirov was, in formal tactics, the head of the "orthodox" school. He inculcated the "offensive at all costs," and the combination of crushing short range fire and the bayonet charge. He carried out the ideas of Suvarov to the fullest extent, and many thought that he pressed them to a theoretical extreme unattainable in practice.