KOUROPATKIN, Alexei Nikolayevitch, Russian soldier: b. 17/29 March 1848. He was trained for the army in the Imperial Military College and the Academy of the General Staff ; was sent abroad to study military conditions in various European coun tries; in 1874 became a member of the geperal staff of the army; in 1876-77 assisted Skobeleff in the conquest of Khokand, Turkestan, and its reorganization as the territory of Ferghana, and in 1877-78 won high distinction in the Russo-Turkish War by his services at Plevna and the Chipka Pass. In 1878 he was made colonel and in 1878-79 was chief of the Asiatic bureau of the general staff, In 1880-81 he was in Middle Asia, where he commanded the main detachment against the Tekke-Turkomans,. and, after a forced march of 600 miles across the desert, stormed Geok-Tcpa, by which. victory he won his greatest reputation. He was made major-general in 1882, lieutenant-general in 1890, governor of the Trans-Kaspian district and commander of the troops in that district in 1890. and ,Minister of War in 1898. In 1901 he became general of infantry. At the out break of the hostilities with Japan he was sent to command the Russian forces in the Far East. After the battle of Mukden he was
superseded by General Linievitch, under whom i he continued in service as commander of the First Manchurian army. His failure in the Far East was attributable, in part at least, to his position of subordination to the viceroy, and to dissensions among his generals. In October 1915 he was appointed chief of the Russian Grenadier Guards, and acted in an advisory capacity to the tsar when the latter took up the chief command of the army during the Great European War in succession to the Grand Duke Nicholas. He was later com mander-in-chief on the northern front, includ ing the Riga-Dvinsk line, and in August 1916 was transferred to the governor-generalship of Turkestan. As a military writer he is favor ably known by several volumes, including (Kashgarie (1879), for which he received the gold medal of the Imperial Russian Geograph ical Society; 'The Operations of the Troops of General Skobeleff during the War of Russia with the Turks' (1885) ; 'The Conquest of Turkoznania) (1889); 'Russia , for. gussians; the Past and Future Problems of the Russian Army) (1910).