Kolchak's chief of staff, Romanov murder investigator, and last ruler of White Priamurye
"Russia can only be the Russia of Christ": from his installation speech as ruler of Priamurye, Zemsky Sobor, August 1922.
A devout monarchist and Imperial Russian general who served as Kolchak's chief of staff. In the First World War he helped plan the Brusilov Offensive and commanded the Russian expeditionary force on the Salonika front. During the Civil War he commanded the White Eastern Front, led the Tobolsk Operation (Kolchak's last successful offensive), and personally supervised the Sokolov investigation into the murder of Nicholas II and his family. In 1922 he convened the last Zemsky Sobor on Russian soil in Vladivostok, declared the restoration of the Romanov dynasty, and ruled the Priamurye region until the Red Army overran it in October, forcing his exile to Shanghai.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1894Graduated Page Corps; commissioned in Life Guards 2nd Artillery Brigade
- 1900Graduated Nikolaevsky General Staff Academy
- 1904–1905Russo-Japanese War: Liaoyang, Shaho, Mukden; promoted lieutenant colonel
- 1914–1916Chief of Staff, 3rd Army; helped plan Brusilov Offensive
- 1916–1917Commander, Russian expeditionary force, Salonika front
- 1919Supervised Romanov murder investigation → Eastern Front commander, Kolchak's chief of staff; led Tobolsk Operation
- 1922Convened Priamurye Zemsky Sobor; ruler of Priamurye → defeated, exiled to Shanghai
- 1930–1937Chairman, Far East Department, ROVS
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarCommander of the Salonika expeditionary forceDuring the First World War, he commanded the Russian expeditionary force on the Salonika front.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionKolchak's chief of staff and last White rulerHe served as chief of staff of the Kolchak regime and the last ruler of the Priamur, and also led the investigation into the execution of the Romanov family.
The 1922 Priamurye state project as Zemsky Voevoda
On 5 August 1922 the Zemsky Sobor at Vladivostok resolved on restoring the Romanov dynasty and elected Diterikhs temporary dictator; on 8 August he was formally proclaimed ruler of the Priamurye state and issued a decree renaming it the Priamursky Zemsky Krai. As Zemsky Voevoda he took personal command of the army, reorganized as the Zemskaya Rat, and ordered the convening of a consultative Zemskaya Duma including one delegate from the trade unions and one from the Muslims. In a decree of 15 August he projected the future state order with the church parish as the basic unit of self-government: non-believers were to be stripped of citizenship of the Priamursky Zemsky Krai and expelled, each parish was to be run by the priest and a chairman appointed from among the parishioners, and a parish council chosen by lot from persons over 25 without a criminal conviction was to handle administrative, economic, educational, judicial and financial matters. This religious and estate-based order never went into effect. In September he convened a congress of Far Eastern national organizations at Nikolsk-Ussuriysky to gain support and issued in quick succession a general mobilization, church prayers for victory over the Bolsheviks and an order for large-scale donations, but the chamber of commerce and private businesses refused funds, many of those called up fled to Harbin, Korea, Kamchatka or the countryside or bought Polish or Romanian citizenship, and Japanese diplomats refused to supply ammunition, leaving some 360 volunteers without weapons. Diterikhs forbade punishment of those who evaded mobilization, but deported members of the communist and socialist-internationalist parties, together with their families, to the RSFSR and the Far Eastern Republic. On 14 October 1922 the Zemskaya Rat was defeated near Monastyrishche by the forces of the Far Eastern Republic and he ordered a retreat; on 20 October he and about 7,000 soldiers and family members reached Posyet, from where they were evacuated on Japanese transports. He then emigrated to China and settled in Shanghai, and in 1930 became chairman of the Far Eastern department of the Russian All-Military Union. His death is recorded in 1937, but sources differ on the exact date: Russian-language sources give 9 October and English-language sources 9 September, and neither is asserted here. He was buried in the Lujiawei cemetery in Shanghai, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.